I started DormDrop with no technical background — no prior web development, no existing codebase, no team. What existed was a problem worth solving and the discipline to learn everything required to solve it. The product is now live at two Charles University dormitories.
Live at dormdrop.czEvery semester at Charles University dormitories, usable items are thrown away as students move out — while incoming students spend money on the same items. The exchange already happens informally. No tool supports it at the dorm level.
Instead of finding an existing platform, I decided to build one. With no prior web development experience, I began learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript from scratch — using the product itself as the learning environment.
Early on I recognised that a marketplace was the wrong model. The real constraints were speed, proximity, and trust — not price. I redesigned the system as a connection facilitator, removing payments, escrow, and ratings entirely.
DormDrop went live at Kolej Větrník and Kolej Hvězda — two Charles University dormitories in Prague. A pilot MOU was produced, dormitory authority meetings were held, and real listings from real students are now on the platform.
"The best UX solution is often removing complexity, not adding features — especially when designing within real-world constraints."
A standalone campus social app separate from DormDrop. Built around shared activity streaks, an interest-and-behaviour graph, and session-based community formation. The hypothesis: students don't need another social network — they need a system that rewards showing up together.
Architecture defined. Product brief and 12-slide pitch deck outline produced. Not yet in active development — DormDrop takes priority through the May move-out campaign.
Both products are built on the same insight: the most valuable social infrastructure for students is hyperlocal and behaviour-driven, not network-scale and content-driven.
Open to conversations with university administrators, impact investors, circular economy advocates, and potential partners. The May move-out season is the critical window.