Tamir Shklaz (22) is a fourth-year electrical and computer engineering student at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Like many students, he has had to contend with the burden of expensive textbooks, especially because when he arrived at UCT, second-hand alternatives were hard to come by. Seeing this gap in the book market, Shklaz created a computer application for buying and selling second-hand textbooks.
He does not forget the shock, during his first year at university, of finding out that a new textbook could cost up to and often beyond R1 300. “I thought back then, that if this is my experience — coming from an affluent background — it must be a tad overwhelming for my peers with limited financial resources.” Having always had a passion for computers, building software, and coding, Shklaz happened to have dreamt, among other things, of creating a product that would make a tangible impact on people.