Build in Public: Business Idea and First Steps

Oct 8, 2025

Last week, I talked about starting a small business in Almaty, Kazakhstan—a small startup that I’ll document step by step throughout my journey, a process called “building in public.” If you haven’t read my previous post, you can check it here: ​“Build in Public: A Founder’s Journey”​.

The Business Idea

Let’s not waste any more time and dive straight into building our startup. After considerable thought and brainstorming with local people, I chose a business model that has been proven to work abroad and in here in Kazakhstan: Data analysis of local businesses and selling insights to them on how to increase their revenue.

You’re likely familiar with such platforms. They collect data on local businesses and their nearby competitors, analyze this data, and sell result packages to selected businesses to give them a competitive advantage. There are many platforms worldwide that provide this type of service.

In Kazakhstan, I’ve identified one competitor offering similar work: they analyze a local business’s revenue stream, compare it with the local market, and suggest improvements with the ultimate goal the business to increase its revenue. Their monthly fees range from $1,000 to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the size of the business.

Problem

If you run a local business — a café, restaurant, or spa — you likely want to know which products and services to offer and how to price them to attract as many customers as possible and maximize revenue.

The core question is: As a local business, what should we offer, how should we bundle it, and what prices should we set to outperform competitors and achieve the highest revenue?

Have you heard of platforms like Airbtics? Imagine you have an apartment listed on Airbnb. How do you set the nightly rate? Which add-on services should you offer to attract customers? How do you evaluate whether the Airbnb venture justifies purchasing a property? Airbtics provides local market analysis to answer these questions.

A similar solution is valuable for nearly every business.

Note: The statements above are hypotheses and must be validated, as they may not hold true in the local market.

Solution

Collect business data, analyze what makes companies successful, and help local businesses in Almaty apply those insights to grow their businesses.

What I Like About This Business Model

I prefer B2B solutions because you can build a high‑value product or service, sell it to a small number of customers, and charge a premium subscription fee. In most cases, this approach doesn’t require heavy social media work (e.g., Instagram) which is preferable approach.

On the other end of the spectrum are B2C models, where you need tens or hundreds of customers and charge each a small fee.

Even more challenging are hybrid B2C–B2B marketplaces (e.g., Airbnb), where you sell what businesses offer to large numbers of individuals. These models face a classic chicken‑and‑egg problem: you need substantial capital and effort to attract both sides of the market before you can make a profit.

Bottom line: B2B — fewer clients, higher fees — is the business model I like most.

Customer Profile

Remember the quote:

So, with all that said — who is our customer, and which niche are they in? As you might guess, there’s a wide variety of businesses, each operating in a different niche. Targeting all of them at once is impossible, so I need to focus on one or two types first.

In my previous article, I noted Almaty’s strong café, pub, and restaurant culture. There are hundreds of places to eat or have a drink, new venues open frequently, and competition is intense. As a result, this market likely needs insights into how to stay competitive and increase revenue.

Also, targeting cafés and restaurants is likely easier (a hypothesis to be tested) because they:

• offer a limited number of items organized in a menu;
• have a fixed location, making it easier to identify local competitors; and
• have observable customer flow that can be measured on-site.

Therefore, my initial focus will be local cafés and restaurants in Almaty. Again, the relative ease of analyzing this type of business is a hypothesis and must be validated.

I identified three potential customer groups.

• Independent Mid-Tier Restaurant Owner
• Café Chain Regional Manager
• Small Independent Café Owner

You can check the complete list of customer profiles here:

• ​Customer_Profiles_Local_Business_Almaty (Excel)​
• ​Customer_Profiles_Local_Business_Almaty (Numbers)​

What’s Next?

Everything I’ve said so far is based on three main things:

• Personal observations
• Research
• Hope

Personal observations are subjective. Research may be incomplete or inaccurate. Hope can be misleading. Therefore, we should always remember the following quote:

Therefore, the next step is to put my laptop aside, take a notebook and pen, go out, and interview businesses who match the customer profile.The goal is simple: to find out their pain points and needs.

With that said, in my next publication I will present the results of the interviews I’ve conducted. That will give us much better clarity on what we should do and what our next steps are.