Transcript
On Demand Economy
Business Model
101
J ug g er n a u t
Contents
Introduction
What is On Demand Economy?
Contours of the Business Model
Scheduled vs Instant
Marketplace/aggregated vs integrated supply
Choice vs Anonymity
Standardized vs Non-standardized product/service offering
Revenue Model
What makes Juggernaut different?
Clients
INTRODUCTION
The world is at the herald of a new era, one where we’re witnessing the dawn of
a revolution, much less a phenomenon, oft-known as the On Demand Economy.
Uber is one of the torchbearers when it comes to showing the potential of the On
Demand Economy.
What made Uber’s concept revolutionary was its comprehensive treatment starting from aggregating the supply - hailing the cabs - payment and reviews rather
than dealing with just one aspect of the taxi hailing experience.
If you are looking to create something that can be described as an “Uber for X”,
more often than not you will be attempting an online-offline integration in a certain vertical. There are so many moving parts associated with the problem at
hand that more often than not key decisions have a tendency to be overlooked.
When I first came across this article, I was surprised to learn about the pace at
which mobile internet is penetrating our lifestyle, and how this development is
growing on every modern citizen i.e. netizens. ‘Instant gratification’ is no longer a
fad, but a lifestyle choice that every consumer with a smartphone (pretty much
everybody) has made, and you know what, capitalism is doing all it can to reward
this trend!
Given that many entrepreneurs are coming up with unique ideas disrupting value
chains across many established industry verticals, we wanted to draw on our
experience at Juggernaut accumulated powering On Demand Businesses from
the technology perspective to create this run down on how to conceptualise
different aspects of your business idea.
Here’s a report on how much money has on demand startups, or ‘Uber for X’
businesses, as they say, have raked in the last year. The numbers are not the only
thing that is surprising! This trend is still accelerating.
Welcome to On Demand Economy!
What is On Demand Economy?
The On-Demand Economy is defined as the economic activity created by technology companies that fulfill consumer demand via the immediate provisioning of
goods and services’ is how Mike Jaconi, Co-founder, Button puts it.
This stage for the on-demand economy is a consequence of four factors which
have facilitated the exponential growth of the visible changes in the aspirations of
an average smart consumer’s wishful commerce - technological advancements,
investor interest & access to capital, changes in consumer behavior & demand,
and new methods of supplying services. Collectively, these forces are leading a
transformation in commerce that instantly connects consumers with products and
services.
Have you finalised the contours
of the business model of your
On Demand Idea?
Let’s assume that the problem you are trying to solve falls in the broad ambit of
creating an online-offline integration. Invariably you will go on to create a solution
that leverages ubiquitous smartphones to aggregate demand and make the
supply more efficient.
“Fundamental core of almost every such solution includes closing the demand
aggregation loop by leveraging fluid capacity.”
But, there can be multiple business models revolving around the overarching
concept.
ON DEMAND BEAUTY
ON DEMAND MEAL DELIVERY
A. You can conceive a platform
whereby you are enabling the
customers to book vetted freelancers
who are contracted by the platform,
like GlamSquad and Stylebee or,
A. You can conceive of a platform
where you have a backend kitchen
that cooks a choice of meals everyday
and your logistics team does the
delivery, like SpoonRocket or,
B. You are enabling the customers to
select from an aggregated list of
freelancers in a marketplace of sorts,
like Priv and TheStylisted or,
B. You are sourcing meals from 3-4
restaurants in the area and delivering
them or,
C. You are aggregating salons in the
area in a marketplace and enabling
the customers to select a salon and
book appointments before hand like
StyleSeat
C. You create a marketplace for the
end users to show the menus of
restaurants in the area and your
logistics team handles the delivery
from any restaurant.
These stark and many other subtle differences in how you enable your end
customers and service providers can very well be the difference between a platform that attains liquidity and the one that doesn’t. The choice of the business
model can depend on the vertical you are operating in, cultural nuances of the
geography you are starting from and whether you are bootstrapping or backed
by VC war chests.
Let’s deep dive further into how to make these choices.
Scheduled vs Instant Delivery Model
One common misconception goes on to equate On Demand model with instant.
Instant (15-45 minutes reckoning time) and scheduled can be equally viable business options, one more suited for a particular situation than the other.
If you analyze these services/products - Taxis - Fast food/ Meal Delivery - Groceries - Massage/Beauty - Laundry - Courier Delivery - as we move from left to right
the scheduled delivery model starts becoming more and more viable. In addition
to the nature of demand that you are aggregating the logistics of the supplier side
infrastructure should also be taken into account while zeroing in on the exact
model. Unless you are already in the space, in which case you are just adding the
technology layer above the business model to aggreagate demand, the economics of instant delivery/servicing the demand are a lot different as compared to its
scheduling counterpart.
