Business Development Note: What is our Unique Selling Point?

(from a forum comment)

Let me put the B2B stuff on the shelf to answer that, as most of our B2B ops are imaginary / pre-launch.

B2C

We're in a class of our own - you can buy two really good coffees for RM16 and spend a practically unlimited amount of time in an air-conditioned space with 400+mbps wifi, cleaned toilets, personal desks, and food nearby... plus we never close. It's 24-7, and we're located at the crossroad of two highways.

For discussion's sake, it's best to talk about our location in two common markets.

(1) We're fundamentally a restaurant. More specifically we're a cafe, and more generally we're a hospitality business.

(1a) Within this space we position our coffee quality as artisanal / third-wave service / hipster quality... but we aim right at the bottom of that segment in terms of the materials we trade in, and in the service we provide. However, because that segment is HUGELY more expensive / finicky than the non-hipster coffee market... we basically have great coffee, which hipsters can tolerate but which perhaps two standard deviations (95%) of the population would say is 'good'.

(1b) In terms of food, we aim to provide value... our quality of materials traded here aims to be as close as possible to what is considered 'first-world grocery standard, processed, but not ultra-processed' ... i.e. no reconstituted meats, meat is really meat, butter is properly regulated but maybe not top-range French pastry butter; if we put 'pesto' on the menu, it's going to be as close as possible to the proper recipe, no substituting pine nuts for walnuts, etc. Carbonara is raw eggs and parmesan, not some cream sauce thingy (we also have that, but it's just called cream of X). Basically we aim ABOVE Secret Recipe in terms of quality, but at the same or at a lower price.

(1c) In terms of furniture, fittings, and ambience we really spend nearly nothing. Once again we aim at the bottom of the range of 'cool and trendy', but really we don't need to focus on that during the pre-seed stage. Because trendy beautiful fittings are a problem that money can solve later, and problems which can be solved by money are not problems. We have strong competencies in design, but the current design problem is to learn how to do more with less. Also... this is a good segue into the other market we play in...

(2) We end up taking customers from coworking spaces. We take people who need more flexibility, some who look for better value, and some who simply can't afford most coworking spaces on a daily basis.

We've been betting AGAINST charging for space as a revenue model since inception, because we don't see unit economics working out for that (I think the coworking space industry IS consolidating and 2020 will see good price cuts, more closures, but a more mature mode product from Malaysian CWS in 2020 and onwards). I have posted a lot about this elsewhere.

This is our CORE VALUE PROPOSITION, though it is not unique.

We're basically a coworking space pretending to be a restaurant; we charge zero for space, but sell you really good food and beverage; our entire revenue model is based on food and beverage sales at this time.

In that sense, in the local market, it is a relatively unique business MODEL. The reason it is difficult is that F&B operators typically need to kick users out as quickly as possible to get new ones in. We play the card of never kicking people out if they buy something. But at the same time, ordering something is mandatory. And coworking spaces are trying to keep staffing, regulatory, and inventory costs low by not offering complex food.

Back to B2B for a sec, since I do need to sellx3, right?

B2B

In a world where the easy way to lead a market is to specialise and partner with other specialists, we focus on vertical AND horizontal integration for hospitality. When we do start to partner with other businesses in the future, we will be experts at facilities management, and we will be treating our clients' various industries as 'practices' where we help deliver specific facilities under each practice.

(conversation continued in this direction)