This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Hana Elster, a 22-year-old senior at Boston University who founded VYA, an online vintage marketplace. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I’m a senior at college studying business law at Boston University, graduating in May.
I’ve always loved the idea of being your own boss and building something for yourself.
I’m also surrounded by a big founder community in Boston and New York. Seeing all these other people my age or a little bit older building things for themselves inspired me to do something for myself.
Over winter break, I used Claude to build an app that now has hundreds of users.
My love for vintage gave me a business idea
I went thrifting for the first time when I was around 14. You’d go to the regular mall and find a shirt for $30, but I could find 10 shirts for $30 at my nearest Goodwill, and I’d be wearing something nobody else had.
So it piqued my interest in secondhand shopping, getting good value, and developing a unique style. Now, I would say 80% of my closet is secondhand.
Last year, I was talking with one of my friends about our favorite stores in our hometowns, and she told me about an amazing vintage store in Chicago. I’m originally from Washington, DC, and I wouldn’t have known about this store unless we’d had this conversation.
I realized there is space for a centralized vintage platform.
I reached out to many shops to learn about their pain points and where they want to grow. The sellers mainly said they want more eyes on their products.
Brick-and-mortar vintage stores told me they had websites, but most of their sales come from foot traffic. Shop owners said they put a lot of work into their website, yet they only got one sale a month on that platform.
Stores that are fully online said they had to post three times a day on Instagram and TikTok because marketing was the only way to get their name out. A lot of these sellers also had full-time jobs, and vintage sales were their side hustle, so they didn’t have time to do much work.
Using Claude to code a website in five days
To build the app, I started vibe coding. I have some coding experience, but Claude Code has let me move at a pace I would never have been able to.
I connected with a friend who had built a fashion app years ago, and he prompted me to learn how to vibe code. In January, I started with Cursor and eventually began coding with Claude, and the project accelerated really fast.
I started on January 9 and built a mock website for VYA by January 13, over winter break. It got me so excited, thinking about how I was turning lines of code into something visual, with buttons and functions and everything.
Five days later, I had a website. Friends in tech also helped me look over the code and make sure everything flowed correctly.
Monetization
I’ve spent under $2,000 on app development so far, which covers all technical and operational costs. It’s self-funded by my savings, and I’ve also received some grants from Boston University.
More than three months on, we have 38 stores fully onboarded and continuing to grow, and roughly 900 approved users, of whom 50% are daily active users. My goal is that when you’re checking out vintage websites like The RealReal, you also open VYA.
To monetize it, I’m charging a 7% commission per item sold, with an average price of about $350. I’m also trying out a model called “source for requests,” in which we charge customers a flat fee for finding a particular product, like a rare 90s Chanel bag.
Usually, one of the 38 stores can fulfill the order, and if we can’t, the fee is refunded.
AI has both dropped and raised barriers
I’ve always wanted to start my own business, but this was the first time I was hit with inspiration, and I could actually execute it. I don’t know if I would’ve done it if I’d known I’d have to hire engineers and other staff, because I would’ve had to raise money.
So AI has definitely dropped the barrier to entry.
The biggest barrier used to be engineering, but now it’s getting people to hear about your brand and then convert and buy, which is why my first hire is going to be a CMO.
I’m thinking of how to raise money so that I can add to my head count. I’m focusing on growing and getting more people to help me out so that I can grow exponentially faster.
After graduation, I’m supposed to work in consulting — I’ve got a return offer, and the role doesn’t start until September.
I’m planning to accept it and see how this business grows on the side. If I can build it up enough, grow my head count, and automate it, I would love to do it alongside my corporate job.
Being a young founder has changed me. The other founders I’ve seen are super bold, confident, and courageous, and I feel like I’ve developed that side of myself, too.
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