White-label - how to grow my business

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3851146

by halffinn • 14 years ago

2 2 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

we're a 8-month old company called the sharing engine (http://thesharingengine.com). we have a few paying customers, and are working hard on automating as much as possible.

the biggest challenge we're facing is learning how to scale all elements of our business - demand/lead generation, sales closing, and launch.

anyone else faced this challenge and have tips to share?

ps: anyone interested in meeting up to discuss, please let me know.

mjs00• 14 years ago

Seems like a marketing/sales strategy challenge. Here's a few thoughts about potential markets for what you've done, and how you might reach them:

Market: Profit-minded folks who want to do the next AirBnB in another vertical, but don't want to code the core of their business. Strategy: Market to entrepreneurial business/MBA types at universities nationwide to set something up at their campus for sharing among students, or sharing in their local community. (You'll probably want to help share best practices/best verticals to tackle)

Market: Existing communities where this would be a nice additive feature to add to their community (ie Mom's groups) Strategy: Ideally target platforms for communities, like BigTent for Mom's groups, then then can roll out to hundreds of communities in a vertical. Otherwise, set up key verticals (like Mom's groups) and market to them the ability to set up a sharing service for their communities (ie: Mom's groups; toys, sporting equipment, video games/movies).

Market: Businesses that would like to add the feature to engage a local community and ultimately drive leads to their core business. (Home Depot/Tools, REI/Sporting goods, etc.) Strategy: Ideally target national chain that can roll out hundreds of sharing locations around each of their stores. They will see this as a marketing initiative to build community and leads. If you can't close the big guys, target the local #2 independents in local markets to give them a differentiating tool against the local big box.

Market: Existing 'barter' exchanges ( http://www.gigafree.com/barter.html ) Strategy: Enable something new for a barter exchange; enable something new for platforms that support barter exchanges (assuming that you are doing something additive rather than competitive)

You can also look at your current customers and see if anything generalizable about them in terms of markets, then think about your entry strategy into that market.

halffinn• 14 years ago

thanks for those thoughts. your points #1 and #2 are where we've focused so far. #3 and #4 are definitely interesting ideas. really appreciate the input.

White-label - how to grow my business

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