Happy to test this in the SF community -- looking forward to meeting at least one of you next LunchTree :)
Everything about the signup seems very fluid, up to the final sms confirmation. If you could, keep us updated on stats for number of signups, geo distribution, feedback after the first couple lunches, etc. Good luck!
Yeah.. sorry for the zip code only thing. I'm certainly interested in expanding as much as possible. For now my focus is on establishing some traction in one place and finding a business/marketing co-founder.
* How do you plan to make money off of this? From your FAQ you appear self funded, and it doesn't look like there are any sort of fees attached.
* Since you're just starting out, there's a good chance that someone could sign up and not have anyone to do lunch with because everyone else is too far away. How will you handle this to further expansion?
Regarding making money - I'm not sure yet. There would be a few options - including either charging members per lunch or charging restaurants. However, I'm planning to wait and see how the service evolves before I start thinking about that too much.
The problem of signing up for lunch and not having anyone to match with is definitely something I'm trying to avoid. A couple ideas (not implemented yet) - warn people that there are very few people signed up in their area. Allow matches with 3 or 4 people (so there is not an odd man out type situation)
Have a look at startupflyer[1] which is a similar idea in hungary.
They make money by simply charging the members at the meetups.
You choose 5 people based on have/need infos.
If someone is choosen he will get notified that he should go.
not much further than some sketches and honing the process flow with a couple friends. my target audience was going to be different - that's the main diff I can see so far.
Also, why only 2 people? You could have lunch networking with 4 or even 6 or 8 people... Try it and see how it goes. Small businesses have done networking lunches/breakfasts for a long time, and often there are about 20 people around the table.
The reason that its bay area only is that I want to make sure things are working smoothly before I expand. I really want to avoid a situation where people are signing up and then not getting matched for lunch or having a bad experience. A secondary point is that I need a good source of free restaurant data. A lot of the APIs out there are pretty restrictive and I'm not sure of the best solution yet.
I definitely like the idea of lunch with 3 or 4 people. I'm not sure about 6 or 8 but open to the possibility. 2 is just for simplicities sake - as this gets started.
Awesome! I was thinking of something like this last year but on a bit of a 'I want to meet somebody right now' scale. I'd use this if I didn't end up moving away form the bay area. Good luck!
Minor note: On the "Connect with friends & colleagues" screen, you might want to explain why I should give your site access to my linkedin/facebook/twitter accounts.
Everything about the signup seems very fluid, up to the final sms confirmation. If you could, keep us updated on stats for number of signups, geo distribution, feedback after the first couple lunches, etc. Good luck!