MoffittStatus

My first app ever. Sold to UC Berkeley after 10k WAUs

When I first got to Berkeley, I realized the libraries get super packed, especially during midterms and finals. It’s a school with 35,000 students and only one 24/7 library. Sometimes you’d show up, spend 45 minutes looking for a table, fail, and go back to study in your dorm room.

This was a huge problem, and I wanted to fix it.

I didn’t know how to code, so my MVP was an Instagram account called @moffittstatus. That first week I went to the library every hour of the day, every day of the week, scouting spots and posting updates to the story.

I tried to make it as controversial and viral as possible. I made the logo the Pornhub logo with the words swapped for MoffittStatus. I made memes roasting the CS majors for being smelly and the business majors for doing coloring books for class. Whenever I took a shit, I’d follow as many Berkeley students as I could until Instagram rate-limited me.

The MVP: an Instagram story update showing how full each Moffitt floor is

I also put up flyers all around campus, and collected feedback by polling our users right on Instagram.

Instagram story poll: 96% said the updates were helpful

Within a week the page had hundreds of thousands of views, and thousands of people were watching the updates every single day. I knew something was working.

The users showed us a lot of love :)

Story reply: fire, who made this account. Comment: my favorite place to study is wherever @moffittstatus says to study

Then it started growing organically. Students were spreading the word on their own, without any marketing from me.

It got so viral that some random dude started larping and saying he started it. I have no idea who the fuck this guy is.

An Instagram bio claiming to be building @moffittstatus

To keep the updates coming, I hired student workers to scout spots for me. I even enlisted the head of security at UC Berkeley to get his student security guards to send in updates.

I also started a close friends list on the Instagram called the Moffitt Demons, where I gave VIP treatment to our most active users. They’d actually go scout spots and report back to us. Pretty soon, people were begging to work for MoffittStatus.

The Moffitt Demons list on the web app, thanking recent contributors

Instagram DMs asking if MoffittStatus is hiring, with resumes attached

By finals season of my freshman year we were up to 10,000 weekly active users.

Unfortunately, Moffitt Library closed down at the end of my freshman year for construction. At that point, we sold it to UC Berkeley.

Story reply asking what the plans are now that Moffitt is gone

I had so much fun building this :)