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We launched Group Buying on Picapool on 11th October..... and the next few weeks turned into a crash course in user behaviour. For anyone new: Group Buy is simple. More people join from the same radius → volume goes up → price drops for everyone. But to keep that drop real, people must lock in their spot with a pre-payment. And that’s exactly where stuff got messy. Our first experiment was boAt Airdopes 148 (20 units). Back then, WhatsApp was our entire “market research tool.” We ran polls, messaged every DU group in sight, and basically lived inside random communities. Some welcomed us, some tolerated us, a few threw us out..... politely saying, “ruk ja bhai, bas.” So we stopped gate-crashing and built our own WhatsApp community. Ironically, the moment we stopped forcing ourselves in… people started showing up on their own. Polls showed interest. Payments showed reality. When we opened the pool ..... nobody locked in. Not because they didn’t want the product… they just didn’t trust the process. “Pre-pay now, price drops later” wasn’t clicking. That’s when it hit us: the gap wasn’t the demand. It was trust. So we called everyone who had shown interest ...... not to push, but to understand. Once people actually spoke, everything became clear. They weren’t rejecting the idea; they just didn’t understand why pre-payment mattered or how the flow worked. We explained the entire journey .... how the pool moves, what lock-ins prevent, what happens after joining. And once clarity met trust, 20/20 spots were booked within 24 hours. Then DU vanished for Diwali break. Everything paused. When campus life came back, we restarted our detective routine. This time, people replied. We listed MuscleBlaze, Classmate, Cetaphil, Wellcore, Chemist at Play, Pintola ..... some filled fast, some took time, but one pattern stayed constant: Explaining Group Buy was harder than running Group Buy. But here’s the surprising part: Across every pool so far, ~40% users have returned. That repeat rate has been the strongest signal. Now the question in my head is simple: How do we scale visibility without running in the same loops? WhatsApp groups have been great for early signals, terrible for growth. Meta Ads are experiments, not the main plan. And my founder-brain keeps whispering, “If people in the same radius need the same service within the same window… should we test services too?” If you’ve seen patterns, channels, or tactics that can help us push deeper into the DU region .... I’d genuinely love your perspective. -Srijan Co - Founder, Picapool Try it yourself: 1. Download Picapool - https://lnkd.in/gjaqBQFF 2. Set your location to Delhi School Of Economics, University Enclave, Delhi, India 3. Join a pool and watch the price drop live as more people join in. 4. App Walkthrough - https://sorts.one/gvq