Business Plan
"A Plan for your Business - Do it for yourself... not just for investors". And this is true, the Business Plan made us rethink and reorganize many points of LeadTeam.
Main reconsiderations:
- Users foreecast and Implementation Calendar
- Value Chain and main resposabilities
- Financial Analysis
- TAM SAM SOM
- Value Curves
But we also wrote down things that were intrisic but never defined:
- Mission, Values and Vision
- Where will we be in one year?
- Risk Analysis
- Users foreecast and Implementation Calendar
- Value Chain and main resposabilities
- Financial Analysis
- TAM SAM SOM
- Value Curves
But we also wrote down things that were intrisic but never defined:
- Mission, Values and Vision
- Where will we be in one year?
- Risk Analysis
Users foreecast, Financial Analysis and Implementation Calendar
When checking our financial projections and defining which return rate we would be able to provide to our investors we realized it was not particularly high and it would not be interesting for them. As well, this fact told us that our implementation and marketing milestones were probably too delayed.
For those reasons and by doing and overall revision of our finances we decided to do the following adjustments in our financial plan spreadsheet:
˃ Only 5 months in a Católicas controlled environment. It was too much spending a whole year targeting Católicas universities in Portugal and it just allowed new competitors to arise and even copy our idea. Having the full first year of operations with such a small potential delayed our premium version revenues and therefore, our ads stream as well. Hence we speed our sales milestones.
˃ Numbers of users’ targets redefined. Our new targets in terms of users are 50 000, 150 000 and 350 000 as users by the end of years 1, 2 and 3 respectively, which are accordingly supported by our marketing efforts and the dynamism of the market. Based on this numbers of users we computed the premium version sales, considering that the conversions for the premium will come 6 months after the new users started with our platform, which we consider a moderated expectation.
˃ Reduced growth rate for institutional customers. We reduced the final target of having 22 universities by the end of year 3 to 16, having goals of getting new customers now more spread out than before. By doing this we reduce the weight this revenue stream had in our finances and the pressure in our marketing team.
˃ Updated advertising revenues. The amount of sales from this source was updated according with the new evolution and growing of platform’s users.
˃ Wages. Taking into account that as the number of institutional customers growths it will mean for us higher requirements in terms of service, we will hire an extra person to provide support to universities. Equally, the wages in year 3 will increase to 900€.
˃ Hosting costs. Considering that each university will require an individual hosting, this variable cost is now included in the calculations. It means, we increased our costs related to the institutional customers while keeping the same price per month.
By doing this changes that in our opinion make much more sense, we managed to reduce the investment required, since we will need to finance less months with losses, we will offer a really interesting return on investment and the IRR of our start-up for the 3 first years of operations is clearly satisfactory.
For those reasons and by doing and overall revision of our finances we decided to do the following adjustments in our financial plan spreadsheet:
˃ Only 5 months in a Católicas controlled environment. It was too much spending a whole year targeting Católicas universities in Portugal and it just allowed new competitors to arise and even copy our idea. Having the full first year of operations with such a small potential delayed our premium version revenues and therefore, our ads stream as well. Hence we speed our sales milestones.
˃ Numbers of users’ targets redefined. Our new targets in terms of users are 50 000, 150 000 and 350 000 as users by the end of years 1, 2 and 3 respectively, which are accordingly supported by our marketing efforts and the dynamism of the market. Based on this numbers of users we computed the premium version sales, considering that the conversions for the premium will come 6 months after the new users started with our platform, which we consider a moderated expectation.
˃ Reduced growth rate for institutional customers. We reduced the final target of having 22 universities by the end of year 3 to 16, having goals of getting new customers now more spread out than before. By doing this we reduce the weight this revenue stream had in our finances and the pressure in our marketing team.
˃ Updated advertising revenues. The amount of sales from this source was updated according with the new evolution and growing of platform’s users.
˃ Wages. Taking into account that as the number of institutional customers growths it will mean for us higher requirements in terms of service, we will hire an extra person to provide support to universities. Equally, the wages in year 3 will increase to 900€.
˃ Hosting costs. Considering that each university will require an individual hosting, this variable cost is now included in the calculations. It means, we increased our costs related to the institutional customers while keeping the same price per month.
By doing this changes that in our opinion make much more sense, we managed to reduce the investment required, since we will need to finance less months with losses, we will offer a really interesting return on investment and the IRR of our start-up for the 3 first years of operations is clearly satisfactory.
Universities - Interviews
After many weeks waiting for Católica, we decided to contact other Universities - we had nothing to loose, just gain! As we did not have the elaborated script we thought we would after collecting some information from Católica, we carefully chose four questions from our Script:
1. From a scale from 1 to 10 how satisfied are you with the current platform solution (Cátolica – Sca + Moodle + Católica Website)?
2. What do you like and dislike about it?
3. How much would you pay for such kind of platform per year – scale.
4. Who is in charge of the platform’s maintenance?
In just a week we received two answers from the other side of the world: Colombia and Quebec! Although they are not enough to validate Hypothesis, here are some of the incredible insights!
1. From a scale from 1 to 10 how satisfied are you with the current platform solution (Cátolica – Sca + Moodle + Católica Website)?
2. What do you like and dislike about it?
3. How much would you pay for such kind of platform per year – scale.
4. Who is in charge of the platform’s maintenance?
In just a week we received two answers from the other side of the world: Colombia and Quebec! Although they are not enough to validate Hypothesis, here are some of the incredible insights!
Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana
We contacted the engineer Ramiro Romero, who is the chief of the new technologies department of the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Colombia, and we asked him some questions in order to get some insight about the value our solution could provide, from the point of view of the people who actually handle the technology behind the systems we use.
He said that in this department of the university they are very satisfied with the solution Moodle provides, because it is dynamic, with good support, continuous development and mostly, easy to use. He highlights that Moodle has a pedagogical model in accordance with the current standards but as a negative aspect he points out that it updates slowly.
Ramiro mentioned that they do not make any direct payment to Moodle but they have internal cost associated to running the platform, such as two engineers devoted to taking care of the learning platform.
He said that in this department of the university they are very satisfied with the solution Moodle provides, because it is dynamic, with good support, continuous development and mostly, easy to use. He highlights that Moodle has a pedagogical model in accordance with the current standards but as a negative aspect he points out that it updates slowly.
Ramiro mentioned that they do not make any direct payment to Moodle but they have internal cost associated to running the platform, such as two engineers devoted to taking care of the learning platform.
Université Laval
We talked with Simon from Université Laval IT department, who was incredible helpfull!
He started by stating he thought our project was extremelly interesting and that much of our findings corresponded to theirs"...nous arrivons aux mêmes conclusions que vous sur plusieurs points, notamment les irritants engendrées par les travaux d’équipe et l’utilisation de Facebook."
Regarging the first and second questions, Université Laval has, in 2007, made the decision to build their own "plate-forme d’apprentissage (LMS)". Since it is fully customized and a special attention to user-friendliness was taken into account, the users are very satisfied with it - " le niveau de satisfaction de nos utilisateurs est élevé. Je dirais probablement un 8, bien humblement".
Positive points from current solution were mainly:
- User friendly
- Integration with different systems: "système de gestion des études, coopérative universitaire, bibliothèque, Exchange (courriel)"
- Standardization of plans de cours and sites de cours
- On-demand development of platform, depending on users' needs
Points that can be improved:
- Mobile platform
- Teamwork ("Collaboration en équipe")
- Unique authentication pass in the different systems
-Sms notifications ("...publication de résultats par l’enseignant, message dans les forums, date de remise de travaux imminentes, etc.")
In which concerns the third question, it posed yet, even more questions. These would require a higher knowledge regarding IT, which we pretend to attain (1) Hacker co-founder know-how and (2) Iteration process in Católica through the first 6 month:
- Est-ce que cet outil s’intègrerait bien avec notre plate-forme d’apprentissage? Si des modifications sont à faire dans LeadTeam pour atteindre cette intégration, qui assumerait les frais?
- La plate-forme peut-elle supporter 45 000 utilisateurs?
- S’agit-il d’un service que nous hébergerions sur nos serveurs ou d’un service dans le cloud hébergé chez vous?
- Dans le cas d’un service dans le cloud, dans quel pays vos serveurs sont-ils situés? Le Patriot Act des États-Unis nous est problématique.
- Comment fonctionne l’achat? Un prix unique ou une licence annuelle? Que comprend la licence? Support? Évolution de la plateforme? Quelle rythme d’évolution prévoyez-vous? Quelles fonctionnalités sont à venir?
- Quelle est la qualité de l’expérience utilisateur sur appareil mobile? Prévoyez-vous la création d’une application LeadTeam ou pensez-vous plutôt offrir un site web « responsive » s’adaptant au contexte d’utilisation ? Dans le cas d’une application mobile « native », serait-elle disponible pour iOS et Androïd?
Finally, as expected from an in-house platform, they have a team of analysts and programmers which take care of the platform's maintenance.
Still, we had incredibly good feedback, with further suggestions!
