4 ms·

Far be it for me to jump right into the fray between you and the 2 highest karma rated people on HN, but here here are my 2 cents: MVP: focus on one aspect of

by nekopa 13y ago

Far be it for me to jump right into the fray between you and the 2 highest karma rated people on HN, but here here are my 2 cents: MVP: focus on one aspect of your idea and just do it. From the ideas you gave above, I see winter and summer MVPs (snow removal, grass cutting) If you have a site ready to go now, go for 'www.grassbegone.com' and get a site out matching grass cutters with lazy home owners. Do the research while executing. If you don't have a site ready, spend the next few months developing www.snowbegone.com, learn marketing (from patio11 - hint, you're not charging enough) and launch at the end of autumn and corner the snow removal market. Neither will get you funded now but I would bet money that what you learn would put you into the section of Guy who is now able to get funded. Or you may end up like patio11 and make your millions without needed funding. Or you could end up like tptacek rich, acerbic and full of knowledge.

tptacek 13y ago
I prefer "slightly tannic, with notes of tobacco and new oak".
rfnslyr 13y ago
Thanks for the advice. I'm starting September after I finish this internship at a bank which will hopefully fund the next or so year of mine.
IsaacL 13y ago
I was reading this very interesting thread, and had to jump in here as well. I actually worked (briefly) on a very similar idea last year - basically an Exec clone for the UK. We scrapped the idea after a month, since we realised that you're basically competing directly with existing service firms, and the unique niche of a "mobile tasks marketplace" is tasks that are: - not doable by a specialised company (cleaning, gardening) - have a physical component (else they could be done by a VA) - are more efficient to outsource than do yourself (which seems to rule out pretty much everything) I came to the conclusion that the only way to go would be to build a specialised services firm, which seems to be what Exec has done (they now seem to just do cleaning). Which is cool, but maybe I'm missing something, since I don't see how they're really a tech startup as they don't really leverage tech in the way that Uber does. But straight services firms make tons of money anyway, so Justin Kan deserves applause for persuading pg to invest in a cleaning company. Anyway my points to grandparent are: - I agree, figure out a niche skillset first, then expand - don't get seduced by the "on-demand mobile workforce" element. It sounds cool, but your target market probably doesn't care about cool. You have to answer the question "who really wants a dogsbody to do generic tasks?" - Though the social aspect of this kind of business is nice, nailing the supply side is really easy. Unskilled and semi-skilled labour is really cheap, if you haven't noticed. 90% of your focus should be on nailing the demand side. - read everything you can get your hands on about Exec/TaskRabbit/all their many clones. - agree with parent's plan. Most local services firms probably suck at online marketing. If you can figure out a way to reliably get online customers for service X, you can then go to all the local firms that offer service X and offer a 10% affiliate deal. I'd focus more on nailing the marketing channel before the product (SEO, AdWords, whatever works - find out if there's underpriced search terms like "best window cleaning firms in Cambridge" and go from there). And yeah, I've become a big fan of the patio11/tptacek approach. Just need to put it into action myself...

by nekopa 13y ago

tptacek 13y ago

I prefer "slightly tannic, with notes of tobacco and new oak".

rfnslyr 13y ago

Thanks for the advice. I'm starting September after I finish this internship at a bank which will hopefully fund the next or so year of mine.

IsaacL 13y ago

I was reading this very interesting thread, and had to jump in here as well. I actually worked (briefly) on a very similar idea last year - basically an Exec clone for the UK. We scrapped the idea after a month, since we realised that you're basically competing directly with existing service firms, and the unique niche of a "mobile tasks marketplace" is tasks that are: - not doable by a specialised company (cleaning, gardening) - have a physical component (else they could be done by a VA) - are more efficient to outsource than do yourself (which seems to rule out pretty much everything) I came to the conclusion that the only way to go would be to build a specialised services firm, which seems to be what Exec has done (they now seem to just do cleaning). Which is cool, but maybe I'm missing something, since I don't see how they're really a tech startup as they don't really leverage tech in the way that Uber does. But straight services firms make tons of money anyway, so Justin Kan deserves applause for persuading pg to invest in a cleaning company. Anyway my points to grandparent are: - I agree, figure out a niche skillset first, then expand - don't get seduced by the "on-demand mobile workforce" element. It sounds cool, but your target market probably doesn't care about cool. You have to answer the question "who really wants a dogsbody to do generic tasks?" - Though the social aspect of this kind of business is nice, nailing the supply side is really easy. Unskilled and semi-skilled labour is really cheap, if you haven't noticed. 90% of your focus should be on nailing the demand side. - read everything you can get your hands on about Exec/TaskRabbit/all their many clones. - agree with parent's plan. Most local services firms probably suck at online marketing. If you can figure out a way to reliably get online customers for service X, you can then go to all the local firms that offer service X and offer a 10% affiliate deal. I'd focus more on nailing the marketing channel before the product (SEO, AdWords, whatever works - find out if there's underpriced search terms like "best window cleaning firms in Cambridge" and go from there). And yeah, I've become a big fan of the patio11/tptacek approach. Just need to put it into action myself...