IDEA #1 | VENTURE STARTUP

Retail Store Search 🔎

One app to search the mall

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

“We’re going to the mall!”

Depending on who you are hearing those fateful words will either fill you with joy…or dread.

Now we wouldn’t want to generalize but more likely than not if you’re a guy, it’s the latter and a girl, the former.

Malls amplify a fundamental difference between the way men and women approach shopping. Men tend to focus on what they need to buy and buy just that. Women tend to prefer browsing, so malls with multiple shops provide the ultimate browsing experience. A dream for women, but a nightmare for men.

Ultimately shopping in malls is very inefficient compared to shopping online, since there’s a search space for products online which there isn’t for malls.

So why not create an app which makes the space searchable?

2. Solution ✅

Here’s the idea…create an app which allows users to search for products within a mall for their availability.

The app integrates with the inventory management system of the various stores in the mall and knows what products are being sold and whether they’re in or out of stock. Shoppers then download the app and can search for products in the app, similar to how they search on Amazon. Say a shopper wants to buy jeans, they can search and the app will show all the different styles of jeans on sale in different stores in the mall.

Shops would pay a fee to be listed on the platform and pay to boost themselves in search results, similar to Google search or Amazon.

The fundamental premise here is to make offline retail searchable, which need not apply just to malls. It could apply to particular streets or town squares too, since as we know malls are shutting across the USA.

3. Business Model 🏦

Go-to-market: start off by finding a very small mall or area of shops and integrating with them

Monetisation: charge stores a subscription fee to be on the platform as well as for appearing first in search results. All of the data collected could be monetised too.

Startup Costs: you’ll need to raise some money to build the tech and integrate with different store’s inventory management systems, which will take time and money

4. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

If this took off it could be a huge business. The ultimate goal here would be to exit to a large shopping app, such as Klarna.

IDEA #2 | CASH FLOW BUSINESS

Negotiation as a Service 🤝

Make them an offer they can’t refuse

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

Negotiating is hard.

Having to negotiate anything, whether it’s your salary at work or with your wife to go play golf at the weekend, is difficult. It’s a bit like having people singing happy birthday to you - awkward, uncomfortable and you just want it to be over.

But being able to negotiate is incredibly important, it’s how you win big in life.

Here’s the thing…when it comes to big transactions in life, such as buying a house or selling your business, being a great negotiator can earn or lose you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

But negotiations are very specific and it’s impossible for anyone to be an expert in the ins and outs of everything to do with a particular deal or negotiation.

Having access to someone who’s been there and done it before would be invaluable during these big moments.

So why not create a platform which makes this possible?

2. Solution ✅

Here’s the idea…create a platform which matches people going through a big transaction with an experienced negotiator to work with them to get the best deal.

Users sign up to the platform and give an overview of what deal they need help with, say they’re selling their business. The platform then matches them to a negotiator with experience in this who can come in, quickly understand the dynamics of the deal, and work with the user to get the best deal possible.

All negotiators on the platform would be vetted prior to signing up to ensure they have the skills to help users get the best deal.

The platform would charge a fee for working with a negotiator, which it would split with the expert for their services. This should be more than covered by the fact that the deal they get will be substantially better with the negotiator involved.

3. Business Model 🏦

Go-to-market: focus on one particular vertical from the outset, say people selling their businesses, then find people experienced in this area and begin matching them manually to see how good the outcomes are

Monetisation: charge a % of the transaction for using the service

Startup Costs: this would be a simple platform with minimal startup costs

4. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

This has all the makings of a great cash flow business. It’s may not a venture scale startup, but could easily do millions in revenue each year.

JUST THE TIP

The Wii Tennis Mentality 🎾

There are many legendary stories in Silicon Valley, from Steve Job’s triumphant return to Apple to Facebook’s somewhat tumultuous founding story.

But one of the most famous stories in Silicon Valley lore involves Uber founder Travis Kalanick and Wii Tennis.

As the story goes, during a holiday get-together with friends and family, Chris Sacca (legendary investor) and his father were staying with Travis when Sacca's father challenged Kalanick to "a friendly Wii Tennis match." The elder Sacca held his own against Kalanick...until the Uber executive revealed that he was actually using his weaker hand. When he switched to his better hand Kalanick didn’t lose a single point to Sacca.

Kalanick went on to bring up the global Wii tennis leaderboard where he was ranked second in the world.

That’s right, while running one of the most exciting startups in the world at the time Kalanick still managed to be a world class gamer.

Now it’s debated as to whether or not this story is really true. There doesn’t seem to be any record of Kalanick being ranked second in the world in Wii tennis but regardless, there’s still a lesson in here….