StudyClub
Creating a remote place for your kids activities
Jason Ch, the founder of StudyClub
The client
In 2016, we came to see yet another exciting project that captured our eye. A client from the USA has contacted us to assist his young and ambitious idea for developing a reservation system for various kids' activities. Our team was curious as to why exactly he had such a business idea. That's where he began explaining his intentions.
Mr. Jason, the founder of StudyClub, has come to us during an extraordinary moment of his own life. His first kid was born, and he had noticed that his hometown didn't have any platform, nor the websites with the kids' activities. More than that, the vendors who provided them weren't even close to where most families lived.
And that's where he decided to create a singular reservation platform that would unite all vendors and provide them easy access to his solution. Our team understood that his idea was truly promising, and after verifying some minor details, we made him an offer and began StudyClub development.
Fast Facts
About JetRuby Integration
BEFORE
- No proper landing page for his marketplace.
- Lack of detailed understanding of how kid's marketplace should be developed and how his idea should grow
- No booking platform, as it was just a reservation website at first.
- No monetization system, let alone a business model.
AFTER
A simple and yet modern SPA that has increased the number of related businesses by 120.- Now the client not only knows "how to run his business". But he has
lots of other unique and exciting individual projects. A growing and evolving marketplace are currently taking its turn to spread across all small and big towns in Califonia.- A stable but effective marketplace business model actively increased the annual
income by 8% within the first 3 years.
When you have an idea of creating something truly unique. What probably none of the people have ever encountered, do you ever question yourself with: "How can I even make it real?". Most of the people would answer: "Just try to do as much as you can. No matter if you will fail several times, keep trying, and you'll get the best of it!". Perhaps this advice can be precious maybe ten years ago. But the time is moving faster than we can imagine, and so make the approaches to various things change.
So if you are a beginning startuper and don't know how to use your capital to produce the results you want effectively, you might be interested in our Product Development Strategy Session. This is a free business consultation where your idea or project will be analyzed, and you'll be given a ballpark estimation on how your development process should continue. Contact us today and schedule a free call to put your product development on the right track.
Want to get the same
Let us know what business are you running and we'll tell you how we can assist you!
A foreword about our client
Our client, Mr. Jason, is a very professional technical engineer at Google company. Although he is not a software engineer, a hardware one, he works hard on the development and constant enhancement on Google servers. He overwatches some of the effective server implementations from time to time, but mostly he is focused on producing new hardware tools and workstations.
Since 2016, he was always trying to generate his business idea to create something of his own. And after a few months of research, he stumbled across a business idea he had never thought of. He was having trouble getting his son to attend to some extra activities he appointed to him. To be honest, that gave him a terrific headache. But, he knew that there should be a solution to this kind of problem.
You see, in some US states, it became a bit difficult to go and find at least any activity for your children. The concept of his business idea was very primitive yet profitable. The solution was hiding in developing a scheduling platform that would contain various side activities that every kid could attend in his local town area. That way, the actual problem will be gone while he'll be turning the revenue wheel.
California, USA
The Requirements
The client had extensive experience in technical engineering and at least knew the high-level planning of product development. However, he lacked experience in the business part of his startup and thus required essential assistance in analyzing his startup target audience and the business model. We knew that all of that and even more had to be prepared before going into an MVP stage, so we offered him to go through the Design and Discovery Stage.
The client knew how
most of the development processes are being handled. Therefore, he decided that his booking platform should be based on the Bookeo software integration. He didn't want to complicate the future system, so he decided to take the most straightforward booking technology out there.
Along with that, the scheduling platform should have an SMS notification system. For example, a parent or a guardian has reserved a football lesson for their child. During the appointed day, 2 hours before the lesson, the parent will receive an SMS where one can see the lesson type, the location, and the payment amount for the chosen activity. Thus, our client needed an API platform connecting an SMS system with the online website reservations.
The
final
need
- - - - - - -
was the monetization system of this whole booking concept. Like any other web app out there, the client wanted to make the payment process easier for the local vendors. And the client also wanted to properly understand and correctly set things through for himself, as we understood that after the initial discussions. Thus, the kids' website required a booking platform.
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Henry Ahadzhanyan
Head of sales at JetRuby
The Resolution
Stepping into Design and Discovery Phase
When our team has seen all the stated requirements for the first time, we understood that the client knows exactly what he wants. Yet, we were concerned about the business part and suggested going through the Design and Discovery Phase. That way, he'll be able to understand and comprehend both sides of his idea. He found our suggestion reasonable, especially after looking through the Design and Discovery deliverables examples that we showcased and accepted the offer with pleasure. We took him through two main stages of the Design and Discovery Phase.
