ROOMSWAP IS EXPANDING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS

Because comfort zones are for suckers…

I can’t imagine my college career without my business, Roomswap. It has been such an integral part of my growth as a student, entrepreneur, and young woman.

The idea of Roomswap came to me in June 2013. I saw my ambitious peers at the University of Oklahoma experiencing these incredible transitions in their life — they were studying abroad, graduating with honors, and taking on big time internships; but were still stuck in 12 month housing leases that left them in a financial strain.

Kyra Wharton (red Shirt) moved to NYC to pursue her passion of acting + singing just one week after graduating from OU
Jeff Bissinger (blue shirt) graduated from OU with academic honors + a top entrepreneurship student award. He is working on a startup
Maya Sykes (dark gray long sleeve) studied abroad in Argentina for an entire semester while receiving class credit from Price College of Business. She is now in China for a month
Fatima Shakra accepted an internship offer from the big-time oil + gas company Loves for the summer

And that’s why I established Roomswap. It was initially made to be a small lease takeover service that helped OU students swap housing.

The growth has been slow, but definitely upward and outward. I have helped incoming OU students find housing all the way from Tulsa, to Alabama, to Vietnam. I have helped graduates break leases right before taking on a big-time job out-of-state. In the process, I have saved OU students nearly $20,000.

And although I’m not a millionaire or whatever, I like to believe that I have had an impact on my peers at OU. Which is why I am excited + ready to expand and help even more students.

At first, I was really hesitant at the thought of expanding outside of OU. Norman has been a comfortable little bubble not only for me, but for my business. My company has done well here. We have a pretty good following. The thought of starting from the bottom at another university freaked me out. It felt so out of my comfort zone

“How do I scale my business from hundreds of miles away? What if fail miserably? What if University of Texas students don’t even need my service? What if … what if… what if?!” I often thought.

Me + Nikki hanging out on UT campus gathering surveys and emails from interested students (it was 100 degrees out!)

Even with my hesitation, I decided to hit the road with Nikki (the best Roomswap intern ever) and visit UT to conduct market research via online surveys.

Our market research went about 1000x better than we ever expected. We received surveys from 40 UT students as well as 50 student emails. And the responses from students were astounding; The demand for a company like Roomswap is extremely evident at UT.

And students need us more than we ever expected. So it’s official. Roomswap is expanding to UT.

Just one of the many survey results we analyzed after interviewing 40 students at UT.

This expansion would not only allow my Roomswap to grow but myself as well. Learning how to scale a business is an important skill every entrepreneur needs. But more importantly, learning how to embrace change + push boundaries is what makes an entrepreneur really stand out.

But here’s the catch: the only way Roomswap can scale is if we have a strong team, great marketing materials, and support from friends and family. We are hosting a Kickstarter next week, where we are raising $5,000 from friends and family in only 30 days. This money will help with our expansion to the University of Texas. And it will be our first step to going to national.

I totally understand being a broke college student/recent grad/person but even the smallest donation ($5–10 bucks) would go a long way for the Roomswap Team.

In meantime, my team and I are working like maniacs, filming our Kickstarter video and getting everything set up so you all can be super impressed by what we’re up to. There are so many more updates, but in the meantime, stay tuned and look out for the Kickstarter link.

Carey Johnna.