"Ceci étant dit, votre idée est intéressante et répond à une réelle problématique à laquelle font face les étudiants. Problématique exacerbée par l’augmentation des cours à distance. Une des clefs de réussite est sûrement l’intégration avec les plates-formes d’apprentissage. Si votre produit pouvait s’intégrer de façon presque transparente dans un BlackBoard, Moodle, Desire2Learn ou des plates-formes maison comme la nôtre, le gain serait fortement amplifié. C’est probablement ce que vous avez déjà prévu de toute façon."
He started by stating he thought our project was extremelly interesting and that much of our findings corresponded to theirs"...nous arrivons aux mêmes conclusions que vous sur plusieurs points, notamment les irritants engendrées par les travaux d’équipe et l’utilisation de Facebook."
Regarging the first and second questions, Université Laval has, in 2007, made the decision to build their own "plate-forme d’apprentissage (LMS)". Since it is fully customized and a special attention to user-friendliness was taken into account, the users are very satisfied with it - " le niveau de satisfaction de nos utilisateurs est élevé. Je dirais probablement un 8, bien humblement".
Positive points from current solution were mainly:
- User friendly
- Integration with different systems: "système de gestion des études, coopérative universitaire, bibliothèque, Exchange (courriel)"
- Standardization of plans de cours and sites de cours
- On-demand development of platform, depending on users' needs
Points that can be improved:
- Mobile platform
- Teamwork ("Collaboration en équipe")
- Unique authentication pass in the different systems
-Sms notifications ("...publication de résultats par l’enseignant, message dans les forums, date de remise de travaux imminentes, etc.")
In which concerns the third question, it posed yet, even more questions. These would require a higher knowledge regarding IT, which we pretend to attain (1) Hacker co-founder know-how and (2) Iteration process in Católica through the first 6 month:
- Est-ce que cet outil s’intègrerait bien avec notre plate-forme d’apprentissage? Si des modifications sont à faire dans LeadTeam pour atteindre cette intégration, qui assumerait les frais?
- La plate-forme peut-elle supporter 45 000 utilisateurs?
- S’agit-il d’un service que nous hébergerions sur nos serveurs ou d’un service dans le cloud hébergé chez vous?
- Dans le cas d’un service dans le cloud, dans quel pays vos serveurs sont-ils situés? Le Patriot Act des États-Unis nous est problématique.
- Comment fonctionne l’achat? Un prix unique ou une licence annuelle? Que comprend la licence? Support? Évolution de la plateforme? Quelle rythme d’évolution prévoyez-vous? Quelles fonctionnalités sont à venir?
- Quelle est la qualité de l’expérience utilisateur sur appareil mobile? Prévoyez-vous la création d’une application LeadTeam ou pensez-vous plutôt offrir un site web « responsive » s’adaptant au contexte d’utilisation ? Dans le cas d’une application mobile « native », serait-elle disponible pour iOS et Androïd?
Finally, as expected from an in-house platform, they have a team of analysts and programmers which take care of the platform's maintenance.
Still, we had incredibly good feedback, with further suggestions!
"Ceci étant dit, votre idée est intéressante et répond à une réelle problématique à laquelle font face les étudiants. Problématique exacerbée par l’augmentation des cours à distance. Une des clefs de réussite est sûrement l’intégration avec les plates-formes d’apprentissage. Si votre produit pouvait s’intégrer de façon presque transparente dans un BlackBoard, Moodle, Desire2Learn ou des plates-formes maison comme la nôtre, le gain serait fortement amplifié. C’est probablement ce que vous avez déjà prévu de toute façon."
Pitch 2.0
Taking into account the feedback from our mentors and the class we redid our Pitch deck, also with back-up slides, so we could answer the difficult questions our potential investors will make! Namely we:
(1) Added more important competitors to our value curve, so we could effectively show our competitive advantage relatively to Moodle, for instance.
(2) Included important financial information through graphical approach, like breakeven analysis.
(3) Changed the customer segments "University Students" to a real picture.
(4) Identified clearly how much funding we would require from investors - then negotiate the %of equity (do not give a number right away).
(1) Added more important competitors to our value curve, so we could effectively show our competitive advantage relatively to Moodle, for instance.
(2) Included important financial information through graphical approach, like breakeven analysis.
(3) Changed the customer segments "University Students" to a real picture.
(4) Identified clearly how much funding we would require from investors - then negotiate the %of equity (do not give a number right away).
Pitch 1.0
The final week arrived and we are preparing to pitch LeadTeam to Business Angels at Associação Portuguesa de Business Angels! Therefore, we had a training session at Católica. Here is our Pitch 1.0:
"You have been working on this for 6 month so it should be easy". It is not:
Firstly, you only have 7 minutes, so the team has to decide what is crucial and what is not - at some point, everything feels essential! What really helped here were the teacher's guidelines regarding the different steps the pitch should follow. (1) Problem (2) Solution (3) Technology (4) Marketing and Sales (5) Competitors (6) Team (7) Traction (8) Financial and (9) Calendar.
Secondly, the team needs to agree on a layout and how to effectively display the information. We decided on a very simple, neat but impactfull kind of design - the focus should be in our words, with only absolutly crucial data appearing on the slides. Moreover, a video with the free version features was recorded to make sure the audience could picture what LeadTeam was all about!
Thirdly, the team needs to define exactly what each is going to say - you loose the risk of repeating the same idea three times in only a 7 minute frame.
Finally, train a lot! This is not a normal weekly presentation where one is confortable talking about their work during the week - so train, because you will be nervous!
Final tip: we saw a lot of pitches! We got inspiration mainly in the one showed in class: TechStars Demo Day — Tred, but there are a lot of demo days going on! Check also Techcrunch on Youtube!
Let's see how it goes :D
Firstly, you only have 7 minutes, so the team has to decide what is crucial and what is not - at some point, everything feels essential! What really helped here were the teacher's guidelines regarding the different steps the pitch should follow. (1) Problem (2) Solution (3) Technology (4) Marketing and Sales (5) Competitors (6) Team (7) Traction (8) Financial and (9) Calendar.
Secondly, the team needs to agree on a layout and how to effectively display the information. We decided on a very simple, neat but impactfull kind of design - the focus should be in our words, with only absolutly crucial data appearing on the slides. Moreover, a video with the free version features was recorded to make sure the audience could picture what LeadTeam was all about!
Thirdly, the team needs to define exactly what each is going to say - you loose the risk of repeating the same idea three times in only a 7 minute frame.
Finally, train a lot! This is not a normal weekly presentation where one is confortable talking about their work during the week - so train, because you will be nervous!
Final tip: we saw a lot of pitches! We got inspiration mainly in the one showed in class: TechStars Demo Day — Tred, but there are a lot of demo days going on! Check also Techcrunch on Youtube!
Let's see how it goes :D
Who did we interview?
In our interviewing process we carefully tried to reach as many nationalities and Universities (studying in different universities) as possible! So what is our sample demographics?
In the end, we interviews students from 19 to15 years old, from 7 different countries, 18 specialization fields and also, studying in 24 Universities.
In the end, we interviews students from 19 to15 years old, from 7 different countries, 18 specialization fields and also, studying in 24 Universities.
Final Round of Interviews - Key Learnings
Validating and Invalidating
Briefings
Final Round of Interviews - Script
In our last round of interviews we talked with 8 University Students, showed them the video and tested Hypothesis 30 and 31.
New Hypothesis
Hypothesis 30: One of the most divided Hypothesis was the pricing, should it be higher than €1? There are students willing to pay more... So we wondered if we showed the video and explained the exact features incorporated in this edition, it would be higher than €1.
Priority: 10
Hypothesis 31: One of the critics to our MVP was that it was not professional enough. This made us reformulate our design, making it less colorful! Now, we wanted to test if we had reach the levels expected by our students!
Priority: 10
In order to test these Hypothesis we will interview 8 University Students!
Priority: 10
Hypothesis 31: One of the critics to our MVP was that it was not professional enough. This made us reformulate our design, making it less colorful! Now, we wanted to test if we had reach the levels expected by our students!
Priority: 10
In order to test these Hypothesis we will interview 8 University Students!
Financial Analysis
After class' feedback on how our financial analysis was so optimistic, we made further research and rearranged our Revenues and Costs. Here is the final outcome!
P&L
Revenue
Important assumptions and facts to take into account when analysing our P&L
Regarding the Premium Version flow:
- During our interviews and surveys we discovered 2 important things:
27% of the students were willing to buy the premium version;
Students would need an experiment period before actually adopting the platform fully.
Therefore, we considered that (1) 27% of our new users would subscribe a premium version (2) but they would only do so, after 6 month of their first log in.
