Is Wellness the next Daily Deal Startup Trend?
There is no doubt that startups and startup ideas run in trends. One of the things I try to gauge as I meet with entrepreneurs during our Ideation Bootcamps for Founder Institute is what are the current categories that are trending for startup ideas – but unlike a Twitter trend this is totally unscientific. To compare trends, I’d use an analogy of the wave building or crashing on the shore, so like the trend here are the wave options:
- Has the wave already crashed on the shore – Are you too late to market
- Is the wave building and you need to make sure you don’t get crashed with it- Are you a little late to market
- Or is it the near future – You’re still early to market (hopefully not too early)
- No wave – You’re wayyyyy to early to market
Here’s a few of the recent historical startup trends in startups and where Wellness fits into the category.
You remember, it was almost a year ago, just last April – there was a scent of a Bubble in the air… In March 2011 there was a list of over 320 Daily Deal sites reference in this GeekWire. I’m sure that early number was eclipsed somewhere over 500 or 600 before the filing of Groupon’s S1 for their IPO. All of these competitors were just slightly better then Groupon or LivingSocial. We’re still seeing a few of these ideas pop up into pitches. This one has crashed on the shore.
Prior to that trend, there were Venture Funds established to fund startups in the Facebook ecosystem (I guess that begs the question does Venture Lead or Follow the trend?).
That brings us to today, Feb. 2012. It seems that an emerging trend in startups is in the Wellness category. Is Wellness a good category for your idea? Yes… but, what area of Wellness is your sub-category? Personal fitness via mobile App, Corporate Wellness like Limeaide? Make sure you’ve picked a niche that is smaller then the entire Wellness category. Validating the sub-category will be important to get Traction and to raise any money as investment if you’re going to go big.
Note also, that there are at least 20 VC Firms that list “Wellness” in their firm’s description in a quick Google search. However, most of these firm are in the growth and expansion capital category, not he early stage category.
Yes, the time has come for Wellness… Did you read about the guy that had a heart attack recently at the Heart Attach Grill, I doubt the “Taste is Really Worth Dying For”?