Venture Concept No. 1
Juntos
Juntos: Venture Concept No. 1
Overview
Juntos, meaning
"together" in Spanish, is an online marketplace that connects people
who are looking to make similar major purchases, allowing them to buy things
together. Unlike Amazon or eBay, Juntos will help buyers find, contact, and
communicate with other buyers before they make a joint purchase. Unlike timeshare
markets, Juntos will allow for the shared purchase of any major item. Examples
of such items include: boats, season tickets, condos, recreational vehicles,
and bulk goods. Buyers will then be matched with a reliable legal service that
will, if necessary, quickly work out a contract granting joint ownership of the
purchased item.
Problem
When someone desires a product or property that is out of their price
rage, unless that person personally knows someone who is interested in making a
similar purchase, they will either have to stretch themselves financial to pay
full price, or simply go without it. Each year untold billions of dollars in
major purchases are not made because the buyer cannot bear the cost alone. This
loss of economic transactions is referred to as un-captured potential. Un-captured
potential hurts sellers as products go unsold, and hurts buyers as they miss
out on products they want or need. If only like-minded buyers could easily find
each other and work together, the potential transactions could take place.
Solution
Juntos provides an easy-to-use online marketplace in
which buyers can browse product and property listings, search for and connect
with potential buying partners, find contract lawyers, and split the cost of
products. Sellers can use the platform to list products, selling more than they
would otherwise, and reducing un-captured potential. Juntos screens marketplace
participants, and securely processes the transaction between any number of
buyers and the seller, protecting both parties from fraudulent transactions.
Opportunity
Global e-commerce sales topped $1 trillion in 2012, a growth of nearly 16%
over the previous year. Timeshares, boats, recreational vehicles, and season
tickets are a few of the items commonly bought jointly. The timeshare industry
reached $10 billion in sales in 2011. The recreational boating industry reached
$83 billion. Recreational vehicles sales topped $42 billion in 2012 and are
growing by over 15% per year. The season ticket sales in sports, music, and
drama are a combined $50 billion industry. There is great opportunity to direct
much of the transactions in these industries to Juntos as each industry has
only a few scattered, ineffective online sales sites, none of which cater to
joint purchases. Beyond capturing large market share of the transactions
already taking place, Juntos facilitates transactions that would otherwise not
occur, through its buyer connecting platform.
Inovation
·
Connecting buyers:
Any buyer can use the Juntos website to quickly find buyers in their area, who
are considering the same purchase, allowing them to communicate beforehand to
ensure that the joint ownership will go smoothly.
·
Joint payment: No
other online marketplace is focused on or even allows shared payment. Doing so
is a shift from the norm and opens up vast new sales potential.
·
Marketplace
consolidation: Anything that can be bought jointly is found in one easy-to-navigate
marketplace. Buyers and sellers are also able to add or request any item to be
added to the marketplace.
·
Legal services:
After a joint purchase is made, Juntos will direct the buyers to a contract law
firm that will quickly work with the buyers to complete the necessary
contractual documents.
Venture Concept
Juntos receives revenue from
each payment transaction it processes. Products or properties will be listed
online by a merchant or individual seller. As the primary benefit of the platform
is to buyers, they pay between 3% and 5% of each transaction to Juntos,
depending on the dollar value of the transaction and the number of buyers
involved. Each transaction is subject to a minimum transaction fee of $5.00 per
buyer. As merchants can list products on their own sites, no fee will be
charged for listing products. However, for timeshares and other real estate, a 5%
commission will be charged to the property seller. Revenues will also be
brought in through partnerships with law firms. Juntos will partner with
contract law firms, sending every transaction of a specific type to that law
firm, where the details of the new joint ownership will be quickly agreed upon.
Example Transaction
Will lives in San Diego and
is looking to buy a boat. Will browses the marketplace section of juntos.com
and sees that the type of boat he is interested in is sold for $10,000.
