Is this a good idea?

It is a common idea and similar to something I've worked on in the past. In general, this is a difficult market but not impossible for the right angle (eg FourSquare). My problem was that you needed both businesses and customers on-board at the same time and the "deals" were transient which complicated the issue.

You won't know though by asking us. Go to small business owners, pitch the idea, and ask whether you could get a letter-of-intent that they would use it once you built it. Don't take a response of "that's cool" to be sufficiently meaningful. Perhaps better, find a way to ask general questions about how they attract visitors to their store, whether they've used similar things in the past, etc. But I would strongly recommend not building anything until you know your market and having a list of people who would use it on day-one.

Good luck!

I think this space is pretty saturated so it will depend on the user messaging a lot. I like this idea because during Covid I want to support my local small businesses and that would resonate with me as a consumer. I'd figure out what resonates with people with a quick and dirty MVP. As for the small business side of it, I'd talk to some business owners (cold e-mails/going to their stores etc). They might be more conservative during Covid.

Hi!

Well, there's a lot to consider for the question "is this a good idea?":). And in a way, you're the best person to answer it. But only after asking yourself:

• Who is the specific target audience?
• What's the exact problem you're solving?
• How much would they pay to have that problem solved?

If you're able to confidently answer those, then a quick MVP will tell you whether that's a good idea or not.

And that insight you get will be 100x better than any answer anyone here can give.