Why One Student was Skeptical About Femgineer’s Ship It Course

This past weekend I received a number of emails filled with questions from prospective students like yourself, who are considering Ship It but are skeptical and worried about:

• Their idea being good enough.
• Spending savings to take an online course versus using the money to build a product.
• Seeing actual results like attract paying customers.

I hear ya!

I could tell you that myself and my instructors believe in the work that we do, and you’ll see results if you follow our proven process.

But that won’t help.

So we figure it’s better to introduce you to one of our students who felt a lot like you’re probably feeling right now.

Why One Student was Skeptical About Taking Ship It and Launching a Paid Prototype

When I met Alyssa Ravasio back in 2013 she has just graduated from Dev Bootcamp. She had an idea for a product but was also thinking about applying to be a software engineer. She didn’t strike me as the type who would sit behind a cube and code all day. But she was nervous about building her product and monetizing it.

I had her share her idea with me. Alyssa told me: “I’m a very outdoorsy person. I love nature. So back in 2013, I was looking for a campsite for New Year’s. I went online and had a horrible time. There were national versus state versus county parks, and it was all disorganized. I spent hours looking for a campsite. I finally found one. When I arrived at the campsite, I realized that it was on the beach, and I hadn’t brought my surfboard to enjoy it! That’s when I realized the system is really broken.”

But Alyssa didn’t feel like she was ready to build. She was concerned about her idea being good enough and didn’t believe that Ship It could actually help her launch a paid prototype…

She came to the realization that her initial idea would change over time, and she needed to be open to that change.

Ultimately, it was her desire to make a difference that made her want to take action and sign up for Ship It.

“Had I not taken Ship It, I probably would have just taken a job. I began building the prototype during the course.”

We asked her what happened after she launched the prototype, her response, “I sent it out to 40 people. 1 person who responded said that he was looking to build a similar product. His name is Eric Bach, and he is now my co-founder. Together we got California State Park in Sonoma to use it.”

“It was good to put it out there. Next, I experimented and found out that people would be willing to pay to book a campsite online.”

Alyssa had some personal savings and self-funded for about a year.

When we asked her how she got in touch with an angel investor, she said, “Dave Morin, who is an angel investor, found my site and reached out to me.”

Alyssa’s Advice to Future Ship It Students

“The only thing that limits what you’re capable of is what you believe you can do. Learn how to code only if you want to code. But do not if you just want to build a company. In that case, it’s better to find others to build it for you. Finally, you should be obsessed with the problem, not your solution. You want to solve a problem and make an impact that leaves you feeling proud of yourself.”

Alyssa Ravasio is the CEO and Founder of Hipcamp, which empowers people to discover, book, and share amazing campsites. With a trend of increasing urbanization, they help people get out of the city and into nature.

They make discovering a great campsite based on your dates, activities, and specific needs very easy. They do this by integrating with third parties to aggregate real-time availability information and create original content that their users need and love. So, for example, they can help you find a campsite by the ocean where you can bring your dog next weekend!

They are their own customers. They’ve grown up camping in California and know every nook and cranny of space — its quirks, its problems, and its enormous opportunities for improvement. They know how important it is to get out of the city and into the many parks they have at their doorsteps. They live and breathe camping and know more about this problem than anyone else.

Alyssa has come a long way since 2013. Right after launching she started generating revenue, a year later she raised $1M in seed funding from notable Silicon Valley investors, and now she and her team are expanding to other states like Texas.

Imagine where you could be in 3 months, 6 months, a year from now, and beyond!

Like Alyssa said: “The only thing that limits what you’re capable of is what you believe you can do.”