Sharing is the New Buying: A Lecture by CEO of Together Price
Marco Taddei, CEO of Together Price
On Thursday, October 12, 2017, the Institute for Entrepreneurship welcomed Marco Taddei, co-Founder and CEO of Together Price, for a lecture titled “Sharing is the New Buying.” The lecture, part of the IFE Speaker Series, was held in Professor Riccardo Maiolini’s E-Marketing (MKT 340) class. Together Price, “the first sharing network,” allows users to create a network of people in order to split the cost of digital services such as Netflix and Spotify.
Taddei said that the creation of a service such as Together Price was made possible by a general shift in the economy from an ownership model to a sharing one. Digital services such as Netflix were pioneers in understanding that allowing a certain number of users to share an account would work as a very successful user acquisition strategy. This could prove to be quite time consuming, however. One must find people to share and split the cost of the service the service, and maintain open communication between the parties (who should pay what and when, etc.). Together Price automates this process and lets users create networks of trusted contacts divided into categories (such as family, roommates, coworkers) depending on the service one wishes to share. Data security is ensured through user identity validation and reviews. In addition to this, the sharing made possible by Together Price is fully compliant with the Terms of Service of the various digital services.
Taddei chronicled the creation of the company from idea to delivered product. Once he and his team came up with the idea for Together Price, they had to validate it, by making sure there was a market for it. They observed Facebook groups dedicated to Netflix and noticed that many people were looking for someone to share an account with. They created a landing page for Together Price and ran a Facebook ad leading to it, resulting in great user engagement. It was then time to create the engine of the service. Taddei and his team developed the actual website, set up analytics and implemented a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. Following a period of beta testing, they launched the service commercially, profiting from word of mouth and the press coverage Together Price received to further increase their user base at no cost. Finally, they adopted a paid marketing strategy.
