🕹 Startup Tycoon Game. Day 1! Help Pete launch his startup.

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Meet Pete:

We’re going to play a game over the next several days where we use AI to simulate the startup journey with our new friend below, Pete. You’ll hear his story and how he’s frustrated with his 9-5 job.


❎ Together we’re going to vote to make selections that will impact Pete’s startup journey.


Be sure to read to the end and participate in the poll at the bottom.

✅ Background:


Pete is a 32-year-old sneaker enthusiast who's been immersed in sneaker culture for over a decade. By day, he works as a sales manager at a sporting goods store, where he developed his deep passion for sneakers through daily interactions with customers and sneaker reps. Over the years, he's built a modest collection of rare and limited-edition sneakers and has become well-versed in the intricacies of the sneaker market—like exclusive drops, counterfeits, and evolving trends.

Although Pete dreams of starting his own business, he has limited funds and no significant savings. His ambition to tackle major problems in the sneaker industry must rely on lean startup strategies, making smart decisions, and creatively leveraging his deep market knowledge without substantial upfront investment. Pete’s goal is to take his passion for sneakers and turn it into a successful venture, starting small and hoping to scale.

📅 Day 1: Identifying a Market Problem

Objective: Since Pete is knowledgeable about the sneaker market, he has identified many problems in the industry from his extensive work experience. He used the idea generator tool on old.validatorai.com to narrow down his choices to 5 key problems.

• Sneaker Authenticity Issues (Counterfeit Problem): Difficulty in verifying authentic sneakers before purchase.
  
  ✔ Pete says people come into the store all the time with shoes they want to trade or sell, but authentication is difficult. He also says that authentication when you buy on third party websites is questionable.
  
  

• Limited Access to Exclusive Releases: Bots and resellers dominate online drops, preventing real fans from securing limited-edition sneakers.
  
  ✔ Pete says the bots have taken over. Each limited-edition sneaker that drops online — real people never win the drops. Bots are scooping up all the pairs and buyers are frustrated.
  
  

• Sustainability and Environmental Impact: The high environmental cost of producing sneakers, leading to demand for sustainable alternatives.
  
  ✔ Pete says, on occasion, people worry about the waste that is caused by sneakers that wear out and are thrown away. Perhaps a reusable sneaker could be the answer? He’s not sure without asking around.
  
  

• Sizing Inconsistencies Across Brands: Inconsistent sneaker sizing across different brands, especially when buying online.
  
  ✔ Pete says a size 11 in Nike isn’t the same as a size 11 in Adidas or in Reebok. He’s not sure what the answer is here, but people often buy online, find out the sizing isn’t exactly perfect, and they return the shoes to him in the store.
  
  

• Sneaker Maintenance and Longevity: Sneakerheads want to maintain their shoes in pristine condition, but proper care can be expensive and time-consuming.
  
  ✔ Pete says people really want to wear their rare sneakers but are apprehensive because they wear out quickly - causing them to lose value. Even those that buy their shoes to wear them complain that they wear out fast while playing basketball.
  

Let’s vote on a problem for Pete to take on, below. 👇👇

🙋‍♂️ What problem do we want Pete to dive into? Choose ONE below and we’ll tally the votes and the game will start!

😎 Tomorrow, we’ll display the results, and we’ll help Pete move forward.

Yesterday, we had a great response from showing reader’s startups.

📩 Reply to this email to submit yours! Its FREE and goes out to 200,000 people!

Tell us:

✔ Your URL
✔ What you are working on
✔ What you need

You might find a cofounder, feedback, connections and more.

A few projects our readers are working on:

🤩 Silvia Unger

URL: https://beedesign.io/ 

Summary: Silvia has made a directory of Beehiiv newsletters, highlighting their design elements.

Needs: Silvia wants to connect with more newsletters on Beehiiv. Especially those with interesting design elements. Her goal is to match up brand designers with newsletter creators.

🤩 Pancrazio Auteri

URL: https://productexpanse.com 

Summary: “Pan’ for short is an angel investor and advisor at UC Berkley and beyond. His platform is a consulting service to help founders accelerate product-market fit, traction and fundraising.

Needs: He needs help to find VC-backed founders that are struggling with communicating their value proposition, closing deals or retaining new users.

🤩 Justin Lokitz

URL: https://ruckr.me 

Summary: Justin writes a newsletter about ‘rucking’. It has over 1000 subscribers and he’s adding 20-30 new subs per day!

Needs: Justin is looking for helpful resources or tips to grow his newsletter faster. Eventually, he’d like a monetization partner.

We have many more reader ventures to share — more to come tomorrow.

Good luck out there. Reply to this message and tell me what you’re working on!

📩 Forward this to your friends that like startups so they can play the startup game with us!

👉 Let’s connect on LinkedIn here: Aron Meystedt’s LinkedIn

Aron