3 ms·
I'm probably going to be a minority voice here but I think there are a couple opportunities/risks ... since you're curating properties around each campus AND se
by smoyer 12y ago
I'm probably going to be a minority voice here but I think there are a couple opportunities/risks ... since you're curating properties around each campus AND selling ads to local businesses, I think there's a pretty good opportunity to franchise the "feet-on-the-ground". You might be able to charge for the franchises, but even if you can't, you can still pay straight commissions as a percentage of the income from each campus area. If the franchisee gets 50% of the ad revenue and is in charge of driving traffic to your site, the 50% you keep would need to cover your server costs and the founders living expenses.
As an aside, I'm near Penn State and I'm not sure whether this would work here. Most of the properties that will rent to students at all are managed by property management companies and the students tend to find those companies first (there's a lot of local advertising). First year students are required to live on campus, but they tend to start visiting the "apartment stores" during their second semester. Do the three campuses you're currently servicing operate in a similar way? Maybe the current crop of tech-savvy students look to the Internet first since they've had it from birth?
In any case, great to hear you're making money and good luck!