Product in 2 weeks. Profitable by 16.

18 points by mikesurowiec 14 years ago | 9 comments

Entrepreneurship at JMU is easily the best class I have ever taken. In two weeks, I had to build a functional product. By the end of the semester we have to make $200 PROFIT to get a passing grade. That means a profitable product in 16 weeks. I think many startups could learn a thing or two from this class.

If you're interested, you can see what I built here: http://thelocalrocket.com

I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments! Thanks!

p.s. Many of the teams in this class chose to make physical products like board wax, underwear with a condom holder pocket in it, special phone cases, etc. I'm a CS and management double major so my team chose to build a website. We're at $65 profit as of right now. Hoping to bump that up with some local ad deals!

mapster 14 years ago |

Please set rule for map pop-ups, only one at a time - open popup closes upon clicking on other pin. Is the Hostgator paid? It is a bit distracting, and that's the line to walk: balancing 'building users' vs hitting them with ads early on.

mikesurowiec 14 years ago | |

The funny thing is there's actually only one advert on the page (far left). The other things are informational flyers so people know what's happening around campus. I guess we better make sure to space them out so it doesn't look like an ad blast. Thanks for the feedback! I'll get those map popups fixed tonight too.

mapster 14 years ago | | |

Its a great start really. I think the balance is to get a user base, which means they get a lot of value, easily, from your content. Ads may get in the way of this, but I understand your desire to be 'profitable' for a class project.

debacle 14 years ago |

My only comment - it looks new, but it's better than similar software I've seen that took months to write and still isn't profitable.

Just Keep Iterating!

mikesurowiec 14 years ago | |

Thanks, I appreciate it! We'll be iterating as fast as we can.

stacker 14 years ago |

Any chance you'd describe your process / tools used for the site?

mikesurowiec 14 years ago | |

Hey, glad you found the blog. That's actually required by the class; we turn in assignments in the form of blog posts. So you'll see customer discovery interviews, our hypothesis for the project, and all that jazz. If you're interested, I can give you an in depth analysis of the technical side here. Thanks for checking us out!

stacker 14 years ago | | |

actually yes, that would be really good. I've wondered about using Bootstrap and how much work is involved to turn it into something useful. I currently am using a Wordpress template for a website with a blog attached, but it still feels very much like a Blog, rather than a website, and I feel Bootstrap may be an easy way to alter the Look and Feel.

stacker 14 years ago | |

ah, found the blog :)