Startup Progress Launched May 1 2016

[ejames]

Hi guys I launched my tech start up 1 week ago (yournewroommate.com).

I got a basic mvp and starting marketing. So far we have acquired

Users : 56
New Listings : 28
Messages : 23


Strategy For next week

Focus on building up supply side and start working on booking system (this is how we will generate rev)

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ejames]

Hi guys I launched my tech start up 1 week ago (yournewroommate.com).

I got a basic mvp and starting marketing. So far we have acquired

Users : 56
New Listings : 28
Messages : 23


Strategy For next week

Focus on building up supply side and start working on booking system (this is how we will generate rev)

Progress update week 2
May 8th- May 14th
Users : 95
Total Listings : 37 (Need to plan a way to acquire more listings rapidly)
Messages : 51


Strategy for week three.

Devise a plan to acquire more inventory.
Continue to work on a booking system so we can start monetizing. I am estimating it will take me about 6 weeks to complete.


I also paid a facebook group admin to sticky a survey to see if I gave more people a monetary incentive to list with us. I will run this survey for about two weeks.


If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear it. Have a great week everyone

 

[Xavier X]

Good job on setting the ball rolling.

However, from a quick browse of the site, It looks visually appealing, but doesn't seem ready to go.

A search attempt constantly times out, so this in itself will frustrate intending new users.
Another major question is, what new angles are you trying to approach this market? From what I saw, none appeared apparent.

It has potential, but for a rather saturated market, one has to offer more than a standard approach.

 

[ejames]

Good job on setting the ball rolling.

However, from a quick browse of the site, It looks visually appealing, but doesn't seem ready to go.

A search attempt constantly times out, so this in itself will frustrate intending new users.
Another major question is, what new angles are you trying to approach this market? From what I saw, none appeared apparent.

It has potential, but for a rather saturated market, one has to offer more than a standard approach.

Thanks Xavier for your feedback. I haven't seen any timeout issues, were you using mobile? If so what browser?

You are correct as of now since we are not offering anything as yet thats diffrent than our competitors.


Our ultimate aim is to bring transparancey to the market as other sites such as craigslist can be very shady. Even roomster is a complete scam.

How are we going to achieve this?


1. Our initial efforts is to build up our supply side.
2. Create a booking system so people coming from overseas can book in advance. We are going to act as an escrow agent, once the person moves in and we know the listing is legit we release funds to the landlord (similar to airbnb)

Here is where things get interesting.

3. Speedroommating/QuickMatching (think of it as speed dating but for roommates). We are going to be rolling out a system where we will be using webrtc tech (totally brand new technology )where landlords can interview potential roommates in real time using live audio/video streaming. No one on the market is currently doing this.

4. Shoutbox. Users can upload a video bio of themselves that other roommates can view. This will help them standout when users are searching for a compatible roommate.

I believe points 3 and 4 will elevate our product to at least a 10x product.


This will help increase barriers to entry to the market as webrtc is definitely a game changer.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Xavier X]

No, I wasn't using mobile. Timed out on both Firefox and Chrome.

Point 3 should be a good feature to have, if properly executed.

 

[BlakeIC]

No timeout problems from here

 

[Ubermensch]

How much money have you made, bruh?

@ejames

Break it down in numbers.

Math is great.

How much revenue in sales so far this year?

How much profit?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ejames]

How much money have you made, bruh?

@ejames

Break it down in numbers.

Math is great.

How much revenue in sales so far this year?

How much profit?

Hi Ubermensch,

to date $0 in profit, im ballin the fastlane

No plans to generate any profit till the booking system is fully implemented trying to add significant value to our app before we start demanding $$.

 

[ejames]

Progress update week 2
May 8th- May 14th
Users : 95
Total Listings : 37 (Need to plan a way to acquire more listings rapidly)
Messages : 51


Strategy for week three.

Devise a plan to acquire more inventory.
Continue to work on a booking system so we can start monetizing. I am estimating it will take me about 6 weeks to complete.


I also paid a facebook group admin to sticky a survey to see if I gave more people a monetary incentive to list with us. I will run this survey for about two weeks.


If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear it. Have a great week everyone

Progress update week 3.

May 15 - May 21

Users : 145
Total Listings : 54
Messages : 89

I hired a team offshore to execute on the strategy i devised to acquire more listings. Also I hire 2 more engineers so I can execute at a quicker rate.

Goals for next week.
1. continue working on the booking system
2. Research some call recording software for the team in India. (Need this to tweak my script if need be)
3. Move to new office.

 

[Deleted35442]

Hi guys I launched my tech start up 1 week ago (yournewroommate.com).

