What Is Student Hub Marketing? A Student Marketplace for South African Universities
This is a peer-to-peer business platform where students can buy, sell or advertise their own goods and services for South African universities, founded by Gift Makanatleng. He initially came up with the idea in 2024 but was unable to execute it as he was still establishing a work balance between developing this idea and academics. As March of this year arrived, he released a beta version for users to test and provide feedback to help identify and fix problems.
How Does Student Hub Marketing Help Students Buy and Sell More Easily?
The platform aims to solve the issue of overcrowded and disorganised WhatsApp groups. To make things easier to find, there’s a fast search engine feature which further ensures direct access to products in a convenient manner. The platform aims to solve the issue of overcrowded and disorganised WhatsApp groups. To make things easier to find, there’s a fast search engine feature which further ensures direct access to products in a convenient manner.
Growing Student Hub Marketing to More Than 1,000 Users!
Since the launch, SHM has garnered over a 1000 users through status reshares, LinkedIn posts and having a marketing team for promotion guidance. However, the struggles that came with this were prioritising school deadlines while simultaneously planning, coding and doing system design on the side. Although, the upside was that his computer science knowledge made the developing process simpler by applying concepts taught in class.
Entrepreneurship realities
Stepping into the entrepreneurial space has made him realise how pressure is placed on you to make things happen with your business idea, especially during the early stages where responsibility feels incredibly heavy. He also acknowledged why people normally opt for a safer option to be stable and have a monthly income instead of being in a position where there’s no guarantee. Entrepreneurship is not just about technical skills but also about soft skills such as patience and resilience.
Building Skills Beyond the Classroom
By developing and managing a platform that is used by real students, Gift is building a portfolio from practical experience. This is particularly valuable in South Africa as the youth struggle with a highly competitive labour market. According to Statistics South Africa, “the youth unemployment rate of people aged 15 – 34 reached 47.4% in the second quarter of 2026.” Student Hub Marketing’ is evidence of Gift’s demonstration of technical skills like system design and software development. Instead of solely relying on his computer science degree, he has created a project that reflects his qualities of taking initiative and solving real-world problems in the technical field.
Student Hub Marketing Reaches the Next Round of Leopard’s Lair.
Gift has also made it to the next round of the NWU Leopard’s Lair Business Competition. This is an annual business competition open to undergraduates and postgraduates registered at any of the three NWU campuses. The contestants go through elimination rounds that help students develop and test their business idea while getting guidance from mentors and pitch coaches. He has expressed his feelings towards this competition with these remarks: “I’m extremely excited and confident about making it to the next round. I believe that if I market Student Hub Marketing effectively, I have a strong chance of winning the competition. I’ve already tested the idea with real students, and the fact that I have returning users shows me that people are finding the platform useful rather than simply downloading it and disappearing.”
In future, Gift hopes to continue learning and improving the application while also understanding that changing the way students buy and sell products won’t happen overnight. He’s also open to “build(ing) partnerships with universities, student organisations and businesses to make this vision a reality”. You can download it here to find some deals around your campus or to list your own goods and services!
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Written by: Neo Khoza
Intern | Research & Analysis
info@liferesetwithboni.com