A Platform for Challenges - My Business

[TheProcess]

Hello everyone reading!

I created an online business with my cofounder a few weeks ago. So far, we've done some market research, an experiment to test our idea, wrote a 10 page business plan, created a prototype website, applied for funding, and interviewed several potential CTOs.

The Opportunity

Over the last several years there have been many popular challenges, such as the Ice Bucket Challenge and the Trashtag Challenge. The purpose of the Ice Bucket Challenge was to raise awareness for ALS disease, while the purpose of the Trashtag Challenge was to clean up our environment. Both of these challenges, along with many others, had the purpose of making our world a better place. These challenges became viral on sites such as Instagram and Twitter.

The Problem

Social media platforms were not built for challenges. From what we have seen, challenges are currently posted on social media out of necessity, simply due to the lack of alternatives. Social media platforms are fantastic for making challenges go viral, however the structures of these platforms are designed to do little more than simply getting views. For example, there is no good option to view all of the challenges that have been submitted, in one place. Furthermore, there is no easy way to sort these challenges by various criteria such as number of upvotes. Simply put, social media platforms are not conducive towards challenges.

The Solution

Our goal is to create a platform that introduces a new challenge every week. 52 challenges per year. Each week’s official challenge is posted on the front page of our site in big bold letters. Users can visit our site and create an account. Once they have made an account, they are able to upload a video or a picture of themselves completing each week’s challenge. They also have the option of browsing through other people’s videos and pictures, and upvoting the ones that they like. We have a ranking system, where the videos with the most upvotes show up at the very top of our page. Users are also able to view past challenges.

Our Vision

Our vision is to partner with many organizations, charities and businesses so that they can sponsor challenges. In due course, we hope to start offering prizes for the most upvoted videos. However, the prizes might also be awarded by objective criteria or in random - it all depends on the nature of the challenge. Our purpose is to make the world a better place through challenges, and to create a community of good and ambitious people as we work towards that goal. We believe that this can be done all the while offering a seamless and exciting experience for the user.

Themes

An important aspect of our business is that we will introduce a new challenge every week. The next obvious question is: “How will we decide on what these challenges will be”. The best way to do so is to have a theme every week. For example, for the week of Valentine’s Day, we will have the theme of love. For the week of Christmas, we will maybe have the theme of Christmas and family. We will be to partner with organizations and businesses that are in some way related to each week’s theme. For example, in the week of Valentine’s day, we might partner with a big chocolate company such as Lindt and create a challenge that is relevant to that partnership. For environment week, we might partner with a charity that focuses on climate change and bring back the Trashtag Challenge.

Two Possible Visions:

1:

On one hand we can create a social platform such as TikTok, but one that is specific to challenges. Anyone can post or sponsor a challenge, and we will not be limited to 52 challenges per year.

2:

Or we can stick to the idea of having 52 challenges per year, and instead create a brand. Challenges will not be random, but rather meaningful. We will slowly build our audience, and people will be looking forward to see what our next week's challenge will be. We will choose what challenges will be on our platform, and not everyone will be able to post or sponsor a challenge. Challenges and sponsors will be relevant to either a theme (such as Valentine's day or Christmas) or to current events (the quarantine for example).


What do you think?

 

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