For a dating/social app what matters to users is the pool of other users. Are there enough users, etc.? and the answer is no (at this point).
I will look into the sources you shared. I have heard of The Mom Test and The Lean Product Playbook but haven't still had a chance to check them out. Will definitely do.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's good to know what all others think about our product. As you mentioned though, the final decision will be made by me and my co-founder.
My co-founder and fiancée is a veterinarian and we met on a dating app. I never had pets before meeting her. I knew nothing about the importance of pets in their owner's lives. I turned out to be a crazy cat lover as she is lol but I always wondered why there is no filter on dating apps for pets. So, that's how the idea for this app came to me. Seeing other niche apps for specially dog lovers made me realize this app needs to be broader for any type of animal lover. The pet adoption section was added to attract shelters to use the app so that they can then help us by spreading the word to their network of individuals. We also have donation programs to shelters. I think a lost/found pet alert section is a must though. An app to only have that feature is probably too small. Anyways, that's how this app has become what it is today. It started as a simple dating app idea.
Your pivoting idea and B2B niche is something I have been thinking about as well. Very good example you mentioned. I will be thinking more about it. Thanks for your honest opinion
Well, I made a lot of mistakes and am more than glad to share them here.
As I mentioned in one of my comments, after having the original idea/thought I got too excited too soon. At the time I did not know mobile or web development and so jumped on Google, did a quick search and filled some forms on some mobile app developer companies website and literally hired the first company that called me back. Then spent about $6k for just logo design, wireframe and a landing page. That stage took about 4 months and then they gave me a $50k quote for iOS and Android app. I did not have that money.
That's when I came across Upwork and posted a job there. The quotes were much lower as you may know since most of the freelancers/agencies are based outside the US. I finally hired a company from Pakistan since their CEO personally called me and kind of lured me into not only giving them the job, but also told me he is interested in the project and he could be my advisor/mentor. Again, I got excited and thought that was a great deal. That ended up being the worst experience of my whole professional life.
Their company just broke apart in the middle of the project. Cofounders parted ways and the one who contacted me (the CEO), he said that all their team members left with the other guy and took the source code for our app with them. So I had to contact the other cofounder and have them share the code with a new team that the CEO hired. It was a mess and the project was delivered poorly and way after deadline. However, in the middle of all that, I decided to learn web and mobile development. So, I took a lot of Udemy courses and watched many Youtube videos. That was I guess the only silver lining and maybe I needed to go through the whole excruciating process to get there.
Anyways, long story short, after taking loans and spending about $35k for design and development of the iOS and Android apps, I had to redo everything else myself while having my full-time engineering job (I still needed to pay bills and had just got engaged. So no way I could quit that other job). It was a lot of non-stop 15 to 18-hour workdays.
This might not have been what you asked for, but I thought I'd share part of my story :)
I appreciate your honesty, and sharing this may just save someone else from making a similar mistake with Upwork. So thank you.
Having read over this and a few other replies I would definitely say it would be worthwhile taking a step back now, don’t fall into the sunk cost fallacy and continue to burn through cash/time building things you think will help, spend a bit of time away from the keyboard, reading The Mom Test as others have suggested, it’s honestly a fantastic book, very actionable and probably won’t take you long to get through. That will put you in the right mindset for where you are in your journey and what you need to do next - which boils down to trying to validate some of your ideas, the correct way.
Finally you mention someone offering mentorship/advice, and you taking it, just be cautious with who you take advice from, the best person to take advice from is probably someone a few steps ahead of you, that means finding someone who may have just secured their very first bit of seed money as a solo/duo founding team, or an indiehacker who’s reached say $1000 MRR for a B2C app.
Yeah. Unfortunately, he caused more harm than help. I ended our relationship when I realized that he was not really the best mentor for what I started. I am going to take a step back and read some of these materials that you and others mentioned
I see what you're saying. The answer is no. I did not. I do share something with you though that this app is supposed to be for animal lovers. All that is there is related to what an animal owner or someone who is interested in animals might need and look for. Hence, the dating with the pet filter options, the adoption service, lost and found pets, etc. The original thought was that no other apps address these altogether. That's what makes this app different.
