Would you pay for a 'find a flatmate' service?
Experimenting with an idea. You've just moved to a new city and you don't know anyone. You're looking for a flat share, but you're concerned about the people you're going to live with. Would you pay for a service (such as an app website etc.) to help you find potential flatmates? The service takes into account particular interests and lifestyle habits, and finds people you have those things in common with. What do you think?
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I wouldn't pay for the service.
But I would pay money to the service for finding me a flatmate :)
Ahh, interesting. I guess that’s what I meant but didn’t communicate properly. Yes, we’re building an app which provides a service for finding a flat mate! How do I get people to respond to this idea before writing any code?
I don't know!
This is a two sided marketplace, which is tricky.
Normally, you'd want to go after the 'long-term' side of the market first. For example, AirBnB would want to go after the homeowners first, because they get long term value from the platform so will be more willing to sign up even though there's no value today.
You don't have that though, because both sides of the market only have short-term value really (I need a flatmate now, not in 6 months).
Maybe there's some way to 'hack' this. To work with third parties who already have a list of people likely looking for flatmates.
Student organisations for example. Companies hiring lots of fresh graduates. Landlords...