Startup Feedback - EventHomes.com • Hacker News Board

Startup Feedback - EventHomes.com

#1

Post by lostincode » Fri, Nov 19, 2010, 9:57 PM UTC

Hi,

Hoping to get some feedback on my recently launched startup - EventHomes.com. We're a "Airbnb" for homeowners near major sporting events who want to rent their home for people attending the event.

www.eventhomes.com

Background: In 2004 the Ryder Cup came to my city in Bloomfield Hills, MI. I was in high school at the time and came up with the idea to create a site after speaking with a few home owners who had amazing properties on the golf course. I launched the site after taking pictures of a few homes in the area by going to door to door explaining my idea. I promoted it by creating a real estate listing on eBay for a ridiculous price of $1,000,000.00 (I knew at the very least the price would get people to click on it). The site ended up getting quite a bit of traffic from this but it was eventually caught by eBay and taken down (minor setback). The next thing I did was email every local news station in my city and I ended up getting a interview and a story about my site on the nightly news. After the story air'd I had hundreds of homeowners emailing me and I could barely keep up. Two weeks later I got a nice letter from the PGA's lawyers demanding I take down my site because the url contained their trademark "RyderCup". Since I was in high school, I didn't know what to do and ended up taking the site down and moved on. I always knew in the back of my mind I would try again.

With the new site, I decided to cover every major sporting event in the US and created a more generic name "EventHomes". We currently have over 200 homes available for the 2011 Super Bowl in Arlington, Tx.

Re: Startup Feedback - EventHomes.com

#2

Post by pedalpete » Fri, Nov 19, 2010, 10:51 PM UTC

The site won't load for me, so that is a bit of a non-starter.

I think one of the big problems you may face from a business perspective is as you say 'Airbnb for homeowners near major sporting events'.

As a homeowner, I think I would want to manage my rental in one place. As a person looking for a place to stay, I also want to look in one place. Though you have a niche, it is a niche in a subset of an already serviced market where the buying criteria don't differ.

I think what you are trying to do is different from other niches like etsy or HN in that these are underserved markets where the isn't really another solution. Your main competitor is not only an alternative solution, but also one that isn't painting themselves in a corner.

You may need to revisit your business model a bit and get a better definition of the market you are serving. It could be something as simple as language in the sale that is tripping me up, but I've got a trusted resource in Airbnb (though I've never used them) with a pretty good name and is pretty much defining the market. I don't see a big opportunity for a subset of that market.

Re: Startup Feedback - EventHomes.com

#3

Post by lostincode » Sat, Nov 20, 2010, 12:27 AM UTC

pedalpete wrote: post #2

The site won't load for me, so that is a bit of a non-starter. I think one of the big problems you may face from a business perspective is as you say 'Airbnb for homeowners near major sporting events'. As a homeowner, I think I would want to manage my rental in one place. As a person looking for a place to stay, I also want to look in one place. Though you have a niche, it is a niche in a subset of an already service…

Appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts, you have some great points. I used 'Airbnb' because I figured most of you guys are familiar with it and it would get my concept across quicker. I don't see my site as competition to them.

Back in 2004 I was able to help one homeowner rent their home through a travel agency so I definitely think there is a market in this event niche but I'll have to keep pushing forward to see how big it actually may be. The feedback from homeowners since launch has been pretty positive so I remain optimistic.

Is anyone else having trouble getting the site to load? I've asked a few friends in different locations and they did not have any trouble loading it but I will continue to look into it.