Now the question that I should have tried to investigate more is this: Do people really want all these features in a single app, or they were fine using multiple apps/websites?
Your words are encouraging. I think the app is unique in that it offers things that many other apps don't, but looking at the other comments I got here, that does not necessarily mean it is wanted or needed by the audience that it targets. I have some more thinking to do.
Your most welcome!! That is why I suggested organic marketing! No Ads Spend! It gives you the opportunity to connect with people authentically and asking questions that can add value to your business!! Have you thought about creating a FB group/community? If you don't have one already? It's a great way to engage your target audience!
We do have FB and Instagram accounts and frequently post there. I try to announce updates or changes to the app in other related FB groups too. But normally the posts in other groups are reviewed by their admins and not allowed.
I think as a first time founder, I got too excited too soon. The things that I initially spent money on were probably things that I could have done myself for a fraction of the costs. Also, being impatient and wanting to get things done quick eventually led to not doing enough research on whom I was about to work with for marketing and so on. I think it also took me longer than it should have to say NO.
I am not being defensive here. As you know, I am starting to question things too. hence this post. Just to make sure that you know my reasons:
1. Filtering based on interest in animals (and not just dog or cat)
2. I am not sure if I understand this one. What feature of the app are you referring at?
3. Do you mean dating and pet adoption? If so, we are addressing all the needs of a pet owner. We also have a lost/found pet alert. If you are a pet owner, you love your pet, you want your partner to love them and you want to find them if you lose them. You may have questions about your pets, vet recommendations, etc. So, all we are addressing in the app are related to pets and their owners.
4. The app is currently free to download and use. Revenue will be through subscriptions for dating service and ads in any section of the app. We plan to donate 10% of the revenue to shelters and rescues which is a big incentive for animal lovers.
1. Our analytics showed that there were many robot installs coming from Google Ads. That's why I added captcha and then the strange installs according to Google Ads stopped.
2. You are dating people. some people like to put their pets picture on their profile. We can't control that.
3. Filter options are set to show everyone originally. You can uncheck the "no filters". I get your point though, so I need to fix that in the next update.
4. it's an app for animal lovers. So, you can ask questions form others about vets, wildlife, find pet sitters, etc. You can select to opt in or out of dating. The pet adoption section is for mainly shelters to post their pets and our users (who are animal lovers) to see if they can find a furry friend, if they want to.
5. yeah, but we provide filter based on inerest in animals.
6. You don't have to. They are independent of each other. People who love pets are the main users of the app. It's a separate service to them. You either want someone who loves your pet as much as you do, or you want to adopt animals. You can use the app.
Most of the money we originally spent was on creating content on our website and videos on YouTube (for Youtube/Google ads). Our money spent solely for advertisement (Google ads mainly) has actually been not that much, but the ads have been focused around where we are located, and most of our users are from this area also. I like your suggestion of getting out there to a dog park or something and talk to people. We have also talked to local shelters to use the app to post their adoptable pets, but they are not super into it because we don't have enough users.
Rebranding is probably a little hard, but also sounds like a good idea that I will think about more.
Thanks for the tips
Hi. Thanks for your honest opinion. That's what I am actually looking for. So many questions and for sure I have asked all those questions from myself and through research as I started working on this idea. We switched from only a dating app for animals to a platform that tries to address most of animal-human bond related topics. We added a pet adoption board, lost and found pet instant notifications, a social section to find pet sitters, etc. Kind of all-in-one app for animal lovers. I do need to reach out to more users to see how their experience is with the app. That is a great point you made. I think what I am wondering is whether it's time to not totally stop, but like pivot our focus on something specific like re-evaluate some services that we offer in the app?
>platform that tries to address most of animal-human bond related topics
I've never had a pet, so I would not know where to start. Would the platform provide guidance for a first time pet owner, something like a Duolingo experience with achievements that takes me from making sure the pet does not die due to something that is obvious for experienced pet owners but completely alien to me?
Would the platform be open for third party experts to publish their courses for specific breeds? Say I want to have a Dobermann; this breed requires experience which I lack. Would it be possible to follow a course for exactly that breed?
Again, I'm not a user of the application and don't intend to adopt a pet so my feedback is not worth that much, but I'm curious.
