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I think this is a fantastic idea! The wedding industry is huge, expensive (and getting more and more so), and I've heard horror stories from friends when they p

by buss 11y ago

I think this is a fantastic idea! The wedding industry is huge, expensive (and getting more and more so), and I've heard horror stories from friends when they picked the wrong vendor. I'm confused by your use of the words "contest" and "prize". You've got a straightforward auction, why are you not calling it that? What's the incentive for vendors to come to you, won't this force them to compete on price in a market where price often doesn't matter? Do you know vendors will agree to take 50% after the wedding? How are these agreements structured today? How will you ensure vendors don't get ripped off? How are you going to get customers and vendors to use your site? Edit: How will you make money? What if you just act as a marketplace for vendors, handle the payments in full up front, and take a percentage?

vishalkgupta 11y ago
Thanks for the thoughtful questions! Let me go through them 1 by 1. Wording: Contest/Prize vs Auction, we're evolving our copy as we go. The initial idea was that through the iteration process, the best (not necessarily the cheapest) vendor would win. So in our eyes, less like an auction. But point taken. Vendor incentives: Vendors will be able to proactively approach events that fit their style/schedule. They can worry less and less about their own ads, and let their service tell the story (with a good review system- this will be possible). Also, we think that standardized agreements/money escrow, we can take some of the friction out of both sides. 50% before/after the wedding: We're working with just a small subset of wedding vendor silos at this point, and focused on vendors that can fit in with this 50/50 template. It may not work for every silo in the future. Vendors will be guaranteed 50%, we hold the other 50%. If something doesn't go off well at the wedding, we will look into an arbitration clause (still working out the details here), but our hope is to make sure both sides are happy. Customer acquisition: This is the hardest (isn't it always?). Right now we're hyper focused on the NYC Wedding market (2x the average wedding costs). It's all super grass roots right now; face to face meetings, wedding events, also we're incentivizing new clients with $100 back and $100 for anyone they share the service with. We're also running a few targeted fb/google ads to see if they are helpful. If you have any other ideas, we're all ears! How will you make money? What if you just act as a marketplace for vendors, handle the payments in full up front, and take a percentage? <- This is in large part our idea on how to make money.

by buss 11y ago

vishalkgupta 11y ago

Thanks for the thoughtful questions! Let me go through them 1 by 1. Wording: Contest/Prize vs Auction, we're evolving our copy as we go. The initial idea was that through the iteration process, the best (not necessarily the cheapest) vendor would win. So in our eyes, less like an auction. But point taken. Vendor incentives: Vendors will be able to proactively approach events that fit their style/schedule. They can worry less and less about their own ads, and let their service tell the story (with a good review system- this will be possible). Also, we think that standardized agreements/money escrow, we can take some of the friction out of both sides. 50% before/after the wedding: We're working with just a small subset of wedding vendor silos at this point, and focused on vendors that can fit in with this 50/50 template. It may not work for every silo in the future. Vendors will be guaranteed 50%, we hold the other 50%. If something doesn't go off well at the wedding, we will look into an arbitration clause (still working out the details here), but our hope is to make sure both sides are happy. Customer acquisition: This is the hardest (isn't it always?). Right now we're hyper focused on the NYC Wedding market (2x the average wedding costs). It's all super grass roots right now; face to face meetings, wedding events, also we're incentivizing new clients with $100 back and $100 for anyone they share the service with. We're also running a few targeted fb/google ads to see if they are helpful. If you have any other ideas, we're all ears! How will you make money? What if you just act as a marketplace for vendors, handle the payments in full up front, and take a percentage? <- This is in large part our idea on how to make money.