ԱƵ is a tight-knit community, but student entrepreneurs still have some of the same challenges as big business when it comes to promoting their ventures among classmates and attracting campus customers. Two rising juniors have come up with a solution to both combat this issue and support other student entrepreneurs. Last year, Thomas Sfikas ’28 and Anthony Bolivar ’28 joined the TIA Incubator to develop .
“Raider Market is a marketplace app for just ԱƵ students. Those with small businesses and things to sell, like furniture and textbooks, can reach the whole campus with their product or service. It’s limited to ԱƵ.edu emails and moderated by AI for comfort and safety,” explained Bolivar.
The pair was inspired to start this venture when a friend of theirs expressed challenges over customer discovery for her haircut service. Raider Market was a solution for her and others on campus with a specialized product or service to identify and reach a target market on campus. The aspiring entrepreneurs divided up the responsibilities of building a startup with Sfikas handling partnerships, outreach, and operations, and Bolivar developing the technical aspects of the app.
“The biggest challenge was architecting a backend that could serve two completely different clients simultaneously: a mobile app and a web platform. That meant designing a multi-application backend from the ground up, building out a custom PostgreSQL database, and keeping everything consistent and performant across both surfaces. When you’re the only engineer, there’s no one to catch your architectural mistakes early, so you learn to think a few steps ahead,” recalled Bolivar on his experience of building Raider Market.
Raider Market found its footing in TIA with the help of expert mentorship and resources for startup companies. During their first year in the program, Sfikas and Bolivar were able to refine their business model, address legal nuances, and put out a working mobile app. The founders additionally tabled at the 2026 TIA Entrepreneurship Showcase, presenting their idea to potential investors for the first time.
“Experienced mentors verified the practicality of our idea and suggested what to work on first. They funded our software development. Recently they steered us away from legal trouble and helped us align with school policy. Tabling was a spectacular experience,” Bolivar cited regarding the support they received so far from TIA.
Sfikas and Bolivar are planning ahead for next semester when they anticipate remarkable growth. The founders aim for Raider Market to be an independent service that can be accessed through both the mobile app and a web app. To prepare for this major expansion, they are focused on optimizing the platform’s performance and stability, particularly the custom backend architecture that supports both the mobile and web applications.
“Raider Market is bracing for move-in in August. We’re spreading the word through our Instagram and continuing to beta test our app so that students can rely on us to deck out their new dorms,” said Bolivar in preparation for the fall semester.
The growth of the venture has set Raider Market up to revolutionize the student business ecosystem, empowering student entrepreneurs to turn their specialized skills into thriving business endeavors and ensuring that the next generation of ԱƵ innovators has a dedicated space to reach their target markets.