The Problem:
I want a sample from a company. The company wants to give it to me. No standardized middleman. The market for samples is terribly inefficient.
The Business
GETSAMPLED.COM
You go to the website and register. You can receive a sample of up to two items. If you get those samples and create a real review of them, you can get additional samples. The review can be positive or negative, but it must be real.
Doableness
The most simple ideas are often the most complicated under the hood. This idea is incredibly complex from an engineering perspective. In essence, I’m talking about building the best review site around. Not only is the engineering complex, you need to get merchant buy-in. This is a much easier sell than it might seem, but you still need people to make that sale. You need to scale merchants and customers (samplers) very quickly. Incredibly difficult task. But if Groupon can do it, can’t you?
The current Groupon model leaves a lot to be desired. It pretends to be a group, social commerce company, but it is a company that facilitates marketing, brand awareness, and brand exposure. However, Groupon scaled the merchant side and the customer side beautifully. Their execution was phenomenal. Now they have two incredibly large, motivated, and powerful groups, and they aren’t sure what they are putting in the middle. They seem a little all over the place.
My Thoughts
Put samples in the middle of these powerful groups and get bought by Groupon.