- During the first year our platform will be opened only for Católica'a students, serving the Porto, Lisbon, Braga and Beiras Católica's Universities. The objective is to iterate and correct any problems in a safe environment as is our own University. This means that by the end of the first year we will have 10.807 users (according to http://www.ucp.pt/site/custom/template/ucptplportalpag.asp?sspageID=10&lang=1 in the year 2012/2013 this was the number of students studying in Católica)
- In the second year we will open our platform to all users worldwide. We expect the network effect to be triggered and leveraged by our high marketing efforts. http://8020world.com/2012/08/s-curve-model-for-facebook-and-dropbox-user-adoption/
- The initial number of users is the same number of unique visitors from our first Landing Page
Regarding University fees:
- The first year will be exclusively from Católica Lisboa, Porto, Braga and Beiras - we will serve 4 different clients.
- Nevertheless, our focus in terms of Universities will still be located in Portugal.
- In the third year, due to the expected wide usage among students of our platform we expect to reach Universities from the rest of the world, having a new client every month.
Advertising fees:
- The same assumptions as in the TAM SAM SOM, except for the fact, we changed the periodicity of the students log in from 3 times a week to 5 - to be more realistic.
We automatically excluded the VAT, since it should always be delivered to the State.
Regarding the Premium Version flow:
- During our interviews and surveys we discovered 2 important things:
27% of the students were willing to buy the premium version;
Students would need an experiment period before actually adopting the platform fully.
Therefore, we considered that (1) 27% of our new users would subscribe a premium version (2) but they would only do so, after 6 month of their first log in.
- During the first year our platform will be opened only for Católica'a students, serving the Porto, Lisbon, Braga and Beiras Católica's Universities. The objective is to iterate and correct any problems in a safe environment as is our own University. This means that by the end of the first year we will have 10.807 users (according to http://www.ucp.pt/site/custom/template/ucptplportalpag.asp?sspageID=10&lang=1 in the year 2012/2013 this was the number of students studying in Católica)
- In the second year we will open our platform to all users worldwide. We expect the network effect to be triggered and leveraged by our high marketing efforts. http://8020world.com/2012/08/s-curve-model-for-facebook-and-dropbox-user-adoption/
- The initial number of users is the same number of unique visitors from our first Landing Page
Regarding University fees:
- The first year will be exclusively from Católica Lisboa, Porto, Braga and Beiras - we will serve 4 different clients.
- Nevertheless, our focus in terms of Universities will still be located in Portugal.
- In the third year, due to the expected wide usage among students of our platform we expect to reach Universities from the rest of the world, having a new client every month.
Advertising fees:
- The same assumptions as in the TAM SAM SOM, except for the fact, we changed the periodicity of the students log in from 3 times a week to 5 - to be more realistic.
We automatically excluded the VAT, since it should always be delivered to the State.
Costs
Platform related costs
- Server will be purchase in http://www.1and1.com/dedicated-server?__lf=Static&linkOrigin=server&linkId=ct.btn.continue.bottom.ServerPremium. We will start with the less expensive until reaach the XXL in the third year.
- Web Hosting costs were calculated based on this website offers http://www.1and1.com/web-hosting?__lf=Static&linkOrigin=hosting-apps&linkId=ct.btn.hosting-landing#hosting-system. In the fisrt year we will use the "Unlimited" package and in the second and third the "Performance" one.
Marketing costs
- Adwords and FacebookAds explanation is in the following Excel File. Still, we have Adwords running, to test our conversion rate.
- Prize for Competition is an amount payed to the winner of contests we will be making in the context of Viral Marketing (for example an Ipad). Videos with high quality, explaining our value proposition will hopefully also turn viral. These would be made mostly in the critical month for students: September and February.
- In Social Media we included Sponsorship of Facebook Page - we did a simulation and the costs were of 15€/day in September and February, 30 days/month = between 54 and 214 likes per day and 11€/day the rest of the year, 15 days/month = between 39 and 157 likes per day. Plus, LinkedIn Business Package would be of 22,13€/month.
Other Operational costs
- Financial and Accounting outsourcing costs were based on the services provided by "Financial Outsourcing Solutions" in the website http://www.financialoutsourcingsolutions.ie/our-packages.html - assuming our needs will grow as the number of users and Universities increase.
- Social Security was calculated based on the currently used TSU of 23,75%.
Subsidies
- Iapmei "Bolsa do Passaporte para o Empreendedorismo" fits one of our members requirements.
Bootstrapping
- Operations will take place in own homes.
- A Hacker co-founder will be incorporated in our team.
- Except for the Hacker, we will use our personal computers.
- We will not pay any wages to our founders during the first 6 month.
- Server will be purchase in http://www.1and1.com/dedicated-server?__lf=Static&linkOrigin=server&linkId=ct.btn.continue.bottom.ServerPremium. We will start with the less expensive until reaach the XXL in the third year.
- Web Hosting costs were calculated based on this website offers http://www.1and1.com/web-hosting?__lf=Static&linkOrigin=hosting-apps&linkId=ct.btn.hosting-landing#hosting-system. In the fisrt year we will use the "Unlimited" package and in the second and third the "Performance" one.
Marketing costs
- Adwords and FacebookAds explanation is in the following Excel File. Still, we have Adwords running, to test our conversion rate.
- Prize for Competition is an amount payed to the winner of contests we will be making in the context of Viral Marketing (for example an Ipad). Videos with high quality, explaining our value proposition will hopefully also turn viral. These would be made mostly in the critical month for students: September and February.
- In Social Media we included Sponsorship of Facebook Page - we did a simulation and the costs were of 15€/day in September and February, 30 days/month = between 54 and 214 likes per day and 11€/day the rest of the year, 15 days/month = between 39 and 157 likes per day. Plus, LinkedIn Business Package would be of 22,13€/month.
Other Operational costs
- Financial and Accounting outsourcing costs were based on the services provided by "Financial Outsourcing Solutions" in the website http://www.financialoutsourcingsolutions.ie/our-packages.html - assuming our needs will grow as the number of users and Universities increase.
- Social Security was calculated based on the currently used TSU of 23,75%.
Subsidies
- Iapmei "Bolsa do Passaporte para o Empreendedorismo" fits one of our members requirements.
Bootstrapping
- Operations will take place in own homes.
- A Hacker co-founder will be incorporated in our team.
- Except for the Hacker, we will use our personal computers.
- We will not pay any wages to our founders during the first 6 month.
Please click in the botton below for further information - P&L divided by month during these 3 years.
Balance Sheet
Assets
LeadTeam Platform
- We considered the platform as an Investment, therefore it is only reflected in the Balancesheet and Cash-Flow statements.
- An initial investment will be made based on the following information: http://thenextweb.com/dd/2013/12/02/much-cost-build-worlds-hottest-startups/ . Still, we expect to talk with an expert and confirm this data.
- Several upgrades will be made to the platform periodically - everytime we have a new "University customer" an upgrade will take place. Here, not only our Hacker co-founder will work, but also an outsourced programmer. The cost was calculated based on Odesk platform. In fact, we found a perfect match for us in https://www.odesk.com/o/profiles/users/_~010b0a3ccf7fca24fd/
- To make sure our investors have an exit strategy, we are going to subscribe a patent. According to official information in the websites bellow, we estimated a price of €6.500 with a duration of 20 years in Europe.
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/indprop/patent/faqs/index_en.htm#maincontentSec11;http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/official-journal/2014/etc/se3/p1.html; http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/indprop/docs/patent/faqs/cost-comparison_en.pdf
- We are going to register a Trademark costing €900, according to the following information
http://www.inta.org/TrademarkBasics/FactSheets/Pages/CommunityTradeMarkFactSheet.aspx
- Our co-founder Hacker will need a computer with a Miscrosoft license.
- Depreciations were calculated based on the following table: http://www.pwc.pt/en/guia-fiscal-2012/irc/taxas-depreciacao-amortizacao-fiscais.jhtml
- We considered the platform as an Investment, therefore it is only reflected in the Balancesheet and Cash-Flow statements.
- An initial investment will be made based on the following information: http://thenextweb.com/dd/2013/12/02/much-cost-build-worlds-hottest-startups/ . Still, we expect to talk with an expert and confirm this data.
- Several upgrades will be made to the platform periodically - everytime we have a new "University customer" an upgrade will take place. Here, not only our Hacker co-founder will work, but also an outsourced programmer. The cost was calculated based on Odesk platform. In fact, we found a perfect match for us in https://www.odesk.com/o/profiles/users/_~010b0a3ccf7fca24fd/
- To make sure our investors have an exit strategy, we are going to subscribe a patent. According to official information in the websites bellow, we estimated a price of €6.500 with a duration of 20 years in Europe.
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/indprop/patent/faqs/index_en.htm#maincontentSec11;http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/official-journal/2014/etc/se3/p1.html; http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/indprop/docs/patent/faqs/cost-comparison_en.pdf
- We are going to register a Trademark costing €900, according to the following information
http://www.inta.org/TrademarkBasics/FactSheets/Pages/CommunityTradeMarkFactSheet.aspx
- Our co-founder Hacker will need a computer with a Miscrosoft license.
