I think the trick here is not the technology or the pricing: appealing interfaces and lower prices are doable. I think what's challenging about this is the barrier to entry to becoming a player in this space. That is, how do you get races and camps to get on board, and to ensure others will follow? It seems like this david-vs-goliath effort is how to build relationships with customers and really drive them to your site. Lower prices are definitely a start. But it might take a lot to build up the brand.

But seriously, man, all the props to ya. This idea clearly comes from frustration with the current competitors and a 'damn the man' attitude. Good luck!!

That's a really good point hwork. I think there's a way to deal with it.

If Active is what everyone's using, create an interface for your service as well as the Active service, give people a simple interface to Active as a way to introduce them to your service. Build on top of Active so to speak. What you really should try is to build on top of ALL other services and make a better interface to them. That's not an easy task but it might be required to win the market. This idea is taken from Joel Spolsky's essay "Chicken and Egg Problems"

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000054.html

You should definitely try it, the idea is good and the market is there and you seem excited so go.

I heard the founder of Active.com give a talk a few months ago. It turns out that their main source of revenue isn't the registration fees, it's the T-shirts that they sell to race participants!

Unfortunately, that suggests Active.com could easily lower or eliminate the $3 charge to drive competitors out of the marketplace.

From what you describe, it looks like there may be room for a competitor. Before putting in the time though, do some research (if you haven't already). Can it really be that profitable? What percentage of the market do you plan to capture?

I'm often wary of startups that differentiate themselves on a cost basis when the cost is minimal ($3 in this case). Even if the margins are substantial, the difference between $3 to get things done right, and any other lower price offered by a competitor, just may be an insignificant point of differentiation.

The cost difference is incurred by the race director (or event management firm), though, not the consumer. A $1 difference over 20,000 registrants is a big difference IMHO.

From what I can tell, the key to these niche social networking sites (of which yours isn't exclusively one, but sort of is) is to find an existing network of people and replicate it online.

It seems like you've found a great application of this idea... especially if you have loads of potentially sticky customers coming to your site every so often to register for races. I don't use Facebook, but if I had to register for courses through it, I'd probably have an account sooner or later.

I think that's potentially a great idea. Active.com is a pretty big website, so you'd have to carefully decide which parts of its functionality are important and which aren't.

The social networking pieces sound pretty cool, but I wonder if people would actually use them. I guess there isn't really anything like that already, and big endurance races can be pretty social, so it could turn out to be really useful.

I think you've got something here. $3 per registration really does sound like an arrogant dinosaur whose day has come. Don't go overboard on the social networking bit though. Just take some off-the-shelf forum software and add the ability to have your competition history appear in your profile and to search for other users by competition.

That's a good idea. Good luck.

I'm sorry, but i don't see what you bring to the table. What are you doing that nobody else is or that can easy be replicated. How do you plan to get users? not putting you down, just asking.

Usability, cost advantages to reduce price, value-added services, etc.

Those things aren't sustainable competitive advantages, though.

I like the basic idea, and think it should be easy to build.

You then could run with the idea, and maybe be able to provide this service for free and charge for something else. For example, provide this service for free and make money from tshirts and advertising materials the runners receive (or any of 100 other similar ideas)

I know registering for runs is kind of a pain right now, so maybe you chose a good spot.

As someone who is forced to use active.com about 10x per year, I can agree with you. Someone could do better.

I'd love to hear what you think the problems with Active are. My email's in my profile.

I agree that the tough part about this will not be the build but developing the right strategy and relationships. A simple app will go a long way if you know where to put it.

I have some contacts in this area and ran at a pretty high level. If you want some help, my email is in my profile

Regatta Central works pretty well. Once you create the roster for your club or school, you just choose an event and then check the names of the rowers you want in the boat. I haven't used it in about five years, but I assume it has gotten even better.

I think it's a good idea. People are obsessed with originality, but the reality is that most truly great businesses are just taking an existing idea and doing it BETTER (Google, iPod, MacOS, Reddit).

I think the first mover "advantage" really isn't.

yea, i think that's a great idea, and the majority of concepts people push around most definitely are not.

email me bkmrkr at yahoo.com