Students at the University of South Florida are doing more than studying, they’re starting companies.
Two students have launched a mobile phone application for their start-up company, Borrow’d, a textbook rental service made for and by students. The app is available for free download here.
Recent interdisciplinary social sciences graduate Daniel Mall and Student Body Vice President Rhondel Whyte are the creators behind Borrow’d, which allows students to make money from their textbooks. Users can rent out their textbooks to other students, allowing books to be exchanged inexpensively and conveniently.
“We are connecting students who no longer need their textbooks with those that do,” Mall said. “We are putting power in the hands of the student. No longer will students be taken advantage of by bookstores. Borrow’d is the tool to combat the unfair practices of the bookstores.”
The idea began freshman year when Mall borrowed a textbook from a friend. He wondered how this could grow beyond one friend borrowing from another. In 2012 Mall created the Facebook group, BullBooks, where students can post prices of their used textbooks.
“The concept of borrowing is what we do naturally,” Mall said. “If we don’t have a textbook, we borrow it from a friend. But then I thought, what if I can rent out my textbook to someone I don’t even know across campus? What if I am not limited to my circle of friends?”
Mall began brainstorming on how to expand the group, wanting to create a different and more organized way to trade textbooks. He started developing the app six months ago, and hopes it will go live by the end of the semester.
“Over the course of three years, this is the product of all that hard work,” Mall said.
On the Borrow’d app, students can rent books for any length of time, from one day to an entire semester, Mall explained. The app has a barcode scanner so the app automatically recognizes books. Users just have to add their prices and upload photos of their book’s condition.
Users can search the app’s book feed for a listing of all the textbooks near to them. If the book a student needs is unavailable, the app will notify the user when it is available. The app also features a rating system where lenders and borrowers can rate their experience with other users.
While BullBooks has over 2,000 users, Mall and Whyte hope Borrow’d can exceed that amount. In addition to using social media to advertise, they intend to form personal connections with their users.
“If you think about bookstores or services like Chegg, they dehumanize because the objective is to make money first,” Whyte, the company’s chief operations officer said. “Our objective is: we’re students and we care about you as students because we want you to save money on your textbooks. One of the things we pride ourselves on here at Borrow’d is that intimate kind of connection.”
Whyte explained their marketing plans of meeting with students at Bull Market and focusing on a personal approach. They plan to have one-on-one conversations with students, getting to know names and building relationships. They also plan to give out envelope packets with marketing materials catering to different types of students.
“Another way will be going into classrooms and having those at large conversations at the beginning of the semester,” Whyte said. “Saying to students, you’ve probably spent $400 on textbooks and you’re probably only going to get $200 back after you sell them. How about trading them with someone who is going to take this class the following semester, a revenue for you as well as making books cheaper for them.”
To get students motivated to use the app, Mall and Whyte are starting a sweepstakes where users list their books and tweet @borrowdapp what they will do with the extra money they’ll earn on Borrow’d.
“The more books you list, the greater your chances,” Mall said.
Winners will be selected randomly and can win a gold Apple iPad Air 2. Participants should tweet with the hashtags #spendlesslivemore and #borrowdapp.
“Don’t sell your textbooks,” Mall said. “Hold onto them and rent them out to students next semester. It will be worth the wait because you can essentially make back the value of your textbook and probably more.”
Like and follow Borrow’d on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
For questions or concerns, email info@borrowd.co or contact Daniel Mall at daniel@borrowd.co and Rhondel Whyte at rhondel@borrowd.co.