You know the drill: summer vacation is almost over. And those books from last year, you won’t need them starting in September. Time to sell them! But who is offering a good price? And where do you do that without losing a large share to the selling website? Jeroen van Gessel, one of the Venture Academy participants at PLNT, thought things should be different. Through his own platform BlockBook, students can sell or buy their used digital textbooks safely and at a good price.
Young entrepreneur
Jeroen van Gessel is an entrepreneur at heart. He was only 14 when he founded his first company. With his decoration items such as posters, he managed to attract many influencers. And certainly not the least; even Chris Brown promoted his product. After several years, he sold his company and went to college. Not much later, his startup idea for BlockBook was born.
Safe and affordable
Jeroen engaged in NFT. “That’s trading online art. This went quite well and was very secure. I found this very interesting and eventually learned the software language through courses. Then it occurred to me that this technology could be used for other things as well. Why focus on trading pictures instead of solutions?” That solution came when he started selling his textbooks himself. He didn’t make much money. It went to the website where he sold his books.
The name BlockBook actually says it a bit. On the platform, students (sell) their books via blockchain technology. You can buy a digital textbook, and have access to it through a key. This puts the e-book in a secure location, and sales are easy via iDeal.
Not just for students
Besides being a modern, fast and affordable way for students to sell BlockBook, there is profit for publishers. Indeed, the major disadvantage of e-books is that after they are sold, they will be forwarded among themselves – illegally or otherwise. So there goes your money then. Through BlockBook, this is not possible. In addition, through royalties, publishers earn a portion of the proceeds with each sale.
Next step
There are still some steps to take, which the Venture Academy is helping Jeroen with. “It’s nice to have so much guidance in the early stages. It’s very motivating. In the coming months I hope to learn more about how it works to get funding, meet investors and hope to be able to go to market after!
Are you interested in BlockBook and want to learn more? Send Jeroen an email!
