Apane101

We built https://justbooked.com/ to provide office catering and food to teams at companies as an empoloyee perk. Pre-pandemic/pre-remote and hybrid workforce we did really well.

However now that the market has gotten smaller due to hybrid and remote workforces it's not as profitable a space.

With that being said, we spent a lot of time and money developing this awesome platform that allows customers to order from vendors and have whatever they ordered delivered at a set date/time.

Any ideas on how we can repurpose this technology and brand? Any other markets or opportunities that this will work for?

If you had this codebase what would you do with it to make it successful?

Thanks!

Inspiring. If you can stay positive in that environment, what excuse do we have? Get it done!

Thanks for your feedback, a couple points:

Once you select a city you'll get results with venues for that city. On the left hand side you'll notice additional filters such as "Event type, Venue type, Venue Capacity, Price, Amenities". You can play with these filters to further curate the results to your liking.

We're more than a directory, if you actually create an account you'll notice that you can select "Add To My Queue" on several venues and send them all a bulk message at once with your budget, event details etc... This message will be delivered directly to the venue representatives of those venues - you can expect responses shortly thereafter. I've on-boarded 50+ venues so they will be receiving your message directly.

To your last point, yes this is the goal so we're in search of our market segments/users.

Thanks, we have already added the ability for users to filter by "Event Type", check it out www.venuevortex.com/venues

Look, I'm not aspiring to do what you are suggesting. I'm simply inquiring more into the process. Also, if they don't have my information how will they find out who's who? There are at least 100 people in my city with the same name. I'm geniuinely curious as to how this whole thing works..

Right, that's pretty much the same as my process. Did you deal with a W9? or 1099 though? Probably not because you're incorporated right.. So they listed your business. In my case a sole-proprietorship they need my personal info. Makes sense.

Just for this project in particular because of the complexity with sub-contractors. All other ones there isn't any issues because they are in-house.

Thanks for the feedback. They're well aware that I'm located in Canada as all of that information was outlined on the initial agreement. I'm just a bit taken back as I've worked with other clients who have never asked for this. It's likely that these particular clients would like to declare these expenses/right them off to lower their taxable income, I just wish they would have mentioned this before hand so I could have prepared for this.. The sub-contractors are based in Europe so it's really a massive loss for me if I were to go that route.

Also, I've already been paid in full. So at this point I have nothing to lose really.

All of the work is done at this point. And I am a bit confused, as I'm based up in Canada and they're in the U.S. We don't have 1099's and W9's here from what I understand.

How so? They don't have my SIN number or anything. Please elaborate. I'm open to all suggestions here.

I've got QuickBooks all setup. Should I just bring this to my CPA? And go over it with him? I'm using the online application. Thanks

Good advice, thanks!

Understood, however a couple points:

1. He's based in a totally different country, I'm in Canada and he might as well be based in Japan (an example but close enough).

2. The chances of him discovering the app are slim.

3. The chances of him finding out the I created the app are even slimmer, and because the app isn't a direct competitor the chances of him looking up who founded the company isn't likely.

I think based on those 3 points, my odds are good. But I truly appreciate the dialog here because it got me thinking.

Fair enough, in my particular case it's complicated for example - before I even began speaking with this client, I already began coding an application in a particular niche space... it so happens that this client is also in the same space. However, my application is totally different, I just hope that there isn't an issue there because technically, I'm not stealing anything proprietary, and my app is obviously different. I just wonder, how that works.

With all the SEEKING WORK, doesn't look like one has any chance at standing out. Also, supply out-numbers demand on HN dramatically.

SEEKING WORK - Remote, full stack rails developer - total of 8 years web dev experience. Email me - pblogsltd@gmail.com

Fair question. Gauged interest 6 months ago, and seeing where we are in the market now!!

Thanks smt88, you've brought up several good points. At a large scale we wouldn't be able to monitor the conditions of the home kitchens. A solution for this is user ratings, if any given home chef/caterer receives even 1 poor rating we will limit their account activity until an inspection is performed. We'd have to perform an inspection to find out if the poor rating was well-founded. If so, the caterer's account would remain limited until the proper precautionary measures have been taken to avoid this from happening again. Many incidents of food poisoning happen after a perfectly enjoyable meal. We are aware of this possibility. A solution for this would be an liability-insurance policy. If any users should happen to get sick from the food, not only will the caterer be no longer able to serve food but the ill consumer's medical costs will be covered. I've just reached out to Torontos Municipal Licensing & Standards commite to inquire about the feasibility of such a business. As per Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 545, Licensing, a business licence is required for any business where food is stored, prepared, or sold for human consumption, such as:

    coffee shops
    burger shops
    delicatessens
    donut shops
    fish and chips stores
    pizza parlours
    restaurants

The vendors may have to be licensed as you mentioned which has some initial costs for them, but the real question has to do with food safety etc... Waiting to hear back from them.

I knew it was too good to be true, there's a CAVEAT - when you click 'Copy Email Address'or even just click on the email address provided - you get a nasty bug that deletes system level files and directories from your OS. Seems like someone has hacked it already :(