Instant gratification model puts a lot of pressure on your servicing infrastructure
because of the unpredictable demand. The tactics like surge pricing and complicated prediction models can only go thus far but they can never compete with
exactly knowing your demand, a luxury available in case of scheduling. That
being said, many On Demand instant startups are already functional. VC War
chests are betting on the potential and supporting them in the initial stages till the
point they achieve economies of scale.
In a nutshell, the choice should be guided by how the end customers want to
consume the services and whether the business model is creating enough value
for the service providers to offset headaches of instant delivery.
Marketplace/aggregated suppliers vs
integrated supply/contracted individuals
Second thing you will need to decide while brainstorming is whether you want the
aggregated demand to be serviced by loosely bound suppliers or contractual
service providers. For interactions to happen in the on demand marketplaces,
both buyers and sellers should be able to see continuous additional value. While
in the latter case the marketplace becomes one sided and the onus of funding the
supply side during the growth phase lies on you.
Irrespective of what your vision is for the long term business model it will also be
useful if we see the evolution of this particular aspect during the phase when the
startup is trying to establish liquidity in the marketplace. You can treat the platform
as a one sided problem during the initial phase, irrespective of the model you
employ. This can be done by artificially pumping the supply. In any case faking the
supply is easier as your platform can mean a new non committal way to make
additional money. But organic demand often requires quality supply and trust to
develop which takes time and a lot of effort as you come up with iterations changing those small things that were not obvious earlier. In addition, even if your long
term vision is to aggregate supply as well, some contracted service providers can
help you keep tabs on the quality of service and ensure that you never have to
turn down the demand.
Choice vs Anonymity
Irrespective of whether you go ahead with aggregated or integrated supply, one
design choice, that is a part of business model, is giving the end users the ability
to select the service provider vs the user being reliant on the platform for the best
possible match. This choice at some levels can depend on the vertical that you
are operating in but there are many ingenious ways of going in either direction
irrespective of the vertical.
As a rule of thumb, higher the differential in service or product quality from one
choice to another, say a marketplace for on-demand beauty solutions/beauticians,
a user choice for service provider is more likelier to work vs an Uber type
approach.
Another similar example could be a marketplace for freelance professionals, such
as on ODesk or Elance or Freelancer.com, wherein the user makes the choice of
end service provider, subject to platforms’ ability to predict user needs with help
of parameters like ratings, hours worked, recommendations etc.
On the contrary, with services like uber which promise a singular service, say taxi
in this case, shall fulfill customer needs best by matching them to drivers driven by
algorithms.
From operational perspective, optimized matching increases the efficiency of
supplier side infrastructure. But you might need to invest more in training and
vetting the supply.
Standardized vs Non-standardized product
or service offering
‘Choose the car type; hail the car’ - Uber pretty much nailed it when it comes to
standardizing the service offering. Streamlined user experience which doesn’t
demand a lot of your cognitive bandwidth is one of the important factors behind
acceptance of these vertically differentiated On demand marketplaces. This
doesn’t imply On Demand marketplace in every vertical translates to a straightforward standardisation. The challenges arise when you go out of the ambit of fixed
price (based on certain parameters), fixed time services.
A good way to look at it is whether you are offering a commoditized or non-commoditized service/product. For commoditized services there are only few variables that can vary and the user experience should reflect that. While others such
as specific home services, renting out apartments involve deliberating over
number of variables. This is one of the reasons AirBnB focusses on search and
discovery while Uber focusses on seamless transactions and automatic matching.
Number of variables at times also require an open channel between the supplier
and the buyer during the selection phase.
One recent pivot relevant to this discussion is Task Rabbit changing its business
model from an eBay type auction house to an Uber type model focussed on standardised offerings in multiple verticals. The discussion about how the London
experiment led to changing the face of how TaskRabbit works across geographies, exemplifies the importance of right model needed to sustain even the marketplaces that have already attained liquidity.
Revenue Model
Moving away from a comparative analysis of figuring out the business model, lets
touch on the general monetization model to conclude the discussion as you or
the investors need to make money someway or the other to keep the platform
alive.
“Five years ago, Andrew Parker of Spark Capital published a now well-known post
highlighting the different startups attacking different parts or services of Craigslist
entitled the Spawn of Craigslist. Then in December 2012, former Spark analyst
David Haber updated the chart further expanding the list of companies to more
than 80.”
CB Insights recently published this analysis, concluding that they have raised
$8.87bn in funding till date. The list included only 2 mobile first On Demand Marketplaces - Uber and Lyft at that time. In another recent analysis (Oct.’14) of Vertical
On Demand, mobile first based Marketplaces, the number was $1.46 billion in last
4 quarters excluding Uber’s $1.2 billion funding.
The basis of investors cozying up to the idea lies in the monetization potential of
the concept. The business model of Uber, and in turn, Uber for X startups will
have you as a platform owner owning every transaction. This puts you in a vantage position to charge what would have earlier gone to the middleman while
providing the said services more conveniently, with a small or no markup in costs
to the end customers.
