My side project has now officially become my full time gig. With just over $1800 USD so far this year (19 days) and a month since I made the leap, I couldn't be happier 😊
This is the story so far. What I've learned, how I did things and what's next.
I created a Facebook Messenger Bot that people use to complete scavenger hunts around their local city. It's called Urban Hunt and by simply starting a conversation with the bot, you can sign up, create a team, pay and confirm your hunt in under 2 minutes.
It's a 'Self Guided Adventure' that can take place almost anywhere and I'm leveraging modern technology to automate the whole process.
Here are examples of some trails we have going at the moment in Sydney & London:
How did this all start?
Like many great things in life timing and luck had a lot to do with it. I'd taken part in a Scavenger Hunt in London a few years back with a similar concept (using text messages to send clues instead) and had been amazed at how easy it must be for owners to make money when the whole thing was automated 🤔💰
Being a junior dev at the time with big dreams and minimal skills I wanted to try build my own version. Fast forward a few years, I had moved to Sydney, gotten a job at an agency and that dream had very much fizzled out.. but it wasn't quite gone yet (at least, it was still sat far down on my own Trello ideas board from 2013)!
One day however I just so happened to be put on a project using Facebook Messengers newly released API (early 2016) to allow developers to make 'bots' and out of nowhere, while tinkering with a fitness bot, that old mini dream popped back and light bulbs started going off 😲💡
The Build
All I knew (proficiently) was the Ruby programming language. The small but active FB Messenger community at the time were using anything but Ruby and I got many responses telling me not to use it and to use a JavaScript framework instead 😑 .
Like I've said before, if the tools work for you - use them. I could have put the build on hold and learnt a more appropriate language but I was fueled with excitement to get stuck in and MAKE something! Any delay could have lost me some valuable motivation. Motivation that kept me coding away to get an MVP ready over the next couple weeks.
This is also something highlighted excessively by the awesome Pieter Levels of Nomad List, check out the recent Indie Hackers podcast.
Getting my first users
Despite having a few friends and a random group try out my first trail on my MVP around my local town to test the concept, I needed some real volume and a full length trail. I opted for a History in The Rocks trail taking players around 'The Rocks' in Sydney, probably one of the most famous tourist hot spots in the city.
Making the trail 🕵️♂️
I'd been in the country under a year so had only visited The Rocks once and had no idea where to start. So... I did a guided tour 😂. I felt a little guilty taking in all the information from the tour guide knowing I was essentially going to use this route (an adapted version) for my trail but hey, a 1 hour tour later plus 5 further hours of walking around on my own I had a trail ready!
Getting it tested 🏃♂️
Now believe it or not, even if you make something FREE it's tricky to get users playing. After a week of putting it on Reddit, Facebook Groups etc I had zero real feedback. I started to think that maybe the concept is flawed, maybe people don't like using Facebook, maybe I'm marketing it wrong? I was running out of ideas. So I decided to pay people to use it.
A company taking off at time in Sydney was Airtasker (similar to Task Rabbit), so I opted in to pay people $5 each to play my trail and give me feedback. About 20 teams ended up playing and loved it! 😄 🎉 I had proof of concept now and I had to run with it!
Growth and where we are now
Since then, a year ago now, I've been slaving (loving it) away in my spare time improving the tech, iterating over trail changes, fixing bugs as they pop up and generally adapting the concept bit by bit from every bit of feedback I get.
I've managed to fit it all in without sacrificing too much down time. That's super important to me and I think it should be much higher up on peoples lists.
Health > Hustle
I even ended up quitting my job, taking 3 months off (from savings) and traveling around the country with my partner Lauren (we did Instagram too!) while working on Urban Hunt.
The trip is currently on hold. We left the car on the other side of the country and both made the decision to go full time for a few months and see if we can make something happen.
In the last month we have managed to make 6 brand new trails (previously I had just 4 running over the year), secure a partnership with Sydney Living Museums (a large Museum Organisation) and have the best few weeks we have ever had in sales!
What's Next?
We're certainly not slowing down. With 3 new trails in Melbourne and 3 more in Perth planned over the next few months we're expanding across the country and experimenting with new trails - secret cocktail trails, Botanic Garden trails, kids trails etc.. I really believe this is a product for almost anyone.
I'm also working hard to build a an affiliate program so others around the world can use our system to run their own scavenger hunts in their city and they can make money off of them. I'd love to hear what you think below.
Despite Facebook's setbacks and some growing public trust issues, it's been the perfect tool to get me started with this project. With most users already having an account on FB the barrier to sign up is dramatically reduced. No need to download another app or sign up first, just start chatting!
I'm planning on building my own chat interface as a web app so I'm not tied to Facebook in the future, but it just goes to show that whatever tools work for you at the time, use them!
What I learned
- Use what you know! Got something in mind you want to make? Research, find tools that help you achieve something with the least resistance, and ship it! The quicker you get feedback the quicker you can improve it.* Make sure you love what you're doing and find a passion in it. Don't just do it for the money. The money will come if you do it right. Yes it's easier said then done, but dealing with the pitfalls of a product you love is a lot easier than trying to revive something you have no care for.
- Make sure you love what you're doing and find a passion in it. Don't just do it for the money. The money will come if you do it right. Yes it's easier said then done, but dealing with the pitfalls of a product you love is a lot easier than trying to revive something you have no care for.
- Also.. making scavenger hunts is hard! Anyone can come up with a few cryptic clues and answers and call it a Scavenger Hunt but striking the balance between getting users to THINK but also be able to SOLVE the clues (too easy vs too hard) is something you adapt over time.
-----
Why am I writing about this?
Mainly, I'm just really keen to document the journey as much as I can. Whether that be for inspiring others, gaining feedback as I go or simply having something to look back on one day and say "Dear lord! Look at that terrible design 🙈" or "WHAT WAS I THINKING?".
It's also a great way to motivate yourself to get shit done. A concept that the awesome Marc Köhlbrugge leveraged when he created wip.chat 👏.
I found it fascinating to read back on Kevin Systrom's tweets about making Instagram and so (a boy can dream right?) I thought I'd like to read back on my own stuff one day 🤷♂️.
Thanks for reading! I would love your feedback on the concept or anything I covered. Drop me a tweet @holfyio or comment below 😊