Note down the complaints and issues and take it one step at a time.
Whatsapp didn’t bring us voice calls in 2011 even though we needed it back then.
Take your time and grow gradually.
Also, find a way to monetize.
1.) Since its free, how do you get a lot of people to use it? Say, daily commuters (BRT ads and Facebook (specific location ads that Lara handles) is a smart way to go.
2.) How about having offline stores in specific areas list their products and get found by commuters. (E.g - moving from Yaba to Surulere. HINT: There is a great restaurant with Wi-Fi around Adeniran Ogunsanya where you can hang out while you’re in Surulere.
Just my thoughts but I think you have a great product. Take your time to grow it.
You’re right, Lara can offer location based ads by driving foot traffic to offline stores. We have heard potential customers tell us this will be of tremendous value to them. It’s in the works.
For the early stages though, we’re focussing on the startup community, as early adopters as you must’ve seen with the ads already displayed in her responses.
For startups/early stage online businesses interested in showing their ads on Lara, you can send your request to hello@roadpreppers.com. Rates have been adjusted to suit the conservative startup budget.
@Lordbanks is spot on. Lara is built primarily for pedestrians.
You guessed right, there’s a map tool for drivers on Lara’s predecessor: myrp.ng.
Lara gets that question a lot so she has an answer for it. You can ask her that question: “What if I’m driving?” See what she says.
Nice but this looks like something that rides on Google Transit API, so I don’t really see a competition with Google in anyway, but innovative non-the-less.
