About

2021

Spark of an idea

As COVID move‑outs clogged hallways with abandoned furniture, Minjae saw classmates lose time and money on late eBay deliveries and no‑show buyers. He drafted a campus‑only marketplace secured by .edu email verification so students could trade with people they already knew. Early feedback across dorms echoed the same trust gap: last‑minute deals with little reliability.
2022

Code over capital

With no budget for outside developers, Minjae taught himself to code and launched a university‑verified beta. The prototype's closed loop worked—more than 300 trades cleared in its first month—proving that a student‑only exchange could thrive on trust and speed.
2024

Built for scale

To transform the scrappy beta into a national platform, Minjae brought in software engineer Milan Rona as co‑founder and CTO. Milan fortified the backend for higher speed and stronger security, paving the way for seamless multi‑campus deployment and future expansion.
2025

Public launch & growth

Reorganized as eTrove LLC, Swapdoor opened to U.S. campuses and immediately gained traction: 600+ active students posted 950+ listings in the first 90 days. With that momentum, the team began preparing the platform for a full nationwide rollout.
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