Its a common trend around universities in Nigeria to see students selling their wares such as gadgets, foodstuffs, books and other items to their fellow students at relatively cheaper prices.
However, there has never been a platform to exclusively targeted at them. BoardX, a new classified ads site has launched to connect students who want to advertise their items for sale and those who want to buy to find them easily.
TechMoran met with the co-founder of Boardx, Ali Joel, a web developer and a student of computer engineering from the University of Benin on how the journey has been and what have been his challenges so far.
This was what he told us about Boardx.
How did you meet your co-founder and what convinced you to start Boardx
I met Ehizojie Brian (CTO) and co-founder through Eni Emmanuel (who is also a co-founder) who was my roommate at that time. Brian was coming to my room then though he was staying in a different hostel. Maybe because it was fun. One day when we were talking about how annoying it is when people ask us if we know anybody that wants to buy or sell phones like we are omniscient, the idea just popped into our head of a platform where people can buy and sell on campus.
Tell us about Boardx
Boardxweb.com or popularly known as Boardx is a classified ads site designed and built for Nigerian universities. After observing how business minded students are, we decided to create a platform where they can advertise their products for free.
How does it work
As a seller or entrepreneur you simply create an account and post whatever you want to sell alongside your contact details which the buyer can view and contact you if interested.
How challenging has running BoardX been
It is very challenging. We never thought it will be this challenging. We have been faced with a lot of challenges since launch, prominently publicity. I have learnt that starting something is not hard, it is sustaining it that counts.
How challenging was raising capital for boardX
Its been very challenging. Till date our capital has come solely from our pockets. I remember there was a time where I had to go hungry for 3 days because I used my feeding money to pay for some things we had to take care of.
There are other platforms offering similar services, what’s boardx unique selling point and how are you making profit
It was during creation that I began to notice that we were not the only one doing a site like boardX. It was really depressing because we thought we were doing something special but then we weren’t. But despite that we persevered. I believe our unique selling point is the seamless effort that boardX offers for users including the beautiful user interface and nice user experience. We are currently making profits from affiliate marketing and ad-sense.
How has the market responded to your service since launching
The feedback has been amazing. We have helped a lot of businesses, from clothing lines to services to individual businesses to carry out their transactions effortlessly. Based on the fact that advertising on the site is free we intend to make profit through affiliate marketing of companies that deal with student related products and through google ad-sense when we have enough traffic. Also as we move forward other ways will manifest itself.
What are your goals for boardx in the coming years
Our goal is to make boardxweb.com the number one site for universities where students can sell their products services and ideas at no cost for the world to see.