I got a basic mvp and starting marketing. So far we have acquired

Users : 56
New Listings : 28
Messages : 23


Strategy For next week

Focus on building up supply side and start working on booking system (this is how we will generate rev)

What even is the strategy? Your market seems full. The thing about your market is, roommates aren't something people necessarily look forward to having. People that do get roommates use https://www.roomiematch.com/ - period. They get what I'm talking about which is why their slogan is "
WE take out the trash FOR you".

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ejames]

What even is the strategy? Your market seems full. The thing about your market is, roommates aren't something people necessarily look forward to having. People that do get roommates use https://www.roomiematch.com/ - period. They get what I'm talking about which is why their slogan is "
WE take out the trash FOR you".

Hey Cyriex roomiematch is a scam as well as roomster, and i do have an execution strategy for both marketing and tech. Other sites are not really innovating in the space.

 

[ejames]

Progress update week 3.

May 15 - May 21

Users : 145
Total Listings : 54
Messages : 89

I hired a team offshore to execute on the strategy i devised to acquire more listings. Also I hire 2 more engineers so I can execute at a quicker rate.

Goals for next week.
1. continue working on the booking system
2. Research some call recording software for the team in India. (Need this to tweak my script if need be)
3. Move to new office.

Progress update week 4.

Was busy with moving offices this week so didnt accomplish as much as i would like to


Users : 214
Total listings : 67
messages : 145

Goals for next week.
Continue working on booking system
focus on executing marketing strategy.

 

[458]

Your service isn't something people are going to use because you don't solve any problem. Go paid and offer upgrade services for background checks and screenings, ext.. Your goal shouldn't be to match people with roommates it should be to match people with GOOD roommates. That's your value proposition and the way you can actually make money.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ejames]

Your service isn't something people are going to use because you don't solve any problem. Go paid and offer upgrade services for background checks and screenings, ext.. Your goal shouldn't be to match people with roommates it should be to match people with GOOD roommates. That's your value proposition and the way you can actually make money.

Thats also part of our system.

 

[nradam123]

We had a similar service in India which was part of a company called www.housing.com
I wish you can check the app and see how they accomplished everything, but housing.com pivoted so much in the last year and now all they have is selling properties. So you missed that chance.

The founder was 22 year old dude at the time (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahul_Yadav), but then they threw him out for acting rudely to investors. Really successful company, you might wanna read about them to get some golden nuggets for your business.

 

[ejames]

We had a similar service in India which was part of a company called www.housing.com
I wish you can check the app and see how they accomplished everything, but housing.com pivoted so much in the last year and now all they have is selling properties. So you missed that chance.

The founder was 22 year old dude at the time (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahul_Yadav), but then they threw him out for acting rudely to investors. Really successful company, you might wanna read about them to get some golden nuggets for your business.

Thanks did you by chance happen to know him personally?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[nradam123]

Thanks did you by chance happen to know him personally?

No. He is kinda famous in the Indian entrepreneurship scene, I know him from papers. lol

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

Just want to say good work, dude.

Keep it up!

 

[ejames]

Just want to say good work, dude.

Keep it up!

Thanks!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ejames]

Progress update week 4.

Was busy with moving offices this week so didnt accomplish as much as i would like to


Users : 214
Total listings : 67
messages : 145

Goals for next week.
Continue working on booking system
focus on executing marketing strategy.

Progress update week 5

Users : 269
Total listings: 88
messages : 159

**Note : Reddit strategy seems to be working. I will continue leveraging Reddit next week.

Added a few more Google ppc campaigns and hired a 3rd engineer.

Finished booking system. I have a few more kinks that need to be worked out and should be finished by early next week.


Goals for next week.

Complete integration and unit test for booking system, then launch new feature by end of week next week.

 

[458]

Progress update week 5

Users : 269
Total listings: 88
messages : 159

**Note : Reddit strategy seems to be working. I will continue leveraging Reddit next week.

Added a few more Google ppc campaigns and hired a 3rd engineer.

Finished booking system. I have a few more kinks that need to be worked out and should be finished by early next week.


Goals for next week.

Complete integration and unit test for booking system, then launch new feature by end of week next week.

What is your cash burn rate? What are your reserves? When do you expect to reach break even? What will you do when you run out of money assuming you can't turn a profit in time?

 

[ejames]

What is your cash burn rate? What are your reserves? When do you expect to reach break even? What will you do when you run out of money assuming you can't turn a profit in time?

Hey 458

Cash burn rate : ~12k/month most if it is labor and marketing cost.

Reserves : lol none


Break even : If my partner and i estimations are correct we are not looking to earn a penny until 3 months in. Then another 3 months for break even, then solid returns by another 3 months so we are looking at ~ 9months to switch to fastlane.


