Gareth said "sell it to landlords". I talked to 9 letting agents. Notes

Following up from my intro thread, where I had a bill-splitting app with 14 student users and no idea who pays.

I emailed 30 letting agents in Bristol. 9 talked to me. What they said:

• 7 of 9: the thing they hate is the end-of-tenancy argument about who owes what, not the monthly bills
• 5 of 9 already pay for some tenant software and would not add another login
• 2 said "if it produced one page at the end saying who owes whom, I would pay £5 a house"
• 0 cared about the app itself

So the product might not be an app. It might be the one page.

This is proper research and you did it in two weeks. The line that matters is "0 cared about the app". Most founders hear that and build the app anyway.

I would like it recorded that I said this as a throwaway comment while waiting for a build.

Two agents at £5 a house is not a business yet. How many houses do those two manage?

340 and 1,100. So £7,200 a month if both said yes to everything, which they will not.

Two things. Go back to those two this week and ask them to pay for one month, for ten houses, before you build the page. And when one of them says yes, make the page in a spreadsheet by hand.

Update: the smaller agent said yes to ten houses at £5. I am making the pages by hand this weekend. My first £50. I have not earned it yet but someone has agreed to give it to me.

Invoice them before you do the work. Welcome to the rest of your life.

Ellie! When the £50 arrives, the zero to one dollar thread is waiting for you.