Crowdsourced interior design startup launches in Lebanon
Smartphones could soon help people decorate their homes and save money at the same time.
Simply fill out a short online questionnaire, upload a few photos and interior designers will respond with proposals within a few days.
Click the graphic for a higher resolution image of how the process works. (Images via MoodFit)
They received $15,000 when they won AUB’s Darwazah Student Innovation Contest in June. They received another $15,000 through the Kafalat iSME program, and $3,000 through the IDEAL Business Competition.
The MoodFit team (L-R): Ghassan Abi Fadel, Mohamad Sabouneh,
Tarek El Jaroudi.
Challenges
They outsourced the development of their website, but hope to bring further development in-house.
“Building the website was the first issue,” Sabouneh said. “We’re looking for a technical website lead who can take care of this platform from A to Z.”
And because the concept was new to furniture sellers, building partnerships with suppliers was another issue at first, one that they are overcoming. More than 10 suppliers including Mobilitop, Sleep Comfort, and Skaff have agreed to provide their products to MoodFit’s clients, and over a dozen interior designers are actively bidding on projects.
“Suppliers [now] see the benefit of putting stuff online with us,” Sabouneh said. It’s a new sales channel with no effort [for them].”
Next steps
What’s next for Sabouneh and his cofounders?
“The first immediate thing is to acquire more customers,” he said. “We’re getting two to three leads per day we can convert to customers.”
They’re working to increase online traffic through SEO, social media and partnerships with suppliers and banks.
After establishing a core team here in Lebanon and fine tuning their partnership model with suppliers and designers they hope to expand into the GCC region, specifically the KSA and UAE.