Update + New Idea
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Sheikh Shuvo
Mar 11, 2012, 11:47:25 PM3/11/12
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Team,
Ryan and I had a pretty productive weekend working on Street Code items, including a suggestion for a powerful pivot. If nothing else, please read item # 4.
1. Video: We hashed out a rough storyboard for an informative video and hope it have it produced and edited in a week or two.
2. Meeting: I'm meeting with the Executive Director of Compass Housing Alliance this week to get his feedback on our concept. They're a big player in the local homeless aid community and should be a great contact.
3. Partner Organization: Ryan and I are planning a meeting with Urban Rest Stop on Wednesday to actually start talking logistics for implementing a trial run. They've been the most responsive and supportive so far, and are a great candidate for an initial partner.
4. Potential Pivot: One of our biggest challenges is the niche nature of our target group. Since we're focused on working with homeless individuals, the speed with which we can deploy things is limited since it's such a disparate population. Even with our pilot launch with 10 individuals, I'm having doubts as to how much data we can actually gather. Especially in these early days, it would be great to get faster feedback and generate a ton of data points to help us drive product development.
As such, Ryan and I contemplated expanding our reach beyond homelessness, and becoming testing a platform that anyone can use to collect donation via QR codes. It can be used by local charities, homeless individuals, street musicians, etc. The benefits of this are: (1) greater reach of folks who will use our product (2) increased feedback (3) faster implementation (4) we might actually be able to make some money to make this idea sustainable. The core ideas of an easy payment UI and linkage to a personal profile stay intact. From a backend perspective, I don't imagine this to have too much of an impact.
The idea? Partner up with Ryan's organization, Jet City Improv, and help them drive donations way up. More than a comedy show, Jet City Imrpov is a registered non-profit that has a big network of outreach programs, including improv classes for the homeless and work/training programs for at-risk youth. More over, since it's an organization that we have a personal connection with, the willingness and support for our idea would be high.
Donations account for nearly 1/3 of their operating costs, and our platform could be a great way to boost their numbers. They have 6 shows every weekend, including a big comedy festival coming up on April 1. Think of all the potential scans and eyes on our product!
If we can use our product to improve Jet City's donation #s, I think it's a model we can sell to other similar non-profit groups and organizations.
There are a few other players in the "QR codes for charities" market, but most of them are ugly freeware that lacks any type of support. I think we can "out-execute" all of them and make this huge!
5. Conclusions and Next Steps
As you can tell, I'm pretty pumped about this. Please share your ideas/thoughts/questions/concerns!
I'm looking forward to Wednesday's meeting to expand on these ideas. A few folks have suggested a later start time might work better with post-work scheduling. Let's say 6pm at Startpad on 3.14.12?
Sheikh
Ryan and I had a pretty productive weekend working on Street Code items, including a suggestion for a powerful pivot. If nothing else, please read item # 4.
1. Video: We hashed out a rough storyboard for an informative video and hope it have it produced and edited in a week or two.
2. Meeting: I'm meeting with the Executive Director of Compass Housing Alliance this week to get his feedback on our concept. They're a big player in the local homeless aid community and should be a great contact.
3. Partner Organization: Ryan and I are planning a meeting with Urban Rest Stop on Wednesday to actually start talking logistics for implementing a trial run. They've been the most responsive and supportive so far, and are a great candidate for an initial partner.
4. Potential Pivot: One of our biggest challenges is the niche nature of our target group. Since we're focused on working with homeless individuals, the speed with which we can deploy things is limited since it's such a disparate population. Even with our pilot launch with 10 individuals, I'm having doubts as to how much data we can actually gather. Especially in these early days, it would be great to get faster feedback and generate a ton of data points to help us drive product development.
As such, Ryan and I contemplated expanding our reach beyond homelessness, and becoming testing a platform that anyone can use to collect donation via QR codes. It can be used by local charities, homeless individuals, street musicians, etc. The benefits of this are: (1) greater reach of folks who will use our product (2) increased feedback (3) faster implementation (4) we might actually be able to make some money to make this idea sustainable. The core ideas of an easy payment UI and linkage to a personal profile stay intact. From a backend perspective, I don't imagine this to have too much of an impact.
The idea? Partner up with Ryan's organization, Jet City Improv, and help them drive donations way up. More than a comedy show, Jet City Imrpov is a registered non-profit that has a big network of outreach programs, including improv classes for the homeless and work/training programs for at-risk youth. More over, since it's an organization that we have a personal connection with, the willingness and support for our idea would be high.
Donations account for nearly 1/3 of their operating costs, and our platform could be a great way to boost their numbers. They have 6 shows every weekend, including a big comedy festival coming up on April 1. Think of all the potential scans and eyes on our product!
If we can use our product to improve Jet City's donation #s, I think it's a model we can sell to other similar non-profit groups and organizations.
There are a few other players in the "QR codes for charities" market, but most of them are ugly freeware that lacks any type of support. I think we can "out-execute" all of them and make this huge!
5. Conclusions and Next Steps
As you can tell, I'm pretty pumped about this. Please share your ideas/thoughts/questions/concerns!
I'm looking forward to Wednesday's meeting to expand on these ideas. A few folks have suggested a later start time might work better with post-work scheduling. Let's say 6pm at Startpad on 3.14.12?
Sheikh
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