The
companies mentioned below are some of the few companies I found the most interesting. They are web based or app based approaches to solving some of the most
simple aspects, otherwise known as untapped market, of daily lives. Probably the best aspect of each
company is their iterative approach to the business model and how far they have
come from the first initial design of their previous business models. In some
cases, it required the addition of features that made them better, and for others
it involved the creation of freemium, or free with paid features, content.
As a
would-be customer of any of these applications, I found that all of my concerns
were addressed in a pretty straightforward manner. The feedback they
anticipated from customers was instrumental in bringing the product from a
failed prototype to a successful product or, as in the case of Mi Casa, a
potential lucrative invention.
Mi Casa
- Wanted to make the rental process easier for someone moving to a new city or someone looking for a place to rent given a previous bad experience
- Targeted too many types of customers early on, found no benefit to using Realtors
- Dropped an entire target consumer after learning their mistake
- Found success in using social media platforms to generate customer conversion
- Customer feedback created more of the necessary insight needed.
- Simplified the market by analyzing the current implementations out there and found an untapped market.
GameSpeed
- They were doing poorly early on because they started their business plan without completely analyzing their business model.
- Decided to take the financial hit and reanalyze their targeted consumer: The Coach (64 of them)
- Broke down their consumer type down to 4 segments, chose the 2 types that were more receptive to the idea
- Found that direct email was the best way to approach coaches instead of searches, meaning that coaches don’t go looking for fitness applications, they get approached by them instead.
- Visitors are NOT Users. Just because you get page visits, does not mean you convert them to customers in any way.
- Made the coach the final say in the application structure and how well that worked
“Sync”
- Abused of a very small niche market, and saw none of the ROI they initially had hoped for upon launching prototype.
- Learned that the virtualization of gifts means nothing to couples, they want something tangible or they prefer the communications portion of the application
- Offered their beta for free, targeting couples in relationships to sign up after 31 min survey; 10.8% conversion rate.
- Partners would include successful businesses, but the click-through rate of Expedia, the travel site, required a large amount of conversion. 1800Flowers was a successful business partner lead.
- Made a one-to-one social media exchange for couples successful by publishing on the iOS app store and pushed updates about activities each partner was doing.
- They have no viable product, not that the product is faulty or bad, they just acknowledge that it is unpolished and the generation of leads is now somewhat of a priority
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