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Ask HN: Would you review my startup idea?

6 points by what_ ↗ HN
Hey guys, I'm a senior in high school and I'm trying to launch a startup that I think would really take off. Of course, this is just me speculating and being blindly optimistic. I'd really love the HN community to check it out and give me some feedback, I'm prepared for both positive and negative! ~~ The idea would be to swap textbooks constantly. So with a large enough user base, you would always be able to search for a book you need for class and then just have it shipped to you ($2.00 fee + shipping/handling). And in return, you would put up all of your old textbooks to swap on the site. This way, you don't lose money because in the end, you're always swapping for all four years of college. ~~ Again, it's an idea I've had for a while and I made a sign-up site: http://lendsit.com

Thanks so much, I really appreciate it,

Alex

10 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 12.9 ms ] thread
Wilduck
http://lendsit.com redirects me to http://signup.lendsit.com/ but doesn't load a page. Should I be seeing something there?
what_
Well that's weird that nothing shows up! It should redirect you to the signup page, so that's good! You should be seeing a little blurb about the idea and a place to input your email. Why don't you try once again and see if it works.

Thanks for the response! I really appreciate it. Alex

Wilduck
It's working, and it looks pretty nice. A couple comments though. There are a number of things that would make textbook swapping pretty difficult. I'd be interested in how you plan to address these issues.

1) Often times a given textbook will only be used at a university for a couple years before they update to the new edition. So, at least every couple years a group of users will still have to purchase expensive textbooks. Will they then want to lend them to people instead of reselling them?

2) Would the users register they're books and then hold on to them? What if they then decide to sell them back?

3) What would stop someone from "borrowing" a bunch of expensive books and then selling them?

helen842000
Hey!

This model exists & works.

Greenmetropolis.com Fatbrain.co.uk

The main issue is popularity. The issue isn't building the site it's a) getting people to remember it when they need a book b) having the book they need.

Maybe target students at the beginning/end of academic year & try to incentivise folks to sign up.

what_
Thanks for your response! I really appreciate it. And your ideas are extremely valid, I was thinking that I could maybe target universities in which your login would consist of your school email address, this way they could first search for a book within their own school's ecosystem and then if they can't find it... move on to the rest of the country. Would word of mouth be enough to gain popularity?

Thanks again, Alex

tylerwl
While there are quite a few companies in the textbook rental and marketplace space, this seems to be the only one doing flat-fee swaps: http://edubookswap.com/
what_
Yes, that would pose a problem for my idea, but do you think Lendsit would be able to compete since it's completely user-based? It would be more of a platform/forum where students could just type in the book they wanted and check to see if we had it.

Thanks for the response! Alex

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gdhillon
checkout www.swaptree.com
what_
Hmm... very interesting, but I don't think this would compete against Lendsit seeing as how swaptree has so many sects within the idea of swapping.