Venture Concept 2
My product is an app that connects people in the Greek community. It is like Tinder, but will only be used for date functions. You will get suggestions based on past dates and what kind of date you want. You will also not show up in the mix if you are not available for a certain date function.
Opportunity
Interactions, even in college, are becoming much more digital. Everything is done through the phone, texting, snap chatting, instagram. These changes make an app the perfect product to appeal to college kids. Even more so because a lot of people use Tinder and Bumble and are comfortable and aware of the concept that my app will model.
The market right now would be defined geographically by the people who go to the University of Florida. Later, as we expand it would be used on campuses across the US. Greek life really isn't a thing internationally so it would never expand past the US. Demographically, the market is men and women ages 18-22 who are in a greek chapter.
Customers are currently satisfying their need by asking their friends if they know anyone to take or just taking someone they already know that may not be as much fun. They may be risk takers and dm someone they don't know at all, but this is no platform like my product on the market.
The window of opportunity would be for as long as greek life is still around. This actually may not be that long since national policies are getting much stricter and greek life as a whole is viewed in a negative light by the general public. Many chapters are being kicked of campus at other university's and it could start happening here.
Innovation
There is nothing like my product on the market. It is an app for college students in greek life. You can pick preferences based on what kind of date you want (friend, fun, romantic). You can have bio where you can show your personality and humor. There will also be a calendar of all possible date functions so you can select you availability. If you are not available for a certain date, you will not show up in results to make this process as efficient as possible. Once you use the app a few times, you will start getting suggestions based on past dates. The app will be free for download but I will add premium features that are for purchases within the app.
Venture Concept
I think my customers will switch to this new product because a lot of people have this problem. M generation also loves trying new things and getting instant gratification of swiping and finding a date. I have no competitors besides traditional dating apps like tinder and bumble. For people like me and my friends, I would never use tinder and bumble for find a date for a function because these apps aren't used for that. I don't have packaging in my product because its an app but I know the design will be very important. If it doesn't look like its made fo r gen z, my consumers won't use it. At first, I'd probably just have me as an organizer for the business and my software engineer for my technical aspects.
Unfair advantage: nothing like this on the market
What's next: development and testing
Next for me: I will probably not be in the venture in 5 years since I will be out of college and I will be on my next venture, possibly something my corporate.
Summary
Everyone agreed that it makes sense to leave this app once I graduate college because I will be past the point where I am still relevant on the knowledge of date functions and greek life. I will also not have enough of a vested interest to continue. Everyone also agrees that my idea for anonymous ratings is good and that I should get help from psychologists for this. Someone also suggested that I hire people from competing apps as long as they don't have an NDA which I agree with. I still think my idea is unique and successful, but there are still a lot of things to work out. Another thing I just considered is if UF could regulate the use of the app since universities are looking to minimize greek life activity on campus.
Dear Courtney, thank you for the post. I think the things you adjusted in your venture concept were very interesting. I do not think personally that the university could regulate such an app because legally that would be a nightmare. I do like the idea to hire people who have worked on dating apps before. I think that would increase your knowledge base.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Stephen, regulating your app would be a massive hassle that wouldn't have enough payoff. The university would end up prohibiting the app rather than go through that. But, what you can do is team with campus security and social media departments to ensure things are working well. Other than those, I feel content with the rest of your venture concept.
ReplyDeleteCourtney, I really enjoyed reading your post. I think it makes sense for you to leave this opportunity after you have left college because you will not be as in touch with the culture that your app targets. At, the same time, it is really difficult to start your own company or pursue a venture opportunity in college. This is due to lack of experience and lack of connection. I agree with Matt and Stephen as well, universities, in my opinion, do not have the authority to ban the use of an app by its students. The most the could do is block the site on campus wifi.
ReplyDeleteCourtney, I had a really good time reading your post. I really think that the idea you have for making an app exclusively for this purpose has a very strong target market that can make this app successful. People are always looking for more ways to connect with others and this fits perfectly into that idea. This app is going to do great!
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