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What do you think about my business idea? Hint: Sports

Idea threads

alanchavez

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I have seen that many people keep their idea for themselves, but I do not see the point why, chances are that they're doing something that is already done by someone else, it's kinda late to reinvent the wheel, or at least that's what I think.

My idea is the following:

Create a web site to find sport partners, plain and simple.

I have found many web sites like mine while I was doing my research, but none of the web sites that I found are good enough for what I have on mind, my greatest possible competitors are the following:

Sportvite. This website is pretty cool and already offers a bunch of things, to make things even worse, they offer the service for free.

MySportsPartner. this is just another dating script, it does not really focus on the sports field, they just bought a script similar to eharmony, match, etc.. and modified it to suit their needs. Notwithstanding, it is a good quality site.

I have read a lot of books on startups and most of them concur on one point: Validate the idea before investing time or money.

That's what I'm sorta doing here, I want to find out on your opinion what do you think about my business.
Some flaws that I have seen on Sportvite's website (main competitor) is that it does not show up on the first page of search results. I have plenty of experience on the matter of SEO, so I think I could position my business on the first page quite easy, the other web sites that are there seem to be there because of antiquity and not content. If this business turns out to be viable, I'd start with paid ads in google and facebook primarily, blogging every day to create unique content, build a fanbase (They have a fanbase of about 11K people. Such fan base is not that large given the fact that sportvite has been in business since 2007).

My business would work pretty much like a dating script, with the advantage of letting people search for partners BEFORE register. Once they found someone interesting to partner up, they would need to register in order to see a PARTIAL profile, and sign up for membership before displaying methods of contact.

Sportvite seems to attract people from big cities, but they do not seem to put too much of attention on smaller cities, so I think there's a niche, besides I have seen that most of the people registered are teenagers, with a paid service is easier to alienate them, and attract a much mature and serious audience.

I would start free while building a community, and once it grows big enough (about 1K people per city), I would pull the membership off and start charging for using the service. I cannot think of a number right now because I do not have any real information to make an analysis, but I am estimating about $35 or $40 per year.

The design and development cost would be practically nothing because I am a seasoned web developer and designer. I also have read a lot on internet marketing, marketing, community management, and a couple more topics that may come in handy.

I estimate that I will have a working web site within a week from the day I start developing it, but I just don't want to start working in vain. I want to see if this is a profitable and viable idea. I take sportvite as example because they seem to be in business since 2007, and they only have a couple thousand people registered. With that time, and platform, a viable business would have much more people registered, so that makes me doubt about if starting this is really feasible or not.

What do you recommend to validate my idea? What would be a good approach?
Any help will be greatly appreciated!!
 
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The-J

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Actually not a bad idea. Something I would use, lol. I'm moving to a new city and will be looking for someone to work out with.

Instead of a dating script, do something like Meetup.com where it's more open ended. It's not like there is a complex algorithm to finding a sports or workout partner: if he's a mentor, he has to be really good, and if he's a partner, he has to not show me up.
 

LamboMP

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but I just don't want to start working in vain. I want to see if this is a profitable and viable idea.

Get to work. If you stopped worrying so much about making mistakes and actually got to work, you would be way better off.

A site with a couple thousand registered users is a success.
 
D

Deleted5250X

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Sounds like it'd be useful, most tennis/golf/sports clubs and universities offer ways to connect with other players through the use of leagues, ladders, classes and tournaments.

What will be the difference in using your site, signing up for a sports club or joining a national sports organization such as the USTA or USGA? What sports require partners? Golf, Tennis. Would it be easier to
Focus on one specific sport to
Begin with? If it will only take you a week to develop
a site and get it up, I'd say that's a much more reliable minimum viable product. If you need more feedback I'd find forums for those specific sports and ask them for feedback. Go over to the tennis courts or golf course, etc and most have announcement boards where you can post a flier. Put up a domain with an email capture for interested parties. You'll be able to judge the interest by the amount of traffic you recieve to your site.

I'd say go for it, but of your concerned about the interest at least put up a page describing your site with an email opt in and begin promoting it. Then to start all you do is send an email to everyone of others in their city who are looking for partners until your site is developed. As a disclosure I've never done any of this personally but my understanding of what your reading you need early adapter users before you optimize and begin to develop.
 
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alanchavez

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Jun 14, 2012
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Brownsville
Sounds like it'd be useful, most tennis/golf/sports clubs and universities offer ways to connect with other players through the use of leagues, ladders, classes and tournaments.

What will be the difference in using your site, signing up for a sports club or joining a national sports organization such as the USTA or USGA? What sports require partners? Golf, Tennis. Would it be easier to
Focus on one specific sport to
Begin with? If it will only take you a week to develop
a site and get it up, I'd say that's a much more reliable minimum viable product. If you need more feedback I'd find forums for those specific sports and ask them for feedback. Go over to the tennis courts or golf course, etc and most have announcement boards where you can post a flier. Put up a domain with an email capture for interested parties. You'll be able to judge the interest by the amount of traffic you recieve to your site.

I'd say go for it, but of your concerned about the interest at least put up a page describing your site with an email opt in and begin promoting it. Then to start all you do is send an email to everyone of others in their city who are looking for partners until your site is developed. As a disclosure I've never done any of this personally but my understanding of what your reading you need early adapter users before you optimize and begin to develop.

Well, the main difference between my site and those other sites would be for other people who are not aware nor interested on joining an association or a club, for instance, I like to play Tennis, and I'd like to have an occasional partner to play with, but it is not my passion, I do not watch tennis matches, or anything similar.

On the other hand, I was thinking about creating a special membership for mentors/coaches so they can post their areas of expertise, and their rate. That membership would be more expensive (about $100/yr, given that they would be using the site for commercial purposes.)

I began to work on a landing page to promote. If a lot of people signs up for a newsletter, then I'll go for it and start developing the site, otherwise I will abandon the project.

What a wonderful and USEFUL idea. Just wonderful. Do it

Thank you! I'd love to pull this off
 

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