Vanderbilt seniors launch Craigslist-like app, Bazaar

April and May are busy packing months for Nashville college students changing dorms, leaving campus or leaving the city. That means plenty of discarding of books and household items.

Two Vanderbilt students, graduates as of this weekend, have created an app called Bazaar that serves as a Craigslist tailored to college students. To post an item for sale or to access others' listings, a student email — ending in ".edu" — is required. With students typically living on or near campus, the app forms a marketplace for used goods.

"It's much easier to facilitate interactions (for) transactions when they are a two-minute walk away," said app co-creator Walton Seymour. "People are willing to open up to each other if they have that sort of baseline sense of community."

Seymour built the app along with classmate Alex Meyer. The tech-savvy pair are among the growing population of undergrad students using their college years to develop new products and companies. Seymour, a computer science and mathematics major, said they created the concept for Bazaar as a school assignment but saw real-world applications.

"Most of my friends were using Facebook or Craigslist, but it wasn't really an efficient way of dealing with things," he said. "There could be a more efficient way of handling those transactions."

Since launching a month ago, Bazaar has more than 100 users, with textbooks, mini-fridges, microwaves and furniture among the items posted. Seymour has sold his bike and a laptop through the app.

Most students attend Vanderbilt, but the app can be used by students at any area school.

"What people like is the ability to filter and search," he said. "It's for the people who really like going to yard sales, people who like going to thrift shops."

Seymour, a Brooklyn, N.Y., native, is moving to New York this summer to work for a Palo Alto, Calif.-based software firm, and Meyer, who is from Centervillle, Ohio, will stay in Nashville to pursue a master's in computer science at Vanderbilt. They plan on improving the app during the next few months so they can roll it out beyond Nashville in the fall.

Reach Jamie McGee at 615-259-8071 and on Twitter @JamieMcGee_.