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MenuWho should I consult with to scrutinize my unique web and mobile business (model) method?
I am about to provisionally patent, then pay to develop a unique communication web and mobile app business method applicable to a global market. Before I do so, I want to consult with a highly successful experienced business professional to scrutinize my business method and process and objectives.
Answers
Have you considered licensing?
This is a very good question. Because while perhaps one would advise you to look deeply into the technology and the potential success of it, or the legal aspects, or the competition, I think the critical success factors of your new business method are different.
I believe that first of all, you've got to scrutinize your business plan with regards to its customer centricity and the value and purpose that it brings to its users. Even without having seen your business objectives I believe we can make improvements there, making your proposition more compelling, more relevant to its users and stakeholders (investors!) and motivating more people around the world to start using it.
Secondly, but probably even more important, you as the entrepreneur must have the right attitude, and if your character is not deeply ingrained with qualities such as vision (on how to make money right from the first dollar), speed (because being fast allows you to do what you've got to do) social skills (so can can work yourself into any (corporate organization) and self-discipline and a positive work ethic (so you get effective in everything you do) ... Then even the most promising business proposal starting up in the most prosperous economy will fail.
Talking about fail, when Lance Surety Bonds assessed over 150 startups to understand better why they fail, they found that in over 40% of the cases there was simply no market need (or perceived market need) for the startup's offering. You see this relates directly to the first paragraph of my answer!
Other factors that made it to the top ten are "poor team", "poor marketing" and "not listening to customers". Do you see that all of this is controllable!!
So, in brief, why don't you schedule a call with me and we explore further how to tackle the scrutinization of your business method, its applicability to global markets, its customer centricity and its relevance to people. A 15-minute call will already give you a lot of insights!
Links to info used in this answer:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2016/03/02/top-20-reasons-why-startups-fail-infographic/#3d93d75d3911
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2013/03/29/top-11-reasons-startups-succeed/#91475eb2ab7a
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You are right that the range is wide. You need to figure what are good values to have for your category. Also, you can focus on the trend (is your DAU/MAU increasing vs decreasing after you make changes) even if benchmarking is tough. Unless your app is adding a huge number of users every day (which can skew DAU/MAU), you can trust the ratio as a good indication of how engaged your users are. For games, DAU/MAU of ~20-30% is considered to be pretty good. For social apps, like a messenger app, a successful one would have a DAU/MAU closer to 50%. In general most apps struggle to get to DAU/MAU of 20% or more. Make sure you have the right definition of who is an active user for your app, and get a good sense of what % of users are actually using your app every day. Happy to discuss what is a good benchmark for your specific app depending on what it does.SG
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