bologna startup Idea Validation User Acquisition

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Idea Validation and User Acquisition How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Idea

Transcript of bologna startup Idea Validation User Acquisition

Idea Validation and User Acquisition

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Idea

Syllabus

• Creating a quick prototype to assess the business quality of my idea

• How to get the first users

• What can I know about my users and their opinions

• Is it BIG enough?

About Me• 2006, Wikio, a Google News

competitor (France, now company X, IPO 2015)

• 2008, Mikamai, a tech boutique for fashion brands (sold to private investors, 2012)

• 2013, Mapendo, mobile user acquisition and performance (Bologna)

Business models are made up from data

• I can put up the simplest prototype of my idea

• People can test the prototype and even start to generate some revenues

• Numbers help me evaluate the quality of my business idea

• Later I’ll think about funding and scaling

Eat Your Own Dog Food

Don’t Do What You Love

Chase the Market!

Sunday, the 28th Monday, the 29th Tuesday, the 30th

Idea, prototype Gather data Analysis, revenues(?)

1% Idea, 99% perspirationDon’t Give a Sh@# About Ideas

The Simple Idea

• Tourism is Booming

• The Trip begins Online

• Visiting a City is About Having an Experience

• Foreign Tourists have Money To Spend

Sunday, the 28th

• Can I get People’s Data Before They Arrive?

• Can I sell Services & Offers to People while They Visit The City?

• Restaurant deals, Touristic Guides, Internet Connection, Exhibition Tickets, Shopping

Sunday, the 28th

Day 1

• Measure The Market

• Think a Lot

• Intercept the Prospects With a Prototypal Landing Page

Sunday, the 28th

• How Big is the Tourism Market in Bologna?

• Compare the Market to Similar Destinations and Cities

• Obviously There at Least 10 Similar Cities in Europe

Sunday, the 28th

Is is Possible to Make Money by Selling Services

to These Tourists?

What do People Look For?

Sunday, the 28th

• Arrival/travel/transfer

• Accommodation

• Food/restaurants

• Points of interest/Tours

• Wifi/Internet Connection/Mobile Phones

• History

Sunday, the 28th

• People search for what we are trying to sell

• Actions that matter to people generate transactions

• How do we prototype this?

Sunday, the 28th

Landing Page

• Simple Web Page for Advertising and Content Campaigns

• Describe and Sell a Service

• A/B Testing and Other Advanced Marketing Techniques

• No Engineers Must Be Harmed During this Phase

Sunday, the 28th

I’m not Good at Writing

HTMLI created a Simple Landing

Page in 20 Minutes

Sunday, the 28th

• Instapage

• Landerapp

• Wix

• Landingi

Sunday, the 28th

Day 2Let’s Bring People In and Gather Some Data

How do I get People to My Page?

• Paying for Traffic is not BAD!

• Advertising & Content

• Advertising is Quick and Expensive

• Content is Slow and requires Creativity

• Let’s invest 50 euros!

Monday, the 29th

The Funnel• You are About to Come in

Bologna

• Are You looking for the Best Food Experience

• Do You want to Discover the Hidden Gems of the City

• Do You need an Internet Connection while you Tour the City?

• Leave me Your Data!Monday, the 29th

The Channels

• Existing Databases (email addresses)

• Search Advertising (transactional!)

• Social Media (Interests & Profilation)

• Content

Monday, the 29th

Search Advertising

• Target only Foreign Users

• Find carefully all the Keywords they Use

• Spend 75% of the Budget in 24 Hours

Monday, the 29th

Social Media

• 25% of the Budget

• People are Shifting from Search to Discovery

• Facebook knows about my Interests

Monday, the 29th

Day 3Analyse Data & Assess My Idea

Insights• 11000 Searches Covered with 30

Keywords

• Social Media needs more tweaking (no useful results)

• 320 Visitors to my Landing Page

• 40 Email Addresses in my Database

• 45€ Spent

• Cost 1.1€ per contactTuesday, the 30th

How do I make Money?

Is the Market Profitable and Scalable?

What I can sell

• Restaurant deals

• Tours/Exhibition tickets

• Internet connection

• Airport transfer

• Accommodation

I can also sell data

• Other companies might be interested in sending profiled information to the users

• Personal information is valuable and pricey

Is the Business Scalable?• 50 * 3€ (mean transaction fee) *

365 = 65700€ per year

• 2€ contact by selling data = 36500€ per year

• 20 cities > 1M€ revenues per year

• Acquisition costs can be optimised a lot

• Platform Cost 30%

What’s Next?

• Establish the Business

• Reinvent Technology

• Sign Partners to Sell their Services

• Structure the Acquisition Campaigns

Let’s Get Things Started!