business-plan, business-model, strategyI’m considering the possibility of starting a local “Uber for Gourmet Food” app and was wondering if i should even pursue it or not because UberEats may possibly enter the market.
But here’s why i think we have a chance of co-existing:
Affordable - Gourmet Menu - Delivered < 30min to select affluent neighborhoods.
1- The city I want to launch this in, is the capital of a 2nd-world country, where only a few months ago Uber just illegally and successfully launched.
2 - We offer a different caliber of product in a different way. How? We’re not trying to create a supply network of existing restaurants (offering various quality and price )
We’re exclusively focusing on creating 3 five-star dishes ( in-house, powered by famous gourmet chefs).
3 - We are Boutique. Not Mass Market. We intimately understand the tastes of our affluent niche.
*ironically, we are considering using UBer for our deliveries..just to test out the MVP.
First, focusing on a specific niche is key to building the foundation of a successful company. Facebook focused on Harvard students, and then grew from there. I think if you focus on a customer group that you know a lot about, you can better serve those customers that UberEats ever could.
Secondly, don’t worry about competition. As long as you are doing something that provides value to your customers, you will be heading in the right direction. If Uber was worried about taxis they wouldn’t have started. What is important is that you provide value. You never know, tommorrow Uber could shut down uber eats. Duckduckgo is thriving because they serve a different customer base than Google. I had the pleasure of talking to a well know tech investor that thinks there is actually an opportunity for Google to be superseded as the #1 search engine. Google is now in the advertising space and in some cases doesn’t provide the best product anymore for some people (myself included).
Finally and most importantly, sales should be your ultimate validation. The guys at AirBnB were laughed at for their idea. But it booked a lot of rentals. If you get people to say they like your idea with actual money, you should be ok.
Before moving any further, you should answer a couple of questions to yourself.
Is your idea/solution any different from the existing one? If yes, by what magnitude?
Most probably, your idea might be different from the existing one, and that's the reason you're thinking about further developing it into a product and hence are asking related questions. But the second question is more significant to answer. That is, how much different your solution is? How is it better than the conventional way?
Your solution or product should be at least 10x better than the existing option. Else, it doesn't make sense and would eventually fail, because you would simply get into an unnecessary competition with that company/startup, without a chance to win. Your goal is surely to build a monopoly, because that's where all the money and fame lies.
Remember that if your solution is a mere update of someone else's idea, he would soon update his to incorporate your idea, and you'll fall straight on your nose.
The best example to this is the rivalry between Google search engine with Microsoft's Bing and DuckDuckGo. I don't need to explain the rest.
If you have a really better solution, go for it! Else, consider rethinking your idea rather than wasting your resources.
Note: The post above is based upon the concepts explained by Peter Thiel, Co-Founder of PayPal and Facebook Investor. If you need more info, checkout his book Zero to One. It's absolutely a must read for all entrepreneurs!
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