However, most he is willing to spend is $6,000.
Will creates a posting in
the buyer section of juntos.com. The posting specifies his location, desired
item, and the percentage of the price he is willing to pay. Will decides he
would like to have 50% ownership.
Tom also lives in San Diego
and is interested in buying a boat, but does not know what type. Tom goes on to
juntos.com and narrows down the buyer postings by searching the “Boats”
category in “San Diego”.
Among other postings, Tom
sees Will’s posting and likes the look of the boat and decides to send him a
private message. Tom asks Will about the details of the boat and after a few
messages back and forth decides it is what he wants.
Tom and Will agree on a
50-50 split ownership and each pay $5250 through the Juntos online payment
system, with total combined payment at $10,500. The $10,500 consists of $10,000
from the cost of the boat, plus the 5% Juntos fee.
The payment is then
processed and $10,000 is sent to the seller who listed the boat. Juntos refers
Tom and Will to a contractual law firm that handles of all the Juntos boat
transactions, and a contract specifying joint ownership and usage is created.
Delivery or pickup is carried out as specified by the seller in the product
listing.
Hey I enjoyed reading your blog about the overall concept of Juntos. However I am concerned about the relationships between the buyers. It is quite weird to know that you will be sharing a car with someone and I know that sharing anything will have its issues, even with good friend and or family. However, you did mention an genius fix. Therefore, I greatly enjoyed the thinking that went into hiring lawyers and providing contracts so that people will have specific rights and rules. Therefore, great job on this exercise. I am unable to leave my link because I failed to complete this assignment.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Sawyer!
ReplyDeleteI think you have a really great concept. And it was great that you were thorough in even discussing having contract lawyers part of the transaction.
My concern is also with how well you know the person. My family and I started a venture together, which closed in 2007, and I know I will never work with family again. Would you really want to agree to share something like a boat with someone you don't know? My fear would be we buy it together and he takes off with the boat. You're definitely on the right track though!
If you have a chance, check out my post.
http://myso-bloggedlife.blogspot.com/2016/03/venture-concept-no-1.html
Hey, I think this is a cool idea, but I am on the same page as the others. I would already question splitting ownership of something with a close friend, let alone someone I don't know. Not only that, but this ownership, especially if it is a physical good like a property or vehicle, would need to be between people who are in the same area to actual share the good. Not to mention, actually sharing it could be an issue too. Although this could all be outlined in a contract, it just seems bound to lead to a lot of legal and interpersonal trouble. http://abraham-khalil.blogspot.com/2016/03/venture-concept-no-1.html
ReplyDeleteHello Sawyer. From my understanding, Juntos connects buyers in their local area or they can purchase the same item online? How would one get their product if they purchased it online or who gets the purchase? I like the fact that you included a law firm in order to work out the contractual guidelines. In today’s greedy world, it is difficult to share anything, even if it’s small. People will run with their joint purchase and disappear for a lifetime. Here is a link to my post. http://clarissaidos.blogspot.com/2016/03/venture-concept-no-1.html
ReplyDeleteHey Sawyer, your assignment was truly enjoyable to read and it was quite interesting as well. It is great to see that you know about your product/opportunity. I can see myself using your service but it will be truly difficult for yourself to compete with the likes of amazon even though you will offer better services. I didn’t get a chance to do my assignment but check out my blog whenever you get a chance:
ReplyDeletehttp://jamalbrown4.blogspot.com/
Hello Sawyer,
ReplyDeleteI really like where you are going with this idea. I think the seller of the service or product is the big winner in this kind of transaction. They simply list a product or service, it gets sold, they get paid and walk away from the transaction. The part that is a little scary for me is to have joint ownership with a stranger or friend. One thing you might want to add is a buyout clause at a reduced price from whoever doesn’t make all of their payments on time. If you would like to see my idea, check it out at; http://9to5isoverrated.blogspot.com/2016/03/venture-concept-no-1.html