I hate running out of toothpaste, and you probably do too!
Every month or so, I use up all of my toothpaste, and have to run out to the store to pick some more up. This annoys me every time - toothpaste is NOT an impluse buy!
I mean, I've used the same brand for a decade. I brush my teeth twice a day. Clearly, toothpaste (and all of my other toiletries) is something I shouldn't have to worry about - it should just appear in my bathroom when needed!
My startup pitch is this:
A service that would, once a month, deliver by mail ALL of your needed toiletries - toothpaste, shampoo, shaving cream, deodorant, soap, etc. These would be the products you use normally - Old Spice, Colgate, Gillette, etc. The prices would be equal to, or often less than the store prices.
The response was overwhelming - 81.2% of respondents said that they would subscribe to the email list if Deals for Hackers existed.
So, keeping with my Customer Development approach, I'm now going to try to close 5 deals. These should be deals that the Hacker community cares about - books, tech conferences, gear, cool startup stuff, etc.
If you subscribe to the list (and please do), you'll start to receive deals if and when I can close them.
Totally agreed - I think that books will be a big part of the service. Wholesale books aren't too expensive when bought in bulk, and the savings can be passed on to users / customers.
What about "International Edition" textbooks? For example, the site could offer an international edition of a textbook for 1/10 the cost of the US edition. The International Edition textbooks are paperback, and of lower quality, but contain the same information, and are MUCH cheaper.
Great idea regarding the consultants. I'm sure there are a ton of consultants who would be happy to work with startups for cheap, in order to build long-term relationships.
AppSumo is great, and there would certainly be some crossover between the two services.
However, DealsForHackers would focus on a wider range of offerings, beyond just software. Think discounted conference tickets, hardware discounts, hacker food (whatever that means), etc.
HIGH LEVEL PITCH: DealsForHackers.com is a daily deals site for the hacker / startup crowd. (Groupon meets TechCrunch).
This is a concept I'm taking a pure Customer Development approach with - if I get enough people to say that they'd be interested in the concept, I'll move forward to the prototyping / initial deal gathering phase.
Why the new / anonymous account? My boss and co-workers read HackerNews constantly, and I'd prefer that they don't know I'm thinking about starting my own thing.
I'd love to know what the community thinks about this!