Product in 2 weeks. Profitable by 16.

18 pointsmikesurowiec14y ago9 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!

9 comments

mapster14y 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.

mikesurowiecOP14y 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.

mapster14y 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.

debacle14y 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!

mikesurowiecOP14y ago

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

stacker14y ago

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

mikesurowiecOP14y 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!

stacker14y 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.

stacker14y ago

ah, found the blog :)

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