- Depreciations were calculated based on the following table: http://www.pwc.pt/en/guia-fiscal-2012/irc/taxas-depreciacao-amortizacao-fiscais.jhtml
Cash-Flow
Cost Structure
We divided the Cost Structure into Fixed and Variable costs, being Fixed those costs that "you can predict to be similar every period" and Variable "all costs that are contingent on activity". As a start-up, our objective is to reduce as much as possible the former type, making our cost structure mainly variable.
Variable Costs
Platform-related variable costs
To make sure our platform is bug free, a periodic maintenance should take place - the bigger the number of users, the costlier it will become. Plus, it was pointed out during our presentation, the importance of Website Hosting costs, specially when the users' base starts to grow considerably. Finally, in order to store all the data in a secure place, we need third-party Servers.
It is important to note that any spent in Platform development and upgrade was considered as an investment, rather than a cost.
Marketing
Based in our Channel and Customer Relationship elements, we defined 6 main sources of cost
Adwords,
Facebook Ads - to make sure we reach our target segments,
Social Media - mainly sponsorship of Facebook Page and premium versions of current Social Media, like Scoop.it,
Prize for competion and Videos - in order to trigger viral actions,
Fairs - where we can present our solution to tech-driven Universities.
To make sure our platform is bug free, a periodic maintenance should take place - the bigger the number of users, the costlier it will become. Plus, it was pointed out during our presentation, the importance of Website Hosting costs, specially when the users' base starts to grow considerably. Finally, in order to store all the data in a secure place, we need third-party Servers.
It is important to note that any spent in Platform development and upgrade was considered as an investment, rather than a cost.
Marketing
Based in our Channel and Customer Relationship elements, we defined 6 main sources of cost
Adwords,
Facebook Ads - to make sure we reach our target segments,
Social Media - mainly sponsorship of Facebook Page and premium versions of current Social Media, like Scoop.it,
Prize for competion and Videos - in order to trigger viral actions,
Fairs - where we can present our solution to tech-driven Universities.
Fixed Costs
Fixed costs will be mainly our salaries (which will be zero in the first 6 month) and the outsourced finance and accontancy.
Adwords
After many problems with cupons and credit cards, we finally were able to launch an Adword!
The objective is to test if this is an effective channel to bring new users to our platform! And yes, we already have 103 clicks and 15.878 people already saw our advert!
Developing our MVP - Video!
Taking into account the suggestions made by our students, we changed the platform's colours and also made them customizable!
Moreover, we created an App for Iphone 5, so that students could understand they can use our features in every context of their lives!
Furthermore, we made an MVP for the Facebook App.
Check our Video on how to work with it!
1st part - Application for Iphone 5
2nd part - Desktop platform features: Scheduling and Calendar, Chat with easy tracking, Files sharing and editing in cloud, Task allocation.
3rd part - LeadTeam as a Facebook App
Moreover, we created an App for Iphone 5, so that students could understand they can use our features in every context of their lives!
Furthermore, we made an MVP for the Facebook App.
Check our Video on how to work with it!
1st part - Application for Iphone 5
2nd part - Desktop platform features: Scheduling and Calendar, Chat with easy tracking, Files sharing and editing in cloud, Task allocation.
3rd part - LeadTeam as a Facebook App
University Students - 3rd Round of Interviews
Our Briefings
Validation Board - University Students
Validating or Invalidating
Surveying Teachers
Validation Board - Universities
Validating or Invalidating
New Organizational Chart
Feedback on how heavy our R&D department has lead us to rearrange our Organizational Chart. Indeed, plenty of different alternatives to in-house R&D are available today, particularly labor crowdsourcing platforms, such as Odesk and Zaask. Plus, an interesting option would be to get a Hacker co-founder which could build the base of our platform!
Key Potential Partners
FbStart
˃Quickly log in with Facebook account (Access to customers).
˃FbStart is a new program from Facebook that offers a package of free tools and services to help your mobile startup.
Parse
˃Parse is a service focused on support you creating engaging apps on any platform. They take care of data saving, social networks, analytics and push notifications.
1&1
˃ Hosting and servers service.
Key Resources
Main functions
Job Specifications
Key Activities
Value Chain
Main Activities.
Customer Development is extremely important for a platform with network externalities. Without an appropriate effort to acquire and retain customers, the network effect will never be triggered and no one will ever find any value in LeadTeam. Despite its features, individual value depends mainly on the number of platform's user.
Marketing is as important, putting the customer in the center and making sure we listen and keep adapting to their needs. We cannot stand still, even after getting a relevant customer base.
Sales&Distribution make sure the process is simple, clean, user-friendly and automated for our customer segments - their effort must be inexistent.
R&D & Support allow our platform to evolve and keep track of trends and customers needs. Please refer below to our process in Support.
Support activities.
We have learned the team is crucial to a start-up's success - therefore, our H.R is in-house and an area we must control tightly (please refer to the process of hiring below). On the other hand, specialized accountancy offices are widely available, with far higher expertise (especially regarding international accountancy - do not forget we are aiming the world!) than a part-time person could ever have. Nevertheless, promptly results for fast decision-making would be expected, with Top Management surpervising directly this work. Finally, as we pretend to have a huge amount of information (useful for our advertisers), which must be kept in a storage fully secured and compliant with our own guidelines.
Customer Development is extremely important for a platform with network externalities. Without an appropriate effort to acquire and retain customers, the network effect will never be triggered and no one will ever find any value in LeadTeam. Despite its features, individual value depends mainly on the number of platform's user.
Marketing is as important, putting the customer in the center and making sure we listen and keep adapting to their needs. We cannot stand still, even after getting a relevant customer base.
Sales&Distribution make sure the process is simple, clean, user-friendly and automated for our customer segments - their effort must be inexistent.
R&D & Support allow our platform to evolve and keep track of trends and customers needs. Please refer below to our process in Support.
Support activities.
We have learned the team is crucial to a start-up's success - therefore, our H.R is in-house and an area we must control tightly (please refer to the process of hiring below). On the other hand, specialized accountancy offices are widely available, with far higher expertise (especially regarding international accountancy - do not forget we are aiming the world!) than a part-time person could ever have. Nevertheless, promptly results for fast decision-making would be expected, with Top Management surpervising directly this work. Finally, as we pretend to have a huge amount of information (useful for our advertisers), which must be kept in a storage fully secured and compliant with our own guidelines.
Main Processes
We createda diagram for three main processes:
Update. LeadTeam platform (website and app) cannot stop evolving, responding to customer's constant feedback (possibly transmitted through our different channels, mainly social networks) and new technology developments/trends. Therefore, Update process should be embeded in our culture, completly defined in order to be as eficient as possible.
Client Support. As we develop our Business model today, our customers are always our center. We aim to continue to constantly create value, making sure that any constraint is resolved immediatly. Plus, since our customer service is only online, it must be very effective.
Team member selection. It was emphazised numerous times the importance of having the right team, with complementary skills and which could work under stress together (because there is indeed great moments of pressure). A great team is better than a great idea.
Update. LeadTeam platform (website and app) cannot stop evolving, responding to customer's constant feedback (possibly transmitted through our different channels, mainly social networks) and new technology developments/trends. Therefore, Update process should be embeded in our culture, completly defined in order to be as eficient as possible.
Client Support. As we develop our Business model today, our customers are always our center. We aim to continue to constantly create value, making sure that any constraint is resolved immediatly. Plus, since our customer service is only online, it must be very effective.
Team member selection. It was emphazised numerous times the importance of having the right team, with complementary skills and which could work under stress together (because there is indeed great moments of pressure). A great team is better than a great idea.
Next Step - Universities
We will test our Universities Customers Segment through two channels: IT Departments and Teachers.
Interviewing Católica
Now we need to start testing our Business Model with Universities! We will start in our home with an interview with Católica's IT department! Still waiting for confirmation, but we already developed our personalized Script.
The objective is to gather information in order to create a more accurate script for further Universities!
The objective is to gather information in order to create a more accurate script for further Universities!
Script
Selecting Hypothesis and Defining Validation Metrics
Surveying University Teachers
Teachers are one of our potential users, therefore their input is extremely relevant.
Script
Please visit the following link for the Script https://ucplbusiness.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6RK2cokcj5JOjeB
Selecting Hypothesis and Defining Validation Metrics
University Students Interviews - 3rd round
Script
Selecting Hypothesis and Defining Validation Metrics
The Hypothesis we will be testing with these interviews are Hypothesis 19, 27, 28 and 29.
Hypothesis for Business Model 2.0
Taking into account the modifications we did in our Business Model, we created a series of Hypothesis to test this new version 2.0. Plus, we will start testing which kind of integration students expect from Universities.
Evolving - Business Model 2.0
Based on the results below, we developed a Business Model in which we integrated with Facebook - we could be a Facebook App, like many interviews suggested and many Students agreed it would created value through the survey:
Our First Minimum Viable Product!
Based on the preferences of our Universities Students, we developed a MVP for our free version including: Calendar-Scheduling, Files sharings, Chat with easy tracking and Task Allocation! Download it here (Please open it as presentation). Give us your feedback!