How every transaction is being monetized may vary from one implementation/vertical to another. Instacart adds a small markup to every grocery item you buy,
while Eaze charges dispensaries for every lead that it brings their way.
Having figured out an appropriate business model, one needs to take the product/service, to a product market fit, wherein consumer feedback is taken into
account, along with emerging market forces and the product/service is tweaked
to create a better customer experience. This invariably requires an MVP.
Stakes have never been larger. This is a good time that you stop sitting on your
ideas and bring them to life.
If you get struck on the next step - TECHNOLOGY - drop us a line for some
insights on that front.
Juggernaut helps you deal with
these choices.
These days, every on-demand business must see technology as a crucial part of
their business process, since customers demanding instant gratification are being
aggregating online either through smartphones or web.
The variations in the business model based on the verticals, geography and monetary consideration imply that a straight jacket or clone based approach is unsustainable for high growth startups. But this doesn’t imply that every entrepreneur
entering this space needs to reinvent the wheel as far as technology is concerned.
Your key focus should be on the business side of things - planning for liquidity and
ensuring premium experience for all the stakeholders.
How is Juggernaut different?
When we started Juggernaut 12 months ago we wanted to create a unique value
proposition for entrepreneurs seeking help on the technology aspect while looking to create an On Demand solution.
As that quest matures, we have grown to undertake a more strategic role whereby we are working as extension of teams for both enterprise clients and high
growth startups.
Today we power On Demand Platforms.
We’ve the combined expertise of executing technology products for businesses
ranging from on demand food delivery, beauty solutions, taxi and laundry, car
wash and cannabis delivery, etc.
Why Partner with us?
A strategic approach built to understand your vision and delineate the business
model in a collaborative manner. Your knowledge and grasp of the opportunity
and the niche and our understanding of on demand technology is then transformed
into a product that fuels your quest to create a disruptive force.
we help you build
leveraging
while ensuring you
On Demand and Marketplace Platforms that
are in sync with your Business Model
Existing Technology Blocks
Burn 3 times less CASH
Take 2 times less TIME than expected
SUCCEED in 1st attempt at the
technology product
Our Secret Sauce
MODULES
CUSTOM
SOLUTIONS
We’ve built a robust IP using modules/components that are basic to all on-demand
businesses, & they’re customized to suit your business model.
CUSTOMER APP
SIGN UP
FIELD APP
DASHBOARD
ANALYTICS
SCHEDULER
PROMO
MATCHING
$
TECHNOLOGY
NOTIFICATION
Node.js
Web Services
layer
TRACKING
PAYMENT
REVIEW
Native Apps
iOS/Android
AngularJS
Frontend Web
Dashboard
MongoDB
Non SQL
Database
Clients
If you don’t believe us, take a look at our list of clients, who’ve worked with us
and have gone on to achieve
MiniLuxe
MiniLuxe is a beauty salon chain for self care services, which has been successfully running in Boston area for the last seven years. They wanted to enter the
smart world through their Manicure and Pedicure services. They teamed up with
Juggernaut to create a web admin portal and mobile application for technicians
and customers. This packable for on demand beauty service allowed the customers to book appointments and technicians to accept as well as provide the service. MiniLuxe has received $23 million in a new round of funding for showcasing promising future.
Bite Kite
Bite Kite app is ‘Uber for Meal Delivery’ in Massachusetts. This Startup was commenced with the objective to deliver fresh and healthy food within 20 minutes.
They connected with Juggernaut to create an on demand solution that would
enable busy Users to order food from the pre-decided menu, track the location of
the delivery man and make easy payments via Stripe. On the other hand, the
solution also equipped the delivery personnel as well as Admin to provide the
best experience to their customers.
Smokeio
Project X Inc. wanted to transform the way people were searching, locating and
acquiring Medical Marijuana and other related products. Juggernaut helped them
create Smokeio™, a proprietary Mobile App and Technology Platform that allows
Users to conveniently find, spot and contact Marijuana delivery and storefront
businesses, with real-time delivery, driver identification features and and in-store
order scheduling. On the Dispensaries’ side, the solution provides multiple features to interact and validate the medical status and other details of a Marijuana
User, prior to the transaction.
Jugnoo
Jugnoo is an on-demand Auto Rickshaw booking solution for both Passengers
and Drivers, successfully operating in Punjab (India). Passengers can enjoy a fast,
affordable and reliable auto rides in couple of clicks. And Drivers can increase
their income and customer base conveniently. The app offers features like easy
auto booking, profile of driver and passenger, legit auto fare, feedback and rating
options, etc.
THANK YOU
WE’D LOVE TO GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER
Let’s explore how we can together
create the next big ‘disruption’
Drop us a line at
Email :
[email protected]
Call : +1 984-664-2355
Website : nextjuggernaut.com