Moncra

I know this is only the first step of many iterations, but I am happy to note that Moncra has been built and built into something that I am proud of. Now, I need to find some users. I realize I should have done this earlier, but now I push forward.

It has been a little longer than two weeks (more like 4 weeks) and a little more than the initial cost (1.5x to be exact), but the project is almost done. And as time has gone on, features of the product have evolved. I did not do a very good job creating a super streamline MVP, but the (almost) completed site has still been very affordable to build. Moncra now displays questions and answers (which are customizable through the user's account) in a non obnoxious way on the restaurant's website.

I also decided to build Moncra as a SaaS model with a one-week no credit card required free trial to start.

I am looking forward to the launch here soon. I am hoping to have 10 signs ups on the first day and in doing that, be able to collect a ton of user feedback.

When I first had the idea, I had no idea what I wanted to name this product. Should I name it to describe what the product does (which I was 100% sure of yet) or should I name it something abstract, like Uber? All I knew is that I wanted the name to be short.

After sitting at my desk for a few hours writing down every possible word that came to mind, I stumbled upon Moncra. I didn't love it at the start, but the more I said it, the better it sounded. I checked the domain and although the .com was not available, the .co was. That decided it. The company would be named Moncra.

I spent the last few days figuring out what exactly I wanted to build to solve the problem I addressed. I decided to go with a pop-up feature that restaurant owners could embed on their website and with answers to questions like, do your employees wear masks? After flushing out the idea, I was in a hurry and found a team on Upwork that could build this for me. I don't think I did a very good job describing what I wanted, as many people said they did not have the qualifications to do this. But I found one team that was willing to do the work. They quoted me a low price and two weeks for completion, so I went with them.

I have been thinking a lot over the last few days about the changes in society that are happening due to COVID-19. Restaurants specifically were working so hard to implement new policies to keep customers and workers safe. I felt that only big companies (through ads) were able to convey this change to their customers. So my idea was to build a product that helped increase restaurant communication so they tell their customers everything they are doing to keep them safe.