This is a product brief exploring a possible path for Cabin in Fall 23.
Background
One of the biggest challenges in coliving is getting people to relocate. People tend to grow roots and stay in a place for a phase of their life, only moving when beginning another phase (school, work, family). This is shown by how participants of coliving have often been in a transitory stage of their life.
Recognizing this, we can create a product for the larger market of people who don’t want to uproot their lives by providing an offering that they can access locally: a nearby club in the country, starting with Neighborhood Zero.
Problem
Say you work 9-5 Mon-Fri in an office in Austin then go home and spend the rest of your day in your condo. Where is your sandbox? Where do you have room to play?
Unless you or a friend have a country home where you can spread your limbs, your life is confined to the borders of each box you temporarily inhabit within the city. No campfires, no getting dirty, no swinging a hammer or touching grass; all things you also want your kids to experience, making this a problem for both families and individuals.
-
Core pain point for target users: 6/10
- We have not validated this strongly. Social clubs can become an important part of people’s lives, but they aren’t necessarily a burning need people are looking to solve.
- We have received some feedback from parents that this is a big pain point: “people in the city with kids looking for something to do on a weekend that isn’t the zoo is a burning need.”
-
10x better than alternatives: 6/10
- We won’t be 10x better than existing social clubs out of the gate — in fact, we will start out at a big disadvantage. We need something unique. Is community and co-creation enough?
- Maybe it’s 10x better / cheaper than owning a second home
-
Share of wallet: 7/10
- You can build a solid business on $150-250/month/person in subscription revenue
-
Feasibility of execution: 8/10
- We have Neighborhood Zero ready to go as a test bed for this. Actually building the community and finding people willing to pay for membership may be hard.
Product
A membership that provides full access to Neighborhood Zero’s facilities, beds, tools, and events. Do-ocracy still remains, with a portion of membership fees going towards a pool of money that funds projects. The price point would be at a level that establishes Neighborhood Zero as a (solarpunk) club in the country for the middle class, reflected in how you’re expected to make your own bed and clean up after yourself.
Possible membership cost: $150-250/mo
This membership can be the latter of two tiers that Cabin provides. The first tier could be network-centric. The second tier would be neighborhood-centric, while also coming with everything in the first tier.
Phases
As the member base grows, the two variables that we can play with are:
- (# of beds for member/member/mo)
- (#of beds for friends/member/mo).
We can also chose to combine them into a single variable: (# of beds/member/mo)
Phase 1 - Growth
At first, we would be able to promise a bed at any time to members with a limit on friends. The offer at this stage would be so good people would feel stupid saying no, as for ~$140/mo you have full access to Neighborhood Zero. Limiting the beds for friends would incentivize members to get their friends to purchase a membership so that they can enjoy N0 together as often as they please.
Members that join at this stage would be informed of the planned phases for this project.
Phase 2 - Limiting
Eventually we would hit a problem where a portion of members can’t get a bed. At this stage, we start limiting members to a certain # of beds/member/mo. We would play around with the numbers until we find ideal values for x and y:
(# of beds/member/mo) = x(# of total beds) / y(# of members)
Phase 3 - Exclusivity
One day we’d hit a point where we can’t allow any more members unless we develop more beds, resulting in a waiting list for new members to be added when existing members churn. At this point, Neighborhood Zero (and Cabin by proxy) is seen as exclusive.
At some point in Phase 2 we will have proved out the model and can launch it at other neighborhoods near cities where there’s a strong density of Cabin community members (tested through events like supper club).
Development
With this path forward, more beds will have to be made at Neighborhood Zero. Glamping setups offer a path for rapid and cost effective expansion and are suitable for short term stays.
We would also want to expand the facilities, building things like a pickleball court, disc golf course, and amphitheatre to give members more to do. To facilitate doocracy, a workshop would be a good idea as well.
Such development should occur alongside a growing member base.
Financials
With no glamping spots, not including the beds at the house on stilts and including tiny cabin 2, that’s 6 beds. For coliving at $1200/mo, that results in a maximum monthly revenue of $7200/mo.
Say we build 10 glamping spots. Not including the beds at the house on stilts and including tiny cabin 2, that’s 16 beds. Say we have 64 members.
$200/mo * 64 members = $12,800/mo
With $20/member/mo going towards the doocracy budget:
$11,520/mo revenue
$1280/mo do-ocracy budget
16/64 * 100% = 25%, meaning members will hypothetically be able to get a bed for 25% of the month. However, a surge in demand would be expected on weekends.