Business idea targeting parents/couples: Please RIP it apart

[LemonKangroo]

Context: I feel there are too many apps/services to get into a relationship, but I haven't seen anything to keep marriages together.

Target market: Millennial career mothers with young kids (Because this is by far one of the busiest period of our lives, and we end up playing the default parent role usually).

Some common struggles for the target market (assumptions/generalising):

1. Guilt (Not enough time with kids - we are choosing to be at work and not home - a wicked choice, or the shame for self-care and leaving kids with babysitters/grandparents).
2. Burnout (Balancing Work-Parenting-Household-Relationship-Others) - Only if there was more time - I'd likely sleep/recharge.
3. Lack of support/mental load - Dealing with in-laws, planning dates, money problems, or having to constantly tell our partner to pull their weight (not always of course)
4. Other - Intimacy, lack of control, commitment, or presence in the marriage, etc.

*Apologies if this is harsh/very gender biased - I know not every relationship or partner is like this.

Solution (All-in-one subscription per month):

1. Easy way to share the house and family admin work (chores, reminders, appointments, bill payments, etc.). I know of existing solutions, but I wanted to implement the card system from the Fair Play book & gamify it.
2. Bonding/Me-time (concierge to plan and do logistics - you or a couple just turns up). Hyper-personalised date night/revisit your past.
3. Support (Connection to vetted businesses to solve legal, financial, couple conflicts, career, etc., issues) - There are issues around recognising we need help then selecting a good service on budget is tougher.

Give me every reason why this won't work, why am I wasting my time on this? E.g. the problems are way off, solutions are too weak/generic, etc.

Fair enough! So would it be a pre-requisite that both in the couple would use the app, or might there be useful features for just one person? I do wonder would that be an issue in and of itself. I can absolutely imagine saying to my husband, did you not check the app, I updated such and such there, and him saying no I didn’t have time, or no I won’t turn on notifications as I don’t need my team hearing it’s my turn to put the bins out. I wonder would it end up being an admin task in itself going into the app. I do think it could be useful, but would really depend on features and it literally being easier than updating the current shared calendar etc.

On the flip side, if you have two user logins per couple that’s doubling your user base from the off which is good for metrics. Though again may mean you need to launch on both platforms.

Firstly, I appreciate the great write up. Thank you!
Please call BS where you see it

Concept:
You are right there are couple of issues:

1. Disconnect between vision/context to target audience - Essentially, I started with couples but also realised that its about communication and commitmment (as others also pointed out) and felt there is not much value I can add here. Whereas, pivoting to the target audience helped me narrow down the audience, draw out pain points and eventually solutions - Also reasoning was that its a larger market size (because women are generally open and looking for these solutions compared to men)
2. Not well developed - This is just from my experience that the order of things is customer discovery, validation of problem, build manual solution then test and iterate - Having a product is too far ahead (As per point 1 - the concept is not fleshed out)
3. USP and Innovation - Needs works no doubt - Even I am not inspired by this. I am still very much focused on problem otherwise nothing that follows matters.

Advocacy:

1. Fair point and a big assumption - I hadn't thought of this as another to-do/ burden. I'd have to test this with mums - If its positioned correctly, maybe not? e.g, the USP is that now career mums can have it all (balance in work-relationship-parenting-life) without the guilt, burnout or loneliness - it can prompt them to action to achieve a deep-rooted need?

Pivoting to blokes:

1. Its a great insight - I know more blokes are getting involved (less focus on career over family; research backed).
2. In either target audience, I wanted to avoid prompting as it feels so reactive and another thing that annoys you via notifications and the time spent on app etc. Would need to solution test though, just my assumption.

You are spot on in terms of how i am thinking about the startup journey.

Background: Strategy Consultant with operations and also helped launch a couple of some startups. in short operations, finance, strategy, legal & hr.

Happy to connect on this and brainstorm!

So you're going to develop the app so it uses AI to aid hyper-personalisation - why wouldn't I just to go Chat GPT, or whatever?

A lot of apps are going to fall by the wayside now we can just ask the tech to do/suggest stuff ourselves. For free.

This is something I am grappling with and I don't think its an easy answer.
Is the app about couples or one particular partner (wife) - Both are intertwined.
My logic is that if you are satisfied, then it will be reflected in the relationship (this is also backed by the largest longitudinal study done on 11k+ couples).
It's a long way of saying - Yes the vision is to have a service that focuses on keeping couples together, but it focuses on the individual.

You have just described the automated dating solution perfectly - Exactly what I had in mind (all personalised, and logistics-free) just show up and save the hassle (time) of planning, booking, etc. I often hear, i miss getting dressed up! AI is developing super fast and it should be able to handle all of this when it comes to scaling (looooong way away).

Agreed on the network, I need to think about it more (or not have it all). In terms of liability you'd be making the selection out of say 1+ options - Its the same with mumsnet or even google no? Is a user/search engine liable for recommending a solicitor here?

I didn't think about the wrap around! I thought about it as separate services and not holistic (the goal is to have an ecosystem of sorts). But I want to make sure it solves a problem (e.g. if enough wives don't have this issue then it doesn't make sense).

Thanks for the write up!

I can't even understand what you are actually offering/selling.
Far too much confusing jargon.

Couple of issues with ChatGPT

1. You'd have to develop your own agents to do a lot of this end-to-end (if you are skilled in this, then definitely go for it). Further, you will have to prompt GPT for this - In this app you won't have to. Unless you are using the paid version you will are quite limited.
2. It uses your data for training its model (security and privacy issues) - You'd have to share data with this app too but it will only be used for you and DH not a global large model. It's not as powerful but way more private and hence personalised.

