

Product in 2 weeks. Profitable by 16.  - mikesurowiec

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.<p>If you're interested, you can see what I built here: http://thelocalrocket.com<p>I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments! Thanks!<p>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!
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mapster
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.

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mikesurowiec
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.

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mapster
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.

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debacle
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!

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

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

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mikesurowiec
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!

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stacker
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.

