My Role

• Co-Founder

• Operations

• Finances

• Design Director

• Branding
  

The Challenge 

After gaining initial traction and market validation, we had to quickly and efficiently test elements of our business model. We had limited funds and limited time to develop a minimum viable product and test our marketing channels to understand our cost structure. Our goal was to build a highly scalable company that could solve the pain of moving.

The Solution

We produced our minimum viable product (MVP) which included a web based app that utilized combinations of existing code to allow transactions and bookings to happen autonomously. This made it possible for us to operate the business at a local scale and focus on customer acquisition of both movers and those who needed help moving.

During the ten months of this project I oversaw daily operations and managed a small team responsible for design, development and marketing. Additionally, I was responsible for the company's finances (budgeting, expense tracking, P&L, and projections), fundraising (pitch deck creation, business concept, investor relations), and business strategy.  

To get additional help, we worked with an experiential marketing class at UCSB to test marketing channels and gain traction with our target customer—college students who needed help moving at the end of the school year. These students were influential in getting Next Mover’s initial traction. 

We utilized analytics and questionnaires to track which channel was working best and enable us to help us quantify the cost of acquisition per marketing channel. This included digital as well print and physical marketing materials. Our marketing and outreach gained local and national attention including an article in Fast Company. 

The team and I were meticulous about using evidence when making decisions. Whether we were deciding on pricing or the color of buttons in our app, we tested and collected data to influence our decision. Our goal was to run a four-month test to help determine if this business could operate at scale.
 

Results

We successfully accomplished over 100 moves in a two month time period and had happy customers. It was clear that we had product market fit as we solved a strong need for both our customers and the movers.  

However, we did not have a business model fit. Having a double-sided business model with two customers, the movers and those who needed help moving, proved to produce a high cost of acquisition.  Additionally, other business costs such as insurance proved to be very high, and ultimately eroded our margins. 

A realization we came to was that a successful business model in the sharing economy space would need to either be a service that demanded high recurring  frequency at a low cost (Lyft) or low recurring frequency at a high cost (Airbnb). The frequency of which a user need to move was very low and the price they were willing to pay for such a service was also low, hence a failed business model. We also found that when our customers were making a decision to use our service for local moves, Next Mover was being compared to renting a Uhaul as opposed to a full fledged moving company, hence the lower value they applied to our service.  

We tested several other market segments—value propositions such as delivery—but ultimately found that this business was not scalable and were able to close it down before we burned through all of our funding. While Next Mover was ultimately not a successful company,  we provided valuable insights regarding the emerging sharing economy and was learning experience for me.