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Product in 2 weeks. Profitable by 16.
Entrepreneurship at JMU is easily the best class I have ever taken. In two weeks, I had to build a functional product. By the end of the semester we have to make $200 PROFIT to get a passing grade. That means a profitable product in 16 weeks. I think many startups could learn a thing or two from this class.
If you're interested, you can see what I built here: http://thelocalrocket.com
I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments! Thanks!
p.s.
Many of the teams in this class chose to make physical products like board wax, underwear with a condom holder pocket in it, special phone cases, etc. I'm a CS and management double major so my team chose to build a website. We're at $65 profit as of right now. Hoping to bump that up with some local ad deals!
- debacle 15y agoMy only comment - it looks new, but it's better than similar software I've seen that took months to write and still isn't profitable. Just Keep Iterating!
- mikesurowiec 15y agoThanks, I appreciate it! We'll be iterating as fast as we can.
- mapster 15y agoPlease set rule for map pop-ups, only one at a time - open popup closes upon clicking on other pin. Is the Hostgator paid? It is a bit distracting, and that's the line to walk: balancing 'building users' vs hitting them with ads early on.
- mikesurowiec 15y agoThe funny thing is there's actually only one advert on the page (far left). The other things are informational flyers so people know what's happening around campus. I guess we better make sure to space them out so it doesn't look like an ad blast. Thanks for the feedback! I'll get those map popups fixed tonight too.
- mapster 15y agoIts a great start really. I think the balance is to get a user base, which means they get a lot of value, easily, from your content. Ads may get in the way of this, but I understand your desire to be 'profitable' for a class project.
- stacker 15y agoAny chance you'd describe your process / tools used for the site?
- stacker 15y agoah, found the blog :)
- mikesurowiec 15y agoHey, glad you found the blog. That's actually required by the class; we turn in assignments in the form of blog posts. So you'll see customer discovery interviews, our hypothesis for the project, and all that jazz. If you're interested, I can give you an in depth analysis of the technical side here. Thanks for checking us out!
- stacker 15y agoactually yes, that would be really good. I've wondered about using Bootstrap and how much work is involved to turn it into something useful. I currently am using a Wordpress template for a website with a blog attached, but it still feels very much like a Blog, rather than a website, and I feel Bootstrap may be an easy way to alter the Look and Feel.