[ibimage==27149==Large==none==self==null]
I've been on a coding binge and that has been great. I've been determined to know enough Rails to build the first version of Edopter - once we decide what that looks like. We have the product, just not the layout of the website yet.
Gratefully, I was able to talk with Jen Thomas of ProjectTravel. Jen is a fellow graduate of the Starter League and has one of the hottest startups in Chicago. She is also part of the current class for Coolhouse Labs Accelerator up in Michigan.
Jen has been an amazing mentor to Edopter and myself helping us think through our product offering and troubleshoot potential mishaps. When I told her about our Prime, Pro, and Power offering she immediately dived into the granular details on what was happening with those three.
For the Prime and Pro, what goes in the box? Who makes it? Are you producing it? Who has creative control? What is the overhead? She began to drill further and further into the idea. The best advice is often the advice you don't want to hear that shoots holes in your "vision".
And speaking of shooting holes after Jen, I talked with Kofi Aidoo, old friend from the Starter League. Kofi is now back in NYC as a User Experience Architect Intern. We had been good friends from the Starter League even though he is a little misguided and supports Arsenal FC.
Kofi really shot holes though our offering. For example, our Prime box had stated that users would send some bigger ticket items back. But then he began to ask well that means you ship and then you have to ship back. And then you have to house what is shipped back or send it to the original company who shipped it. That is massive overhead! Companies like Trunk Club and Warby Parker are experiencing this problem and are slightly better funded.
So if you send anything make sure that you know it is gone. Another thing is it would be best for you to separate hardware products from software products. Hardware has material costs and insurance liabilities. Hold off that as much as possible for now. Also, in the future, if you want to be an Edopter for software or hardware and software there could be an Edopter Hardware or Edopter Super plan that makes this available . Then this delivers value to users in a way that doesn't kill you.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mq1ph4rEIo]
After more coding I was able to talk with David Bermejo who also went to the Starter League - Starter League Mafia! I had met David at the first Edopter event and loved this feedback from the start. He even sent me this super detailed long email about the experience and what he thought about Curiosity.
I wanted to talks with him again as I made a mental note that this is a guy worth doing just that. He is. He is currently looking for work in User Experience (email him) but also is really drawn to working in the startup world.
Through our rather long discussion it was validated that he is just a brilliant and insightful guy. We'll see where this goes.
This post was written by Mike Adeleke, Founder of Edopter. Edopter aims to be the Klout for early adopters. We are building an exclusive club for us early adopters able to interact with startup companies like never before. For early access, sign up for our beta (Edopter) and catch us on Twitter (EdopterHQ) on Twitter to stay posted. We're Hiring!
.jpeg)
