Bookup

Tinder for books.

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Bookup - hookups for books!

What it does: The Bookup App is for readers of print books who want to swap their books for other books in their area, free of charge, and potentially make a new friend with a shared interest in reading. Bookup provides location-based book swapping functionality.

How I built it: Worked with iOS developer contractor. Technologies used: AWS database for hosting the book images, Heroku for the server/dynos, Mailgun for the email verification, Open-source Parse Server (Node.js) and MongoDB, Facebook for login API

Challenges I ran into: Facebook shutting down Parse backend, finding reliable/committed developers, user retention, small iOS market share compared to Android.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of: App accepted into Bootstrap track of Facebook's FbStart, a program for mobile startups. App chosen "because of its impressive development so far" and "engaging user experience." Value: $40,000

Mentioned in article "20 of the best iPhone and iPad apps from July 2016": http://bit.ly/2j7VXAb

What I learned: Don't rely on backend-as-a-service providers. Build your own backend, if possible. (Was using Facebook Parse, Facebook then shutdown Parse, had to rebuild/redeploy entire backend from scratch).

What's next for Bookup: Android version

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