Some images from our final MVP:
Some images from our final MVP:
Just Sketching and discussing ideas!
Validating and Invalidating Hypothesis
Valid
Invalid
2nd Landing Page - Visit it now
This is our second Landing Page http://www.mylanderpages.com/leadteam/premium! This one aims to do an A/B testing regarding Pricing for University Students' Premium version.
Should it be 1€ or 2€? We have got mixed responses in our interviews, so we are testing it further with both surveys and this landing page. Under test: Hypothesis 25!
Scoop it!
Validation Board - Universities
Validation Board - University Students
Are they all High Risk?
Here is our Hypothesis priority according to the framework - Problability of being invalid vs. Impact on the Business Model:
Getting Lost with SO many Hypothesis?
It is ok! We also did! So here is a list of all our hypothesis so far:
Survey for University Students
Survey Script
Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.
Selecting Hypothesis and Defining Validation Metrics
We readapted some Hypothesis to fit our approach in the surveys.
QR-Coding
Scan now! And discover more about LeadTeam!
Revenue Streams
University Students
Type of Revenue Streams: Freemium with fee per year.
This concept consists in providing a service for free and to propose an additional paying version. It is a supposed to be an efficient source of income. Although the free version needs to be good enough to first acquire the customer, and our additional features must be also enough attractive so that the students will be interested in purchasing it. Unfortunately, it usually takes a while before people convert to the premium version once they have the free one. There is a risk that our conversion rate remains too low, in this case we will have to rethink the price and/or the features. This is why it is crucial to test our hypothesis.
This concept consists in providing a service for free and to propose an additional paying version. It is a supposed to be an efficient source of income. Although the free version needs to be good enough to first acquire the customer, and our additional features must be also enough attractive so that the students will be interested in purchasing it. Unfortunately, it usually takes a while before people convert to the premium version once they have the free one. There is a risk that our conversion rate remains too low, in this case we will have to rethink the price and/or the features. This is why it is crucial to test our hypothesis.
We will propose a free version including Cloud service, Chat with easy tracking, Task allocation, Scheduling-Calendar, Find people, Students profile (under testing). The students will be able to pay for a premium version if they wish to, in order to have some additional features: templates for planning, some additional storage, a references organizer, a reminder tool, a research organizer, and a virtual assistant.
Pricing: 1€ would be the yearly fee charged to Universities Students.
Universities
Type of Revenue Stream: Yearly subscription with monthly fee.
The subscription will also be a source of revenue from both students and universities. The students will have to renew yearly their subscription to the premium version of the platform. Concerning the universities, they will be paying a yearly fee for their students and teachers platform, which they will be able to pay every 3 months. This revenue stream should guarantee us a stabilized cash flow.
Pricing: 800€ - redirect to TAM SAM SOM
The subscription will also be a source of revenue from both students and universities. The students will have to renew yearly their subscription to the premium version of the platform. Concerning the universities, they will be paying a yearly fee for their students and teachers platform, which they will be able to pay every 3 months. This revenue stream should guarantee us a stabilized cash flow.
Pricing: 800€ - redirect to TAM SAM SOM
Advertisers
In exchange for a fee, we would provide a space for advertisers on our platform. We will have advertisings of the company that mainly target students Pricing type:
Pricing: CPM (Cost per Thousand Impressions) $0,56 for 1000 impressions – Social Network benchmark (please refer to our TAM SAM SOM)
We will have 3 adverts in the main page
Pricing: CPM (Cost per Thousand Impressions) $0,56 for 1000 impressions – Social Network benchmark (please refer to our TAM SAM SOM)
We will have 3 adverts in the main page
Second Round of Interviews
We finally have insight from 20 University Students (19 Business Administration and 1 Pharmacy).
Key Takeways
Our Briefings
All our Forms
We reached 130 unique visitors to our Landing Page!
Thank you very much to those who took interest enough to visit our Landing Page! Moreover, our blog also have been visited several times during the past days! Including 24th April with a record of 109 unique visitors!
Generating Traffic
To bring traffic to our Landing Page we leverage Social Networkis, widely used by University Students! Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin Group and Pinterest were the chosen to begin. Nevertheless, check our Channels and Customer Relationship to see future Channels we will be using!
Never been there? Visit them now:
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/leadteam/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/leadteamstartup
Linkedin Group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Welcome-LeadTeamers-8101836.S.5865196538526990340
Instagram: http://instagram.com/leadteamcatolica
Never been there? Visit them now:
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/leadteam/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/leadteamstartup
Linkedin Group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Welcome-LeadTeamers-8101836.S.5865196538526990340
Instagram: http://instagram.com/leadteamcatolica
New Landing Page Layout
Customer Relationships
Getting Customers
Get customers: Customer Acquisition Funnel
Source: http://jrom.net/metrics-for-pirates
In order to manage to get the potential customers create revenues, or in other words, to make them pay for the very first time, our start-up have to run through a 4 stage funnel that mass of people before turning them into actual customers. The 4 stages and the tools LeadTeam will use for getting customers are presented as follows:
Acquisition
This first step is about getting the attention from somebody in your customers segment. In our case is when we manage that someone visits our landing page or website. For that we are using the following tools:
- SEO (Google Analytics)
- SEM (Google Ad words)
- Social Networks (Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram)
- E-mail (Mainly for our B2B customer segment)
Activation
Once we get someone’s attention, we need to activate them, and this means to make the users of our webpage happy for visiting so they do not regret for have had their first contact with our product. For this phase, the following are the tools we will use:
- Several tests through landing pages will allow us to validate hypothesis and adapt contents to our customer target’s interests.
- In our Blog people will be able to find interesting and further information regarding our product, the entrepreneurial experience and other aspects of the business.
- A/B testing in order to identify what do the users like and improve their experience.
- Videos and information provided though images.
- Offer a free beta version of our premium version.
Retention
This third stage is about having repeated interest in our products of those customers who had already visit our site or had had a first contact with us. This interest should be showed by customers who come back to our website, who follow us in the social networks, who like our posts, who continue using our beta version, etc. Our tactics for achieving that will be:
- Sending e-mails to those people who had registered in our landing page highlighting our product features and the experiences of actual users.
- Promoting our social networks’ profiles and posting continuously.
- Keeping track if the people who had subscribed for our free beta version are constantly using it.
Sale
Certainly, someone’s willingness to pay or to use for our product (basic version is for free) is going to be mainly the consequence of the pre stages in the getting a customer process. However, to finally make a customer make the decision of buying we will rely on the following:
- Promotions regarding price and bundling.
- Endorsements by other blogs, magazines, users and others.
- Message creativity. Transmitting in a simple and different way our message.
- Facebook Adds.
Acquisition
This first step is about getting the attention from somebody in your customers segment. In our case is when we manage that someone visits our landing page or website. For that we are using the following tools:
- SEO (Google Analytics)
- SEM (Google Ad words)
- Social Networks (Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram)
- E-mail (Mainly for our B2B customer segment)
Activation
Once we get someone’s attention, we need to activate them, and this means to make the users of our webpage happy for visiting so they do not regret for have had their first contact with our product. For this phase, the following are the tools we will use:
- Several tests through landing pages will allow us to validate hypothesis and adapt contents to our customer target’s interests.
- In our Blog people will be able to find interesting and further information regarding our product, the entrepreneurial experience and other aspects of the business.
- A/B testing in order to identify what do the users like and improve their experience.
- Videos and information provided though images.
- Offer a free beta version of our premium version.
Retention
This third stage is about having repeated interest in our products of those customers who had already visit our site or had had a first contact with us. This interest should be showed by customers who come back to our website, who follow us in the social networks, who like our posts, who continue using our beta version, etc. Our tactics for achieving that will be:
- Sending e-mails to those people who had registered in our landing page highlighting our product features and the experiences of actual users.
- Promoting our social networks’ profiles and posting continuously.
- Keeping track if the people who had subscribed for our free beta version are constantly using it.
Sale
Certainly, someone’s willingness to pay or to use for our product (basic version is for free) is going to be mainly the consequence of the pre stages in the getting a customer process. However, to finally make a customer make the decision of buying we will rely on the following:
- Promotions regarding price and bundling.
- Endorsements by other blogs, magazines, users and others.
- Message creativity. Transmitting in a simple and different way our message.
- Facebook Adds.
Keeping Customers
Once inviting people at our door and converting them into customers, the next step focuses on how to keep them from leaving and get our potential customers loyal to our small business LeadTeam. Free trials, new features development, special offers (“get + cloud by inviting friends to join the LeadTeam community”) and discounts will be our methods and we will build our customer relation though the following media:
Social Media – Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Slideshare– to communicate
We believe social media is the best way to keep in touch with customers to stay at the forefront in their minds. That’s why, it’s crucial to post, generate traffic, interact and build a close relationship with our users on those networks mainly by fostering their enthusiasm (likes, followers, pins).
