This May, thousands of college students will engage in the traditional selling of the textbooks and post them typically on half.com, amazon.com or CraigsList. While this is a most impersonal act and most students purchasing the books don’t think about developing a friendship or gaining intel from their seller, one founder set out to change this process by adding a social component and encouraging peer-to-peer interaction.
Gabriel Cornejo, founder of MyBeeble, developed an app to first sell textbooks through social networks, but more importantly, help students meet other like-minded classmates that might share the same course schedule and nurture peer-to-peer conversations. Cornejo stated, “The app does more than just the transaction.”
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFG_T4bxF_Q[/youtube]
Users of the app can plug in their zip code to find sellers nearby.
The company has partnered with several online bookstores to make searching and scanning for textbooks an easier experience. Users can search for books by ISBN or title and then discover nearby students with that specific textbook.
So how did you come up with the name? The MyBeeble name came from Cornejo’s childhood nickname “Beeble,” which was given to him because his cousin could not pronounce his first name Gabriel.
As of right now, the app is available on the iOS platform and there are plans to develop the app for Android with an estimated Fall semester 2014 launch. iOS download here
For AZTB’s past coverage of education-related stories click here
