Coffee Break to Catch Up on Sidestep

Finally, a brief moment to slow down the accelerated pace of a young startup and write about what’s going on at the Sidestep camp. It is 7:30am on a Sunday, one cup of coffee down, and a little early morning reflection on the past four months.

That’s right, it’s been about four entire months to the day since Sidestep first debuted in the Apple and Google app stores. That means it has been six months since the idea of ‘Sidestep’ first came about. It’s been such an incredible journey so far. We’ve learned so much about our company, our users, and where we’d like to go.

I’d like to take a moment to catch everyone up to speed…

WHY IS THERE SIDESTEP?

An artist’s t-shirt isn’t just a piece of cotton with a logo slapped on the front and tour dates on the back. It’s much more than that - it’s a memory in physical form. 

We all have them… that old band t-shirt you don’t seem to wear anymore but you can’t bring yourself to get rid of it. Instead, it stays in the back of your dresser or neatly folded as if you were going to bust it out seven years later. So why hold onto it? You do because it’s a memory. It represents a moment in your life - a picture in a scrapbook.

Our goal with Sidestep is to make these physical memories more accessible by bringing them right to your fingertips.

The traditional method of buying concert merchandise goes a little something like this:

1. Go to the show

2. Wait in a massive line

3. Your friend runs to the front of the line to snap pictures of the shirts pinned to the wall

4. The friend relays what he/she saw and shows you a blurry picture from their phone

5. You think you know what you want so you grab a few crumpled $20s from your pocket

6. Finally you get to the front of the line after missing one of the bands’ sets

7. You point to the shirt you want and yell it’s name or given number as if you are a trader on the trading floor

But what happens if you can’t even make the show? What happens if the line is too long and security is kicking everyone out due to curfew restrictions? What if you bought a bootleg shirt while waiting outside to an aggressive bootlegger named Big Carl? What if you miss half the set of your favorite band because you were waiting in line to get their exclusive tour t-shirt only to find out it was sold out in your size by the time it was your turn?

Sidestep won’t let that happen anymore. Our goal is to forever change the concert culture by bringing all concert merchandise to your mobile device. We want people to browse vivid images of all the items for sale without having to call on a friend to rush to the front of a mile-long-line to snap some blurry photos.

We want people to buy instantly over their phones and have the option to get their items shipped home if that’s what is more convenient for them.

Can you think of a good answer to this question: Why does an artist’s merchandise table close?

There is no good answer. And that’s why we work day in and day out to bring a service that is always open and giving users exactly what they want, whenever they want it.

HOW ARE THINGS PROGRESSING?

Our goal when debuting was to hopefully acquire a few hundred users. We had crossed our fingers for even a few dozen actual real life customers. To our surprise, we are approaching 20,000 user downloads and over 2,000 active customers. We’ve also been fortunate enough to have incredible bands such as Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Dir En Grey, Toby Mac, Butch Walker, From Indian Lakes, and a few more let us test our concept on their merchandise business. These artists have seen great results through Sidestep, whether it be increased $ per transaction, higher revenue on tour, or valuable data about their fans buying habits and if a particular item will sell the most.

Our BETA, which was built to test concept and see if there was any need or space for something like Sidestep, ended up surpassing our wildest expectations for both artist and user.

But beyond metrics, the actual user response and feedback has been the most rewarding of all. Many people have Tweeted, emailed, and even called telling us that our company has changed the way they go to concerts. They’ve told us that Sidestep has saved them so much time and anxiety before, during, and after the concert because they now have a reliable service to get them the merchandise they want – whether they avoid the line and pickup at the show in the expedited Sidestep line or have their items shipped right to their doorstep.

But as any founder of any startup should know, not all comments are praise – many will be in the form of user feedback that is more geared towards improving your product. And those are the best comments a young company can receive.

We’ve had incredible feedback that has helped formulate the mindset and requirements of our native iOS app that’s currently being built. Having a large pool of early adopters that are passionate about our company and are willing to offer us constructive feedback has been the most beneficial of all. In our mind, our users are our invisible partners. They work with us to make our product better and better each and every day.

WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE NEAR FUTURE?

As mentioned above, we are working on our native iOS app, which is set for a late March release. At the moment, we are going full force in the UX/UI development with an incredible company based in NYC called AWESOME. It’s so exciting seeing it come to life. The collaborative effort of our team and our users is making an app we are very proud of.

The new version of Sidestep will be faster, sexier, equipped with a few new features, many more artists, and optimized for your iPhone. We couldn’t be more excited to share with everyone and we promise to keep everyone updated with our progress.

Anyway, my coffee is getting cold so I need to go pour myself a warm-up. Thank you for reading. Let’s do this again soon.

Eric Jones

Co-founder, Sidestep