Networking

[nbolt]

Hey all! Based on this post, I wanted to start a networking thread for all of us to share our business ideas and creative side projects to see if there is any overlap in what we're working towards. This is difficult work and if anybody has shared ideas or goals, they should be aware of that and maybe we can can get some collaboration going. And even if there's no direct overlap, having a community to brainstorm and bounce ideas off of is still great support in of itself. I've also started a #networking channel in our community chatroom, so hop on there as well if you're interested!

So I'll start us off:


EatSimply

This is my main business idea right now, and I'm fairly serious about it.

The core product is basically a meal planner, akin to what you see on eatthismuch.com, something where you input your basic info (weight, age, diet, allergies, etc.) and you'd get an easily customizable list of meals for the day, where you can mix and match recipes, products, local restaurants, etc. until you find a combination you like and you don't have to worry about whether you're getting enough of this nutrient or that nutrient, and no calorie or food tracking like with MyFitnessPal, that's too much work. Something that's just really easy to use, just whip out your phone and get some nearby food suggestions for the day without having to track or worry about how healthy it is or whether you're getting enough of a certain nutrient.

The idea came to me a few years back when I realized I was a bit underweight and wanted to start gaining some, and one of my main strategies was to start going to the gym regularly and start some strength training to put on some muscle mass. But before that I wanted to get my diet in order- didn't want to start pushing myself while eating junk. So I started looking around for various apps and services that would help me with this. I thought there would surely be something, because this seemed like something that is pretty universal (eating healthy) but to my surprise, there were very few options out there that worked for me. The only thing I really found were apps like MyFitnessPal, but that requires you to track every single meal, which works if you're really serious about your health, but I saw an opportunity here. Everything else is either way too simple / vague, focused on weight loss, or just based on bogus science. One of my favorite examples of the latter was that when I was living in Los Angeles, the juice bar down the block sold their weekly "juice cleanses" for like $500. They sold tons of them, even though that stuff has no basis in science, because everyone wants to be healthy, it's just that convenience wins out at the end of the day. So that's what I want to build and the problem I want to solve. I want something that is easy and simple to use for everyone, no matter what their weight and fitness goals happen to be.

If we can get this core feature working well, I think there's tons of potential a platform like this. Users will pay for premium features, such as grocery list generation / tracking, family meals, budget planning.. restaurants will pay for sponsorship in our algorithm (basically high-margin advertisement the user doesn't even notice), I've talked to other companies who'd be interested in having api access, and industries like food delivery are blowing up right now- but they all just capitalize on the convenience aspect. If we're able to combine that with a health platform you're already using, I think it becomes a no-brainer.

So that's the gist of the business plan. By trade I'm a software engineer and can handle building out most of the technology, so it would be great to have someone on board who's focused on the business / marketing end of things. A UX designer would also be awesome. This is of course not to say having other engineers would not also be helpful- my progress has been fairly slow on my own, and I don't have a whole lot of experience with hardcore algorithm development, which the entire product is based on.


Ongaku

The rest of my ideas are more side projects for fun rather than being seriously business focused, at least for now. Obviously if something starts actually taking off there are ways to monetize them. This is an idea I have for a collaborative music streaming and discovery app, similar to turntable.fm or plug.dj before they shut down. I'm fairly serious about building this out as well, although as mentioned above there aren't really any business plans to it yet, it's just a side project at the moment.

Basically the main idea would be to create rooms where friends can collaboratively manage playlists or take turns choosing music to listen to together in real-time. The apps mentioned above have shut down, but you can still find information and screenshots of them online if you give 'em a quick google. One differentiator I wanted to build in was more of a hands off approach in comparison to the above apps. They were very, mm.. "active" experiences, meaning you needed to be at your computer, online with other people, actively choosing music everytime the song switched, chatting with other people, etc. That's how it was designed. But a lot of the time I just want music in the background while I'm on my way to work or just chilling out, so I thought it would be neat if we allowed collaboratively managed playlists that were just standard shoutcast-compatible urls, meaning you could simply plug it in to whatever device you wanted, your phone, whatever music player you use on your laptop, etc.

This leads into the next part, where I wanted to build a kind of community where you discover new music recommendations through your friends. All these new music services that are coming out are all based on these personal algorithms without any interaction with other people, but imagine instead you received a new album recommendation in person while chatting with a friend of yours. Of course you're going to go check it out, actual personal recommendations from people you know carry a lot of weight. You could be on the way to work when a new artist you haven't heard of pops up in the playlist, because your friend added it, so this aids music discovery through your friends.

