Riley Tart is a thesis architecture student at Auburn. He and his business partner Andy Bonn, who is currently at the Naval Academy, developed and released a new app called MidTrade, designed for college students.
“There are a lot of big apps out there that are ignoring the immediate needs of students. For instance, last summer I got a job and needed to sublease my apartment, but it had to be another student, and I couldn’t find another student on Airbnb or Craigslist,” Tart said.
Tart and Bonn started to develop an app that was pulling these students needs from major platforms into one student-run platform. In order to join MidTrade, a person must have a .edu e-mail address, which pushes you away from the shadiness and spam from other sites, Tart said.
“If you sign up with an .edu e-mail address, you’ll be directed to that school,” Tart said. “If you went to Alabama, that .edu would reroute you to an Alabama/Tuscaloosa page.”
Tart said since MidTrade is new, it’s only launched at Auburn and at the Naval Academy.
“We launched it at the Naval Academy and beat Facebook’s initial numbers in the first week. We had over 1,000 people sign up on the first day.”
Tart and Bonn have been working on MidTrade for two years and the app for one year. Tart said they’ve received a round of angel investors for MidTrade.
“We have ideas for every different avenue that applies to students, but, as of now, it has a trading post which is buying and selling for Auburn students,” Tart said.
The app also has a page for local food and drink specials around Auburn and a social feed which serves as a student news outlet. MidTrade’s subleasing page will be released in the next two weeks, Tart said.
“We have a total of over 6,000 users that have signed up through the website,” Tart said. “We launched about two and a half days ago [January 23] and have had over 200 downloads now, within those two and a half days.”
The process was a headache, Tart said.
“It has a trading post for buying and selling, special for local food and drink deals, student subleasing and a student feed. We look to expand to more fields in the near future.”
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