We’re shipping 12 passion projects in 12 months

It’s happening. My partner in crime and I @ shooting unicorns have committed to shipping a product or service every month for 2018.

Our vision for the New Year is to build up a portfolio of apps whilst learning about new technologies and honing our skillsets. Our goal by the end of year is to say goodbye to our corporate jobs and either work for a startup, have an idea that actually generates revenue or pack up our bags and work overseas.

Until then, we’ll be hustling and documenting our journey here.

Our First Product

We’re still a month away from 2018, but decided to ship a product in advance to have a “backup” project to ship in case the timeline goes pear shaped. That, and also because I could barely conceal my excitement about building new shiny things!

I came across a service on product hunt recently that isn’t currently available in Australia and immediately thought it would be a great first side project for Shooting Unicorns. The idea is a service for people to print digital photos through text messages and we’ll do the rest from developing the prints to mailing the photos to anyone across Australia.

The Pitch

Send your photos and we’ll mail the prints to your loved ones. All for the price of a coffee 👵🏻👴🏻.

You can send Octagrams here ;)

But is the idea actually profitable? …

On the receiving side, like many first world countries, Australia’s population is ageing due to lower birth rates and higher life expectancies. As a result, approximately 3.7 million people (15%) are older Australians aged 65 and over. That’s a lot of non-tech savvy human beings ✅.

On the giving side, most people are time poor, but are willing to pay for conveniences (ok, maybe I just made that up). Octagrams cost only $4 and takes just a couple of seconds to send photos through. In fact there’s no sign up required which means no strings attached! ✅

Next, let’s take a look at how much it even costs to develop a print. Conveniently, I pass by Big W on the way home from work, thus that will be the place to print. Looking on their website I can get a 6x4" print for only $0.12 each. Let’s also say, the throw away number is $10 a month.

Based on my research, I can get a 6x4" print for only $0.12 each. Let’s also say, the throw away number is $10 a month.

Okay… looks sorta promising. So what are the margins?

Let’s say we manage to acquire 1% of the granannies and grandpappies of Australia and they have at least 1 child or grandchild. That’s a total of 37,000 users.

Given each purchase is $4.00 and allows up to 8 photos which costs $1.20 and $0.65 for postage. That’s a profit of $2.39.

Therefore, 37,000 users * a profit of $2.39= $88,430 🤔.

Very funny… Now Let’s be real.

As magical as $88,430 sounds for only acquiring 1% of the target market is, the reality is even customers costs money. Initially, to test the idea I’m going to post to my network on LinkedIn to see if I can even convert a single sale before burning through my own money.

Update: posted on LinkedIn on the 6th of December here.

If things goes according to plan, we’ll be printing out promotional materials to leave at nursing homes and using Facebook ads to grow the service.

The Build 🛠

• Throwaway number — $10
• URL — $2.37
• website — Used a free template

and viola …

Welcome Octagrams, our first Shooting Unicorns 🦄 product! 👏🙌

8th of December Update:

Originally published at https://shooting-unicorns.com