A new NSW-based start-up, Construtiv, has launched with the aim of allowing individuals to showcase their ideas to companies and consumers, who then provide feedback.
Founded by Jason Cartwright, who lives in Albury-Wodonga, Constructiv is described as “a place where you can identify issues with a product, and actually have companies pay attention”.
“Constructiv is a chance for individuals to be recognised for ideas, and an opportunity for businesses to see them,” Cartwright says.
“Imagine having a single source for amazing feedback about your products, with passionate consumers identifying exactly what they’d like to see in the next version.”
“A voting system will allow the community to surface the most popular suggestions… You’ll be able to control your products dashboard and get in touch with those users that suggest ideas you include.”
While the site won’t enforce a direct reward for constructs that are picked up and implemented by companies, it’s certainly encouraged.
In an in-depth blog post, Cartwright explains how he funded the business and the challenges he has faced.
“After starting the business, I created an account and transferred $1,000 into it. I also created a Pledgie donation and added it to the side of the blog.”
“A few passionate early fans helped out with $120 of donations. It turns out the great thing about spending your own time building something is that you have a very low burn rate.”
Cartwright says while there have been few start-up costs for the site (hosting and domain names, business cards, etc.), the downside is the time it requires.
“I’m not going to lie – building Constructiv has been crazy,” he says.
“I’m building this around a regular 9-5 [job] to pay the bills, my Australia technology blog – techAU.tv [and] flying around the country to press events.”
“To get this built and learn at the same time, I’ve needed to put in 18 and sometimes 20-plus hour days to fit everything in.”
Cartwright is in talks with an associate to help build a Windows Phone app, which will be the first mobile version of Constructiv.
“In the short term, I’m knocking over a few final must-haves features, but then will get to work on a marketing strategy to gain attention for the site,” he says.
“I’m laser-focused on the end goal, so I want to build a beta of the site that does what I envisaged – how that happens is almost irrelevant.”
“Sure, one programming technique over another may result in scale issues down the track but if it works out, investment or revenue will afford extra developers to rewrite or fix it.”
“I’ll take the feedback from the beta and constantly evolve and iterate the service as the users need.”
