Are unused items taking up a fair amount of space in your already tiny cupboard or your dorm room? We often find ourselves in a situation where we have heaps of unwanted items that are in mint condition. Well the big question is, what do you do in such a situation?
Ideally, you either make a post about it on social media or if you have way too many things to give away then you resort to a quintessential garage sale. But what if we told you that there is soon going to be an easier way to get rid of stuff that you no longer use.
Oh! Excited, ain’t we! XChangehands is the perfect solution for students looking to find other students that may want the item they are looking to give away or sell. In other words, this app will allow students get what they want for what they don’t.
Meet The Bright Minds Responsible for Xchangehands!
This app was ideated and co-founded by Herman Roche-Berry and Aaron Graham. The journey to start Xchangehands began in the apartment Aaron and Herman where sharing in their senior year of college.
“I ran this idea by Aaron because it absolutely blew me away that this service wasn’t in existence as I saw a huge need for this while in school. Aaron took the idea and catapulted it to another stratosphere with his input, like he does with any idea you give him, and we began working on the business. We used my closet mirror as our whiteboard to brainstorm and iron out our vision, and then we were off to the races”, says Herman.
Presently, Herman is the CEO of the start-up while Aaron is the CMO. Three months ago they brought their CTO, Steve Barnes on-board along with their lead developer Danny Chan. The team is less than 2 months away from going live and signing up members at their first college, University of Washington.
The X-Factor!
Aptly named, Xchangehands helps college students get what they want, for what they don’t. Essentially, it allows students to trade or sell their unwanted possessions for desired goods, with students within their college.
This app is finally offering a unique platform that is allowing college kids to increase their purchasing power by using their unwanted, valuable possessions to acquire desired goods. It provides a central location for students to complete a swift transaction in a safe environment with little to no cash involved.
The Inspiration Behind It All!
“In college you end up with plenty of possessions that render themselves useless to you after a while. Whether its textbooks from last semester or an Ipod you’ve replaced with an upgrade. I noticed that it was hard for me to communicate with other students at my college that weren’t in my social media network, to let them know I had possessions I was looking to get rid of. With Craigslist, I had to deal with local citizens I didn’t know if I could trust. Facebook only allowed me to reach out to people I was “friends” with, which consisted 80%+ of people who didn’t go to my school. This is a huge problem and Xchangehands is the solution”, says Herman.
On Challenges Faced & Competitors
Like most start-ups, the team’s biggest challenge was finding the right fit for their programming roles. Further in terms of competitions, Ebay, Craiglist and the local Pawn shops are all potential competitors. This is because all these allow users to sell their unwanted possessions. However, selling something through these platforms can be taxing with respect to finding the right buyer and the time involved in getting rid of such items.
On Expansion Plans, Target Audience & Monetizing Model
“Our startup will expand to ideally every college with a campus in the U.S. Through proven interest and success we will then open up to all citizens. Our first college will be the University of Washington, then Georgia Southern University. We will be relying on “word of mouth” and our marketing efforts to handle rest of the colleges across the nation”, says the team.
Presently, Xchangehands is mainly targeted towards college students on campuses across the United States. Also, when it comes down to monetizing it, the team plans on various methods including taking a percentage of each transaction made on the site.
To put it simply, if you are a student, then watch out for this app as it is here to help you out in a big way.
For more details on Xchangehands, do visit: xchangehands.com
Psst… When you visit their website, do make it a point to submit your emails to participate in the Beta!
