🎉 Welcome to a new issue of I'm No Economist
If you’re following along, you know I’m working on a not-that-stealth startup within Antler's founder-in-residence program.Â
Founding a company is a rollercoaster of emotions. One that you can find the best and worst day within the same day.
It’s true.
🕰 Last week's recap
Last week I wrote about how we found an immense problem to work on. We spoke to prospective clients and users and are now working on the first version of what we're calling "a shameful MVP".
A little problem recap: we didn’t find out anything new, but rather something that was long forgotten: how e-commerce conversion rates are continuously decreasing, while CAC increased 200%+ in less than a decade.Â
From the consumer's point of view, their journey is bumpy, filled with fraudulent companies, and bad experiences with brands they thought they could rely on to deliver the expected quality on their purchases.
This is happening due to a lack of trust from consumers who shop online. And it's not getting any better:
In 2020, confidence dropped in all sectors of the economy, with Transportation (55%), Education (60%), Fashion (64%), Consumer Goods (65%), and Food and Beverages (72%) standing out – all of them lost 6 points compared to the previous year - Edelman, Trust Barometer, 2020.
That lack of trust varies from category to category, but the largest GMV category (clothing/apparel) is the one we want to tackle first. Then everything DTC.
🦉 What happened this week
After a few grieving moments behind the first 2 ideas that died during our ideation process, this week Rapha and I found happiness in delivering 0.1 version of our product.
Better yet, we finally understood each other and committed to a long-term vision of what we want to be. I won't spoil it yet.
Right now, it’s a functional, but kind of simplistic MVP that we’ll start applying to early adopting clients and test the app’s efficacy.
What we want to do is to showcase your products, generate trust and, increase conversion by 3x.Â
We'll do that by creating a seamless experience from when you click on an ad on Instagram, and give you authentic information about the product, provided by real people.
Although still in MVP, we're beyond excited to start testing and applying it to e-commerce everywhere. We are confident this solution will be a game changer for both consumers and e-commerce.
I'll let you know how it went next week. Stay tuned!
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Since most recently, you're also bound to read a few updates on my and my partner's journey of building the next big thing.
Talk soon,
L.