[projectvrm] IntentCasting

[Anandan Jayaraman < >]

Johannes,

As it relates to intent casting, it is a great concept and in many ways, the shockingly obvious way that commerce should ideally be transacted vs. inefficient markets.

However, there are two fundamental questions that VRM developers building any type of intent casting service need to grapple with.

1. What is the viable path to achieving liquidity- i.e. aggregating enough sellers so that a buyer who is intent-casting enjoys a reasonable probability of getting a quality response. And of course, sellers are not interested in participating until there is a critical mass of buyers who are intent casting. Until there is liquidity, the value equation and the economics do not make as much sense for the participants.

2. What is the real incentive for the average consumer that can drive adoption, especially in the early days? And, even if there is sufficient incentive, is there a viable distribution model to find and acquire these customers ? Unlike business customers, the average Joe tends to think less of personal RFPs and more in terms of stuff that makes a tangible difference to his life. 

The mortality rate is incredibly high among the startups who attempt to do this. The ones who have been successful or found traction have done so in service industries like home improvement where it is easier to aggregate supply ( Red Beacon, Thumb Tack etc.), the notion of lead generation has been around for a long time ( service magic etc.) and consumers are consciously seeking better alternatives than the status quo ( calling a list of plumbers ). 

One approach is for the VRM developer to offer some type of utility / vanity / discovery / community value to consumers ( independent of supply participation). If this value is compelling enough and he can figure out a scalable distribution model, the service can start aggregating enough consumers to attract suppliers  and eventually transition to the nirvana of enabling transactions and connecting customers who have specific needs with suppliers. 

For a new VRM startup, building the product or the service is nowhere near as hard as getting initial traction and finding a viable path to marketplace liquidity. Will be great to hear thoughts and ideas from this community on how a VRM developer building an intent casting service for any industry or niche can overcome this catch 22.

regards, AJ

On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 10:39 PM, Johannes Ernst < " target="_blank"> > wrote:

Blogged here: http://upon2020.com/blog/2013/03/productsiwant-a-vrm-experiment/