Honors College student Scott Knowles ’15 and University of Baltimore
student Alex Greif ‘15 teamed up to create Echo Trades, an app designed to provide an online marketplace for users to resell or purchase items of interest to them.
Presently open to college students at Towson, UMBC, UB and Maryland, Echo Trades offers an alternative place to find books, electronics, DVDs/video games, furniture, and clothing/accessories among other categories.
“Many college students have trouble selling old books, furniture, or services they may be able to provide,” said Knowles. “Echo Trades’ aim is to fill a specific niche in the college environment so students can maximize their buying/selling options on campus.”
Knowles, an economics and Chinese major enrolled in the College of Business and Economics, paired up with Greif after the two met during a summer internship at Morgan Stanley in Baltimore. Greif has the wider background in working with computers, while Knowles’ knowledge of computer programming is limited to computer macros used in economic research
“I would certainly enjoy spending time in the future working on other ways to improve campus life for students,” Knowles continued. “If people like what we are doing then I would see no reason not to pursue this kind of business further in the future.
But don’t think this foray into app-building has changed Knowles’ focus on his future.
“It is still hard for me to say what I would like to focus on after graduation,” Knowles said. “Although my major is in economics, my minor is in Chinese. I have plans to travel back to China in the future and potentially pursue my education further in the coming years. Other than that, I have other interests pertaining to environmental issues and would enjoy working in a field related to those kinds of subjects.”
You can download Echo Trades in the App Store or on Google Play.
