

Finding the right business model - Apane

Hey folks!<p>So I have a new Startup that makes it easier for people to find the right venue for their event. It could be for your wedding, cocktail party, get-together, business conference etc... The development of the application is 90% complete, and I&#x27;m not in search of a viable business model. One option one would be to charge companies&#x2F;venues a subscription fee i.e $8&#x2F;mo to be on the website but I would probably have to show a monthly user&#x2F;viewer-count, which doesn&#x27;t exist yet. Another option, is to charge them per-lead.<p>I could certainly use some help here - open to all ideas! Doesn&#x27;t matter how wacky, outhere they are.<p>Thanks!
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taprun
You're facing the classic problem of a two sided market! The site won't be
valuable to seekers without lots of venues and won't be valuable to venues
without lots of seekers.

I'd suggest starting with a narrow niche (like music venues in Boston). Make
it free for seekers AND free for venues. When you get more of each, you can
offer premium features to venues like highlighting their results, better
rankings and more information.

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Apane
taprun, thanks - I like the idea of offering premium features i.e. allowing
the venues to become "sponsored", or "preferred" etc.. I suppose the metric I
have to track and optimize atm is getting venues to sign-up as you mentioned.
Cheers!

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Apane
Lead generation feels much more viable, imho (and likely far more lucrative).
You are venturing into a very crowded space, but I would suggest taking a
long, hard look at Thumbtack.com - they have done an outstanding job.

