OurFlat, an app that makes living together easier with shared expenses, tasks and shopping list

[rabbitrevenge]

Hi r/roastmystartup, we'd appreciate a roast on our new app, OurFlat.

Landing Page: https://ourflat-app.com

Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tseK6sSSejI

Problem/Motivation: Students, couples etc who live together have a lot of things to take care of, such as groceries, shared expenses and chores. An App can help them with this.

Our solution: With OurFlat, we provide all those features in an all-in-one app, to make living together easier and more harmonious. The app has three main functions as of now, a shared shopping list where users can reserve things they will buy to avoid duplicate buying.

The finance section, which works like any other bill splitting app, but also has split by amount or percentage. You can also settle the finances and receive an overview of balancing payments.

The task section, where you can create repeated tasks, reminders, assign tasks, reward points, task history, etc.

Current state and plan: We've been working on it for about a year and just released the first version for iOS and Android.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ourflat.app

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ourflat/id1530007409

In the near future we plan to add a calendar, chat with polls and more.

 

[uniquefuaxreal]

@rabbitrevenge I already use a specialised app for bill splitting. And the rest I usually do on paper.

What pain are you solving for someone like me ?

 

[rabbitrevenge]

@uniquefuaxreal Thanks for the answer! Good point.

First, our shopping list is synchronized with everyone - it's easier to collaborate. Say you are shopping, and someone finds out you're out of toilet paper. He can just add it to the list, and you'll be immediately notified. You also can reserve items, so you will not buy things somebody else already got.

Second, you can configure the tasks to your exact needs. You can add a reminder, whenever a chore is due, and repeat a task, e.g. wipe the floor, every X days. You can also add points, that indicate how hard the task is. This will make it easier to know when to do something, and also ensures that everybody does their fair share of work.

But you are right, that this can be done on paper - it's just more fun and easier in an app. Cheers!

 

[uniquefuaxreal]

@rabbitrevenge The repeating task would be a key selling point for me. If I were to download the app I would probably do it just for that

 

[rabbitrevenge]

@uniquefuaxreal Thank you so much for letting us know! You can also add a reminder at a specific time, e.g. if you have to take the trash out every Wednesday morning. Oh, and of course if you have several people doing chores, it will automatically alternate.

 

[uniquefuaxreal]

@rabbitrevenge Sounds dope. Can see this working for 3+ people flatshares.

 

[auntynet]

@rabbitrevenge Are people who are splitting bills and such with this level of granularity going to be willing to pay for a service to do it for them

 

[tsquared]

@auntynet To add to this, is the subscription per user or per household, because I feel one is overpriced and the other is underpriced.

And personal preference, charge me for a month by month and offer a discount for a 12m subscription. 6m subscriptions... bother me.

 

[rabbitrevenge]

@tsquared Thanks, those a very good points. It is per user. So, you would prefer a household subscription, that's ~ $1 per month or ~ $10 per year?

We should definitely explain that it's only for one. We are also considering making the subscription for all, but that is a bit complicated given the way in-app-subscriptions are only tied to one store account.

 

[tsquared]

@rabbitrevenge So my personal opinion in CAD$... $2.79/person every six months is too much, I might pay that today, but I wouldn’t have paid that when I was broke and living with roommates. That’s $11-$22 per year for what I am understanding is a fancy budgeting app. Everything you are describing I can build in a live/shared excel spreadsheet for free. It’s more work to maintain and keep tidy, but when you are young and broke you have the time.

$8-$10/year per household or .99 per month I think is fair for what you are describing. If you need to split that up on a per user basis, .99 each for a 3 month subscription maybe?

Keep in mind the word year carries a lot of weight. $5 a year sounds cheaper to people than 2.50 every 6 months. It’s the physiological perception of the price.

Take it all with a grain of salt, I haven’t had roommates for a few years so I’m really trying to think back to what I would have paid for a service like this.

One last idea... when I moved out of my parents house, the two things I struggled with was learning to cook, and learning to clean. I’m not sure if I would have fit your target market, but consider maybe partnering with a YouTuber or meal service... I can’t remember which channel it was... but one particular YouTuber got me through my first year of University. Their videos specialized in easy to make, cheap meals. Each video had 3-7 meals covered, and you’d only need 10ish ingredients to make all 3-7 meals. So 18year old me (and my roommate) would pick a video for the week, head down to the grocery store and we had everything we needed for a weeks worth of dinners. Key being: tasty, cheap, simple to cook.

If you could take a dorm room friendly meal plan and incorporate it into your app, sync it with your grocery shopping function, etc.... 18 year old me would have paid $30-$50 a year for that.

I’m not suggesting you turn your app into a meal plan service, Its just one thing I see as having potential to add value. I envision your target market as my friends and I when we were 18-22 and the anything you can do to make that transition from “living with the parents to making it on your own” easier has the potential to add to your offering.

 

[rabbitrevenge]

@tsquared Hey, thank you so much for this super detailed feedback!

First, about the pricing: most functionalities of the app are entirely free. You could use the app for years without paying for pro. Only if you want access to certain features that extend the basic features, such as advanced finance splitting and settling, you can pay. It will also remove ads. So it's mainly thought for power-users who don't mind supporting the app. Currently we plan to price it as 79ct per month, $3.49 per 6 months, or $5.99 per year. But, we might change that if we add more features, such as recipes.

The meal plan part, we already had recipes generally on our backlog, but your perspective helps us a lot to think about how to build it. The way you describe sounds really fantastic and useful, so we're excited to think about building it! Thank you so much once again!

 

[rabbitrevenge]

@auntynet I'm not sure if I understand correctly, but are you saying that our target group is unlikely to pay for a service like this? You are probably right. There are a number of other paid bill splitting apps though. We also show ads as a backup. If we get enough users, that would work just fine. And since the pro version is not intended to be very costly, we hope people upgrade to get access to some extra features and remove the ads.

 

[cassidy]

@rabbitrevenge You are limiting your audience by calling it a "flat".

 

[rabbitrevenge]

@cassidy Thanks! That's a very valid point. We're already considering changing it.

(If you we're looking for an app like this, what would you personally search for / expect it to be named?)

 

[cassidy]

@rabbitrevenge I'm not the right person to ask about business names. Maybe something with words like roommate, home, share.. maybe go modern with it and combine two words into one? I dunno.