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if they were online businesses, maybe it would only be modestly expensive and take 3-5 years to scale... but the market is LOTS of OFFLINE and SMALL businesses,
by davemc500hats 17y ago
if they were online businesses, maybe it would only be modestly expensive and take 3-5 years to scale... but the market is LOTS of OFFLINE and SMALL businesses, which will take for-fking-EVER to scale organically.
thus, you either need to a) already have lots of users (FB,GOOG,AAPL,TWTR) to motivate businesses to participate, or b) you need to have enough cash to pay them to do so.
ergo, shitload of capital rqd, and/or get bought by bigger player who has users, cash, or both.
- lsc 17y agohow many small, offline businesses participate on Yelp? participating on some location based service seems like it wouldn't be any more difficult.
- davemc500hats 17y agoYelp may seem like it's pretty dominant, but it's still somewhat sparse even in its most popular metros like SF, NYC, LA. it's very sparse in other less-well known major metros, and smaller towns. takes time to build a comprehensive, online local search presence... particular one with good social coverage and activity.
- lsc 17y agois anyone doing better than yelp, when it comes to engaging small, offline businesses? It's possible that the best way to engage with small offline businesses is to hire a small (okay,maybe medium or large) army of salespeople, and pitch to each business individually. If that it the case, you are absolutely correct. It will take a long time and an incredible amount of money. However, I think it's possible that someone may come up with a better, cheaper way to do it. I don't know what that better cheaper way is, but I'm not convinced that an army of salespeople is the only solution to that problem.