Founder's Compass: Week 8
Hello there and welcome to Founder's Compass, a good way to get oriented around the labyrinthian world of startups.
Tool of the week
Today, I'll give you one of the most powerful tools as a non-technical startup.
Glideapps is what most founders have fantasized about for a long time: Build apps with only a Google Sheet. Integrate OpenAI, Google Maps, Discord and many more to build your first prototype.
Our first ever prototype for Cruze was built on GlideApps. Yes, you can have that kind of functionality with this.
Video of the week
Feels like you can't find the one, no matter how hard you look?
Maybe dating apps aren't helping. In this video from Slidebean, Caya breaks down the business model of datings apps and where are we headed.
Startup Idea of the week
Dynamic/Gamified pricing API ๐
๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ๐บ:
Supply-and-demand dynamics are not easily predictable by humans. A lot of factors affect whether you will see an increase in customers or not in the next couple of weeks and calculating that is usually left to an algorithm. We've all seen it before, the price set on plane tickets, hotel bookings, ride-hailing apps and more. Most times they are highly non-transparent and arbitrary, getting a 30% price increase based on your device type, country of residence and how many times you've searched for that service. That type of dynamic pricing will soon go away, with regulation such as the DSA in EU paving the way for more transparent strategies. So, what's next?
๐ง๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ด๐ฒ๐:
Restaurants, cafes, cinemas, general entertainment businesses.
๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฆ๐ผ๐น๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป:
A dynamic/gamified pricing API that could easily integrate with your current accounting/billing software and increase or decrease the prices based on supply and demand dynamics.
This should however be more specifically targeted towards entertainment and the service industry, as more demand does lead to increased costs for the provider: Think of a cinema with blockbuster movie running in the main hall that is packed with 200 people, having to clean up in record time takes a lot more effort than doing the same thing for an indie movie with 40 people in the audience.
There is another component to this API that would vastly improve the lives of both customers and business owners: transparency. Showing previous patterns of demand and price fluctuations would also motivate some potential clients to come during down-times, when the prices are lower. That means more traffic for the business, even if at a smaller margin.
One amazing example of this system working is an up-and-coming franchise called Friendly Fire which I had the pleasure to visit in Croatia. They have dynamic pricing based around their "Coin" which allows you to spend it when in their gaming cafes, with rates fluctuating hourly.
๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ฒ๐ณ๐ถ๐๐:
โ Increased overall traffic of the business served.
โ Relatively easy to implement and deploy on a large scale.
โ Revenue optimization for the businesses, which in turn should be (hopefully) reflected into the service industry workers salaries.
๐๐ต๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ฒ๐ป๐ด๐ฒ๐:
โ Resistance of the industry: The service market, especially restaurants, is a highly entrenched industry, with low adoption of new technologies.
โ Not fit for high-end, exclusive experiences. Demand there is low in terms of numbers and could lead to harder analytics and pattern predictions.
โ Abuse of the technology: What stops a bar to program into their software a 300% increase on drinks' price on friday night?
What would you do differently to get this startup off the ground? Do you think this would work? Let's talk in the comments ๐ค
Some news as well
That's it for this week's edition. Stick close for the next one.
Pssst... Are you looking to generate awesome ideas like the one above? You can work with us and create a hackathon for your team: https://creativemotion.io/creative-labs/
If you already have an awesome idea and an awesome team to boot, don't shy away and apply to our accelerator:
(next batch is happening soon!)