Background
During the peak of COVID-19, I saw my family restaurant, like many others, struggle to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape. We transitioned to only take-out services, halting dine-ins. Small businesses had the urgent need to establish their online presence.
At the same time, social media platforms like TikTok were booming, becoming the main source of social communication and connection.
For Gen-Z, Tiktok became the new search engine. My friends and I even found each other turning to social media and watching videos to find new local restaurants to eat at.
Coupled with the explosive growth of platforms like TikTok, I recognized an opportunity to leverage the power of social media to connect businesses with content creators in a mutually beneficial manner.
5.2B views
on #local tag —
people interested in
discovering
local experiences
56% of Tiktok users
use the app to
discover new products and services.
The Problem
Small to medium-sized businesses are struggling to improve their digital visibility due to limited budgets and a lack of access to finding quality content creators.
.. at the same time, new and established content creators face challenges in finding opportunities to work with businesses that match their interests and skillsets.
Business' Problem
As a result, business miss out on potential customers being "unlisted" on today's most popular platforms
Creator's Problem
… and content creators miss out on opportunities to share about a gifted experience they would have enjoyed.
The Journey Begins
With this basic idea, we decided to limit the initial scope to something manageable: a simple web page. The vision was:
To create a two-sided marketplace where businesses could discover content creators, and content creators could explore potential content ideas from local businesses.
Progress was slow at first. We met with mentors and advisors–special thanks to Professor Jones at UWB– who encouraged us to conduct interviews with small business owners to understand some of their pain points better.
"marketing or social media strategy is none of our suites"
"It's hard to create fun & useful content to post when you're a small team."
"It's difficult to build trust between a business and a consumer … people trust influencers."
These conversations highlighted some challenges businesses faced regarding social media, from creating content with limited resources to establishing trust in an increasingly competitive market.
Though we thought our user research was thorough, we quickly learned how easy it was to misinterpret problems or miss key questions. Still, every mistake became a lesson.
Competitive Analysis
Existing solutions, while comprehensive in some aspects, fall short of adequately addressing the needs of small businesses.
This gap in the market served as the impetus for our endeavor—to create a platform tailored specifically to the needs of small businesses and content creators alike.
Our Competitive Advantage
Similar to other competitors, Comet Creator Marketplace offers businesses the ability to do campaign management.
Additionally, our product offers both online and local campaigns, an open marketplace format, automated legal contract generation, as well as access to in-person creator events through our exclusive partnerships with creator-specific networks such as Saturn Social Club LLC.
Visual Design Ideation
The card design for the collaboration campaigns underwent extensive brainstorming and iteration processes, primarily because it was destined for the homepage—a critical focal point of the Comet platform.
It was a poll of 50+ creators.. and there was a divide between option 1 and option 2.
Ultimately, creators leaned towards using the short description as it allowed small businesses to narrate their story, rather than creators merely producing content for compensation's sake.
This choice aimed to foster more meaningful collaborations and authentic storytelling on the platform.
"I like option 1 cause I could see the 'personality' !! Assuming they're [the businesses] writing their own descriptions and not Comet"
"1 feels like it gives the most context & most personable; feel like I'm reading a listing that's written by someone vs the other options being cut and dry"
Interaction Design Ideation
In designing the interaction for displaying campaign information, we explored two distinct approaches to ensure a seamless and intuitive user experience.
Redirected Campaign Pages
One approach considered was to direct users to separate pages for each campaign upon clicking on a card.
While this method offers a more immersive experience, it may require users to navigate back to the main page after viewing each campaign, potentially leading to a disjointed user experience.
Popup Campaign Pages
With the popup pages approach, users would be presented with campaign details in a popup window upon clicking on a campaign card.
This method allowed users to preview campaign information without navigating away from the main page, thus maintaining their current context and enhancing convenience and usability.
We opted for the popup pages approach as it presents campaign information while maintaining users within the same context.
This decision was guided by our commitment to providing users with a seamless and efficient browsing experience while maintaining their context within the platform.
Final Product
a Seattle-based creator marketplace connecting local businesses to content creators!
Onboarding / Sign up
Both creators and businesses can sign up through an onboarding process where they are prompted to fill out a essential details such as name and tags representing their brand.
Browse through Campaigns
Creators can browse through open campaigns and learning more by clicking "View Details."
Applied / Ongoing Campaigns
Creators can browse through their applied campaigns and see updates regarding their applications.
Ongoing Campaign
Creators will have to review the proposal that is agreed on by both parties before fully starting a campaign.
Reflection
It's not over yet…
The journey of building a startup from scratch was far from smooth. We faced many challenges such as financial constraints, overpromising to our team, and navigating the complexities of launching a startup. However, these obstacles became opportunities for growth.
While we've made significant progress in developing our platform and refining our user experience, it's crucial to recognize that our journey is far from over. ☄️
I learned the importance of:
✔️ Prioritizing a clear business model
✔️ Conducting through user research early on
✔️ Managing resources effectively
✔️ Assembling a team with an aligned vision
Would I call it a failure?
I see Comet as an invaluable learning experience. It deepened my relationships with my friends and mentors, and allowed me to grow personally and professionally during a time of uncertainty.
Comet Creator Marketplace.. we onboarded over 100 content creators, a milestone that validated our efforts and proved the platform’s potential, empowered local Seattle business, and opened many doors to work with mentos, advisors, and my peers.
Our achievements didn’t stop there. We advanced to the Top 30 in the Dempsey Startup Competition and even secured an interview for the UW Jones and Foster Accelerator. This isn’t the end for Comet, but rather a pause.