Help, What should be my next step?

by Tocka

Hello everyone, I am Tocka a software developer.
Few weeks ago, I started thinking about an idea that i can build to start my own project.
I found one that I think it can be good.
I want to build a price comparison app who can be used to compare online an local shops to give customers the ability to know the best price that they can get. It will use affiliate marketing as the main source of revenue.
I searched the internet and found many price comparison websites but they are rarely used here in Egypt.
I do not know what should be my next step, and how can I do it. Should I write a business plan, validate the idea, start making am MVP or find a co-founder.
Could you please try to guide me a little as this is my first time trying to build something outside of my job.
Thanks in advance

Tocka

on September 25, 2020

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Hey.

This is a B2C app and I don't think you need to validate the idea here. Clearly customers would love to buy things cheaper and this is what everyone will tell you. I would do the following:
1. Build an MVP for some category of widely used goods. Let's use Baby food/diapers as an example. People buy it a lot and savings here will be substantial.
2. Work on different distribution strategies. Ads might work to make sure people interested. Collect data on what people click, how many and how many sales extra you may bring to a local shops.
3. Go to local shops with that data and see if your offer will be interesting to them. You might find out that local shops may give you even some more discount to get extra sales.
4. Use all of the learnings above to adjust your business model.
Good luck,
Sergey
sergey_shvets

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4 years ago
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  Thanks Sergey,
  I was thinking about some thing like this but every one I asked told me that I have to invest in validating the idea.
  Do you think starting with online shops [as they already support affiliate marketing with no extra needed deals] will be a good MVP to start making some money and to collect data to make it easier to get good deals with local shops.
  
  Tocka
  
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  4 years ago
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    Just think about what outcome will be from the validation? You are very likely to hear that people do want to save money and they'll use a good service that allow them to do so. You need to validate not the idea but business model.
    
    Figure out who will be paying you to keep lights on and how you can reach them.
    
    Go and ask them if your idea is something they would try. If you can do something manually without coding — great, save time and do things manually. Your goal is to run a full cycle a couple times as fast as you can.
    
    Apply the learnings to scale your product. Automate boring parts, etc.
    
    Online shops should be fine if that's part of your model. I think it might be a more crowded space as I believe there are price aggregators for online shops pretty much everywhere already. But you can still carve the niche. You probably know your market better than anyone on this site, so it is your call.
    
    Good luck!
    
    sergey_shvets
    
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    4 years ago
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This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

DeletedUser

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4 years ago
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  Hello Anilkilic,
  I think every one would love to buy things cheaper, this is regarding customers. Regarding local shops, I think it would be easier for me to start with online shops where affiliate marketing concept are already there and I can you use it without any deals. Then make deals with local shops in the second step.
  
  Tocka
  
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  4 years ago
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