DEB | On-Demand Platform Utilizing Stellar to Launch DEB Foods
Well here we are again.. after securing ~$4.6K from the Stellar Community Lab Fund and a couple months of silence, we wish to update the community of what we have been working on as we believe it is important to remain transparent as we are one of nine projects which won funding during the Stellar Lab Fund!
The DEB (Drivers Earning Benefits) project was initially pitched as an aspiring ride-share platform. To more readily enter the market with respect to regulations and a mid-post pandemic world, we decided the most advantage launch approach will be to launch as a Food Delivery Service with our initial market being Tijuana, MX. This will be our most probable approach for success regarding the potential to gain actual revenue. We have since invested ~$12k into external development.
The regulation differences between transporting passengers and delivering food will allow us an easier market entrance. Potentially allowing us to raise revenue and not solely rely on the Stellar Lab/Seed Fund to grow.
We outsourced a developer contract with a team in India to develop the MVP. In addition to spreading awareness of the Stellar Blockchain, DEB is attempting to change the way restaurants and drivers are being commissioned by the current leading delivery platforms. This includes reducing platform overhead and utilizing a low-fee payment processor.
The DEB business model:
Essentially our business model allows the platform itself to be isolated as much as possible during customer order work-flows. This mindset provides the opportunity to lower the commissions required to function while also reducing as much overhead as possible. We want the platform to be a passive income-generator.. not ‘just another food delivery app’ substituting Stripe for the payment gateway of Stellar. We are innovating the business model around the On-Demand Food Delivery industry to better support the restaurants and drivers which make up the industry itself. The extraction of the platform overhead from the everyday order work-flows in addition to utilizing the Stellar Network for payment processing further reduces the commission percentages for both the restaurants and drivers.
Restaurants will be responsible for their disputes, which allow restaurants the opportunity to resolve customer complaints without necessarily needing to return the whole sale amount. We are giving restaurants a stream of drivers to hire.
Coming off of a $4.6K win from the Stellar Lab Fund, we are now entering into the Stellar Seed Fund.
Our new One-Pager:
As far as the DEB utility token, we since burned over 99% of the initial 10B tokens. The DEB token now sits at a supply of just 1.7 million tokens. Many factors influenced this decision. The token itself will initially have the sole purpose of facilitating driver ‘benefits’ in the form of a number goal of deliveries. Basically, a percentage of the service fee charged to customers during the order process will be converted into the DEB token via a ‘buy’ to the SDEX (Stellar Decentralized Exchange). Once this occurs, the token will be sent to the driver’s stellar wallet and held until he or she reaches a certain number of deliveries. Once this threshold is reached, the accumulated tokens will be converted to fiat via a ‘sell’ to the local stable-coin. In which the driver will be able to have the funds sent to his or her bank account. From there the driver can use these additional funds for purchasing a benefit package from a 3rd party if he/she chooses to do so.
The decision to token burn also came as a need to become more decentralized. The team holdings remain at 10% while the next largest holder now sits at 1%.
The DEB app’s first prototype is scheduled to be finished around Mid-February. We hope to further fund the development and progress with funds via the Stellar Seed Fund.
DEB’s business model of allowing restaurants to be responsible for their customer disputes will allow the restaurant commission to be launched at 5%-10% for restaurants, based on order size. This pales in comparison to the leading delivery platforms currently charging 35%. Drivers will not be charged commissions on earnings. Customers will see a simple 5% service fee, while every order will receive free delivery without monthly fees.
Below is our Business Model Canvas:
