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Any tips or tricks for a startup targeting college students?

4 points by Diamons ↗ HN
Complete newbie at this and looking for any tricks of the trade you might have picked up, NOT a marketing strategy.

Here's the link without context : http://theboxngo.com

7 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 33.8 ms ] thread
webjunkie
I wanted to say DO NOT try to build a marketplace for students to buy or sell textbooks. But looking at the site, you made that mistake already.
zengr
Why? What do you think can go wrong?
Diamons
It's not a mistake. Just because the numbers are against us means nothing because we are young and have all the time and energy in the world. Thank you for your amazingly helpful comment.
samdunne
Limiting it to .edu emails kills your ability to sell this internationally ( Irish student here )
Diamons
Limited test run first, will remove the restriction as we learn not to fuck up.
sritch
I'd say the best way is to be in college and seed it among your friends/connections that have their own circles in college. Ex: residences (perhaps a don who can speak to the freshman on their floor), clubs, classes, etc.
OscarPOSEFY
Hi Diamons,

First of all, regadless of my opinion about your project, congratulations for deciding to do something and actually getting it off the ground.

Now, regarding http://theboxngo.com, the first thing I would personally like to see is a clear statement explaining exactly why I should be using this as opposed to eBay, local classified ads.

To answer your question, your marketing strategy should very much depend on the core value you provide which - to me - is not clear at this stage.