However, we plan to communicate in a different way in terms of post content hence, send accurate messages to customers. Obviously, users don’t expect the same kind of content on Instagram than on LinkedIn. For instance, we assume it’s important to develop a friendly relationship on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram by sharing photos and posting fresh and cool messages because we address to a young student segment whereas we are building a more business-oriented relation on LinkedIn, SlideShare and our blog.
To promote the premium platform version, we will be mainly communicating on Facebook and LinkedIn to offer customers free trials and discounts.
The LeadTeamer community
To keep them from leaving we believe we need to give them a strong reason to stay: developing a big leadteamers community will influence them in staying with us. The power of the crowd is essential and social media are likely to help us to answer clients questions and allow them to interact between themselves. As an incentive, students might get more cloud space if they invite their friends.
LeadTeam Startup Weebly Blog
Make users feel part and builders of our business strategy by sharing with them how we work and what are our future projects ideas. Indeed, to keep them as users we need to show them we are developing, looking further hence, a long term relationship is being building. That’s why, we are also working on opening a page “give us a hand” to get their feedback and make them contribute to offer them future services which fit perfectly their expectations.
Our blog is also a way to communicate our business model with other start-ups by interacting with them sharing our ideas. Besides, why not collaborate (eventual partnership in the future)?
Newsletters and email club to keep them updated about features and promote
To personalize our messages to targeted universities and students, different mailing list must be created to target better our customer segment interest: beta version users, universities, university students.
As subscribers of the monthly newsletter, beta version users students will get know about our new features and will be rewarded with discounts and free upgrades coupon (trial of new features for free for a limited time) for patronizing LeadTeam.
Client universities want to get more information about what is going on. Information newsletter to universities will focus on new features and also about the increasing spreading of LeadTeam over the world. They might be interested in knowing: “How many and which universities recently became LeadTeamer users? “; “What partnerships we are making?”; “What are the main features used?”; “What are the ones requested by students?” etc.
Drip Marketing
To personalize cleverly our communication with users –students- and customers –universities-, drip marketing nurturing method is likely to help us in a significant way. The idea is to send pre-written personalized set of messages on a daily basis. Given LeadTeam is an online platform, linked accounts (email, facebook, slideshare, linkedin) will be an interesting option thus, LeadTeamers will get notified very frequently about up-to-date information according how their teamwork are going: new messages, posts and content within their different groups. The reminder feature is also a way to be always present in their mind. Plus, through email marketing, automatic messages will be sent to test users willingness to get and use our features.
Social Media – Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Slideshare– to communicate
We believe social media is the best way to keep in touch with customers to stay at the forefront in their minds. That’s why, it’s crucial to post, generate traffic, interact and build a close relationship with our users on those networks mainly by fostering their enthusiasm (likes, followers, pins).
However, we plan to communicate in a different way in terms of post content hence, send accurate messages to customers. Obviously, users don’t expect the same kind of content on Instagram than on LinkedIn. For instance, we assume it’s important to develop a friendly relationship on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram by sharing photos and posting fresh and cool messages because we address to a young student segment whereas we are building a more business-oriented relation on LinkedIn, SlideShare and our blog.
To promote the premium platform version, we will be mainly communicating on Facebook and LinkedIn to offer customers free trials and discounts.
The LeadTeamer community
To keep them from leaving we believe we need to give them a strong reason to stay: developing a big leadteamers community will influence them in staying with us. The power of the crowd is essential and social media are likely to help us to answer clients questions and allow them to interact between themselves. As an incentive, students might get more cloud space if they invite their friends.
LeadTeam Startup Weebly Blog
Make users feel part and builders of our business strategy by sharing with them how we work and what are our future projects ideas. Indeed, to keep them as users we need to show them we are developing, looking further hence, a long term relationship is being building. That’s why, we are also working on opening a page “give us a hand” to get their feedback and make them contribute to offer them future services which fit perfectly their expectations.
Our blog is also a way to communicate our business model with other start-ups by interacting with them sharing our ideas. Besides, why not collaborate (eventual partnership in the future)?
Newsletters and email club to keep them updated about features and promote
To personalize our messages to targeted universities and students, different mailing list must be created to target better our customer segment interest: beta version users, universities, university students.
As subscribers of the monthly newsletter, beta version users students will get know about our new features and will be rewarded with discounts and free upgrades coupon (trial of new features for free for a limited time) for patronizing LeadTeam.
Client universities want to get more information about what is going on. Information newsletter to universities will focus on new features and also about the increasing spreading of LeadTeam over the world. They might be interested in knowing: “How many and which universities recently became LeadTeamer users? “; “What partnerships we are making?”; “What are the main features used?”; “What are the ones requested by students?” etc.
Drip Marketing
To personalize cleverly our communication with users –students- and customers –universities-, drip marketing nurturing method is likely to help us in a significant way. The idea is to send pre-written personalized set of messages on a daily basis. Given LeadTeam is an online platform, linked accounts (email, facebook, slideshare, linkedin) will be an interesting option thus, LeadTeamers will get notified very frequently about up-to-date information according how their teamwork are going: new messages, posts and content within their different groups. The reminder feature is also a way to be always present in their mind. Plus, through email marketing, automatic messages will be sent to test users willingness to get and use our features.
Growing Clients
Recommendation, the word-of-mouth system. We count a lot on this technique to expand our customers. Students use a lot of word-of-mouth concerning new trendy apps or websites for example. We can use the social media channel, through the Facebook page for example, which will be easy for them to share.
Cross-selling is a practice of selling an additional product or service to an existing customer. We don’t have any additional service to propose, except the premium version, but for this we will use the up-selling technique.
Up-selling induces the customer to purchase more expensive items. In order to make our customers purchase our premium version, we can promote it in our website and our social medias channels.
Next-selling uses transactional email to sell other products related to the first item you bought. Transactional email is the plain text email you receive after you’ve made a purchase, the email confirming that your package is in transit for example. We can use this technique once they downloaded the free version of our platform, they would receive an email informing them about the way the free version of the app works, and use it to sell our premium version.
Cross-selling is a practice of selling an additional product or service to an existing customer. We don’t have any additional service to propose, except the premium version, but for this we will use the up-selling technique.
Up-selling induces the customer to purchase more expensive items. In order to make our customers purchase our premium version, we can promote it in our website and our social medias channels.
Next-selling uses transactional email to sell other products related to the first item you bought. Transactional email is the plain text email you receive after you’ve made a purchase, the email confirming that your package is in transit for example. We can use this technique once they downloaded the free version of our platform, they would receive an email informing them about the way the free version of the app works, and use it to sell our premium version.
Channels
What Channels (paid and non-paid) will we be using? How will we communicate our value proposition more adequately to each customer segment? Are these connected? How will they get our product?
As mentioned in Lessons Learned we can divide Channels in four roles (Marketing, Sales, Distributions, After Sales Support). However, we will focus on Marketing and Sales, developing the exercise made in class.
University Students
Marketing
Social Networks. University Students are heavy users of Social Networks. We will try to convey our message through several of these new Marketing tools.
Facebook. We already created a Facebook group page and shared with all our friends, which in they turn, will share to their friends, hopefully spreading our Project throughout Facebook in few weeks.
Linkedin Group – A Linkedin Group was also formed, aiming to deliver our message in a Business-like environment, attempting to reach students interested in these type of Projects.
Pinterest – This network has been considered a powerful tool to generate traffic to a certain business page (blog for instance). We didn’t only pinned our content in an album, but we also pinned posts which could be considered interesting for our target customers. For instance, social network facts and new technologies coming out – this way they will start following us and then, probably be interested in our own content! We highly advice anyone who wants to use it for this purpose to watch the “Using Pinterest to Get Free Traffic” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5topfpM6fg
Instagram – We also created a profile in this social network, aiming to transmit our message through images!
We expect to use more and more of these platforms, especially because they are somehow connected, allowing one person to follow them all! For instance, our Pinterest has pins which present the Facebook Group and instagram. Besides, as we will talk further on, these interactions will also allow us to create a relationship with our customers through constant feedback and discussion.
Blog. The blog will be an important tool to convey our message. It describes exactly our journey, so everyone can understand exactly our product’s benefits and its adaptation. Constantly up-to-date
As mentioned in Lessons Learned we can divide Channels in four roles (Marketing, Sales, Distributions, After Sales Support). However, we will focus on Marketing and Sales, developing the exercise made in class.
University Students
Marketing
Social Networks. University Students are heavy users of Social Networks. We will try to convey our message through several of these new Marketing tools.
Facebook. We already created a Facebook group page and shared with all our friends, which in they turn, will share to their friends, hopefully spreading our Project throughout Facebook in few weeks.
Linkedin Group – A Linkedin Group was also formed, aiming to deliver our message in a Business-like environment, attempting to reach students interested in these type of Projects.
Pinterest – This network has been considered a powerful tool to generate traffic to a certain business page (blog for instance). We didn’t only pinned our content in an album, but we also pinned posts which could be considered interesting for our target customers. For instance, social network facts and new technologies coming out – this way they will start following us and then, probably be interested in our own content! We highly advice anyone who wants to use it for this purpose to watch the “Using Pinterest to Get Free Traffic” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5topfpM6fg
Instagram – We also created a profile in this social network, aiming to transmit our message through images!
