Christian DeHoyos, Justin Kasad, and Jason Vianna wanted to create a visual approach to the virtual marketplace that gives students more options than just buying and selling items as one would on Craigslist or eBay. What they designed is Swaapr.com, a free service that allows students to buy, sell, rent, swap, request, or deliver just about any item, service, or lesson one can reasonably imagine.
The Web site is still in beta mode and is being upgraded frequently to add new features and to improve the user experience, but it is currently open to college students at UCSB, UCSC, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and Stanford, with new campuses being added in the near future. Currently with about 250 users, the creators have high hopes for their new service.
Swaapr’s inception grew out of a much simpler idea — a smartphone app that would allow students to easily arrange carpools with each other from Isla Vista to downtown Santa Barbara to avoid paying for taxis. DeHoyos approached Vianna in interests of starting a company to build this app, and Vianna agreed with the stipulation that his roommate, Kasad, be involved with the programming efforts. Just like that, a company was born. They changed their idea from the carpooling app to a different service that would allow students to rent and share textbooks for classes.