Venture Concept No.2

Opportunity:
My opportunity is a vegan dating app for vegans or vegetarians who have a hard time finding a partner that fits their lifestyle. Veganism isn’t a diet, it’s a lifestyle, that requires a lot of time and effort. Finding someone that fits into this lifestyle is difficult, so I am hoping that a vegan dating app will help these people find what they’re looking for in a partner. (Please note that when I say vegan, it includes vegetarians that also have this unmet need)

-       The forces that allow this to occur are more and more people are changing their lifestyles, into becoming vegan. This increase in vegans is most likely due to the easily accessible vegan options, which would definitely influence the amount of people capable of becoming vegan. In the past, it was too expensive and simply inaccessible to be a vegan. Aside from fresh produce, companies such as daiya, gardien, beyond meat (there are many many more) are on the rise in most supermarkets. These companies are specifically targeting people that are vegan, want to eat more vegan, or enjoy the different tastes in food. With this being said, it has become more common to be a vegan or vegetarian.

-       There are 2.5 million vegans and vegetarians in the united states alone, and this number is just on the rise. Half of all vegans are young adults (20’s-30’s), which is the demographic I would be targeting. 3 in four vegans are female, so this is also something I have to consider with a dating app, in other words, there will be more females than males using the app, which could be a problem. (source: http://veganbits.com/vegan-demographics)

-       Customers are currently satisfying the need to find a partner by using other, traditional dating apps, or hoping to meet someone in person that is also vegan. The loyalty of other dating apps wouldn’t be a setback for the demographic I am targeting.

-       There are 2.5 million vegans and vegetarians in the united states alone, and with this number growing, I would say this opportunity is moderately big. Because this number includes older individuals that are already married/aren’t single, I could honestly say that the amount of people I would be targeting is not exactly known, and I don’t expect it to be a big number either.

Innovation:

I am creating a free to download, easy to use vegan dating app. Upon signing up, it will ask simple, yet important questions like “are you a vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, or other?”, “are you a female or male?” “are you interested in males, females, or both?” “please write a description of yourself below:” and this will be used to match people together. It would have a big red “X” or a green checkmark to click on while looking at another person’s profile, and if they’re interested, they could message the other person.  I would use advertisements to make money and try to make sure that it’s not random ads, but mostly ads that include health, fitness, lifestyle, and so on, so that it’s moderately interesting to look at. Users could choose to pay for no ads. I would also have options to increase the amount of people one could message in a day, which would also bring in extra revenue. Over time, I would likely include a subscription package that will have all of the apps extra benefits included into a one-time fee. ideas. One idea is including a blog section into the app, that includes vegan date spots (friendly restaurants, parks, gardens, etc.), dating tips (how to strike a conversation, how to use the app at first, ways to keep the relationship entertaining, etc.), and successful love stories that originated due to the app. This could bring in extra revenue, on advertisers, where I could partner up with vegan companies and include them within this blog section.

Venture Concept:
A vegan dating app would be beneficial because it would only include vegans (or vegetarians), so it will allow for the dating app to specifically find what they’re looking for. It would be easier to find a partner because there will be many aspects of their moral compass, personalities, needs, and qualities that align (such as being compassionate, caring about their health, wanting to raise children whom are vegan, eating at specific restaurants, etc.)  Being in a healthy relationship requires this alignment, so using this dating app will help introduce two individuals with many similarities, which could result in long-lasting, successful relationships.

-       I believe that my customers, who are likely to be using a traditional dating app, would switch to an app that would be better for them and what they’re looking for. There aren’t any options for a vegan lifestyle in popular dating apps, so when I introduce this dating app, I believe it wouldn’t be hard for the people that fit my description to switch over to something that is more convenient and efficient for them. How hard it will be to get them to switch would depend upon how many people I could target.

-       Match.com, zoosk, tinder, and bumble are all popular websites/apps that people use as dating apps. If I had competition in the vegan realm, it would be these apps. The only way I could think of these apps being beneficial to a vegan consumer, is if they put that they’re vegan and are interested in finding a vegan partner, in their description. Their weaknesses is that they don’t have any extra options included in their app that could connect vegans together.

-       Customer experience will be the biggest play in defining my business concept, because I will try my best to make it a market-oriented company that puts the customers best interest in mind.

-       My business would incorporate app builders (who constantly update and fix the app), advertisers who think of new ways to advertise to bring more people to the app and how to make advertisement within the app engaging and interesting.

Secret sauce: That I am a vegan that feels strongly about health foods, so I will be capable of incorporating my passion and knowledge into the app

What’s next: Maybe a blog that could be included with a membership through the app, that will be basically ‘all things vegan’, where I could also advertise products and services (that would bring in more revenue).

What’s next: I hope that with the launch, it will be successful enough to bring in consistent revenue, so I could continue to expand and bring in new As an entrepreneur, I want to be doing things I feel passionate about (which includes health foods), and also bring in a good income.

What I added: I received feedback from two classmates, both having to say something about my innovation section. One said that the innovation section is lacking-- he “A possible suggestion to keep your product differentiated from any other specialized dating app is to highly target your initial market and then branch out. An example of this is how Facebook started out just for Harvard, then slowly expanded” I understand why he thought this, and I did include this into “Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2”, where I received feedback of incorporating a ‘friend’ section on the app, but one of my classmates mentioned that it would detract from the value of using the app, which I thought was a highly intelligent response. I agreed with him fully and decided that the best way to expand would be through a blog (which I incorporated into my “What’s next?” and received positive feedback). With that being said, I did include this idea into my innovation venture. Another thing I want to mention is the way that my app is different than other apps is because it targets vegans specifically, something that other apps simply don’t do. Because of this, making the app look different within (like the buttons, the feed, the description) isn’t necessary as I want to keep it simple and avoid user confusion.

 The other student suggested a great innovative idea dating “maybe there should also be a section about dating that includes: Vegan date spots, dating tips, and successful love stories that originated in the app!” I certainly included this into the innovation section, while including a twist, where it would be a blog section, and explanation at the end. I did mention integrating a blog section into my app in my “What’s Next?” section, as it did occur to me that this could bring in extra revenue.