Build in Public: GoKiddo [Part 1]

I have been thinking about building something in public for quite a while now. You might wonder what ” Build in public ” means. Let’s ask ChatGPT.

Won’t someone steal the idea?

This seems like a valid fear - but it’s probably irrational.

Everyone has had a “good idea” before. Whether it succeeds, lies in the execution. And to execute is hard.

Plus everything I share here, will already have happened, putting anyone who wants to copy it one step behind.

In summary, it means I will keep you updated here on my blog/newsletter and on my twitter account about my journey of building GoKiddo. Hopefully this will achieve a few things:

• Allow you to learn from my mistakes
• Create accountability for me to actually follow through on my idea
• And hopefully allow me to get some feedback from you

Which leads me to…

What is GoKiddo?

The idea is simple.

Create a web app where parents can find activities to Go and do with their Kiddos.

The way it will work (as I currently see it in my head) is a platform similar to Tripadviser or Airbnb where you open it up, select your location and then you filter the list until you find an activity you are looking for.

Has this not been done yet?

Usually one of the first questions I ask myself is whether this has been done yet? And after a few Google Searches I saw that most search hits I get are from blog posts that have been written by authors who compiled a list of activities.

None of these “hits” are what I want to do though, which is very promising and I think these blog posts will be a great marketing opportunity down the line.

This is what I’ve done so far:

Chose a name

Usually when trying to find a name for a business, I do it hand in hand with a website like GoDaddy to ensure that the name’s domain is actually available.

This process can take quite a while, because I favour using .com domain names, seeing that they are trusted by users, but their are very little .com’s still available.

The other criteria include:

• Easy to say
• Easy to remember
• Easy to spell
• Brandable/Trademarkable

After a lot of back and forth I decided on using GoKiddo. The name checks all of the boxes above and I can already imagine one mom telling another: “I found this awesome kid-friendly restaurant on GoKiddo, you have to check it out!”

But the .com was taken 😔

Unfortunately the domain name is already owned by another company. The good news is gokiddo.com redirects to govino.com (a wine glass company in USA), which has nothing to do with kids.

After some research I figured out that they bought it 13 years ago, and they haven’t used it yet, so hopefully they will be willing to sell it to me.

I went to their website, found some email addresses and reached out to them, once again with a bit of help by ChatGPT.

Hopefully they are amiable and willing to sell the domain to me at a reasonable price.

The backup plan

In case they aren’t willing to sell the domain to me, I did make a backup plan.

I went and bought 2 other domain names:

• go-kiddo.com
• gokiddo.co.za

Which I also cited in my email in order to state my case for why they need to sell it to me. Seeing that they won’t be able to use it anyway now.

And I designed a logo

After this I designed a logo on CANVA. I wanted a logo that is fun, pretty and easy to remember. Here is what I came up with:

My favourite thing about the logo is the red dot on the i. Credit to Andrew De Vries who gave me the inspiration for the red dot and for planting the GoKiddo idea in my head during one of our numerous coffee brainstorming sessions.

Lastly I claimed all the social media handles

The last thing I did before writing this blog post is claim @GoKiddoApp on all the social media platforms I think will be important for this project.

• Twitter
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest

What are the next steps?

Because this is not my first time round building a platform like this. The last platform I build is dailybulkwine.com where I learnt numerous lessons that I will hopefully apply on this project.

• For the next week I am forcing myself not to start builing yet
• I have created a Notion Page where I am currently brainstorming target market, monetisation, startup cash required, competition, tech stack to use, how to market and feature ideas.
• I feel that this process helps me get clarity before I start building the paltform which saves a lot of time in the future.

Chat soon!🚀