
Testing Your Uber for X Idea Without Spending a Dime - Routible
Since Uber was introduced to the universe, there has been countless attempts at creating the next Uber for X.<p>Some blew up to be unicorns, some fell flat.  DoorDash, Instacart are a few that become unicorn Uber for X ideas. The market determines if the Uber for X idea adds value and votes with their dollars.<p>Testing an Uber for X idea doesn&#x27;t have to cost a lot.  Before you write one line of code, you need to see if there is a demand for your service.<p>Can you get customers that are willing to pay you for the service?
On demand cannabis delivery, furniture delivery, dog walking are some examples that come to mind for Uber for X ideas.<p>Put ads online, social media, try to sell to friends and family.  Create a simple Google&#x2F;WuFoo form where people can sign up for your service and pay.<p>If you can&#x27;t get customers, get better at marketing or test another Uber for X idea.<p>When you do get your first customers, provide the service without having an elaborate software setup and routing algorithm, it&#x27;s not needed at this point.<p>When you are getting overwhelmed with with paying customers requesting your service, now is the time to think about implementing technology to help you scale the idea.<p>Now you could develop software and try to raise money, but this may take a while.  There is an easier way.  Rather than develop software, use an off the shelf solution that can optimize driver routes and send appointments to drivers on their mobile device.<p>The software may not be custom to your specific use case, but it will allow you to service customers more efficiently, NOW.<p>In the background, you can start adding features to the existing out of the box solution.  The market doesn&#x27;t care what is happening in the background, they want the service, and they want it now.
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smt88
This is not good advice, and I hope that inexperienced entrepreneurs reading
it will not follow it. There's a reason "Uber for X" has gone from something
on a lot of slide shows to something of a joke.

Here's why:

1) There's always going to be demand for "Uber for X" as long as the price is
low enough. Your experiments will almost always show a demand of hundreds or
thousands of people.

The problem that 100% of these companies have is that they can't become
profitable at a price customers are willing to pay. Uber, the original, isn't
even close to profitable.

2) You shouldn't enter a business where you have zero competitive advantage.
If you can use open-source software and ad networks, so can anyone else. Any
business you enter with as low barriers to entry as this is going to become a
race to the bottom.

3) There is no way to bootstrap something like this. It's capital-intensive by
its nature, which requires massive economies of scale.

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Routible
Cool video on how Door Dash started.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQOC-qy-
GDY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQOC-qy-GDY)

Uber is worth 55B today.

~~~
smt88
Uber's valuation has more to do with the Ponzi scheme of VC -> IPO, the
irrationality of investors, and breaking the law than to a solid business.

Also, startup advice based on once-in-a-generation outliers is not good
advice.

