Hey folks,
Welcome to another issue of Inside Startups.
Last week, we shared some insights on how Practically, Byjus's, Milk Basket & others got their early users.
Under our GTM of the Indian product series,
We are again back to share some lessons from Magicpin, Dunzo, Koo and Sleepy Owl on getting their early users/customers.
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So, without further ado, Let’s dive in!
Magicpin
Magicpin let its users discover restaurants, fashion stores, spas, and fitness centres in the nearby areas and reward them with magic points that can be used to buy more services and experiences at Magic in partner merchants.
👀 Target Group
During the early days, Magicpin targeted people between the ages of 16-22 years, especially college students and tried to onboard restaurants near universities and colleges.
🤔 How Magicpin got its early users?
Magicpin incentivized college students for uploading a photo of the bill and + a selfie with Cashbacks, vouchers etc.Â
The majority of college students usually visit a restaurant in a group and seeing one of their freind taking pictures of Bill spreads word-of-mouth among those who don’t have the app yet.
Later, Magic Pin offered the restaurant customer relationship management (CRM) tools that analyze the purchasing behaviour of customers and help them increase footfall. Some restaurants help started rewarding college students by giving them free food (through their own budget) & asking them to upload a selfie with the bill.
Dunzo
Dunzo is a hyperlocal quick commerce startup that delivers groceries and essentials through Dunzo Daily and performs quick pick-up & drop services across the city through courier.Â
👀 Target Group
Monthly tech-savvy, Gen-Z users who prefer convenience to get food and grocery at their doorstep.Â
But, an ideal customer for Dunzo can range from a 65-year older man looking to get his medicine delivered on time to a 12-year-old schoolboy who wants to get his friend’s homework notebook.
🤔 How Dunzo got its early user?
Before Dunzo was an app, it was a service run on WhatsApp groups (around 3700 groups), with one group dedicated to each user segment and an operator acting as a manager relaying the messages between the user and the rider.
The WhatsApp group was started by the founder Kabeer Biswas that helps their friends, family and neighbours to get any work done from delivering forgotten iPhones at the office from home to cleaning Peigon shit at your cooler.
Dunzo has hired final-year college students to deliver/get the stuff done for users or manage the WhatsApp groups.
Koo
Koo is an Indian microblogging and social networking service in Bengaluru Karnataka. It is the Indian version of Twitter.Â
It is built for Indians in order to share their views using Indian Languages.Â
👀 Target Group
They basically target the Indians who use Twitter, it may be from normal middle-class people to ministers of the country.Â
🤔 How KOO got its early users?
Koo won the government's Atmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge which caught public attention towards it.
Even, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned the app in his Mann Ki Baat address after the results of the Atmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge.
Collaborated with Kannada-speaking personalities like a cricketer, Anil Kumble and Karnataka Deputy CM, CN Ashwath Narayan, and Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev, and asked them to create an account on Koo and post about it on their social media account to attract Kannada speaking audience on Koo app.
Sleepy Owl
Sleepy Owl Coffee is a cold brew coffee brand.
(Cold brew coffee is ground coffee beans steeped in room temperature water, instead of being exposed to heat the way it would in a regular brewing process.)
The products are sold across more than 1,000 retail outlets in Delhi and Mumbai, which accounts for about 40%t of the business.
👀 Target Group
People (18-35 years old) who consume coffee regularly but aren’t getting the best coffee for the price they are paying.
🤔 How Sleepy Owl got its early users?
Sleepy Owl acquired their first set of consumers by setting up its stall at the Jindal Global Law School Sports Fest in March 2016, Followed by setting up similar kiosks at other college fests, events and bazaars.
Read the complete 0 to 1 story of Sleepy owl: Link
That’s all from this post folks!
If you like what you read, please share this post within your company Slack or Whatsapp groups. It means a lot to me :)
Short and good insights !
One observations, I think 'How Magicpin got its early users?' has points written for Bounce startup. Kindly get that rectified.