All it takes is an idea.
When Chris Ostrander, third-year computer science student, and Chimaobi Madubuike, fourth-year economics student, first came to campus, they immediately noticed something was missing. Though they saw completely different problems, they both took the same approach: creating an app.
“When I knew I came to USC, I knew there was a problem. And the problem was there was no one-stop place to know the events going on campus,” Madubuike said. “So I decided to do something about it, and that’s why I created the app.”
Ostrander was more concerned with the high textbook costs that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, have increased by 800 percent in the last 30 years.
Now, LookaBook, an app created almost singlehandedly by Ostrander, is now available for Apple and Android devices. With the tagline, “we can do all the searching for you,” LookaBook allows college students to post used textbooks, to search for books by ISBN number and buy books from their peers.
The app focuses on a quick turnaround, and will even aid in negotiating prices between buyer and seller, essentially eliminating bookstores as a middleman.
Ostrander believes that his app helps resolve the economic pressures facing college students as a result of high inflation rates and the “broken economic cycle” that results from students not having the ability to choose their own products. But although he believes that students will find it beneficial, Ostrander continues to see past whatever success may come to focus on the app as a personal learning experience.
“My favorite part about this process probably is being able to learn what it takes to kind of start an app and start a business,” Ostrander said. “The biggest thing, my dad has said, is that even if it doesn’t work or it doesn’t provide a service or what not, it’s a great learning experience.”
Ostrander’s only regret is his timing, he “wish[es] [he] would have done it earlier.”
Madubuike noticed a different problem: there was no coherent and effective way to advertise events on campus.
As a result, he created an app called College Cave. It allows students to browse and post events on campus along with restaurant deals and parties. Additionally, they can see other students using the app nearby and chat with them about campus-related issues.
“The main idea came from me wanting to know about events going on around campus, because when I came to campus there was no way to find out what was going on around campus,” Madubuike said. “This was a problem I had, and I was sure other people, other students had the same problem.”
But while he was creating the app, Madubuike was also taking a full course load. Sometimes he would find himself procrastinating on schoolwork in order to concentrate on the app. But in the long-run the potential impact of the app made it worthwhile to him.
“My favorite part was having it in mind that other students would like the app. The problem itself was the most fun part, basically,” Madubuike said. “To think that to other students it would be efficient, that was the motivation that pushed me to actually create the app and kept me going. Even now, I know that other students will benefit and need to have it to make college life a lot better, so that’s what’s pushing me every day.”
The hardest part of creating an app, according to both Ostrander and Madubuike, is the coding. As a computer science major, Ostrander did the coding himself, but Madubuike hired other employees to help him complete the most complex codes.
As of now, both apps are currently free, but LookaBook is considering changing its payment plan. In the future, they may charge a $1 or $2 fee for every book students upload, a price which is smaller than the fee Amazon charges for product posts.
Both Ostrander and Madubuike are currently putting into place plans to expand their apps to more college campuses. Though College Cave is available only on the USC campus, and LookaBook is available at USC, Texas A&M and the University of North Texas, both entrepreneurs hope to expand their apps further in the future.