I almost always feel like I am not doing enough. Most folks will tell you that the best thing to do for your startup is to have it in the hands of customers as fast as possible. What if you are the customer? As a self-taught software engineer, I recently found myself in this predicament. The idea came around as a result of a need for convenience.
There are certain things in life I consider unnecessary; such as going to the store to buy groceries, cleaning the house, or having to replenish commonly used household items. As a person who takes pride in having control of their own time, I feel like such tasks should be automated. Why can I not just tell a business that I need my groceries every weekend delivered to my doorstep and then make monthly payments? Well, you certainly could do that manually but most businesses don’t bother with the hustle. Even so, it has been proven time and time again that subscription-based businesses (such as the one I just proposed) are much better off. This is because of higher customer lifetime values and predictable cashflows.
With predictable cash flow, you can spend more of your time focusing on improving your business and serving your customers better; that’s good for the business. At the same time, I as the customer get to not have to think about running the errands of purchasing such items which gives me more time to do the things I enjoy. Perhaps this is an overoptimization but if I asked you what you would do with an extra hour each week on the lower side, what would you say?
Full disclosure, much as I do dislike doing repetitive errands, I also happen to co-own a business that could benefit from being a subscription business. That business is DrunkenApe, a bottled alcoholic cocktail brand based on alpha characters from films. That being said, it’s safe to say that I have experienced the problem both as a business owner and as a customer.
To scratch this itch, I am building Rudia, a platform that allows businesses to turn into subscription businesses. That also means that customers get to subscribe to receive items that they frequently use. In the end, everyone wins. The business has guaranteed cashflow and the customer has the convenience and freedom.
If you’d like to be among the first to know once Rudia is ready, you can join the waiting list. If you’d like to be among the first