We expect to use more and more of these platforms, especially because they are somehow connected, allowing one person to follow them all! For instance, our Pinterest has pins which present the Facebook Group and instagram. Besides, as we will talk further on, these interactions will also allow us to create a relationship with our customers through constant feedback and discussion.
Blog. The blog will be an important tool to convey our message. It describes exactly our journey, so everyone can understand exactly our product’s benefits and its adaptation. Constantly up-to-date
University Website. University Websites are completely connected with our platform, since they have a high traffic of University Students. Having a LeadTeam advert in both the website and app of Católica, may help us understand if students would actually pay attention to the advert and click on it!
QR Code. Spamming Católica hallways with a QR-Code will make people curious about our platform and visiting our blog and Landing page, learning more about our value proposition.
PPC. Soon we will create an AdWord hoping to reach more and more people searching for University teamwork-related words/expressions on Google Search Engine.
All in one teamwork platform
http://leadteamstartup.weebly.com
Free & user-friendly platform
Manage your university teamwork!
SEO. We include in our blog several words related with teamwork and our value proposition, aiming to be higher and higher in a search engine.
Viral Marketing. In this matter we expect to promote some contests among our Social Network followers, rewarding the person with highest number of likes in its group’s share. They will be our salespersons! Besides, this will allow us to create a community around our project, increasing the number of followers!
Word-of-mouth. Never underestimate the word-of-mouth power – so we will talk with our friends with enthusiasm about our Project. Involving them in this developing phase (interviewing and asking for feedback) will make them feel they are also part of the project, ultimately, making them sharing with their own friends!
Sales
The LeadTeam Platform itself and App Store will be our sales points.
Universities
Marketing
SEO and the LeadTeam platform may be an important channel – do Universities search for new solutions on Google? If this is a valid Hypothesis we may also conclude PPC is an effective channel.
E-mail Marketing and Tele-Marketing. Having a person dedicated to constantly contact Universities through e-mail and telephone.
Innovation products fairs. Several fairs related to entrepreneurship and innovative products are held. We could participate in some, so Universities representatives could actually see the team and understand exactly what their benefits in subscribing our platform are.
Nevertheless, our strategy implies that Universities would ask for our platform as soon as students start using it, so we will focus firstly on this segment in order to naturally attract the latter.
All in one teamwork platform
http://leadteamstartup.weebly.com
Free & user-friendly platform
Manage your university teamwork!
SEO. We include in our blog several words related with teamwork and our value proposition, aiming to be higher and higher in a search engine.
Viral Marketing. In this matter we expect to promote some contests among our Social Network followers, rewarding the person with highest number of likes in its group’s share. They will be our salespersons! Besides, this will allow us to create a community around our project, increasing the number of followers!
Word-of-mouth. Never underestimate the word-of-mouth power – so we will talk with our friends with enthusiasm about our Project. Involving them in this developing phase (interviewing and asking for feedback) will make them feel they are also part of the project, ultimately, making them sharing with their own friends!
Sales
The LeadTeam Platform itself and App Store will be our sales points.
Universities
Marketing
SEO and the LeadTeam platform may be an important channel – do Universities search for new solutions on Google? If this is a valid Hypothesis we may also conclude PPC is an effective channel.
E-mail Marketing and Tele-Marketing. Having a person dedicated to constantly contact Universities through e-mail and telephone.
Innovation products fairs. Several fairs related to entrepreneurship and innovative products are held. We could participate in some, so Universities representatives could actually see the team and understand exactly what their benefits in subscribing our platform are.
Nevertheless, our strategy implies that Universities would ask for our platform as soon as students start using it, so we will focus firstly on this segment in order to naturally attract the latter.
Channels and Customer Relationship New/Adapted Hypothesis
First round of Interviews - What did we conclude?
Key Takeways
Briefings
All our Forms
Interview Process
Create an Interview Form
Create a Script
Defining Validation Metrics
We adapted some "test" in order to fit our 20 interviews and 100 surveys process (these are marked as Version 2.0)
Selecting Hypothesis
Our First Landing Page!
Visit our Landing Page at http://unbouncepages.com/leadteam/
We decided to start by just testing if people are interested in our platform on the overall. Later on we will develop an A/B testing and evaluate our Hypothesis validity.
We decided to start by just testing if people are interested in our platform on the overall. Later on we will develop an A/B testing and evaluate our Hypothesis validity.
Value Curves
In order to assess our value proposition and compare it against the main competitors we consider we have at this point of the business model development a value curve analysis have been conducted. The next are the attributes considered for the value curve:
· Number of users: Created profiles and availability to begin interaction.
· Price: Monetary transaction or perceived cost regarding privacy and information sharing.
· User-friendly: Intuitive and easy to use. No need of further explanations.
· File management: Collaborative tool to work on documents and storage capacity.
· Discussion tracking: Effective tool for share information and take decisions.
· Calendar: Tool for plan meetings and monitor task completion.
· Task management: Project management features related to plan, allocate and control tasks.
· Bibliography tool: Tool for keeping track of information sources and define references.
Once we had the attributes we assessed our team-working platform and defined as well the value curve for Facebook, since it is considered our main competitor. In the next graph are presented the value curves for lead team and facebook given an evaluation range for the criteria between 0 (Really bad) and 7 (Excellent):
· Number of users: Created profiles and availability to begin interaction.
· Price: Monetary transaction or perceived cost regarding privacy and information sharing.
· User-friendly: Intuitive and easy to use. No need of further explanations.
· File management: Collaborative tool to work on documents and storage capacity.
· Discussion tracking: Effective tool for share information and take decisions.
· Calendar: Tool for plan meetings and monitor task completion.
· Task management: Project management features related to plan, allocate and control tasks.
· Bibliography tool: Tool for keeping track of information sources and define references.
Once we had the attributes we assessed our team-working platform and defined as well the value curve for Facebook, since it is considered our main competitor. In the next graph are presented the value curves for lead team and facebook given an evaluation range for the criteria between 0 (Really bad) and 7 (Excellent):
Once we had the attributes we assessed our team-working platform and defined as well the value curve for Facebook we wanted to compare our value proposition against the overall cloud services such us DropBox and GoogleDrive used for file storage in the cloud and for collaborate in file crafting.
Empathy Map and Personas - Get to know your customers!
University Students
Universities
Advertisers
SWOT recap for our Competitors
SWOT Analysis - Internal Forces
SWOT Analysis - External Forces
TAM SAM SOM of our Business Model
We are going to estimate the TAM SAM and SOM of our Business Model, for each of our customer segments. The TAM and SAM will be estimated through a top-down approach and the SOM a bottom-up. This is the definition used!
TAM = Your Total Available or Addressable Market (everyone you wish to reach with your product)
SAM = Your Segmented Addressable Market or Serviceable Market (the portion of TAM you will target)
SOM = Your Share of the Market (the subset of your SAM that you will realistically reach – particularly in the first few years of your business)
TAM = Your Total Available or Addressable Market (everyone you wish to reach with your product)
SAM = Your Segmented Addressable Market or Serviceable Market (the portion of TAM you will target)
SOM = Your Share of the Market (the subset of your SAM that you will realistically reach – particularly in the first few years of your business)
TAM SAM SOM - University Students
TAM SAM SOM - Universities
TAM SAM SOM - Advertisers
The Top Four riskiest Hypothesis (higher priority) are
Adapting our Hypothesis
After presenting in class, we have got some feedback on our hypotheses. Based on these comments, we readjusted our last post!
Our team has formulated 15 hypotheses aiming to test the main aspects of our Business Model, those our team considers have a significant impact in the potential success of the idea. The hypothesis, as well as the test methods and the validation statements, are presented below:
Our team has formulated 15 hypotheses aiming to test the main aspects of our Business Model, those our team considers have a significant impact in the potential success of the idea. The hypothesis, as well as the test methods and the validation statements, are presented below:
First round of Hypothesis
Our team has
formulated 10 hypothesis aiming to test the main aspects of our business model,
those our team considers have a significant impact in the potential success of
the idea. The hypothesis as well as the test methods and the validation
statements are presented below.
Business Model 1.0
Many post-its later
A brief explanation on our Business Model.
1. Customer Segments
“Different groups of people or organizations an enterprise aim to reach and serve”
- Our users: University students
This segment involves educated young students across the world aged between 18 and 30 years old. They might be doing their Bachelor, Master of Sciences, MBA or Doctorate degree and have all common characteristics: they have teamwork to drive for school and are willing to manage them in a more efficient way. This new generation, called “The generation Y” by managers and also known as “the millennial generation”, is disloyal to brands and new technologies, especially apps and websites. Indeed, despite students get used to be on Facebook, Dropbox, Moodle or Google Drive to organize their teamwork, if they were told by their universities, their friends or even some social networks and medias about a new free platform even better and with higher performance than the previous ones, they wouldn’t hesitate to switch and change their habits to use the new one.