What will we do if we run out of money? Excellent question


Contingency strategy is to raise a round if things are heading in the right direction.

i have a friend who is a senior partner at a hedge fund who I was shooting my idea by. They are not really in the startup space but he has alot of connects in the VC world that love to deal with startups. Actually depending on how we are doing 6 months from now his fund might be willing to invest with some favorable terms, so I have them on standby.

If its an utter disaster(which i don't think it will be) we will just close shop and forget about getting funding.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[458]

Hey 458

Cash burn rate : ~12k/month most if it is labor and marketing cost.

Reserves : lol none


Break even : If me and my partner estimation in correct we are not looking to earn a penny until 3 months in. Then another 3 months for break even, then solid returns by another 3 months so we are looking at ~ 9months to switch to fastlane.


What will we do if we run out of money? Excellent question


Contingency strategy is to raise a round if things are heading in the right direction.

i have a friend who is a senior partner at a hedge fund who I was shooting my idea by. They are not really in the startup space but he has alot of connects in the VC world that love to deal with startups. Actually depending on how we are doing 6 months from now his fund might be willing to invest with some favorable terms, so I have them on standby.

If its an utter disaster(which i don't think it will be) we will just close shop and forget about getting funding.

Interesting.. So im assuming that your paying your 12k monthly bills with a full time job you and your partner have?

 

[ejames]

Interesting.. So im assuming that your paying your 12k monthly bills with a full time job you and your partner have?

lol well technically we are generating revenue already since we have properties we manage plus the consulting fees we collect from technical consulting. Right now though everything is done offline. We closed a couple deals already through the site but payments were made in person.

 

[458]

lol well technically we are generating revenue already since we have properties we manage plus the consulting fees we collect from technical consulting. Right now though everything is done offline. We closed a couple deals already through the site but payments were made in person.

Nice, sounds like you got it handled, keep it up and us posted

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GeorgiaHustle]

I could've definitely used this back in college last year lol. Keep it up, things will turn around soon. Have you tried advertising around college campuses yet ? Maybe have a student ambassador program ?

 

[ejames]

I could've definitely used this back in college last year lol. Keep it up, things will turn around soon. Have you tried advertising around college campuses yet ? Maybe have a student ambassador program ?

Hey Dannie yup thats on our marketing to do list. We have a meeting set up next week with a marketing firm that specializes in college campus marketing with brand ambassadors. Hopefully that will put us on the fast track

 

[ejames]

Progress update week 5

Users : 269
Total listings: 88
messages : 159

**Note : Reddit strategy seems to be working. I will continue leveraging Reddit next week.

Added a few more Google ppc campaigns and hired a 3rd engineer.

Finished booking system. I have a few more kinks that need to be worked out and should be finished by early next week.


Goals for next week.

Complete integration and unit test for booking system, then launch new feature by end of week next week.

Progresss update week 6

Users : 367 (almost 100 new users )
Total listings :114 (did pretty ok here too! 26 new listing in 1 week)
Messages : 226


Realized we needed a check system as well so we didn't release the booking system as yet but definitely targeting next week.

What we did diffrent this week is we worked with the offshore team much more closely to curate and do warm call for landlords who need to rent their property quickly we had a sharp spike in traffic for about 2 days before we dropped off.

We need to be doing more of this so thats objective #1 for next week.

Met with a really great marketing company but i'm thinking it maybe out of our budget, but lets see what they say.


#2 objective is to create flyers and do some guerrilla marketing to supplement our online efforts.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ejames]

Progresss update week 6

Users : 367 (almost 100 new users )
Total listings :114 (did pretty ok here too! 26 new listing in 1 week)
Messages : 226


Realized we needed a check system as well so we didn't release the booking system as yet but definitely targeting next week.

What we did diffrent this week is we worked with the offshore team much more closely to curate and do warm call for landlords who need to rent their property quickly we had a sharp spike in traffic for about 2 days before we dropped off.

We need to be doing more of this so thats objective #1 for next week.

Met with a really great marketing company but i'm thinking it maybe out of our budget, but lets see what they say.


#2 objective is to create flyers and do some guerrilla marketing to supplement our online efforts.

Did post last week since i wasnt feeling well.

Here is the progress report for week 7.


Users: 448
Total listing : 137
Messages : 269

I would have accomplished more if I wasn't out for like 3 days. I also had some other set backs with the booking system, although we completed the technical implementation we were using a sandbox account for testing. Turns out braintree requires alot of documentation on your business which takes awhile to process (they have an underwriter) which has set us back by 2-3 weeks.


On another note we are seeing alot of interest in following our startup progress. We got a few VCs following us on our twitter page and someone also inquired if we had an affiliate opportunity. Hopefully this is a good sign.



Goals for this week:

Start drawing up technical requirements for the internal CMS tool/Property management system (This is part of revenue generation model)

 

[JuliaLV]

You are taking action and sharing it with others! Awesome
I hope everything goes as planned and even better!