I also think this aspect of it can aid in my computer science studies, we can use machine learning to find other actual people that have similar tastes to you and you can follow what they listen to and discover new artists that way. Put all these things together and I think you get a pretty unique music platform that doesn't really exist today. Also due to the nature of this project, if anyone else is interested in topics like computer science, algorithms, and machine learning, don't hesitate to get involved! I'm very new to these fields which is part of the reason I'm working on projects that will aid in my study. I'm an experienced software developer but dropped out of college pretty early on so don't have a lot of that sort of knowledge I might have picked up if I went on to get my degree.


Summary

So as mentioned several times, by trade I'm a software engineer so my side projects tend to be focused on building various kinds of apps and related technology. I always have a few things I'm working on, and would love to hear what everyone else in the community is either working on or just random ideas you have!

Edited April 12, 2016 by Neill

[abrakamowse]

That's cool @Neill  I like the idea of the app. I am a graphic designer, so... I am thinking about creating some applications, it's really interesting.

I am thinking in doing a simple game, kind of like the one of flappy bird game. And I want to do it using Flash because I have the adobe creative cloud software. I think it can be also created for cellphones. The new flash app is called now Animate CC and Mobile Device packaging. I think it should be possible to make an app for cell phones with that.

[nbolt]

6 minutes ago, abrakamowse said:

That's cool @Neill  I like the idea of the app. I am a graphic designer, so... I am thinking about creating some applications, it's really interesting.

I am thinking in doing a simple game, kind of like the one of flappy bird game. And I want to do it using Flash because I have the adobe creative cloud software. I think it can be also created for cellphones. The new flash app is called now Animate CC and Mobile Device packaging. I think it should be possible to make an app for cell phones with that.

I really want to get into game development as well, but I've felt that's a bit further off for me due to the variety of skills needed (artists / graphic designers, sound / music producers, game / level designers, programmers...) so it's more of an endeavor.

Edited April 13, 2016 by Neill

[abrakamowse]

@Neill  Yeah, that's true. That's why I was thinking in something really simple. But, let's see what I can do.
:-)

[nbolt]

1 hour ago, abrakamowse said:

@Neill  Yeah, that's true. That's why I was thinking in something really simple. But, let's see what I can do.
:-)

Maybe we can collaborate on something simple, we even live in the same area. Programmer + Graphic Designer 

[Clay]

Love the thread and your business ideas @Neill! While I think both of your ideas have massive potential, I love your main business idea EatSimply.

Ongaku has potential but I want to warn you of some challenges with the plan for that one: 

• Since this platform relies on user interaction to function, you create a chicken-and-egg problem. New users will only want to use this platform if they can interact with existing users, but existing users won't stay if there aren't already existing users. This problem can be somewhat solved if you have "1-player features" (for lack of a better term) to start with, as well as a lot of advertising upon launch of the platform.
• It sounds like the revenue stream for this platform is only from ad-revenue. If that is the case, note that ad-revenue based income relies on a lot of traffic, and a lot of recurring traffic, to make a significant amount of money through it. Thus, having a small-medium humble community base won't cut it if you desire to make significant money through this revenue stream.

EatSimply doesn't face either of these challenges as it is a 1-player platform, and uses premium features as well as affiliate marketing (a stronger form of ad-revenue) as its streams of income. You're also solving a huge problem, which foreshadows great value and benefit from releasing a platform like this. I'm a hard-gainer myself, yet I like to make life as simple as possible (no calorie counting or tracking my exercise routines), so I would jump at the opportunity of using an app like this. I think you have a 9-figure business idea on your hands, now it comes down to manifesting it into existence.

 

@abrakamowse, I've been pondering an idea like this myself. I've always been fascinated at how simple Flappy Bird was, yet it managed to catch on like wildfire, and if I'm not mistaken, the creator of the app was profiting 50k per day at the peak of its existence. It's fun to ponder about the sweetspot between massive simplicity and massive virality.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Clay Curl
added a response to abrakamowse as well

[nbolt]

38 minutes ago, Clay Curl said:

Love the thread and your business ideas @Neill! While I think both of your ideas have massive potential, I love your main business idea EatSimply.

