Venture / working title
MarketPrep
Problem and target customer
Community farmers' markets have no simple way to take pre-orders, so vendors over- or under-stock. The customer is the small-scale vendor at a weekly farmers' market, and the market manager who coordinates them.
Stage and evidence
Customer discovery. Spoke with 9 vendors at two markets; 6 said waste from over-stocking is their top cost.
Role / collaboration objective
A co-founder to own software development: a mobile-friendly pre-order web app, so the venture can build a prototype.
Desired capabilities
- Software development: a mobile-friendly pre-order web app
- Product definition and user-experience design
Expected outcomes
- A usable prototype that target customers can try
- A short technical plan for the next phase
Time commitment
10-20 hours a week
Timeline
- Weeks 1-2: exploratory conversations and a shared understanding of the problem
- Weeks 3-6: a short, scoped trial toward building a prototype
- By day 90: agreed deliverables complete and a decision on any longer-term arrangement
What the founder brings
- Vendor relationships, market operations, customer interviews, basic spreadsheets
- Six years managing a regional farmers' market; trusted relationships with about 40 vendors
- Early customer evidence (above)
- About 25 hours a week of founder time
Compensation
Open to discussing cash, equity or a mix. No amount or split is proposed here: terms are agreed together and reviewed by qualified counsel before anything is signed.
Open questions for you
- What would you need to see before committing time to this?
- How much time could you realistically commit, and starting when?
- How should we handle IP created during exploratory or trial work?
- How do you prefer to communicate and make decisions?
Preferred next step
An exploratory conversation