Raccoon
skill
Business Strategy
focus
Technology
Role
Project Lead
Year
2022
"An entrepreneurial mindset helps us identify and realize opportunities, overcome and learn from setbacks, and succeed in making an impact.” -Helen Wang, UCSD Rady School of Management Professor
Overview
Raccoon was born from a simple insight: students were drowning in unused items and wasting money because campus resale systems were scattered, slow, and unsafe. During UC San Diego’s Innovation to Market course (140-student cohort), my team and I built Raccoon, a student-to-student resale marketplace designed for speed, trust, and convenience.
This project wasn’t about UI polish.
It was about entrepreneurship, business discipline, and proving an idea could live in the real world.
I led the product vision, business model development, pitch strategy, and early product design.
Problem
Campus communities were using fragmented channels (Instagram, Discord, random Facebook groups).
Students had no centralized, organized way to buy or sell the essentials they needed.
We validated this with 50+ survey responses and interviews, discovering that convenience, pricing, and trust were the top unmet needs.
Why now
Our timing was strengthened by macro and micro trends:
Inflation is straining students (“working longer shifts to pay for basics”)
A 43% rise in e-commerce sales from 2019 to 2020
Clear competitive whitespace: Raccoon offered greater affordability and accessibility compared to FB groups, SSS, and campus bookstores
This reinforced our business intuition: students needed an easier, cheaper alternative now more than ever.
SOLUTION
A student-exclusive marketplace app with:
Verified student accounts
Fast listing and discovery
Buyer & seller transparency
Affordable pricing
PROCESS
Business model
Revenue: membership fees ($2.99–$8.99), seller commissions (10–12%), promotional boosts, campus partnerships
Cost structure: R&D, platform development, operations, marketing
Channels: campus flyers, student ambassadors, Instagram, local clubs
Key partners: universities, student unions, sustainability clubs
This was designed to be affordable, scalable, and profitable with an 84% gross margin in early projections.
MVP & Testing
Our MVP demonstrated a functional, student-friendly platform:
Clean, intuitive UI
Clear categories tailored to campus needs
Fast listing creation
Messaging for coordination
User feedback was overwhelmingly positive:
“I would definitely use this.”
“Better than Facebook Marketplace.”
“Intuitive and easy to navigate.”
Our Figma prototype definitely made our team stand out from the crowd, as we were the only pitch that had an actual clickable MVP to show. This created a visual of what we were selling, which was highly effective!
Traction & roadmap
The deck included a detailed operating timeline:
UCSD beta testing → UCSD full launch
Platform improvements
Authentication upgrades
UC-wide expansion plan
Multi-campus deployment by Jan 2024
Financial projections showed strong early adoption potential:
8k → 125k annual revenue growth projection
Majority of revenue from advertising early on
Rapid customer growth in all tiers
PITCH COMPETITION RESULTS
We placed first out of a 140-student cohort, earning:
Entrepreneurs of the Year
#1 Best Pitch
Student Choice Award
Judges highlighted our clear business model, financial aptitude, and the strength of our pitch.
My Contributions
Business & strategy
Led development of our Business Model Canvas, including key partners, value propositions, customer segments, cost structure, and revenue streams.
Conducted competitor and industry analysis supporting our “Why Now” case.
Built our pricing strategy: monthly buyer membership tiers, seller commission structure, and promotions.
Drafted the SOM, SAM, TAM financial opportunity sizing.
Created the architectural strategy outlining how Raccoon creates and controls a new value chain in student secondhand goods.
Product design
Designed our MVP screens and flows: onboarding, categories, listing, messaging.
Synthesized user testing insights into product improvements: mandatory item info, seller info, infinite scroll, sponsor feature.
User research & insights
Analyzed 50+ UCSD student responses: current tools, pain points, willingness to pay, and five major product categories.
Consolidated qualitative quotes for desirability validation.
Pitching & storytelling
Co-created and presented our final pitch deck, emphasizing our sustainability focus, market timing, financial projections, and go-to-market strategy.
Helped lead the pitch that won three major awards.
REFLECTION
Key takeaways
Raccoon showed me how to fuse design + entrepreneurship + business strategy:
I built products with business viability, feasibility, and desirability in mind.
I can pitch convincingly to industry leaders and VC-level judges.
I now think like a founder, not just a designer.
This experience gave me the confidence to operate beyond pixels—into systems, economics, and strategy.
EXPLORE MORE?
You can learn more about the Innovation to Market class in this LinkedIn article.
Following the project, I continued working with Professor Helen Wang through her nonprofit, Oceanside Perspective, contributing to design and team operations.
