Beep Beep Interviews!

The Beep Beep team had the opportunity to interview two people from two different parts of the world, where people use cars on a regular basis.  The results are surprising! Both responses were actually extremely similar. Take a look at the questions and responses:

What we found interesting is that both users didn't seem interested in money as a motivator in sharing information about when they were leaving a parking spot.  However, they were interested in sharing for free as part of a community user on the mobile application.  This was interesting to us because our original business model included users posting spots for a profit as a motivator, but we have since switched because of research of failed companies getting shut down by the local municipality.  Though this is a very small sample size, this further strengthens are reasons to make a free model using "gamification".

Also, both users had the same to say about their driving patterns.  Usually to and from work, Monday through Friday.  They both paid for parking because of both safety and convenience, and paying for street parking wasn't something that they would be very interested in. They also suggested to include payed parking, as sometimes it's also hard to find those too.

These interviews are a good basis for simplifying our questions for the general public survey that we will be putting together in the coming weeks.

Lastly, stay tuned for our next blog post with Ian McCarthy, a visiting professor at the Rotterdam School of Management who is based out of Vancouver, Canada.  He teaches an operations management course and is one of the biggest advocates of the new genre of "gamification".  It will be very interesting to hear his input on how we would like to make our real-world added value application a game!

Back to the Basics - A Business Model Canvas

 

 

 

The above video explains our business idea.  Now it's time to put it to the test:

 

Here's a closer look at our very first Business Model Canvas:

Value Proposition: with the use of our app, people will be able to save time and money when looking for an open street parking. It will also help reduce their CO2 emissions, so they will be contributing to clean air in their city.

Costumer Segments: our costumers are people that have trouble finding parking spots when they drive to work, school, home or when dropping off their kids at daycare or school. This could also be used by people who want to save money as a tourist in busy cities.

Customer Relationships: build a community where people share parking information with an easy to use app.

Key Activities: for the app to work we must provide 24/7 access for community sharing.
Marketing activities to promote the app.
On going activities should include updating maps, navigation services and rewards programs.
Other activities include public relations with cities.

Key Resources:
Intellectual: transportation know-how, patterns, copy right for the idea.
Human:  network of professors, lawyers and developers. Small team for IT support.
Financial: potential funding like angel investors, network of friends and classmates, school support and competitions.

Key Partners: cities backing up the app to reduce pollution. Shopping centers, malls, airports willing to use the product. Third party servers and navigations systems.

Channels: the app will be available through different app stores. Online viral marketing. On the street team pointing towards parking spots using beep beep. Traffic jam radios.

Cost Structure: low cost structure with fixed costs ranging from salaries, servers, contractors,
Variable costs would include marketing, local adaptation, research.

Revenue Streams: advertisement, subscription, transactions fees for real time information, selling user data to stores, developers.
Users can pay through iTunes, Play store or credit cards.