I moved from Tel Aviv to St. Louis to attend Olin’s MBA program. After my first semester, I was looking to buy a car that I could use for a road-trip to Key West. After meeting with a few too many sketchy people on Craigslist, I almost gave up. Then, I found out that WashU has several Facebook pages and google spreadsheets for buying and selling stuff.
Guest blogger: Shai Hatsor, MBA’16, co-founder of Quadzilla
I felt much more comfortable buying from another student, but using Facebook and Excel to buy something was not convenient at all. Moreover, there were too many small Facebook groups and, therefore, not much content on each. That’s when I got the idea of combining the functionality and convenience of public marketplaces such as Craigslist with the safety of closed communities such as Facebook groups which require users to verify their university email address. That’s the idea behind QUADZILLA – a new private marketplace for college students.
I’m working on Quadzilla with my co-founder Eyal whose wife is a PhD student at WashU. They too are from Israel (small world). Our mission is to improve student life and help save students money. We believe that WashU students deserve a private “Craigslist” of their own that will be safer, more convenient, and tailored to their needs.
We launched our website (www.goquadzilla.com) last spring, and we already have more than 1,000 students using it. We also have a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/goquadzilla) that we use to connect with our users.
Our supporters:
- I’m now writing Quadzilla’s business plan with a team of students (Steve, Matt, and Daniel) as part of the Hatchery class taught by Professor Cliff Holekamp. Moreover, Professor Holekamp provided me with guidance throughout the past year. The entrepreneurship platform connects students to great resources and mentors to help with starting new businesses.
- Snarf’s Sandwiches (an amazing local sandwich shop that operates 3 stores in St Louis) has really helped us so far because they too believe in our mission to create a safe student community. Snarf’s also supports the development of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in St Louis. We now raffle off one $20 Snarf’s gift card every week among our registered users to incentivize students to sign up.
In conclusion, we will do our best to make our vision a reality. If you would like to volunteer and help, please reach out to us on info@goquadzilla.com.
