Page - 94 - in Digital Entrepreneurship - Impact on Business and Society

3.2.2 kawaloo: TheAirbnb for Storage Space The startup kawaloowas founded in 2019 asAirbnb for storage space by the two foundersMarcelWipijewski andJan-MichaelSteiner.Usershave thechance to rent out space in their garage or basement with flexible durations to users who need additional storage space. kawaloo is a bootstrapped business that iteratively tested the business idea. In the early stages of customer problemfit andproblem–solution fit, the kawaloo founders conducted a survey to validate the demand of both— landlords and tenants. Participants of the surveywere invited to test mock-ups of the platform and to become lead users. The multi-sidedness was thus addressed simultaneously with a single experiment. For the minimum viable product, the kawaloofounderschose todevelopaplatformoutofdifferent availablecomponents —e.g.,Web site builder or payment solution (piecemealMVP). The supply side of storage spacehas been identifiedby the founders as the critical side of the business model to initiate the network effect. Especially, the optimized user experience through an integrated booking and payment process differentiates kawaloo from alternatives (e.g., Forum, eBay, Classifieds). kawaloo focuses onmatching supply and demand in a relatively small geographical area, e.g., one neighborhood. Since proximity is at the heart of the business model, storage space is marked on a map.kawalooaims toaddress thechicken-eggproblembyextending thepiecemeal MVP with a concierge component where the founders actively contact potential users of competingplatforms toconvert theseusers to early evangelists.This active conversion is conducted in strategic important launch regions and based on direct customer inquiries. In addition, social media and offline campaigns as well as publishing relevant content andarticleshelp to further increase reachandawareness of the brand. 3.2.3 LogCorp: TheUber for Courier Services The analyzed logistics startup canbedefinedasUber for courier services. Founded in 2019, the startup currentlyworks predominantly inBerlin andon its platform. It brings courier drivers together with companies and private individuals who are looking for acourier service.Thedrivernetwork is fueledby individual drivers and vendors.Thefocuson thedemandside isclearlyon theB2B.Courierdrivershavea lot of effort with current services. For example, there is no integrated navigation system, individual invoicing is required, andpickup formsmust be carried inpaper form. The startup digitizes and automates all these and other processes and also offers the best conditions on the market for courier drivers. The founding team discovered in the competition analysis that pure P2P models have failed and therefore initially built on the supply side through partnerships with professional driver agencies inorder tomeet thedemandof theaddressedB2Bcustomers in any case. This demand (problem–solution fit) was validated in interviews and via landing page testingwithGoogle AdWords. After generating relevant volumes in predominantly manual work on both the supply and demand sides, the startup’s current challenges lie in process automation and increasing customer value. The latter goes hand in handwith testing and prioritizing new features on the platform. However, the teamalways keeps an eye on the balance between the two sides and, 98 L. Göcke and P.Meier