Columbia Student Launches .edu-Verified Marketplace for Campus Housing and Resale

GradPazz, a new peer-to-peer marketplace built by Columbia University student Zihan Ye, is live with .edu email verification for student housing, roommate matching and secondhand goods. The platform aims to make campus transactions safer and more organized while reducing move-out waste.

Why it matters: - GradPazz is built to solve a recurring campus problem: students need a safer way to find housing, roommates and secondhand goods without relying on unverified listings and informal group chats. - The platform also targets campus waste by helping students reuse furniture and household items during graduation and move-in seasons. - The marketplace is designed to keep transactions inside verified university communities, which may reduce fraud risk and improve trust.

What happened: - GradPazz launched as a peer-to-peer campus marketplace requiring .edu email verification. - The platform was founded by Zihan Ye, a Columbia University student in Enterprise Risk Management. - GradPazz is live at gradpass.site and available on iOS through the Apple App Store and on Android through Google Play. - The initial user base is at Columbia University, with early outreach planned for additional universities. - Ye said the product was shaped by his own experience relocating across cities and countries as an international student.

The details: - GradPazz uses a university-email-verified trust layer for peer-to-peer transactions. - Listings are organized into sublets, roommate searches and secondhand goods. - The structure is meant to help students find relevant information faster and reduce uncertainty in online transactions. - The platform is meant to help graduating students list items before moving out. - Incoming students can use the marketplace to find affordable secondhand essentials from other students in the same campus ecosystem. - GradPazz is headquartered in New York, NY. - Media contact for GradPazz is Zihan Ye, founder, at zye@gradpazz.com.

Between the lines: - The launch reflects a broader shift toward niche marketplaces built around identity verification and tighter community boundaries. - GradPazz is also positioning itself around affordability and sustainability, not just convenience. - Ye argued that existing options such as Craigslist, Facebook Groups and group chats were useful but not built for campus-specific trust and structure. - Public fraud data from the Federal Trade Commission shows younger adults report losing money to fraud at relatively high rates, which strengthens the case for verification-focused tools.

What's next: - GradPazz plans early outreach to additional university communities beyond Columbia. - The company appears to be betting that verified campus networks can scale beyond one school if the listing format and trust layer prove useful. - The platform's next test is whether students adopt a dedicated marketplace over general classifieds and social platforms.