Campus Buddy is a fast-growing platform built for university students to discover everything happening on campus—clubs, events, activities, resources, and now, real-time ways to connect with each other. Founded by James Mtendamema, Jennifer Igwe, and Yang Liu, Campus Buddy isn't just a student directory or bulletin board—it's designed to feel like Instagram or Facebook, but personalized to the student's actual campus.
| Milestone | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Implementation Time | 72 hours |
| Team Size | 1 developer and 3 founders |
| Platforms | Android (easy), iOS (support-assisted) |
| Current Usage | 1:1 voice and video calls |
| Next Features | Group calling |
"We're centralizing information for students and giving them a full view of campus life. But we're also creating space for real social interaction—like actually meeting people, forming connections, and building community," says James.
The platform also supports local businesses through ad placements and a new student loyalty program that rewards users with discounts and perks. With both a social and commercial component, Campus Buddy is positioning itself as an all-in-one student lifestyle app.
A New Social Layer, Powered by Stream Video
While Campus Buddy initially launched with a chat feature built in-house, James quickly realized that students expected more than text-based exchanges to feel connected. He wanted the platform to include real-time, face-to-face interaction—the kind of experience students get from apps like FaceTime.
"Students already have a number of social apps. If we want to be in that space, we have to offer what they expect, then differentiate. That means chat, yes, but also video and audio. We knew we had to have that from the start."
James had no interest in reinventing the wheel regarding video and voice infrastructure. Building those features from scratch would take time and be a resource drain that slowed down their broader product roadmap.
"Adding video and audio from scratch is extremely hard in my experience. I knew we needed something that would just plug in and work."
From Discovery to Implementation: 3 Days to Go Live
James discovered Stream through a YouTube video from one of his favorite creators leveraging Stream. He was immediately intrigued by the platform's pitch: prebuilt SDKs for chat, voice, and video, backed by beautiful docs and a clear pricing model. He did what any seasoned developer does first: he checked the pricing page.
"That's always my first step with any SaaS tool. Stream was affordable—especially compared to other vendors like Sendbird—and their pricing made sense for us since we were planning to open this to every student. We needed a video solution to be priced for scale."
With pricing checked off, the next hurdle was speed of implementation. James dove into Stream's video documentation to evaluate how quickly he could spin up one-to-one video calls on both Android and iOS.
"The docs were super helpful. They were structured in a way that made it easy to understand what was required at each step."
Working solo, James managed to integrate audio and video calling across platforms in a matter of days:
- Android: Fully functional within a few hours
- iOS: Slightly longer setup due to Apple-specific configuration hurdles, not related to Stream, but due to device permissions and app entitlements
A Developer's Toolbox: AI + Great Docs
James credits much of the speed to a modern development workflow that combined Stream's intuitive documentation with help from AI tools.
"I use AI a lot when building, and between that and Stream's docs, I could figure out what I needed without having to jump through hoops or spend days on Stack Overflow."
This allowed him to stay in flow, troubleshoot rapidly, and get the product to a functional, production-ready state in less than three days.
"Like any new SDK, there were a few bumps. But honestly? It was smoother than expected. I've worked with a lot of APIs—this one's up there in terms of ease."
World-Class Developer Support
When James hit a lingering iOS issue related to app entitlements, Stream's support team provided responsive, hands-on help through a detailed email thread. Even though the issue wasn't directly caused by Stream's SDK, they stuck with him.
"That's rare. A lot of companies won't go beyond their documentation. But Stream's team was responsive and stayed with me until we figured it out."
How Campus Buddy Uses Stream Video & Audio
Campus Buddy currently uses Stream to power one-to-one video and audio calls between students. The experience is designed to mimic popular social platforms while remaining uniquely campus-focused.
"It's a one-to-one experience right now—just like other social apps. You can connect with someone and jump on an audio or video call instantly."
Video calls are currently not locked behind a premium paywall. Instead, they are treated as core functionality—available to all users as part of Campus Buddy's mission to make campus life more social and inclusive.
"We're offering it to everyone. That's why pricing was so important. We didn't want to create a feature students couldn't use unless they paid."
While one-to-one video is the current priority, the team is exploring group calls and conferencing for future releases, especially to support student clubs and organizations.
"We've made it easy for clubs to manage memberships and engagement, so conference calls would be a great next step. We're definitely considering it."
Timing the Rollout: Feature First, Marketing Later
The video and audio features launched in spring 2025, just as students were heading into finals and summer break. Given the timing, Campus Buddy chose to soft-launch the feature and hold off on major promotional efforts.
James says, "We figured it wouldn't make sense to advertise heavily when everyone's leaving campus. Instead, we're using the summer to refine our loyalty program and messaging. It's one of those features we've snuck in. It's live and working—we just haven't told everyone yet."
A broader campaign is planned for the fall 2025 semester, when students return to school and are actively re-engaging with campus life.
What's Next: Loyalty, Rewards, and Social-First Growth
To complement the social experience, Campus Buddy is building a student loyalty program. Participating businesses can offer exclusive student discounts, and users earn points by making purchases at those locations. Points can then be redeemed for cash or perks like free coffee. This will help increase app stickiness over the summer and support a more powerful marketing narrative in the fall.
James adds, "When we roll everything out together—chat, video, audio, and rewards—it's going to be the ultimate university engagement ecosystem."
The Big Picture: A Social Network Built For Campus
Long term, James sees Stream's real-time infrastructure as essential to the core of Campus Buddy's identity: a campus-specific social network where students can connect more meaningfully.
"When I was a student, I always wished there was a feed specific to my university. That's what we're building. Once students discover this, we expect a lot of them to pour in. We're not just giving them tools—they're already used to video and audio. We're giving them context. And that context is: this is your campus. These are your people."
With Stream, Campus Buddy doesn't have to worry about scaling servers, optimizing video latency, or managing real-time infrastructure. Instead, they can focus on building the kind of rich, personalized experiences students actually want—fast, familiar, and deeply relevant.
"Stream gives us the foundation to deliver premium features without the premium overhead. It's helping us level the playing field so we can compete with big-name platforms—while staying laser-focused on the student experience."
By offloading the complexity of real-time communication to Stream, Campus Buddy is free to do what it does best: bring students together, one connection at a time.