Hey everyone! My name is PJ. I�m 23 years old and a lifelong bass angler and entrepreneur. I�m working on a new concept for the fishing industry and would love your brutally honest feedback.

I used to own a lure company, PPMB fishing skirts. I started it in my junior year of high school with three friends. I built it up to over 150 customers and a team of 25 pro staffers and was featured in Bass Times. I also fished competitively, started a bass fishing club in high school, wrote articles for Bassin� and Bass Angler Magazine, and went to iCast.

Fishing is in my blood. For the last few years I have owned a marketing agency, but REALLY want to get back in the fishing industry.

The idea looking for feedback on is an app/website. The concept is that anglers are scored/ranked on how influential they are on Instagram and are rewarded with cash back on purchases for posting on Instagram about what they bought from participating brands.

When I owned my lure company I was constantly asked for free product. Instead of lure company's having to give away free product, the more influential an angler is, the more cash back they get.

We score their influence from 0 to 10. A 0 has no influence and a 10 would be Kevin VanDam or Mike Iaconelli. A 1 gets 10% of their purchase back for posting and a 10 gets 100% of their purchase back. Very few people score a 10, most score between 1 and 4.

We partner with lure company�s and other company�s in the fishing industry. Anglers come to our website and see a list of the participating brands. They can shop online at any of those brands and get cash back.

We measure influence not by the number of followers they have (people can buy fake followers), but things such as the engagement they receive when they post. Someone may have 50,000 followers but only get 100 likes when they post. An angler with 2,000 followers can be more influential than one with 10,000. I am currently working with some influencer marketing agency�s to develop the scoring formula.

To remove the risk for the brands, anglers only get the cash back after making the post, uploading a screenshot of the post, and the post meeting the requirements the brands set. The post must be up for at least 24 hours before they can submit for cash back.

The brand owners set the requirements they need to be eligible for the cash back - such as mentioning the brands website or giving a discount code to their followers. We make sure the post meets all of their requirements before submitting it for cashback.

If the most meets all the brands requirements, you get the cash back sent to your PayPal

Instagram?

Yes?

Aren't the influential anglers already sponsored? I'm not sure this would work for them.

Mainly targeting the little guys, micro influencers. They are usually overlooked. Someone with 2,000 followers can be significantly more influential than someone with 20,000

I think it is a good idea.

Seems like an okay idea. Although your bassing it all of Instagram so if that tanks how do you back up your business model. Also note that while alot of young people enjoy fishing, there are alot of old farts who think your full of dookie and dont care about that kind of marketing aspect

Many folks don't use Instagram.

My brutally honest opinion, it depends on your market. Those people that have been in the fishing game long enough can spot "pro staffers" from a mile away. I can tell immediately if a guy actually uses a product or is just praising it on an instagram post. I feel like it dilutes or waters down the entire system. I honestly could care less if joe blow, who hasn't weighed in a decent limit in 5 years posts about the two new graphs he got that didn't help him catch the fish he lied about catching. But if your looking to attract new fisherman that don't know any better, then by all means... go by post/hashtag count.

The more hashtags I see, the less I pay attention.

Value is in, and will always be, by guys that actually perform on game day. Nobody cares about a guy that spends more time on social media than on the lake.

My two cents.

I think it's a good concept. There are enough people who use instagram and would be interested I bet. Sounds like a win/win

Maybe you should do a sample post because I am having a hard time understanding the whole concept. Not sure how someone goes about getting followers on instagram.

Have you seen the train wreck I bring to threads. I easily am a 12.

That idea doesn't suck

But lots of details to hammer out...

Scale is going to be an issue... Got to be big enough to matter/be pheasable... But small enough to start up

I'm all for it. You can buy 100k likes on Instagram for about $50 which means I could get all my tackle for the equivalent of a nice steak dinner.

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