19A - Idea Napkin No. 2

1. You

• My name is Blake, and I consider myself to be a good negotiator, a quick learner, and a fairly experienced entrepreneur for my age, because I have been running my sneaker business on the side since 2012. One day, I want to own my own successful business with a loyal client base. I believe this opportunity I have found will suffice, because I have conducted a considerable amount of research and have taken tons of constructive feedback.

2. What are you offering to customers?

• Keeping your household clean, especially when living with roommates in a college town, can become a real hassle if the work is not evenly split. My solution is an app that would coordinate chores and cleaning amongst a group of roommates through an algorithm that considers their preferences. This way, all roommates will have at least one chore to take turns doing, so all of the chores won't fall into one person's schedule. Furthermore, if you input specific preferences, the algorithm will try to prioritize chores you like (or don't hate) over ones you don't.

3. Who are you offering it to?

• I believe college students aged 18-24 would comprise the primary demographic of my target market. I say this, because college students are more than likely living with roommates, and there is a fairly high chance that these roommates are random. Random roommates are notorious for not caring what their other roommates think, which creates the problem I am trying to solve. I believe big cities with expensive rent would also fall under my target market, because people often split rent costs with their friends and family. Finally, the app could be used in family households with children or teens as a way to motivate them to keep up with their chores. This app would likely benefit a number of these people.

4. Why do they care?

• I believe the unique algorithm I plan to use within my app will make the difference between it being a free app versus a paid one. Through my research, there is no similar app that will take into account one's chore preferences and use this information to tailor them simple household chores. This shows that maids and cleaning services make up the majority of my competition, yet my service is a bit more unique since it requires the user's effort. I only plan on charging a one-time fee for the app, rather than a monthly bill, which would likely scare customers off.

5. What are your core competencies?

• The solution to my problem has never been tested before, meaning that if my app worked then I could expect my target market to assist in my marketing simply through word-of-mouth. Furthermore, during my time here at UF I have made connections with potential investors who likely also feel strongly about having a clean house. Lastly, I have a blog filled with research on how my opportunity might actually pan out in the market.

Evaluation

• I believe most of these elements fit together well enough for me to turn my opportunity into reality. Not only do I think my target market is substantial, but I also believe people would have a valid reason paying for my app, since it is such a unique service. I think the weakest aspect of my opportunity is the fact that it requires effort amongst an entire group of roommates; if people were not on-board with chores and housework before, why would an app change this? I still need to conduct plenty more research and hypotheses in order to establish my brand, but I am pretty confident that my idea could be successful in this day and age.

Feedback Memo

• I received a few comments on my previous idea napkin, and I tried my best to incorporate this feedback into this idea napkin. One of the main takeaways from my feedback was that I should keep my service how it is in terms of pricing: a one-time fee. The next main takeaway I got was that there is another part of my target market that would get great use out of my service: family households who are trying to teach their kids the value of chores and cleaning. I added this information into their respective parts of my napkin, where I agree that they belong.