Web Company: Step 1
As many of you know, I have been working on a little project called MyBigGive. The basic principle behind it is relatively simple, but the execution has been a very interesting process. From heart throb to headache, this site has certainly evolved from the spark it was originally into something more meaningful, full of value and has a much more ambitious end goal. The point here is to help those who are either going through a similar process, or plan on attempting to dive into the water of a web based start-up.
First, a quick synopsis on MyBigGive (MBG) of the purpose and drive behind the whole site. First and foremost, MyBigGive aims to be an alternative for shoppers who care to help out a cause but aren’t necessarily willing and/or capable to give extra dollars away to a charity. Or perhaps, as is the case for many customers so far; MBG offers a supplemental way to support the causes that we all know and love in a way that is easy but still still adds value to the process. This works by utilizing performance based agreements (affiliate marketing) for the vendor list to provide a commission without adding to the cost of the transaction. This process is incentivized to the user by a known entity (in this case a charity benefactor) that they are able to choose from in order to “pledge” their support for the upcoming round of payouts.
In essence MBG socializes the shopping experience online for both the votes of the public, but as well as investing in community services and helping out those who are less fortunate for a variety of reasons. This idea of community is what will most likely drive the sustainable growth of future web based businesses and with any luck, MBG will have the opportunity to be an adapted voice for Corporate social responsibility on the grand scale and build a name that consumers can trust to be rewarding both the world, and the shareholders simultaneously.
So, now that you have an overview of what constitutes MBG now we get to dive into the facets of this start-up that have been most interesting. First and foremost, as has been preached time and time again by the crew at Y Combinator and various other startup success stories is to just get something out there! While this seems simple in theory, the best thing a web creator can do is to get something out there for people to try, break and repeat. No matter how well you think you know your market, you are nearly always off the mark and require real user feedback and trials to understand what you need to bring to the site in order to make it a value added service. If there is no value, there is no service and there will be no customer base.
Secondly, when dreaming up everything a site “could be”, you should rank the features in order of importance and adjust as the trials/feedback come in for your site. Never try to launch a full-featured site all at once because it will not only make it harder to identify which variables might be turning users off, but if your customer base hates particular features you will have just sunk a lot of your resources into developing a feature that nobody wanted in the first place (perfect example: Look at the failure rates of Yahoo! projects over the last 3 years… test with your user base!)
In the next post about MBG I will be going into the value of offline and online networks, how they differ and how they can really build upon one another. A friend of mine always preaches about building a community around your product/service/company and he has a real point: Without a community, it is very difficult for your business to grow organically, and will therefore cost you a truckload more money to achieve the same sales results.
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