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?
I haven’t visited the site, but the outcome you describe (“helping businesses provide food perks to employees”) isn’t limited to office spaces. You could also help get food to employees at their home.
Employees could just get food delivered through participating delivery partners.
Needless to say, it would be trivial for UberEats and others to simply sherlock that as a corporate offering.
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.
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.
That's a critical piece of information you omitted. It sounds like your client is not aware of the fact that you're a Canadian citizen (?) and did not perform work in the United States.
Sometimes companies will require that you certify that you're a foreigner using a Form W-8BEN. If you're not able to resolve this issue with your client by explaining your status and it's creating issues for you, you should consult with an attorney.
It also sounds like it would be worthwhile for you to consult with an accountant who can educate you about your obligations to your clients and your subcontractors generally.
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.
You still sound very confused about your obligations and your client's obligations. It sounds like you expect to keep all your transactions under the radar and not declare any of them to any tax authority. Don't.
You don't get to pick and choose which transactions you report to the government and which you don't based on how hard it is for you to bother with the reporting.
I'm Canadian, but not a tax lawyer. When I've done consulting work in the past for an American company, it has been done B2B; invoices were sent from my (personal) company to their company. They then paid the invoices. There wasn't anything more complicated than that; I wasn't hired as an American employee or anything like that, software development was a service that they paid my company to do and I invoiced them for it.
At the end of the year, it was simply recorded as a sale and was taxed appropriately.
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.
Sole proprietorship here too, but I've registered a company name and do all business through that. The invoices I send have the company name on them, not my personal name.
Either you report that income on your taxes via 1099 and then the IRS goes to the company that created the 1099 and asks them why the 1099 doesn't have a TIN or you don't report the income on your taxes and the IRS finds out and fines you for tax evasion.
Edit: I see that you are Canadian. Unfortunately for your aspirations of tax evasion, the US and Canada have a very friendly information sharing relationship.
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..
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.
It's very likely that they could pursue you legally for releasing your app in the same space after working on theirs. They might be ultimately destined to lose, but they'd pursue you based on the fact that you don't have the resources to fight them.
So by signing this NDA, you are very likely (in effect) saying that you won't release your app or discuss it. It depends on the exact wording, though.
If your app is important to you, you need do one or more of the following:
1. Ask the company directly about the release of your app and get it in writing that your app is not their property and that you can release it without violating agreements with them.
2. Talk to a lawyer
(I'm not a lawyer and am not giving you legal advice)
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.
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!