Validation: Chore board app for college households
Problem:
- Chores in households are often left undone.
- Undone chores lead to nagging and resentment among roommates.
Solution:
- A chore board app with reminders.
- Hypothesis: I chore board app will be a centralized place for all roommates to see the status of chores in real time. Push notifications will allow roommates to remind each other to do chores without friction.
Chores would rotate among housemates. For instance, if a user takes out the trash and marks it as complete, it will be the next housemate’s turn to take it out once it’s full. Other housemates could remind that user to take the trash out once it’s full.
Please tell me what you think of the idea, I'm happy to trade feedback with anyone!
In general you should never start a business targeted at college students. College kids are just at a point in their life where even an extra $5-$10 a month is hard to fork over.
But the idea isn't bad. I'd target it at families, with an emphasis of teaching kids the value of doing chores. Most kids have smart phones or tablets these days, so that won't be an issue. You could even have some sort of goal that the head of the family could set, and give prizes when all chores have been done for a period of time.
This was a super positive and helpful answer. I don't have anything to add to the post, just wanted to let you know!
Thanks for the feedback, Shane! I've been struggling to figure out how this app would monetize as well. It makes sense that we couldn't charge a monthly fee for a consumer app targeted at college students. Maybe we could offer some sort of premium version? I think there are households of people in their 20s who have the money to spend if it offered enough value. I was also thinking down the road it could become like a slack channel for a household and we could monetize on features involving household expenses with transaction fees. Do you think that would make sense?
We didn't want to target this app at families originally because there are already quite a few apps for this. I guess the narrower problem we're trying to solve is "how do you ensure chores are done when there is no admin account (parent) to assign tasks" i.e. in a setting like a college household. Thanks again!
That makes sense that the market is saturated in the family market. If I were you I'd really look at why you are trying to start this business. If you just want to get something out there, and say you built something I would definitely go for it.
However, if you are doing this because you want to make a full time living I would look at another idea. B2C app is insanely hard to pull off in the first place. Then add in the other hurdle of college kids, this is going to be a very hard company to start. Especially if this is your first company!
That being said there is nothing wrong with pursuing an idea just to learn, but just set your expectations accordingly.
That makes sense, I've heard similar feedback from friends as well. I'm leaning towards at least making an MVP and keeping an eye out for problems to solve with that process. I also do mobile dev for work and have been wanting to launch my own product, so it's tempting until I think of something better. Thanks again for the thoughtful feedback!