Let's say you're looking to impress your guests at a party and you want to hire a bartender for the night. You'll search for a bartender on Google and get bombarded by links that don't give you confidence. Next, you'll start reaching out to listed people and find out that you're too late. You'll continue your search beyond the first page of Google results and also reach out to your friends for help…

And in an apartment two blocks away from yours, there is someone practising a new skill that he's going to show off the next day at the bar he works. What if you could connect with that someone and many more such people in no time, while knowing that they are credible?

Very diligently, Rohit documented all his ideas with references from different apps and started hunting for the right development partner. He started getting quotes, which ranged from USD 5,000 to USD 100,000. He was confused with the variance, especially when all of them showed him beautiful portfolios and big brand names in their sales decks. He then turned to his school friends working with top product companies and reached out to Archit.

It was serendipity! Archit had recently begun his entrepreneurial journey himself as the Co-founder of Indiez. He was impressed by the pedigree of the the talent in the Indiez community, and got connected with Sales. Rohit expected another quote but to his surprise, he got a long e-mail telling him to forget the long scope document and embrace an alternative.

Although Rohit had done quite a bit of research at his end and documented a long list of features, which seemed obvious, he did not have a crystal clear MVP plan. In his head, he was building a great product and all he needed to do was spread the word on social media and do some Google Ads. At first, Indiez shattered his confidence a little by asking tough questions like 'Why should I not use all the apps out there?' ' will you solve the class marketplace chicken and egg problem?'… Being a sport, he recognised the gaps in his plan and decided to engage with Indiez on a Product Direction & Definition project to begin with.

A seasoned consumer tech Product Manager who had founded and scaled multiple marketplaces was assigned on a 2 weeks project.

The product manager collaborated with Rohit and applied all the learnings from his experience to conclude that the best way forward would be to launch a chatbot on Facebook Messenger, integrated with an existing CRM solution like Zendesk, Freshdesk, etc. This would go on to enable Rohit to acquire his first 1000 users without spending a buck owing to the low acquisition barrier, and test which categories were performing best to identify the focus market to target next, without building a full fledged app.

Rohit loved the chatbot solution and a new engagement was kicked off with the Product Manager leading a team of 1 Developer and 1 Branding Designer. The team shipped the chatbot using existing tools- api.ai and flowxo with Freshdesk integrations in 2 weeks, along with a quick bot brand identity and a launch website.

Rohit reached 10k+ likes on Facebook and acquired his first 1000 paid users without spending on expensive ads. He identified that users were interested in specific categories only and is now researching on building a product around the same. From negotiating with a top rated agency at 100k USD to shipping the right product in 7k USD, the learnings were life changing for him.