Free always has a cost - Google, Facebook, Insta,.. they all commercialise from your data to 3rd party. Now with AI this will get even more deeper as the conversations will be far more detailed - All i am saying is, there is a trade-off.

Same. How do I interract with your app? What does it do for me, that having a quick chat with AI doesn't?

(And no, I don't much mind Big Data knowing that my husband and I like curries and the cinema.)

Offering working mums with young kids to achieve a balanced (work-family-relationship) life without the guilt, burnout, or loneliness.

How?

1. Sharing of home and life admin duties
2. Personalised dates or alone time
3. Support from experts on areas of conflict

Best elevator pitch i can do for now.

Which bit doesn't resonate with you?

Yes, its basically saying takes two to tango.
I did consider that having notifications at odd times or even turned out can create more issues than solve.

I'd try a few things:

• Having the ability to control your notifications from the app (low, med, high)
• Set the time for notifications (particularly blokes) - I'd think you receive them in one batch rather than 1 every hour. Emails are bad enough!
• Gamification - Set a reward that works (incentivising action)

May I ask, if this is a challenge you are facing now (lack or no response from DH) or just a thought?

Any of it really
Me and DH have conversations about these things and I don't actually experience guilt, loneliness and burnout anyway.
I am still not sure what you are offering that can't easily be achieved really. You are describing what it IS not really what it DOES
(3 startups under my belt and a Small Business Advisor for many years)

Sharing your data - That's definitely a positive from a business point of view.

To be fair - I don't know yet, what the app will look like. As per initial post, I am trying to figure out if the problems are real and the solutions make sense.

An example scenario for curry:

ChatGPT

1. Ask for a curry recommendation
2. You'd have to do multiple prompts to specify (what you'd like, your area, budget, maybe something from your past, reviews, etc.)
3. You'd call and order (or do UberEats)
4. Pay

App

1. It tells you (via notification) - Thur is curry night/or there is a special at your local's tonight. Do you want to order?
2. Select and pay (all within the app)

Sorry - I still don't understand why you'd need an app for that.
How does an app make a couple actually share "admin duties"?
Who is telling the app what those duties are?
How does an app give you "alone time"?

How would the app know where there are special offers. Who is providing the app with that information?

Your scope is way too big, you’re going to incorporate an Uber eats style app within an already big scope app? So all these restaurants will have to sign up to your app and update specials etc

This is insane. You want to build an app that can do what I use Google Calendar and Facebook for?

And now you want me to pay for my meal via your app? My meal that I haven't eaten yet?

ETA: Oh wait, you are meaning that our exciting date night is - ordering a takeaway from our local curry house? And we need your app to do that?

As a PP said, how are you going to know what every restaurant is offering in the whole country?

Honestly, this all sounds mad.

I am glad to have your experienced set of eyes on this. So thanks!

Firstly, if these aren't your problems? I'd love to understand what challenges you face, assuming you are in the target market.

Secondly, everyone sits on different spectrums right, what may come easily for some couples may not for others. If they were easily resolved, then these wouldn't be a problem that come up repeatedly. There is a good chance I am wrong, and the purpose of this post is to understand that.

I am sorry, but can you elaborate on the IS vs DOES.
I thought I was clear on what the service does: It allows you to balance your life.

Happy to read up on any resources you may have.

The card system from Fair Play is the intellectual property of the author. Will they license it, and if so how much for? If not, how will you make your version different enough to not infringe their copyright?
I wouldn't use an app now as we have our things organised well enough and don't need to change. I think there's quite a small window where people want some kind of solution and haven't yet got into a routine.

The food delivery app I already have has this covered, it sends out targeted mailshots with offers and it notices when I order and for how many people.

You don't understand why you'd need an app to reduce burnout, not feel lonely or feel less guilty?
Duties - Most of the tasks are pre-populated (so the couple would have to refine), then allocate (that's how an app shares "admin duties") within a time frame, and only prompts you if incomplete.
Alone-time - By saving you time in the first instance (e.g. from above duties are more evenly shared - so less tasks for you)

The what it IS vs what it DOES is the missing piece, I agree with a PP who articulated this.

When asked to clarify what it does, you said ‘it allows you to balance your life’ which is only the what / why. Whats missing is a clearer idea of the HOW.

Let’s use Amazon as an example. ‘Offering a wide range of products with quick delivery all in one place for an easy and quick shopping experience’ would be the WHAT / WHY. That’s the equivalent bit you’ve answered. But the HOW (the bit I think you haven’t yet answered really) would include lots more detail than that, how they partner with manufacturers and existing brands, how they white label some items to keep costs low and availability high, how they get exclusive prices to attract customers, how they have huge warehouses with stack em high stock on solid sellers, how they send highly targeted emails, how they offer a paid for add on with prime etc etc.

Does that make sense? Hopefully it helps a bit?

Surely you have to spend time telling the app what you need. You'd need to tell the app that a task has been done.
Because otherwise how would it know this information?
So it's an extra bit of admin?
Sorry but I really don't see the point in your app and it definitely wouldn't be something I would pay a subscription for.
Sorry 🙁

I will not be using any copyrighted or anyone else's IP, its illegal - it was more of a reference to showcase the concept. I have a variation in mind with gamification in mind to make it fun, as to the extent possible with admin tasks.

So it's a sticker chart for grownups?