Startup #3 - ifoundthis.co

ifoundthis.co is the 3rd startup in my 12 startups challenge, and one where I move away from just software and into a slightly more physical product with stickers (and rubber stamps!)

The idea

A few years ago, I got introduced to disc golf as a fun sport to play. If you don’t know what it is, it is basically golf but with discs (or frisbees). Despite having played a few years, I’m still terrible at it and sometimes when I throw my disc, it seems to disappear and I spend longer looking for it or never find it at all. So like many others, I wrote my name and phone number on my discs, so that if anyone does find it, they can give me a call to return it.

The downside of this is that, when I travel to another country my number may not work to receive phone calls or SMS and also I don’t really like my phone number just floating around out there even when I haven’t lost my disc.

So I had the idea of placing a QR Code on my disc which brings people to a simple web page which has my contact details. I did this, and posted it on reddit and my instagram to see what people thought of it. And lo and behold, I’m getting some good responses! See the reddit link below to see the discussions.

Competitors and other options

One of the reddit comments actually mentioned that Tile did this exact thing. Printing out QR Code stickers for people to save their details on. This is a great sign, meaning that there is a market for this. Since then, I’ve also found a few more smaller competitors that do similar things but none in the specific disc golf market.

The reason is that, stickers and anything that could affect the flight of a disc is considered illegal by the PDGA. Hence why I looked into getting custom rubber stamps created with the QR Code. So more avid disc golfers that participate in tournaments can get an ink stamp on their discs instead of stickers.

What I built

Here are some of the things I built and setup for anyone else wanting to get their own QR Code.

• Frontend — I used Astro to create the product landing page as well as the landing page for each user’s contact details.
• Printful — This is the print-on-demand system that allows me to create a custom sticker to send to people with a specific QR code for themselves. I chose this as it also has an API which means eventually I can automate this setup.
• QR Code Generator — This is currently a manual process using Figma for each person. But I have some ideas on how to automate this more using AWS Lambda and Figma plugins. I will likely do this if I start getting enough requests to warrant the automation.

How will this make money?

At this time, I am adding a profit margin on top of the sticker purchase. At this time, I feel like this is the best business model for this type of product. If you have other ideas, definitely let me know your thoughts!

As an evolution of this idea, I am testing out a B2B solution, so keep an eye out for the write up next month!

How have I marketed this?

I am currently marketing this via a few channels:

• Reddit — My post on r/discgolf is still there and I will likely post again once I can firm up the rubber stamp process
• Socials — I am currently using my personal Instagram and LinkedIn to let others know about my progress on this
• Paid Ads — I plan on testing out some paid Facebook Ads and Google Ads to see if there may be enough interest on this product to warrant continuing
• Sharing — Every time someone scans the QR Code, they will see the website it is on, and a link below if they were also interested in getting one for themselves.

Results

It has been a great response for something that I thought no one would be interested in, so here are the current stats:

• 4 people ordered stickers
• Revenue — $30 and 3 IOU Beers

What’s next?

I am looking to get in touch with disc golf manufacturers to see if this is something they would be interested in adding directly on their disc and how that would work. I am also reaching out to some local suppliers to see what their thoughts are on this and whether or not they would be open to stocking the stickers and/or rubber stamps in their stores.

That’s a third one done! If you are interested on getting one of these stickers, buy now on https://ifoundthis.co/ or reach out to me at hello@justindra.com or through Instagram or LinkedIn