People generally do not like public restrooms. According to my best friend, women more so then men. We stand –n- spray, women, well you get the point.
Now imagine a company called Fresh as a Daisy. They have a chain of clean restrooms in your town, GPS located, etc. Plus they have franchise/satellite locations in popular places like Borders (hint: I got this blog post idea in the Borders Bookstore located in Oxnard California. Somebody with a mop? Anybody? Yowsa…).
You pay 10 bucks a month for access to these private bathrooms with live attendants, etc, so the places are eat of the floor spotless. Sorry for the visual.
Everybody says they hate the pig pen type bathrooms, everybody says they want clean restrooms, etc.
Nobody would pay for this.
They expect it as part of retail experience. In fact, when you gotta go and you head into the nearby Starbucks, you don’t care about the triple vanilla, de-cafe, venti, mocha, latte, you care about toilet paper and getting on with the rest of your day.
My point of this post is as you are building your start up, watch for the pay trap.
The idea can be killer, people will high five you, etc. But will they pay? Does the problem you are solving have money anywhere in it?
[Random Idea file: Somebody should build a simple bathroom rating app for the mobile device. Central server, linked into Google maps, etc. People rate the bathrooms and, over time, you have all this integrated into a nice db so when you gotta go, that mobile device on your hip/in your purse tells you where the closest clean one is. Maybe no money, but nice public service.]
RE: Random Idea...
Bet you wouldn't fund it, no money it in ;-)
However if you want to have a laugh about bathrooms rent the movie "Kenny". It's recession proof.
Posted by: Peter Cranstone | July 13, 2009 at 23:12
This has been done a few times already. The first link I came across was this one.
http://www.geekyhousewife.com/2009/05/18/sitorsquat-ipod-app/
Not sure if they did a blackberry version. Or have you made the full switch to fanboy ;)?
Posted by: Pete Field | July 13, 2009 at 23:31
You might want to check out the Have2P app on iPhone as well. Beside that one, there's dozens of others.
Posted by: Wendell | July 13, 2009 at 23:57
yeah, there's a surprise, there are a ton of these out there. Thanks for stopping by Pete/Wendell.
>R<
Posted by: Rick Segal | July 14, 2009 at 00:17
not a bad idea, but i do think indeed that it's a tough buck to get out of people. Instead you can do a few very simple things:
http://thebetastartup.com/2008/02/05/reflections-toiletry/
Posted by: Petar Petrov | July 14, 2009 at 04:17
Interesting thought. To monetize, perhaps ask for a donation and a review of a public bathroom? Make a wiki and sell ads. Start as a public service and advertise your latest book by giving a short reading selection. For use in the bathroom. Finally a case for micropayments. SMS location to phone after a 900 number call. Come on there must be a way to "service" the ladies. :-) Profitably?
Posted by: reinkefj | July 14, 2009 at 08:50
Ah, there's another meaning to PaaS :-)
Posted by: Zoli Erdos | July 14, 2009 at 14:17
rick, this is funny, i actually own http://www.tolietfinder.com/ -- i accidentally made a typo with toilet. Was meant to be a joke domain name/code name for another venture. =)
toiletfinder.com is for sale for 750 min bid i think.
I'll sell the missed spelled version for $7500 for a limited time only.... =P
Posted by: Albert Lai | July 14, 2009 at 14:29
Fresh like this?
http://om.ly/?rYe
:-)
Posted by: Zoli Erdos | July 14, 2009 at 22:47
Great post. Check out Sit or Squat. It is exactly what you were talking about, nice little app.
http://www.sitorsquat.com
Posted by: Andrew Lockhart | July 15, 2009 at 15:13
Two things...
1) I would definitely pay for this. But I'm a lot like George Costanza/Larry David when it comes to public restrooms.
2) Jon Corzine is a horrible governor who we New Jersey residents can't wait to see get the boot... why are you carrying ads for him in your RSS feed? :)
Posted by: Josh Einstein | July 19, 2009 at 16:28
Rick,
That is an interesting point that you raise. will they pay for it? Companies in denial = eternal betas.
Many startups are afraid to ask. Will someone take their credit card and swipe it for what I have built?
Fix a real problem
Do you fix a real problem. - Real problems aren't can I find a starbucks, or what song is playing or where can I poo.....those aren't real. What is real ?
Does your product save time? Can I eliminate a job because of your software? Can I put through more orders? Can I reduce my electricity bill, Does your *it* make my process X % more efficient? LEss errors? Quantifiable benefits.
One thing that I have learned thus far in my startup career. People don't buy mamby pamby benefits. Technology buyers want numbers ....If you can build those numbers ... it makes it easier to justify price as you can lay it against the ROI.
For the record we charged from day one. We believed that our product provided tangible benefits to our clients. Our first client was from Arizona and continues to pay for and use the service to this day. Why? He could put through 1/3 more work. Projects finished on average 10 days quicker. There was a double digit reduction in rework due to miscommunications. He can invoice quicker.
By understanding those metrics it makes it very easy for us to make the case to prospective clients. "Look at these guys, they are similar to your company ....here is what they saved .... you plug in your numbers."
So fix a real problem is step one. Well thought out UI design is step 2. Step 3: Added Chutzpah Step 4: bobs yer uncle
Cheers
Scott @ ConceptShare
Posted by: Scott Brooks | July 23, 2009 at 13:49