Throughout my years at Delaware University I always thought to myself how incredible it would be to have an open market to buy and sell things for college students. I knew that if I ever wanted to turn this idea into reality I would have to start with a foundation consisting of two core building blocks, “Free posts” and “College students only”!

I took a look at the number of successful and growing market places available to the public and tried to extract certain features from each that I felt fit my vision. I took a thing or two from each, for example I liked how on Ebay you’re able to know a little bit about you’re seller/buyer however I didn’t like the aspect of bidding.

With Craigslist I appreciated their component of free services as well as how everything was categorized geographically as well as topically yet I found a serious draw back in fact that you know nothing about you’re seller/buyer. As a result from my research as well as factoring in the very basics of you’re local garage and yard sale YardSaleU.com was born.

YardSaleU.com is exactly what we think college students are looking for, it’s an open market dedicated specifically and exclusively for them, they can buy, sell, and trade things at their will, FOR FREE. My ultimate goal for the site is for it to become the go to place for college students every need. No longer will they have to pay expensive retail prices for things because of their limited resources. Too often are kids paying hundreds of dollars for things like couches, coffee tables and TV’s. Now with YardSaleU.com students can search for items being sold specifically on their campus by their peers. This is unparalleled because not only will students get great deals, it’s also a huge convenience for the buyers as well as the sellers. Moving in or out of school will never be the same, furnishing that new pad wont be such a nightmare or expenditure and moving out will be an opportunity to make some extra cash instead of kicking everything to the curb. The site will also serve as a great resource for students to buy and sell textbooks. Every student knows that buying books from the school book store can really hurt their wallet. The site will put an end to students having to post fliers around school in order to sell their old books. YSU can be the source to go to for buying books because its no secret that the easiest place to get a text book is from someone at their school that took the same class that they are taking. The possibilities are limitless, YSU can reform the way that college students buy, sell and trade their goods.

Now that I’ve turned my idea into a reality and recently launched YardSaleU.com I hope it will appeal to students solely due to the fact that in order to signup for YSU you need to use a “.Edu” e-mail address.  This “security” eliminates the shady factor that many see as a negative aspect on sites like Craigslist. I hope that all of the sites advantages such as the security factor as well as its free service and the convenience of categorization by campus will be the driving factor for success. I am currently in the process of improving the website as of recent in order to make the site more user friendly for students, right now we are constructing a “sign up” page so students can complete a one time registration which will make a login and password for future visits as well as offer members a weekly newsletter to keep them updated with future events, improvements, and important news.

I am excited for what’s to come, and I am hoping that the “what” is BIG!

Adam, can you give us a little bit of background on yourself?

Born in Northern Ireland and despite the businesses generally now operating elsewhere I’m still living in NI, but with a good excuse to travel!

What made you want to take the entrepreneurial route?

From selling in the primary school playground, to asking the bank for £90,000 when I was 19 in my case there was no other route.

How did you come up with the idea for SendMyBag?

I was helping my girlfriend move home from university in England and we got stung by high excess baggage charges. I thought there must be a solution, when I got home I looked online and there wasn’t, so I setup the UKs first domestic excess baggage service. Usually when I have an idea and I check it out you find that it does exist but is just not advertised well but on this occasion the idea simply had not been done. Consequently when we launched within a couple of weeks we’d helped 100’s of people move luggage around the UK.

What lessons has running SendMyBag taught you in terms if running your own business?

Keep it simple. I get asked to talk to start up groups and often I see people developing websites that are so over complicated that unless you were involved in the design you won’t be able to navigate the site to maximum value. Sendmybag.com didn’t require a fancy website so it didn’t get one, recently we’ve re-arranged bits but it’s still the same straight forward process.

What is Karacha.com?

Karacha Music is one of the UKs leading musical instrument retailers, if you go to buy a traditional “school” instrument like a violin, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet you will definitely come in contact with us. We also offer a whole host of services and hundreds of accessory products.

How do you manage to stay on top of both websites?

I’m lucky both karacha.com and sendmybag.com have very capable people running the day to day business on my behalf, without these guys it would be impossible, I’m very fortunate to have employed some excellent people over the last 5 years. Karacha.com is the bigger of the businesses and fulfils thousands of orders every month, so again we are fortunate in having a team of dedicated pickers meaning that despite the high volume, if you buy a violin on Monday morning it will normally be with you Tuesday!

What tips do you have for other student entrepreneurs out there?

Plan ahead, but not too much. I see a lot of people dive in head first without any planning and fail, equally I meet a lot of people who are so obsessed with planning they don’t give themselves the chance to really succeed. I think you need to strike the balance.

What are your future goals? Any new ideas in the pipeline?

Sendmybag.com this year launched a student essentials pack, over the next year I can see a lot more products coming online. The goal with Karacha is to become not just one of the leading but the top UK music store, a lot of work ahead but all very achievable!

Thanks to Adam for the interview – Be sure to check out SendMyBag and Karacha

Well, a new startup called Design Your Dorm (also known as College Room Creator) is a web based 3D interior design tool that allows college students to customize their dorm room/residence hall room interiors.

The site has built 3D virtual models of common dorm room layouts, allowing new students to figure out what they’ll have room for long before they ever set foot in their dorms. To help figure out the exact room configuration, DesignYourDorm currently has a few hundred 3D models of various common dorm room items, including electronics like TV sets and Xbox 360s, furniture like beds and desks, and storage containers that you can freely drag and drop into the room.

