FireSale
Date:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I spent a year using Android Studio, Java, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) databases to develop FireSale, an app that allows food retailers to advertise their excess food to hungry local consumers at markdowns. The app allows users to create both individual and retail profiles (called “stores” in the app) and advertise excess food to nearby consumers with ease, thus simultaneously solving food insecurity and waste on a local level. After publishing FireSale, I met with several local food retailers in my hometown of Portland, Oregon, researching market opportunities for FireSale. However, despite strong interest from retailers such as the Oregon Food Bank, it proved challenging to garner an avid retailer base without an existing consumer base, and vice-versa. Throughout the project, I learned myriad technical skills, including Java sorting algorithms, asynchronous tasks, and querying, linking, and managing online databases, as well as softer skills, such as market research and professional, effective user-interface design.