Hypotheses and MVPs

It's been a busy three weeks working on The Local Rocket. We realized that our business really has to cater to two groups, businesses and consumers. In that respect, we really have to validate that we have two problems: that people are unsure of their options for what to do when they want to go out, and that businesses are unsatisfied with their current marketing efforts. Over the past week we conducted a survey that posed the question to local residents of Harrisonburg:

On a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night, do you ever wonder; what all is going on around campus?  Around town?  What the local restaurant's deals are?  What prices/times are for happy hours at bars?  Where the parties are?  Am I paying too much here or missing out on something big across town? or the big question, Where can I get the best bang for my buck?

The overwhelming response was 'yes', with 84% of respondents agreeing that they have this problem. That gives us confirmation that there is a problem that our solution addresses.

We have yet to confirm that Harrisonburg businesses are unsatisfied with their marketing efforts, but we expect to hear back from them by next week. Assuming that businesses do have this problem, we think that we can provide them a solution. With an easy to use website that informs people of stuff to do, and allows businesses to reach these people and cater deals towards them.

Right now people hear about events and deals by word of mouth and social media outlets. Businesses currently throw money at ineffective paper ads that many people ignore or throw away. When people aren't sure of where they want to go, they don't run to their junk mail and look for deals. They ask friends and decide based on limited information.

We believe our solution is more effective in several ways. It gives people more options of things to do. It gives them a centralized place where they can find out what events and deals are going on locally. Instead of checking multiple sites, they can come to The Local Rocket and see all of the deals/events.
Our solution also helps businesses by giving them a more cost effective way to advertise. This is because they can target their advertisements better, as well as eliminate the cost of printing ads.

This past week, we launched our minimum viable product. The site allows people to add events and then the events show up on a map. In a very basic way, this help solve the problem because it allows people to see what things are going on around Harrisonburg. We're going to be adding features over this next week that will allow businesses to advertise on the site and will allow people to see the top events. We're going to keep pushing forward and iterating until we find something that really works.

We also discussed how advertising would work on this site. We started talking about rates that we could charge per thousand of viewers and how ads would be displayed.

We're hoping to bring about a lot of improvements by next week and be able to start really getting the word out about the site and sharing it. Stay tuned!

One Week In

It's been one week since we started attacking our business problem - that sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are fundamentally flawed, and that people don't always know what they want to do. Our idea is to build a site that has activities on a map that will show people what events are going on around town. Our initial goal is to build a pretty generic site and get feedback from users on how they would actually use it. Then iterate and improve as quick as possible.

Technical Overview by Mike
I'm using a couple of open source and free resources to rapidly develop this site. I'll outline some of the things below - they're great resources for anyone trying to build a website quickly.

• Ruby on Rails - an awesome open-source framework. It takes some time to learn, but it's convention over configuration mindset makes it easy to get up an running.
• Devise - an authentication system that makes it easy to have users who can log in and out. Using this has already saved a ton of time.
• Bootstrap -  a CSS framework released by Twitter that helps website look nice without having to write thousands of lines of code. It's a good style base to start with.
• Google Maps API - used to plot out events for people to go to. It's free, but has a usage limit. If the site gets too popular then we'll have to pay Google money.
• Heroku - will host the site. Again, it's free, but can only handle a certain traffic load - after which you have to pay.

Developing the site

Using these free resources is really kickstarting the development of the site. Now I'll hand it off to Hunter and Bertand to talk about our progress on the business side of things.

Business Overview by Hunter and Bertrand

The first question that came to mind was, "What is the best way to get our idea out there for people to see?"  Duh….. Facebook.  So I decided I would post the question, What incentives draw or would draw you/other people to a website on a day to day basis? Also, what do you like/dislike about people’s websites that we can either make sure to have or make sure to leave off out website?  I asked this as a way to get a feel for how people honestly feel about websites and what catches their eye.  (more eyeballs=more money)

The results were beyond my expectation and shown light on what draws people and what people really want on a website.  The incentives were as follows; Money, t-shirt giveaways, home cooked meals, free movie tickets, free pizza giveaway, and possibly coupons.  These ideas gave insight on how to really get our website viewed.  People naturally love the word FREE!!!!  If we get people to view our website at the expense of a few free giveaways, these small expenses could prove beneficial.

As far as website likes/dislikes there were mixed viewpoints.  The answers given in likes/dislikes are as follows; unique with appeal so that it is beneficial to people beyond Jmaddy.com, not hard to read and too flashy, funny youtube videos to draw attention, emphasis on core business ideas, no music, and anything that involves saving money. 

People not only love FREE, they love FUN activities that don’t completely empty the bank account.  Our goal is to create a website that brings value to JMU students, Harrisonburg residents, and anyone around the area. So we started to build a database of activities for our website including:

 - Potential bars and restaurant that would be interested in our services

 - Concerts and special events

 - Sport events scheduled: men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, men's and women's tennis, Lacrosse

 - House parties

We'll be adding these things ourselves once the site is up. Through incentives provided and website ideas, we hope to begin our business with a way to DRAW people in.  Therefore, open your EYES and check us out soon…….

What's The Problem?

It's a Friday night, college town, and you have no idea what to do. Who's throwing a party? Where should we grab dinner? Are there any events on campus? Any JMU sport events?

The problem is, sometimes people don't know what to do; they just want to have a good time. At the same time, you have restaurants, bars, and movie-theaters with empty seats. There's a supply-demand mismatch that needs balancing.

The 'Daily Deal' model is broken.

Daily deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial attempt to bring more customers to businesses by offering crazy coupon deals. The thing is, these deal sites are losing an average of $2.00 per dollar earned and the businesses end up selling goods for a loss. It's a lose-lose situation! The truth is, businesses don't need to offer insane deals to get people to come in. If they can find people who aren't sure what to do, then a small incentive is enough to get them through the door.

As a group of entrepreneurial minded students, we plan on solving these problems.

Bertrand Moulin is a Business Management major. Brings some diversity to the team because of its origin (France). He is part of the JMU tennis team and has a lot of contacts and social networks in the school that can be helpful to advertise our service through words mouth to mouth.

Mike Surowiec is a Computer Science and Business Management double major at James Madison University. He has a background in building cool stuff and loves to ride motorcycles.

Hunter Knott is Business Management major at James Madison University.  Has a background in retail and enjoys sports and the outdoors.
Our team mantra is connecting people with activities.

We hope you'll join us on our journey to build a sustainable business.

Until next time...