Along with the 3D designer, Design Your Dorm also has a store which will allows you to purchase some of the goods you have decked your room out with and also a highly useful checklist which you can print out and use to make moving in day a breeze.

Jessica started her first internet company at the age of 13, finished high school at the age of 15, and is now studying computer science at U.C. Berkeley. Through speaking engagements and side projects, shes been teaching young people how to get a jump-start in entrepreneurship and their future careers. In November of 2008, Jessica launched internshipIN as a way to help fellow students in finding internships, and has since helped thousands of students explore their passions through real life experience. She’s now working on Indinero.com, a company that creates software that help organizations manage their finances.

Hey Jessica! First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Sure!  I’m Jessica Mah, a senior at U.C. Berkeley studying computer science, and I’ve been programming since elementary school.  I started a site called internshipIN.com in the fall as a way to help students find internships, and I recently started Indinero.com to help small businesses manage their finances through intuitive software.

What made you want  to start InternshipIN and Indinero?

internshipIN was started as a cool project to help our peers in college.  There wasn’t a profit incentive when we first started it, and we’ve since learned so much about the software development process.  Indinero was started to help a problem we had with managing our own company:  taking care of finances.  And seeing that it was one of the biggest things that stressed us out, we thought that it would be cool to create a product that solved that problem.

How do you manage to balance college life and your online endeavours?

I think it’s important to keep a good work/life balance.  I take Friday night and Saturday off, I meet regularly with my college friends, and it’s been working out quite well!

How does it feel to have been profiled in such websites/magazines such as TechCrunch and Inc?

It isn’t too big of a deal.  Getting profiled on top blogs and magazines definitely helps business, but it can also be a distraction from innovation.  When the press rolls in, don’t lose sight of building a good product!

What tips do you have to other students who want to follow in your footsteps and start an online business?

Pick an idea that’s quick and easy to get started with.  This means an idea that requires very very little upfront capital, and can be launched in no more than a few months.  A lot of first-time entrepreneurs try to start with a “big idea”, but it’s important to realize that the biggest companies were started with modest goals.  For example, Microsoft was nothing more than a software consultancy for its first year of existence.  If they had the goal of being the software empire it is now, they’d never have gotten there.

What is the best advice you were ever given?

Be relentlessly resourceful.  Take advantage of your connections, read a lot, and do everything in your power to make your business successful.

Asides from your companies, what else do you enjoy doing?

Hanging out with my friends, going swimming, reading, among everything else that college-aged students enjoy doing.

What do you plan on doing after Berkeley?

Just build Indinero : )

Future projects?

Nope, just Indinero.  Commitment is key to building a great company.

I’d like to thank Jessica for being part of the 1st interview @Student On Campus.  I’m sure you have just inspired other students to follow in your footsteps. Good luck for the future!

Spotify is, at the moment, the hot topic across most parts of Europe. For those who have never heard of it, Spotify is a peer to peer streaming music program with virtually no buffering. It’s easy to use interface allows you to create playlists in a second and it’s huge (and growing) song base means that they probably will have your favourite song.

As of yet, it is unavailable in the US, but the latest news suggests that it will be released by the end of the year. However, it seems alot of people can’t wait that long and have managed to find ways of downloading Spotify outside of Europe.

Here’s one way – thanks to Techcrunch.

Invite yourself from anywhere:
1) go to http://www.daveproxy.co.uk/
2) enter the following URL: https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/
3) Create your account, for UK postcode – check http://www.postcodesearch.org.uk/

Note: I tried it and it does work – leave a comment if there are any problems.

Ok, so you’ve downloaded Spotify. Now, how to get rip/download some songs from it? Thanks goes to Spotify Ripping

Note: Do this at your own risk please…..

Download Spotify Ripper

The program was written by Swedish programmers, and thus, is in Swedish – But it is easy to use.

1. Start Spotify and make sure their isn’t a track playing. Then start Spotify Ripper by launching “Spotify Ripper.exe”. Start off by ticking the “Logg” box. By doing that you will get a small window which tells you the status of the ripping.

2. Now press “Hitta Spotify”. This will connect Spotify and Spotify Ripper so that the files will be named correctly. If everything works as it should the message “Spotify hittat” will appear in the log.

3. Now press “Rippa”. This will make Spotify Ripper wait for Spotify to start playing a track and start ripping it while it plays. When a song ends Spotify Ripper will convert the track to a mp3 file which then is named automatically and simultaneously rip the next song in your playlist. You will find the ripped music in the same folder as Spotify Ripper is placed in. Spotify Ripper will keep ripping all the tracks you play on Spotify until you press “Rippa” again.

4. Now switch back to Spotify and start the playlist or album you want to rip. Spotify ripper will do the rest for you. Just leave Spotify playing until the album or playlist is finished. But beware that any background sounds from other applications from your computer will also be recorded by Spotify Ripper so make sure the sound is off on any IM’s, e-mail programs or any other program that might make a sound.

5. If Spotify Ripper doesn’t work for you you could try starting Spotify Ripper before you start Spotify and restart booth Spotify and Spotify ripper. If it still doesn’t work Spotify Ripper probably doesn’t support your soundcard and it won´t work until a new version is released.

Thanks again to Spotify Ripping for making this possible.