The first
consisted of defining his target audience, channels of income and discussing his business model in general. The second was his idea's visualization process, where he put the wireframes (app logical sketches), UI/UX prototype, and the demo of the prototype altogether.
Afterwards
were completed, we still had to prepare the significant artifact of the Design and Discovery Phase - MVP Project Plan. However, at the very last second, we have offered him to pivot his initial idea. During extensive research done on various product analogs and alternatives, together with him, we tested a new concept within his family and friends circle.
After these steps
The amount of positive feedback gave him much more confidence in implementing something more than a simple booking service. Since he noticed how people were burning with their eyes to go ahead and use this solution. After detailed research of similar business industries and products, we have decided to implement the marketplace instead.
Next step
The platform suggested a marketplace platform. According to the plan, three primary user types were supposed to be managed: customers, vendors, and admin. The first ones will create the order on the kid activity or cancel it. Vendors will handle booking details, while the admin (our client) will manage the technical difficulties.
The client had
the right amount of technical knowledge and experience on his shoulders. And even though he knew in theory how to advertise and promote his product, he hadn't had enough practical experience in it (marketing & sales). Thus, after we finished his technical side, we helped him pick the right marketing vendors inside his local area.
Launching an MVP Prototype
As the Design and Discovery Phase was finally over, we have already built a solid project plan ready to be executed by that time, which means that it was yet time for the prototype, aka MVP.
The first thing that we focused on was developing a softcore of the marketplace's back-end system and the Bookeo API integration. We have correctly set all of the possible user types and made a simple admin panel, which allowed managing the system, which will be spread across the kids' vendors across his city.
Next, we build a notification system for the parents and vendors who had the necessary access to the marketplace. We decided to integrate the Plivo API, which is a perfect fit for getting SMS notifications. If there were any changes made to the classes or the parent wants to either edit or cancel his order, he can be quickly notified via his phone and email.
As a final step, we set the monetization system, which was focused either on buying several amounts of classes or buying just a bundle of them. Additionally, all of the first-time users could try every kid's activity for a 50% discount.
In the end, during the very first year of his business running, the number of active users was almost 15,000, which is a great thing to tell you the truth. And his family, friends, and the young families from his town have positively expressed their attraction to his platform.
Stage of Business Growth
After ten months of the platform release, its current state was incredible. Not only the website gained so much traction and positive reviews, but he also got noticed in all nearby towns. That's where Mr. Jason decided to pull his idea even further and collaborate with some vendors of nearby cities.
At first
he contacted us to understand whether any additional changes should be made when distributing the platform. We went ahead with a small SOW where we explained what exactly has to be done. First, instead of a simple admin platform that managed single-income traffic, we implemented an infrastructure that consists of user types privileges who had different access and benefits to a more broad marketplace network.
And secondly
we implemented special bonus programs for first-time trial lessons. Subsequently, it generated more awareness and user attraction almost by 40% more than during the first three months of its first publication.
After ten months of the platform release, its current state was incredible. Not only the website gained so much traction and positive reviews, but he also got noticed in all nearby towns. That's where Mr. Jason decided to pull his idea even further and collaborate with some vendors of nearby cities.
Now that his business has significantly increased in size, all small towns have already put their kid's vendor names on the marketplace platform. It is now getting recognized much more often, leading more potential customers to use it much more frequently.
as our client had?
Let us know what milestones you've encountered and we'll guide you to the correct development path!
Business Results
The web marketplace platform is currently hosted in several towns and cities across California state. It can be said without a doubt that the feedback our client has received from both his family and friends left a massive impact on him. The client is already making his steps towards further platform development among the close states around him. And even though there are still some key and significant aspects to be implemented and considered, the beta version of his marketplace is distributed to some kids vendors. That way, he can already collect additional feedback for further improvement of his platform! Team, our client is waiting for a fresh release for a brand-new product of his own!
In the meantime, our client is preparing yet another advancement for this business idea, and that is to land it on mobile apps. It's fantastic that he is planning big, but as he stated in the last call with us, he said: "It would be only possible after I see the positive results from other states. After that, I'll be going to the mobile apps ultimately. For that, I'll be sure to connect back to you guys, and together, I'm sure, we'll do another fantastic job together!".
JetRuby team is always there for your unique and memorable ideas that are waiting to be implemented. So don't sit and wait when someone will implement it for you, start today! Leave your message and describe your idea in detail. We'll be on our way to help and assist you in its practical implementation!
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