29 April 2019

April 2019 Startup Update

Help Wanted/Asks:

  • Need office space (update: found in Node U)
  • Need cofounders (update: trial)

Hiring: 

  • Candidates in hiring funnel for cofounder: 14
  • Interviews: 2
  • Trial running with cofounder (Armin)

KPIs/Core Metrics:

  • Monthly Active Users: 270
  • Weekly Active Users: 100
  • Daily Active Users: 13-40
  • Lease requests: 12
  • Lease requests per day: 1-2
  • Lease conversions: 0
  • Lease conversion revenue: $0

Product:

  • Added weekly LEASE deals scraped from ev-vin.blogspot.com data
  • Doing background research myself once received requests. As this was not converting once I’d done the research:
  • Added up-front deposit. When the requests stopped added more value – electrade can do paperwork digitally for dealer, and act as a proxy between dealer and user (“price security/no stressful negotiations”)

Experiments/Hypothesis run:

  • Problem: Not installing app (acquisition). Attempts to solve:

    • Free ASO worked on. Ran many experiments but managed to score top 10 with “lease car” and “electric vehicles”.
      • Results: increased from non-ranked to top 20 in “Electric Vehicles” and “Lease Car”. Impressions 7X. Installs flat.
    • Free DM Reddit (manual) /r/electricvehicles and /r/teslamotors
      • Results: Wrong kind of customer. EV enthusiast but not car shopper when manually reaching out. Not sticky. $0 per install. 1 in 20 installs.
    • Free Leasehackr.com forum link as acquisition channel super effective.
      • Results: 60+ targeted leads to going up in App Store rankings (point 1). Very negotiation-happy customer – wrong kind of customer? Budget customer.
    • Paid Reddit paid on /r/electricvehicles and /r/teslamotors
      • Results: $0.45 per tap Android and $0.49 on iOS. Roughly 50% install rate from product page -> Roughly $1 per install.
    • Paid iOS App store: Results: $2.50 per tap, not sure if installed.
  • Problem: Installed, Not requesting. Attempts to solve:

    • Single-number lease price (incl. all).
      • Results: Sticker shock is real. Lease requests down to 0 in the week that attempted this. Started up again once reverted to “monthly” + “down”
    • Added “X more left at this price” to increase urgency.
      • Results: No significant increase in tapthrough rate
    • Added “X people looking at this deal” to increase urgency.
      • Results: No significant increase in tapthrough rate
    • Potentially finding wrong customer – people off leasehackr may LIKE negotiating. Find different customers? => Reddit customers work better.
  • Problem: User requesting, but not converting on email step. Attempts to solve:

    • Better conversion email – 48 hour limit to increase urgency.
      • Results: No difference. Drop off.
    • Better conversion email – Not give full number over 36 months as looks high.
      • Results: No difference. Drop off.
    • Upfront down payment – $200 deposit.
      • Results: 1 attempt to pay, may be fraud. Potentially may take 60 days to convert customers, though once have app installed, though.
    • Added value: Do all paperwork digitally & pay deposit to lock in so don’t have to haggle with dealer – just pick up & pay.
      • Results: Same as above. Not sure this convenience is a pain point. Reached out to ask for feedback from email addresses but no response.
  • Tested EV insurance

    • Loads of complaints online about how it’s expensive. Added Metromile affiliate program.
      • Results: 0 sign-ups so far after 2 weeks of cohorts.

Experiments for next 2 weeks:

  • Test Concierge service (you say which car, we’ll find at a price).
  • Test Consultant service (we’ll answer your EV questions and then recommend products).
  • Change from pure EV? Potentially, the hassle-free value proposition may be more effective in a mainstream market for now?
  • Add off-lease cars from Greenlight Auto Wholesale ?
  • Help find parking spots with charging for those EV owners without a garage w/ Piedparker.com ?
  • Rent an EV for a month between leases?

Current screen grab at the end of the month:


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