How to do things that can't scale correctly?
Hi everyone,
I am currently working with my friends on our startup idea, Loopit. After doing some research and reading every YC's article, including the youtube Startup school series, we learned that they encourage early-stage startups to do something that can't scale, which means sometimes things aren't automatic and you'll have to recruit your initial users manually. And that's what we are doing now. We launched a landing page where you tell us a city/area you would like to visit but have no idea what spots to include along the trip, and we will get back to you with a travel route filled with exciting travel ideas (https://loopit.dev). Basically, we know that doing research for your next travel is a hard task, so let us do it for you! You just need to come to our website, ask for a travel route, and you're good to go.
I am wondering if this is a good idea for something that can't scale or we have misunderstood something? Also, comment below on what did you guys do when it comes to projects that don't scale, especially when you are at your early stage.
Every feedback is appreciated!
I wonder if your taking it a bit too literally
I think it's more about launching quickly and itterating and not having everything perfect and automated at the start
Like there is nothing inherently unscalable about your idea, but you would start it manually which matches up
The thing is doing it manually, just starting is like the get out of the office of the lean startup, it will get you interacting with customers and start gaining specialised Nich knowledge about the problem
Which is all good
P.s. not all advice for startups and IH is the same, this is one that might lead on a longer journey while possibly more profitable
Specifically about travel planning, people don't have to plan they can take ready made packages with guilded tour and/or experiences.. the reasons people invest in planning is partially cultural around uniqueness, trying to have something very custom and one of a kind trailered experience that's shows their own uniqueness... Which to answer I think the feeling around the process might be more valuable than the results itself, just a thought
Hi @hatkyinc,
Thanks for your feedback. I think I had been stuck in the word too much. Totally agree with you, the thing is doing it manually. I am still thinking if we are doing it correctly. I understand that planning is part of travel, what we want to offer is more for busy or lazy people, when you only have bare time for planning but you still want to go to someway, especially for a weekend getaway trip. We want to save your time and made the information filtering process easier. Appreciate your helpful reply, thanks!
So maybe create a constraint to lead both the marketing and the product
For example "take a trip in 10 minutes"
actually make it a thing, that you measure and possibly display
but is your key performance indicator for the solution
from when they login till they choose a trip, you may not take longer than that
so that makes you focus on being efficient and not repeating yourself and sort of 'personal learning' with the customer what they want and remembering that...
this could also focus you on customer segments, people who have more money than time
or people that are a bit more flexible in wants or just spontaneous
An extreme example are tickets, well I forget the name, but plane tickets that are dependent on others canceling, standby? or some other crazy plan ticket sales where the destination isn't 100% guaranteed, you get like only a few hours notice and you are off
Hi @hatkyinc,
Just want to let you know that we have updated our landing page, and this version has made a lot of change base on all the feedback, including yours. Your feedback about the heading line is helpful! If you don't mind, I hope you can take a look at this version of Loopit, and again, any feedback is welcome! Not sure where can I find you so I also send out an email, I hope I didn't bother you too much! https://loopit.dev/