Exactly one week ago, I had the privilege of speaking at the 6th Annual I.T. and Web 2.0 Venture Forum at Rice University about Bubblevine. Although it was a long and busy day, I really enjoyed my time participating in the event. I met a number of great people and listened to some great company presentations and guest speakers.

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Posted by monicayoo on Natuba

Bubblevine is a project I have been working on for a while now and it’s very exciting to have it go live!

The idea for Bubblevine came about at the end of my junior year in college when I noticed how much stuff (perfectly good stuff) was being thrown away all because students didn’t know what to do with it since they couldn’t take it home with them. Walking down the halls of various dorm buildiings, it was fairly common to see piles of bookshelves, lamps, TVs, bean bags, toasters, futons and other items by the dumpster. I remember thinking to myself that there must be hundreds of kids on campus that need stuff like this to furnish their apartment and dorm room. This is the magical moment where I decided to start my own little project to create a website that fosters a campus community where college students can buy stuff and sell stuff with one another.

There is also one other reason I felt inclined to pursue Bubblevine, and that’s safety. Before there was any other alternative, most students resorted to Craigslist. Although the site works, the downfall to it is that you have no idea who’s house you’ll be going to pick up the bargain deal, what their neighborhood is like, how far the place is in relation to you (until you Google it) and the flip-side, you have no knowledge about the person who will be coming to your doorstep to pick something up. During my college years, my experience with Craigslist has been less than awesome – and I’ve had several. There are two specific instances I vividly remember. The first one was when I thought I found a great deal on a TV. It wasn’t too far from me, so I said, “why not?” Not being a San Antonio native, I naively drove into a pretty sketchy part of town. I came out OK, but sometimes I question if it was really worth it. Another not so great experience was when I drove out to the other side of the city for a dinky desk. = All of this could have been avoided had something like Bubblevine existed. I would’ve appreciated a tool like it while I was in school, because there was probably someone a few streets down or even next door who would have been more than willing to sell me their stuff.

On a different note, the site is currently open to a few schools, but once it gains a little more popularity we’ll expand the list.

Here are a couple of videos to watch:

If you have any ideas or suggestions on how to promote, feel free to contact me. =)