GoDaddy made an app for entrepreneurs to get feedback on their startup ideas

While most associate GoDaddy with domains, the company has become an integral part of supporting small businesses around the world. Whether this is by providing email hosting, website creation, or SEO services, the site is often the first stop for someone thinking about starting a small business online.

And interestingly enough, the company even said that customers will frequently call GoDaddy’s customer support line to pitch and get feedback on their business ideas.

The team at GoDaddy saw an opportunity. Why not create a community where these customers can connect with fellow entrepreneurs, investors, and even GoDaddy senior management to get feedback on their businesses?

So Flare was born.

Launching today, the app lets users create a business idea and ask other users yes or no questions that better help them understand if there is a market for their product or service. For example, you could submit an idea for on-demand cookie delivery, and ask the question “would you pay $10 for this?”. Other users can then see ideas and answer yes or no, giving valuable feedback to the entrepreneur.

Flare

The app’s main page is a list of three ideas that you can either swipe left to ignore, or swipe right to indicate interest in. If more than 10 people indicate interest in a specific idea, it becomes popular, and enters the stage where users can answer the various questions posted by the entrepreneur. But why only three ideas and not a scrolling list? GoDaddy wanted to maximize the amount of feedback each entrepreneur would get, so it is forcing users to give a yes or no answer as to if they like the idea.

One cool feature – the app will tell you what business ideas were submitted from entrepreneurs in your area. This is especially useful for brick and mortar based ideas, like a retail store or restaurant.

Flare will also verify certain users to give them credibility, a way the company hopes to increase the chances that small-time business owners can get feedback from CEOs and other well-known businesspeople. GoDaddy’s CEO Blake Irving will be on the app at launch, as well as other senior management from the company.

Rene Reinsberg, VP of Emerging Products at GoDaddy, explained that the goal is to allow entrepreneurs to get feedback on businesses at the idea stage, since nowadays most crowdfunding campaigns (which were arguably once supposed to be built just around ideas) require a lot of upfront polish and capital.

That being said, GoDaddy obviously has a vested interest in encouraging as many people as possible to start companies, as more small-businesses started means more services purchased from GoDaddy.

But in the company’s defense, there is currently no connection between the app and GoDaddy services. While Reinsberg did mention that they could potentially add services down the road like connecting Flare users with someone to build a website for their new idea, this definitely isn’t yet on the product roadmap, and isn’t even necessarily a bad thing.

Ultimately, if used responsibly by its user base, Flare can end up being a legitimate benefit to entrepreneurs looking for a little extra feedback than they are getting through existing channels.

Flare is available now for download on the iOS App Store, and will come to the Google Play Store next month.