Ready…Set…Pivot (again )! 🙃

Comparative Business Model Canvas

Boy, has this week been a ride…

I’d like to start out by saying this might seem like a bit of a rant, and it might be. But I need it out of my system.

Last week our team, BAX, presented our concept of a matching service for either solo or group travelers who would be able to connect with locals willing to show travelers an authentic local experience in exchange for money. Sounds like a great idea? Yes! Oh but wait…isn’t that market saturated already…? Absolutely!

As dramatic as it sounds this broke my heart because

1. As a team, we had invested so much time and effort in creating two value proposition canvases, along with creating two design charettes in order to decide for this idea, and
2. I was so excited and passionate about this idea, so seeing it basically thrown away to the trash hurt a little. No, a lot.

As we came together again as a group in order to identify new directions, we agreed that group travel was still meaningful and it was worth a shot to keep it. For the next time we met we were to create a business model canvas of our market, along with four other competing markets, so we divided 1–2 BMCs per person and planned to conquer, or at least we thought…

Once we got together again, we shared our BMCs we did separately for group travel, and surprise surprise! SATURATED, again. Great. We found ourselves in a bit of a panic attack again trying to redefine our market, our value prop, and our competitors. Remember how I said we had two ideas when we first created our value proposition canvases and charettes? Well, we ended up resorting to that last idea we thought we would leave aside.

Memories.

So we rapidly researched and identified four new competitors for such market:

Google Photos allows users to upload photos or sync from their mobile devices for cloud storage, but also gives them the ability to create albums and share them with friends for collaborative collections.

Trover (now acquired by Expidia) allows users to upload and share photos of places they’ve been to as well as explore photos and places that other people have been to.

Tripcast is one of Cluster’s many apps and allows users to create groups with friends and family where they can all share photos and videos, and even see a geo-map of everything that’s been shared in their group.

Storyo allows users to upload photos and videos and then collects them together and turns them into narrative “video memories.”

And we came up with our new concept:

BAX is service for capturing and sharing photo-audio memories that helps people record immersive travel experiences.

Along with a new Value Prop:

1. Document meaningful group travel experiences
2. Capture memories of new and exciting places
3. Elicit nostalgic memories from times & places

Now, I might seem pessimistic on the memory idea we pivoted to, in regards to how I described that it was the only option we had left to go with. The reality is, I’m not! I think this idea is really interesting, considering it could bring a lot of value to our market. The thing is, we have not validated it. We also came to the conclusion that memory is associated with nostalgia, and nostalgia is associated to the senses.

The way we retain memory the most is through nostalgic experiences that include the five senses: touch, smell, sight, taste, and sound.

Currently, technology restraints only allow for memories to be captured through sight and sound: pictures and videos. What does this mean? Well, according to our critique and feedback given by our professors and peers, we have thrown ourselves into a shark tank [screams internally 🙃].

So… What to do now?

Well, one thing is for sure. Coming togther as a team, making sure that we’re all on the same page when it comes to market so that we do not pivot again, and most imprtantly, Validating out concept is critical at this point. Will team BAX move up to the next round on Startup Bloodbath? Tune in next Tuesday 10/17, 12:00PM (Pacific Time), 2:00PM (Central) to find out!