inDemand
inDemand sells white-label on-demand delivery software that lets grocery stores and local retailers sell to customers online and deliver within the hour, charging setup fees, monthly subscriptions, and per-order commissions. The company was in the middle of a pivot from a broader on-demand platform, had about 150 customers of which roughly 25 were active, and reported about $10,000 in true MRR for October 2016 with a team of three. It was bootstrapped apart from a $125,000 investment from 500 Startups.
- •Charging a setup fee plus monthly subscription plus per-order commission gives the product multiple revenue layers tied to both fixed and volume-based usage.
- •Concentrating on a narrow, underserved niche (local grocery stores without online ordering) made the product easier to sell than a generic on-demand platform.
- •Repricing from a Shopify-style $29 tier to roughly $179 to $400 per month, with customers getting a fully white-labeled and managed service, improved revenue per customer.
- •Cheap, targeted outbound lead sourcing lets a three-person team test and grow a sales pipeline without a large marketing budget.
- 1.Pick a single local vertical with a clear gap, such as grocery stores that lack online ordering, and build a product specifically for it.
- 2.Charge a setup fee, a monthly subscription, and a per-transaction commission so revenue grows with customer usage.
- 3.Build a targeted lead list of decision-makers in that vertical and outsource contact research to low-cost freelancers, then measure conversion rate per batch.
- 4.Price for the value delivered, such as full white-label setup and branding, rather than copying low self-serve SaaS price points.
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