Ongaku has potential but I want to warn you of some challenges with the plan for that one: 

• Since this platform relies on user interaction to function, you create a chicken-and-egg problem. New users will only want to use this platform if they can interact with existing users, but existing users won't stay if there aren't already existing users. This problem can be somewhat solved if you have "1-player features" (for lack of a better term) to start with, as well as a lot of advertising upon launch of the platform.
• It sounds like the revenue stream for this platform is only from ad-revenue. If that is the case, note that ad-revenue based income relies on a lot of traffic, and a lot of recurring traffic, to make a significant amount of money through it. Thus, having a small-medium humble community base won't cut it if you desire to make significant money through this revenue stream.

EatSimply doesn't face either of these challenges as it is a 1-player platform, and uses premium features as well as affiliate marketing (a stronger form of ad-revenue) as its streams of income. You're also solving a huge problem, which foreshadows great value and benefit from releasing a platform like this. I'm a hard-gainer myself, yet I like to make life as simple as possible (no calorie counting or tracking my exercise routines), so I would jump at the opportunity of using an app like this. I think you have a 9-figure business idea on your hands, now it comes down to manifesting it into existence.

 

@abrakamowse, I've been pondering an idea like this myself. I've always been fascinated at how simple Flappy Bird was, yet it managed to catch on like wildfire, and if I'm not mistaken, the creator of the app was profiting 50k per day at the peak of its existence. It's fun to ponder about the sweetspot between massive simplicity and massive virality.

Yup, all reasons I'm more focused on EatSimply as a business and Ongaku as a portfolio piece / side project. Maybe I can make it an open source project that users can host themselves with friends or something.

And yeah, he was earning 50k per day! Crazy. Some things really just take off. Although it was an overnight success, it's important to realize it's the game that was, not the developer himself- he was producing new games fairly regularly at that point.

[Clay]

12 minutes ago, Neill said:

Although it was an overnight success, it's important to realize it's the game that was, not the developer himself- he was producing new games fairly regularly at that point.

I wasn't aware of that, good point! It'd be naive to think that his "stroke of luck" did not come with existing preparation through diligent & consistent game development.

I'd like to share my main project idea with you guys and any feedback would be much appreciated. I'm working on a website/mobile app that is a shopping search engine that allows you to search/browse for products to buy, and this search engine will search across various online retails (Amazon, Target, Macy's, etc.) and return items that you are looking for that only are on sale, and/or offer cash back on the select product. It will be designed in a simple, sleek, minimalistic way, and is entirely free to use. The reason I can offer it as free, while still making a profit, is through affiliate marketing; the online retailer will pay me a percentage on each product you buy through my platform, since I referred you to them. Any feedback/suggestions?

[ZenBlue]

@Neill I like both of the projects you are working on. I see a lot of potential with EatSimply. I am into digital marketing and that is what I'm currently trying to build my career around. I've mainly done digital marking for my personal projects and as an affiliate marketer. I'm passionate about business and digital marketing, so if you would like some help with that part of it just hit me up.

@Clay Curl That's a great idea. E commerce has gained a lot of popularity with mobile users. I would say focus on developing the mobile app side of it more. Once the app is created, there is a lot of marketing that needs to be done. I'm sure since you are familiar with affiliate marketing, you can sign up for a network and pay affiliates to get people to download the app and increase it's popularity in the marketplace.

[abrakamowse]

@Clay Curl  I think you have a great idea. I have no idea how to implement it ... LOL... but sounds promising.

[nbolt]

14 hours ago, Clay Curl said:

I'd like to share my main project idea with you guys and any feedback would be much appreciated. I'm working on a website/mobile app that is a shopping search engine that allows you to search/browse for products to buy, and this search engine will search across various online retails (Amazon, Target, Macy's, etc.) and return items that you are looking for that only are on sale, and/or offer cash back on the select product. It will be designed in a simple, sleek, minimalistic way, and is entirely free to use. The reason I can offer it as free, while still making a profit, is through affiliate marketing; the online retailer will pay me a percentage on each product you buy through my platform, since I referred you to them. Any feedback/suggestions?

The main thing that immediately jumps to mind, which is unrelated to the business idea itself, is: are you passionate about this? I realized pretty early on that if I'm going to put years of hard work into something and have it be successful, it needs to be something that I'm intrinsically passionate about, or it isn't going to happen. I actually don't care if anybody else in the world uses EatSimply, because it started as a personal problem of mine and I want the product to exist. I think that the most important question to ask yourself when deciding whether or not to pursue a business idea is this: is this something that I have to do? Not matter what? Is this something that I care so much about that I am going to build this, regardless of the outcome? It should be something that you actually want to see exist in the world because you believe it is changing it for the better.

