While the majority of college students keep their Facebook activity to posting pictures of their latest vacations, meals, and beer pong tables, junior John Lizzadro had a different idea in mind. That’s not to say Lizzadro’s beer pong table isn’t worthy of a Facebook status, but with all games aside, Facebook gave Lizzadro what he hopes to be a million dollar idea.

Lizzadro has already launched his own website that was inspired by DePaul University Class of 2014 group on Facebook.

“After being apart of the DePaul Facebook page, I started to noticed a majority of the posts were not about what was going on around campus, but rather it was all students trying to buy or sell stuff,” said Lizzadro.

With this observation, the Oak Brook, Ill., native made the decision to start his own website that provided students from universities all over the country a space to buy and sell things to other students. And thus Norkel was born.

“Basically, Norkel is like Craigslist for college kids,” said Lisa Bent, DePaul University junior and Norkel supporter.

Craigslist and Facebook combine into Norkel to provide students from more than 150 schools the opportunity to buy, sell and trade to other people on campus. Since the website launched July 6, it has more than 330 likes on Facebook and is getting traffic by students as the word of Norkel spreads. As of now, social media and word of mouth are the only advertising the company has done; with the exception of an event that was held at Fuze Sept. 27 where patrons of the bar could sign up for Norkel and take souvenirs such as sunglasses, bottle openers, koozies, stickers and shirts; all equipped with the Norkel logo.

“The event was really fun. There was a lot of free merchandise that everyone really took advantage of and it was a cool way to promote the website,” said Jack O’Donnell, a DePaul junior.

The logo and name of the company is something that came together without much effort.

“The goal for the site was to have a really short but catchy word that I could try and brand, and eventually I decided on Norkel,” said Lizzadro. As for the branding aspect, the Norkel logo resembles a snorkel mask with water running underneath the mouth piece, playing into the catchy, ‘dive into your campus’ slogan.

Catchy it really is. Looking at Lizzadro’s forms of social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, it’s clear his friends and fellow DePaul students support the sites name. Suddenly, “#Norkel” has become the hottest hashtag to hit the social media scene at DePaul since “#DPUproblems.”

But don’t let the laidback, trendy attitude of Norkel fool you, Lizzadro has long-term goals for his company. Within the next five years he hopes to have a handful of schools around the country relying solely on Norkel for their buying and selling needs. The Norkel CEO plans to graduate from DePaul ahead of schedule, this spring to be exact, and make Norkel his full-time job, allowing the company to reach its full potential. Regardless of how popular Norkel will become, the website will always remain entirely free.

“When the site starts to really pick up, then I will implement a custom-made revenue model,” said Lizzadro, “That will be really cool!”

Lizzadro’s custom made revenue plan will allow the site to remain free to students, as he will only be charging advertisers. In addition to advertisers, he plans to charge realtors to post available housing near college campuses to help Norkel generate revenue.

He also dreams of the site becoming an international hit, and he eventually wants Norkel to be used on multiple continents. But the company has a long way to go, as only five to ten schools are currently active on the website. The future of Norkel would be much closer in reach if the company had a computer programmer. As a business management major at DePaul, he is confident that he can handle the business end of the company, but struggles with the programming aspect of his website.

“I wish I knew how to code! I am looking for a web developer to give the site a more ‘college’ feel so it doesn’t end up looking like every other website out there,” commented Lizzadro.

As of now, Lizzadro is “flying solo” with the development of Norkel. He has invested around $5,000 into his company to get Norkel where it is today. Surprisingly, Lizzadro is not interested in other investors, as he wants to privately fund the company for as long as he can. Although he does admit that if the right investor came along it would be a hard offer to turn down. This potential investor has to have more than just money to impress the Norkel founder, as he is looking for someone with both resources and connections to help grow his company into a major website.

Lizzadro is currently creating a Norkel app for both the Android and iPhone IOS, while the release date yet to be determined, he is fully aware that this app will be the most expensive aspect of Norkel thus far. “The app will cost the company around $5,000, which will double my investment in Norkel,” said Lizzadro. Looking down into his lap, Lizzadro takes his iPhone out of his pocket and stares at his current apps with both hope and determination in his brown eyes. Looking up from the phone he adds, “Once Norkel has an app I think the company will start to take off.”

While he is anxiously awaiting the Norkel App, Lizzadro urges students to visit the website. The site, www.norkel.com, is themed in different shades of blue with the official “Norkel: Buy, Sell, Trade” logo atop every page.

“I know its annoying to sign up for another website. but overall I just want students to give Norkel a try so they can really see for themselves how easy it is to use,” said Lizzadro.