Side project advice: pedalr - cycling marketplace
Greetings Indie Hackers, for those of you on the forum this memorial day weekend (when you should be at the beach), I have a fairly broad side project question:
A few years ago I built a site/web app called pedalr - a better a marketplace for people who love bikes http://www.pedalr.com/ (feel free to sign up for a preview account of the actual app and functioning marketplace).
The idea is to give cyclists a better place to buy and sell high end bikes (which now can run over 5K for good used bike) and high-end cycling gear and help connect small manufacturers and retailers of new gear, t-shirts, restored vintage gear etc.
The idea is loosely a hybrid of 1stdibs or the real real, kickstarter, and everyday carry.
I have some fellows who are game to help bring the project back to life this summer and we're looking for thoughts on next steps prior to doing so.
Current goal is to run a test this summer to determine if our best path forward is to:
A) create a small sustainable side project for the folks involved
B) Develop it into a growing business
C) Get it far enough along to sell the business to another party to grow and evolve the brand, idea, community
or D) kill it off, reduce distractions and move on to other things
Current Assets:
- a small but passionate 3K mailing list
- some brand recognition in the industry
- some great contacts and advisors in the cycling industry
- a fairly robust MVP marketplace platform
Prior to doing so I wonder if this community has suggestions for strategy, approach, content strategy (we're working on developing an EDC/Gear Patrol approach) biz model etc?
If you're still looking for advice, I put a lot into my book, The Parallel Entrepreneur. I think it's really relevant here!
https://www.amazon.com/Parallel-Entrepreneur-start-businesses-keeping-ebook/dp/B07CG8SV5V/
@AKLobo We, at GitHustle (www.githustle.com), work on giving life and acceleration to side projects by connecting developers with projects with the right kind of marketers, growth hackers, and traction builders. There are already over 80 projects on there and significant interest from markets, growth hackers traction builders to team up with developers on their side projects. The two sides typically work out the terms (commission, equity, partnership, etc) after they connect through the site. We also have launched some value-added offerings for customer discovery and for getting early adopters, which you may find useful. May I invite you to post your project at GitHustle? Perhaps there is something we could work together on this summer?
Thanks Shashank. Ill take a look today, sounds like an interesting "hustle" :)
Hard to reply here actually.
Obviously the answer in your case is A) up to a timelimit and goals you all agree on. All others are dependant on A)
You might get more value if you ask about your strategy, marketing, biz model questions directly and one after the other.
(How) do you make money at the moment? Is this scalable to reach A) in <6 months?
Btw. I have no clue what "EDC/Gear Patrol approach" is ;-)
This comment was deleted 7 years ago