That being said, I'd be interested in hearing what sort of research you've done on this so far- it sounds like a pretty nifty platform that people would use if executed correctly. Have you looked into the what sort of technology requirements you'd need? What companies are out there that doing similar things? How are they doing it? Have you talked to any retailers about this yet or done any market research?

Edited April 14, 2016 by Neill

[Tancrede Pouyat]

@Neill Dude ! That's Awesome ! I remember when I first started to go to college, I hadn't cooked anything ever. And I needed to start doing that. You can probably start building EatSimply for your local college and go market it to these guys, it's probably a profitable niche, and it's a good way to start, to see how it unfolds, starting small.

[nbolt]

3 hours ago, Tancrede Pouyat said:

@Neill Dude ! That's Awesome ! I remember when I first started to go to college, I hadn't cooked anything ever. And I needed to start doing that. You can probably start building EatSimply for your local college and go market it to these guys, it's probably a profitable niche, and it's a good way to start, to see how it unfolds, starting small.

Yeah we will definitely start unveiling it to specific areas and niches to begin with before a more general rollout.

[Clay]

On 4/14/2016 at 0:26 AM, ZenBlue said:

...you can sign up for a network and pay affiliates to get people to download the app and increase it's popularity in the marketplace.

Thanks for your feedback @ZenBlue. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this part, could you elaborate or link me to an example network?

Thanks @Neill. You're absolutely right, and while this may not be my true passion project, I see the success of this endeavor to be able to fund my ability to engage in the things I am truly passionate about. But then you might ask, "why not work on your passion project from the start? You can potentially become successful on that while working on the thing you love most." Well, my passion project is risky, heavily resource dependent, and long-term: I want to work on creating self-learning A.I. that can learn science with the potential to make discoveries. I'm seeking financial independence within the next 2 to 5 years, so I rather work on something that provides a predictable amount of value to the world in a short time frame, and launch that first.

I've launched an early version of it before, and have pivoted my e-commerce platform several times in the past, but this time I think I really have a good potential formula/idea down. The closest platform I could compare this to is eBates, which was acquired by Rakuten for $1 billion, so the potential is there. E-commerce generates $1 trillion per year in revenue in the U.S. alone, and is on a upward exponential growth trend, so I'm aiming to jump on that, and even managing to take a 0.00001% bite out of that yearly revenue would be nice.

[nbolt]

Just now, Clay Curl said:

Thanks @Neill. You're absolutely right, and while this may not be my true passion project, I see the success of this endeavor to be able to fund my ability to engage in the things I am truly passionate about. But then you might ask, "why not work on your passion project from the start? You can potentially become successful on that while working on the thing you love most." Well, my passion project is risky, heavily resource dependent, and long-term: I want to work on creating self-learning A.I. that can learn science with the potential to make discoveries. I'm seeking financial independence within the next 2 to 5 years, so I rather work on something that provides a predictable amount of value to the world in a short time frame, and launch that first.

I've launched an early version of it before, and have pivoted my e-commerce platform several times in the past, but this time I think I really have a good potential formula/idea down. The closest platform I could compare this to is eBates, which was acquired by Rakuten for $1 billion, so the potential is there. E-commerce generates $1 trillion per year in revenue in the U.S. alone, and is on a upward exponential growth trend, so I'm aiming to jump on that, and even managing to take a 0.00001% bite out of that yearly revenue would be nice.

Leo made a ton of money on a business before actualized.org that he didn't care for at all, so this is definitely a possible strategy if you think you can execute!

[Clay]

1 hour ago, Neill said:

Leo made a ton of money on a business before actualized.org that he didn't care for at all, so this is definitely a possible strategy if you think you can execute!

Oh interesting, I didn't know that. That's encouraging to here!

[ZenBlue]

8 hours ago, Clay Curl said:

Thanks for your feedback @ZenBlue. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this part, could you elaborate or link me to an example network?

http://matomy.com

They are one of the bigger companies for mobile marketing. You can submit your app there and tell them how much you will pay per app install. For example, you might pay the network $1.00 per app install. Affiliates can easily generate hundreds of thousands of app installs so you would need to set a daily cap. Get a proper budget and a proven tested way of monetizing your app. For going this route, I would suggest a budget of $100,000.

If you want to start with a much lower budget then you can do the marketing yourself and cut out the need for paying affiliates. You would only need some starting capital for paid advertising, and I would say you can get a good start with just $5,000. Digital marketing isn't easy though so be prepared for a steep learning curve before you get any successful campaigns.