Well we closed the pop-up over a month ago now, and we’re still getting lots of inquiries about our services and whether or not we’re still open.We really are sorry that we couldn’t keep the pop-up store open in perpetuity, but that was never the plan; we promise we’re working on something bigger and better to solve the same problem (Did I mention it would be cooler? No? Oh, it’s going to be super cool.). The last few weeks, we’ve been working on enlisting the right people to tackle the crazy project Shaun and I have been scheming on, and it’s definitely been an interesting experience. All I can say is make sure you do your homework and shop around, because there are a lot of people out there that can technically do what you’re asking, but only a few will be a true fit.
Well folks, we’ve been conducting our “Urban Pop-Up Experiment” for about 5 months now, and the results have been far better than we could have hoped for. We’d like to thank all of our customers up to this point, and especially our customers who kept coming back to us on a regular basis. And while we’ll be closing the pop-up store after this weekend (our last day open will be Sunday 2/12/12), it’s only so we can focus on bringing something bigger, better, and cooler to NYC and beyond. We’re working on some pretty awesome new technology, but we’ll still be providing a solution for the same urban problem: people are always carrying too much stuff around. We hope you’ll check back here from time to time, as Shaun and I will try to keep you all updated on our R&D progress. But most importantly, check back to see when Cubby v2.0 launches; we’re thinking Summer 2012!
… Cubby has once again extended our stay at our current location, 303 Park Avenue South in Manhattan. What was originally slated to be a 6 week pop-up experiment has metamorphosized into 6 months, as we’ve extended our stay here through the end of February. And with all the overwhelmingly positive support and feedback we’ve had, we’re getting ready to bring you a bigger better Cubby experience this Spring. Make sure you subscribe on our website for news and updates, so you’ll be one of the first to know where and when our new location will be opening up http://gocubby.com/contact. And don’t worry, we hate spam just as much as you do – daily/weekly emails are not our cup of tea.
That’s right ladies and gentlemen, we’re extending our stay at 303 Park Ave. S. for another month! We’ve had so many repeat customers that have asked us to stay, that we just couldn’t say no; we’ll now be here until at least the end of December. We’ve also beefed up our courier team, so give them a chance to move your stuff around the city for you. I mean, nobody wants to be a bag lady, right?
Today was a good day. Cubby has officially extended our stay at 303 Park Ave S for another month! Were you worried about all the shopping you have to do on Black Friday? Fuhgeddaboudit, we’ll still be here to help! We can pick up, hold, and/or deliver all your shopping bags, so you can keep shopping unencumbered. Coming to the city for Thanksgiving? Don’t worry, we’ll be here to hold your stuff.
We’re also hot on the trail of our next location, but we want to know: where would you like to see us expand to next? Email us at info@gocubby.com, send a tweet to @gocubby, or write on our Facebook wall. We’re here for you, so let us know where you want us!
CBS New York named Cubby one of the top five pop-ups in New York City for October!
The pop-up scene in New York City comes and goes, especially if you’re a start-up like us. When Paul and I were scouting for locations several months ago, we saw the “Coming Soon” signs for all of these pop-ups: Uniqlo, Adidas, Ricky’s, Wired (the mag), and some restaurants too – like Mama’s Food Shop in Greenpoint (shout out to our pop-up pro Rachel who just finished that one).
The major trend here is that most of them are all cash-laden corporations. Does that mean you need millions of dollars to run a pop-up? Definitely no. NOTE: I don’t know how much Uniqlo spent on this recent campaign for their “Global Flagship Launch”, but my god, save some cash for the poor people – I see you EVERYWHERE and it doesn’t make me want to buy more of your things.
From all of this, we’ve learned that you don’t need to be a programmer to be a ‘big-idea’ entrepreneur. I think the start-up world is obsessed with all things digital. Yeah, sure, it may seem the cheapest way to get something to market. But, I’ll tell you something, anything in the internet, or mobile space, is crowded…so good luck differentiating yourself. Heck, we have an app too. But if we relied only on our app to build our business strategy, I’m sure we would have spent ten times more money getting to the same sustainable revenue generation that we have today.
I’m not saying everyone launch a pop-up; I’m just saying – do something different.
We’ve been open for four weeks now and the feedback has been amazing. Customers are happy and we are growing our customer base day-by-day. What’s been amazing is the press we’ve received. We were featured on CBS Local News online and we’re considered one of the top six pop-up stores for October! The others are some big corporate pop-ups and I’m proud to stand right next to them.
Another great piece was from ABC Channel 7 – check it out above. Thank you Kemberly for stopping by after the gym and inquiring what we are all about.
Be on the look out for an MSNBC clip of Paul and me soon – or set your DVRs for 730EST Sunday, October 16th.
Cubby is now open for business. You can download the app for both Apple and Android and visit us too! Our pop-up is at 303 Park Avenue South (@23rd Street), NY, NY. We’re open from 8am until midnight, daily for the next six weeks.
Paul and I want to thank everyone who has supported us over the past two years. There’s nothing like bringing a crazy idea like this to life; we wouldn’t have been able to do it without everyone’s support and valuable feedback.
But alas, we have a long way to go before we’re every travel-goer’s personal bag concierge – so spread the love and tell everyone that we’re here.
We look forward to making your street travels light and easy – and remember, use the app to book ahead of time (it’s cheaper!).
Happy Saturday everyone! Paul and I have been hustling to get Cubby out to you guys…and we can say that we are almost there. September 15th, 2011 at 8am to be exact. The summer has been pretty good to us. We’ve managed to get the v1.0 of the app approved by Apple. We’ve also been able to get the app finished for the Android market too. Sorry Blackberry, it looks like you are going to lose out on the Cubby movement. You can download them on the 15th.
We’ve also added a service that we feel fits perfectly with short-term bag storage: a bag courier service! Think of that – you can drop your bags off and get them delivered back to you wherever you end up.
Stay tuned for more…in the meantime, enjoy a little future look inside of our pop-up. Special thanks to Shani Syphrett of Shani design – your designs are awesome.
When you’re dealing with a new service or product in a new or emerging industry, it’s really easy to get a bit of tunnel vision and forget about the end user. While being hyper-focused on your market offering isn’t likely to make you forget about the user experience altogether, you may forget that the UX needs to be remembered in its entirety.
We moved from a traditional model (#1), to a similar but less traditional model (#2), to a version that was tech heavy and reliant on a p2p model. #3 was similar to #2, but a far cry from #1. While the view from the inside made it easy to see the natural progression of the service, the view from the outside was not the same. Version #3 was more than some users were ready for or could wrap their head around. And while versions #2 & 3 will be a viable way to expand in the future at very little cost, users won’t be ready for them without at least experiencing version #1, and some of the parts necessary to make version #2 work may decline to participate if version #3 is already in effect. So even though time and money was sunk on building out versions #2/3, we realized (through critical feedback from some potential users and investors) that what we were doing was just too alien to the consumer. Many entrepreneurs at this point would just blame the consumer as being too dumb, and continue forward, convinced that they will have the ability to train an entire army of users; this is almost always a losing proposition for the entrepreneur.
Where does that leave us? After some soul-searching, strategizing, debate, and number-crunching, we’re on to version #4 (which is really more of version #1A). And while it’s frustrating to know we could have potentially spent time and money better, we still have much to show for our efforts on #3. We’ve built out some great technology, and we’ve not only figured out an easy path for future growth, but we gained enough traction to know that it will be easy once we have actual brand awareness. It’s just another loop on the roller-coaster ride.
