Here is the first excerpt of a conversation between Louis Pfitzner, founder and CEO of Salonmeister and Rasmus Wolff, founder and CEO of Hungr.
Blog editor: When you are doing a start up it is usually founded in a good idea. The trick is know whether the idea is attractive for the market and that the timing is right. How do you evaluate the risks and eliminate the concerns and make the final decision to go head? And at what point do you know you are on to something?
Rasmus: For me, at Hungr, it was clearly a gut feeling. You can apply a lot of analysis and intelligence about the market, but if it was as simple as analyzing, then probably smarter people than me will figure it out. The idea for Hungr is that there was a problem that was not being solved. That made me feel the timing was right.
Louis: I think Rasmus is really an expert in his field. Two years ago, when we started Salonmeister, I would not have called myself an expert in the beauty industry. It was rather an initial idea that made sense from an analystical point of view and then we just shipped the product really fast in a basic version. We got immediate feedback from the consumers and according to this we developed the product also the business idea itself. It was about being fast and using the feedback.
Rasmus: It’s complicated, but an interesting formular. The beauty market is very attractive, but not so many have succeeded in this market space. It is nothing new in a sense, but somehow your product meets the market with the right brand and has the right timing with consumer readiness and you just gave it that spark. This is really difficult to predict, when you set out. A lot of companies have tried out in the late nineties and early zeros – also in the online food business, there is a French company that started out in 1998, that is just taking off now – but the consumers were not ready, mobile adaption was not there, all these things have to come together.
Louis: The hard thing is the timing. That is very crucial. It is something where you have to be, yeah, well, lucky.
Blog editor: One of the mantras in the startup business is “never give up”. But it is also one of the big dilemmas. Do do you have the right product, do you have to move one or should you call it a day. This is the frustration of many entrepreneurs.
Rasmus: Did you ever get close to considering turning off the project?
Louis: For us, it was lucky. We got early traction. We started out from a really small base and wanted it to work for them. The question we needed to answer was what people would do with their free time on the smartphone and would they pay for for an online beauty salon service? Luckily, they would.
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You can read more about Salonmeister here and follow Salonmeister on Facebook here and on Twitter here.
You can read more about Hungr here (sign up for the app here) and follow Hungr on Facebook here and on Twitter here.
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Hungr Blog 