The Magic of StartupRobot

Travis Kalanik of Uber in a presentation entitled Geek’s guide to entrepreneurship, spoke about making magic in the value proposition to customers. He defined magic as having four qualities: saving Time, creating Calm, delivering Delight, and earning the customer Cash. For anyone that has used Uber we can attest to the fact they have delivered magic to their customers.

I thought, Huh. I created a business that delivers that too. Have I done a good job at communicating that to my audience?

I will describe below what we have done in two years to create magic for our customers.

Time

Before we started, the typical time people took to register their business was about 4 weeks. The Companies Office says it takes 7 days, but what they mean is that it take seven days for you to get a response from the companies office on the registration. Usually you do not get the feedback on your application until the day of or after they asked you to come back to pick up your certificate. So customers would hear “Would you like your rejection letter with an envelope?”

Some customers may say, “Oh. Okay. with an envelop, please.” accepting their fate with poise and grace.

Others respond with a little more fire. “What the hell will I do with a rejection letter? That is not why I left home from 5am this morning. There will come a time when machines will take your jobs and I will be there to laugh in your face!”

StartupRobot has saved 190 entrepreneurs around 1710 hours in runaround time. Our typical delivery time has been around is about 5 days and we’ve saved about 760 trips and kept about 1.35 metric tons of Carbon Dioxide out of the atmosphere, contributing positively to climate change.

Calm

Fear and turmoil typically comes from the unknown. We let our customers know what the process of registering a business entails and give regular updates and information in preparation for the registration certificate. This limits the anxiety the user would feel in their interaction with us.

We interface with government. In a developing country this is not always predictable, but because we get the information ahead of the customer and know what to look out for, we know how the delivery date of the certificate will be affected. We keep our clients aware ahead of time.

It helps the customer’s peace of mind when we know what we are doing and what to expect.

In providing peace of mind we go even further: if the business doesn’t make money within the first two years, our package includes closing down your business for you.

Delight

When we tell an entrepreneur their business registration is ready, we accompany with a picture of their certificate which we send through Whatsapp, we include a list of the contacts that will get them their company stamp, bank account, website and business cards. They are able to see opportunities in the papers for registered business Their bank officer calls them to tell them they qualify for vouchers for technical assistance. They are able to get a Tax Compliance Number for less tax payments than they thought. They are not only delighted, they feel empowered.

Cash

Our customers earn cash because of their interactions with us because we can point them to finance options and help them in promoting their business.

We also help customers save cash on their tax bill because we help them understand their tax obligations through conversations and show them the cost savings of filing early. We also set up the tax filing process that makes it easy for the customer to file and finally we send reminders for filings so they can get it done.

Conclusion

When describing a product to a customer, try to define the qualities of magic in what you deliver. For example:

StartupRobot saves you time to register your business, keep track of tax obligations and qualify for financial opportunities.

Please share in the comments how you use magic to describe your business.