VB WEBINAR:
Missed this essential webinar on winning over customers in the on-demand economy? Get essential insights from those on the front lines.
“What do we need?”
“STUFF!”
“And when do we need it?”
“RIGHT NOW!”
You can’t swing an Ethernet cable on a city street without hitting a vehicle that’s serving up some on-demand business. Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar are all trying to supplant the traditional taxi for as-needed, app-driven transportation. Google started Google Express to battle traditional retailers and Amazon with local delivery, while Amazon has launched one-hour delivery in some markets and is testing drones to bypass even having to put tires on potentially crowded roads.
The major players are all trying to one-up each other, while numerous startups are hoping they can break in with a fresh strategy for what they believe will be the next must-have service.
David Frankel is an entrepreneur who’s one of the partners behind Founder Collective, a venture-capital firm that invests in many startups on a global basis. From his office chair, he’s seen the best and the worst, and to successfully manage the company’s investments, he needs a keen eye on what works well in the I-want-it-now Age. He spoke to VentureBeat about some key factors that companies need to think about in order to serve and survive in today’s increasingly on-demand business climate.
1. Thoroughly understand the customer
Certainly, a fundamental consideration for anyone wanting to offer goods and services on demand is to know what today’s consumer wants — then figure out how to deliver it efficiently and quickly.
“Consumer expectations for immediacy have just significantly changed, and for companies to manage those expectations has become a challenge,” Frankel said. “The upside side of that is just how many opportunities there are now for on-demand everything. You can almost look at it vertical by vertical, and it feels like we’re still at the beginning. [There are] a lot of things we never really saw as an inconvenience being inconvenient, because you could never get them on demand. There’s no question, there’s this insatiable desire for convenience.”
2. Be smart when you scale up
It’s one thing to start a business, but entirely another to grow it while still meeting the goals set down in the company’s mission statement. Frankel talked about how the most successful on-demand businesses aren’t only finding a consumer need to be addressed, but are also handling the necessary scaling that business — and the technology they’re using to handle it — well enough to keep up with customer orders.
“Fulfilling that promise — and fulfilling it at scale — has become this enormous challenge,” Frankel said. “Those that surmount it — who really surmount it because they’re able to scale their technology and have addressed markets that are less capital-intensive, in my view — those will be the winners. And I think we’ll see many, many more of them.”
3. Zoom past stagnant or clumsy competitors
How about a business idea where there are already players in the game. You’re shut out, right? Not in Frankel’s mind — he believes you can challenge the status quo (and he sees it happening all of the time), but you just need to be smart about it.
“To go up against incumbents, your product can’t be 2x better,” Frankel said. “You can’t do more or less the same thing, but just have HD photos. The product has to be 10x better — it has to do something significantly better to be disruptive.”
He also advises that, in addition to steering clear of trying a simple “me too” play, you should look for opportunities where a product may have been designed for the Web, but is missing out on the mobile market. And look for competitors who are faltering in one way or another, perhaps making a miscue that’ll “screw up their momentum” or going off on what ends up being a misadventure due to poor acquisitions.
Frankel has plenty of other helpful and cautionary advice that he gives to his investment stakeholders, and in this webinar, he and the other panelists freely share that advice with you. Register and take advantage of the free guidance to succeed in the on-demand economy.
Missed it?
You can still access this webinar on-demand for free right here.
In this webinar, you’ll…
- Get insights into the changing consumer landscape
- Learn how successful on-demand companies are effectively addressing customer needs
- Enhance customer experience and offer better deals
- Change the relationship between your customer and the business
Speakers:
Terry Angelos, Co-Founder and CEO, TrialPay
Jared Simon, Co-Founder and COO, Hotel Tonight
David Frankel, Managing Partner, Founder Collective
Sean Behr, CEO, Zirx
Moderator:
Wendy Schuchart, Analyst, VentureBeat
This webinar is sponsored by TrialPay.