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PassMe is an e-commerce platform for international students to trade pre-loved goods in Australia. Recognizing the lack of a secure platform for trading goods, my friend Hoang Anh Vo and I came up with an idea for a new e-commerce platform, made by students for students' needs. Our idea was among the Top 6 Finalists of the City of Melbourne's Open Innovation Competition 2023. We then raised $3,000 in non-equity funding from RMIT Activator's sustainability and entrepreneurship programs.
During our one-year exchange in 2023 to RMIT Melbourne, we—Anh and Ngoc—found that the process of acquiring and disposing of new furniture for a short-term stay is very stressful. We wondered why there is no reliable platform to trade pre-loved goods for free, with secure payment methods and delivery. Since then, we expanded our PassMe team to five aspiring RMIT undergraduates with the passion to make a positive impact on the international student community.
As student entrepreneurs, we created PassMe from the insight of a student, with the aim of making living in Australia easier for students. Since then, our start-up project has gathered 100 potential customers on a Facebook group and raised $3,000 in non-equity funding. We were recognized for our work on RMIT's website here: "PassMe proud finalist in Open Innovation Competition"
The challenge of being an overseas student entrepreneur is balancing academic aspirations with making a living overseas while developing the business. One challenge we faced was legalizing PassMe as a company in Australia. All five members of our team are Vietnamese; thus, the paperwork was more complicated and required us to spend more time gathering information to prove to the Australian Taxation Office. Fortunately, we received the official Australian Company Number in 2024.
Our proudest moment of work was when we made it to the Top 6 of the Melbourne Open Innovation Competition. That was the moment we realized, "We made it as the only Vietnamese team, representing RMIT Vietnam and our dedication to a sustainable society."