- Our customers/subscribers: universities
On the short-run, we plan to target mostly students involved in business administration and economics careers. Hence, we would focus more especially on targeting business schools and economics universities such as Católica Portugal, CBS Denmark, LSE UK, HEC Paris, ESCP Europe, etc. This type of private schools needs informatics tools, with premium but affordable services, to help their students to be more successful in their teamwork tasks. However, on the middle and long term, all universities all over the world, without any restriction, will be potentially one of our subscribers.
- Our buyers: advertisers
In order to finance the free platform, we need advertisers to invest in our project. Those advertisers might be merely companies, multinationals and locals, which strategy is to target university students on the web and able to afford it. For example, we think that MNCs such as Amazon, McDonald’s, H&M or Easyjet might be strategically interested in being present on a platform oriented to young student people.
“Different groups of people or organizations an enterprise aim to reach and serve”
- Our users: University students
This segment involves educated young students across the world aged between 18 and 30 years old. They might be doing their Bachelor, Master of Sciences, MBA or Doctorate degree and have all common characteristics: they have teamwork to drive for school and are willing to manage them in a more efficient way. This new generation, called “The generation Y” by managers and also known as “the millennial generation”, is disloyal to brands and new technologies, especially apps and websites. Indeed, despite students get used to be on Facebook, Dropbox, Moodle or Google Drive to organize their teamwork, if they were told by their universities, their friends or even some social networks and medias about a new free platform even better and with higher performance than the previous ones, they wouldn’t hesitate to switch and change their habits to use the new one.
- Our customers/subscribers: universities
On the short-run, we plan to target mostly students involved in business administration and economics careers. Hence, we would focus more especially on targeting business schools and economics universities such as Católica Portugal, CBS Denmark, LSE UK, HEC Paris, ESCP Europe, etc. This type of private schools needs informatics tools, with premium but affordable services, to help their students to be more successful in their teamwork tasks. However, on the middle and long term, all universities all over the world, without any restriction, will be potentially one of our subscribers.
- Our buyers: advertisers
In order to finance the free platform, we need advertisers to invest in our project. Those advertisers might be merely companies, multinationals and locals, which strategy is to target university students on the web and able to afford it. For example, we think that MNCs such as Amazon, McDonald’s, H&M or Easyjet might be strategically interested in being present on a platform oriented to young student people.
2. Value Proposition
“Bundle of products and services that create value for a specific customer segment”
The core of our business is to offer an “all in one” web-platform for universities teamwork: this concept includes for instance an agenda, social networking tools, a cloud, a research toolbar etc. However, according to each segment, the value proposition will differ, that’s to say, be adapted to the specific segment needs.
First, university students are looking for a free and user-friendly platform so as to maximize efficiency and teamwork success. The purpose is to make students more organized and less frustrated by teamwork low-effectiveness. However, this segment is not willing to pay for those kind of services and that’s the reason why the freeness is truly important. Plus, nice design and intuitiveness play a great role to offer students a platform easy to use. For this reason, it must be user-friendly otherwise, students won’t be seduced and will prefer to continue with Facebook groups and Dropbox folders rather than the LeadTeam Platform.
Secondly, universities are more interested in offering a premium service to their students which will enhance the relationships between students and teachers hence, create synergies by maximizing cooperation and integration between student world and scholar administrative system.
Finally, advertisers are looking for more efficiency in their targeting methods: our platform will be a paradise in terms of amount of accurate information (database) for advertising companies.
“Bundle of products and services that create value for a specific customer segment”
The core of our business is to offer an “all in one” web-platform for universities teamwork: this concept includes for instance an agenda, social networking tools, a cloud, a research toolbar etc. However, according to each segment, the value proposition will differ, that’s to say, be adapted to the specific segment needs.
First, university students are looking for a free and user-friendly platform so as to maximize efficiency and teamwork success. The purpose is to make students more organized and less frustrated by teamwork low-effectiveness. However, this segment is not willing to pay for those kind of services and that’s the reason why the freeness is truly important. Plus, nice design and intuitiveness play a great role to offer students a platform easy to use. For this reason, it must be user-friendly otherwise, students won’t be seduced and will prefer to continue with Facebook groups and Dropbox folders rather than the LeadTeam Platform.
Secondly, universities are more interested in offering a premium service to their students which will enhance the relationships between students and teachers hence, create synergies by maximizing cooperation and integration between student world and scholar administrative system.
Finally, advertisers are looking for more efficiency in their targeting methods: our platform will be a paradise in terms of amount of accurate information (database) for advertising companies.
3. Channels
“How a company communicates with and reaches its customer segments to deliver a value proposition”
Our distribution strategy will be obviously operated on the web but we also consider launching a smartphone application to maximize accessibility and leverage mobility. Plus, as said previously, it is critical to distribute via universities network to reach our main targeted users which are university students.
“How a company communicates with and reaches its customer segments to deliver a value proposition”
Our distribution strategy will be obviously operated on the web but we also consider launching a smartphone application to maximize accessibility and leverage mobility. Plus, as said previously, it is critical to distribute via universities network to reach our main targeted users which are university students.
4. Customer relationships
“Types of relationships a company establishes with specific customer segments”
First, we plan to build our relationships by delivering our customers an online service support to communicate and help them in case they face some difficulties. Plus, we believe it is relevant to enhance our presence on social networks and on our blog, so as to promote our concept and let them informed about new versions and updates. Moreover, we plan to implement a stronger and deeper customer relation through the IT department of our customers’ universities, so as to deliver them a premium customer after-sale service and increase the quality of our service
“Types of relationships a company establishes with specific customer segments”
First, we plan to build our relationships by delivering our customers an online service support to communicate and help them in case they face some difficulties. Plus, we believe it is relevant to enhance our presence on social networks and on our blog, so as to promote our concept and let them informed about new versions and updates. Moreover, we plan to implement a stronger and deeper customer relation through the IT department of our customers’ universities, so as to deliver them a premium customer after-sale service and increase the quality of our service
5. Revenue Streams
Business Model Generation defines the Revenues Streams as the arteries of a Business Model.
Universities. A monthly subscription fee with a continuous access to TeamLead platform would be the payment method of Universities. This would guarantee a stabilized cash flow, being the primary source of revenue.
Since TeamLead platform is intended to be free for students, other Revenue Streams would be:
Advertising. In exchange for a fee, TeamLead would provide a space for non-disruptive advertising. It is important to point out that, as the base of consumers grows, so does the knowledge the platform detains from University students’ characteristics. This information could be leveraged to customize advertising and enhance its efficiency, improving both the demand’s competition and willingness to pay.
Premium Version. Additional features could be bought from students in exchange for a pre-defined price.
Business Model Generation defines the Revenues Streams as the arteries of a Business Model.
Universities. A monthly subscription fee with a continuous access to TeamLead platform would be the payment method of Universities. This would guarantee a stabilized cash flow, being the primary source of revenue.
Since TeamLead platform is intended to be free for students, other Revenue Streams would be:
Advertising. In exchange for a fee, TeamLead would provide a space for non-disruptive advertising. It is important to point out that, as the base of consumers grows, so does the knowledge the platform detains from University students’ characteristics. This information could be leveraged to customize advertising and enhance its efficiency, improving both the demand’s competition and willingness to pay.
Premium Version. Additional features could be bought from students in exchange for a pre-defined price.
6. Key Activities
“most important things a company must do to make its business model work”
IT - Platform/Network Management and Promotion. It will be essential to develop and maintain the platform – the website itself – in order to differentiate from our competitors. Continuously evolving and responding to the consumer’s changing needs, will be crucial to became the dominant design position (by reducing switching costs and triggering the network effect) as well as sustaining it.
Marketing. TeamLead provides a whole new solution to students and universities, combining, in a user-friendly way, a set of tools already existing in the market. Due to this latter fact, it will be very important to communicate our value proposition, which is new to the market. Only this way we will be able to get a consumer base large enough to trigger and feed the network effect.
It is essential to notice that different approaches will have to be considered for each costumer segment.
“most important things a company must do to make its business model work”
IT - Platform/Network Management and Promotion. It will be essential to develop and maintain the platform – the website itself – in order to differentiate from our competitors. Continuously evolving and responding to the consumer’s changing needs, will be crucial to became the dominant design position (by reducing switching costs and triggering the network effect) as well as sustaining it.
Marketing. TeamLead provides a whole new solution to students and universities, combining, in a user-friendly way, a set of tools already existing in the market. Due to this latter fact, it will be very important to communicate our value proposition, which is new to the market. Only this way we will be able to get a consumer base large enough to trigger and feed the network effect.
It is essential to notice that different approaches will have to be considered for each costumer segment.
7. Key Resources
“most important assets required to make a business model work”
Human Resources. Given the centrality of the platform, in-house, highly classified and creative Hackers will be essential to develop and continuously manage it.
Network/Users database. Without a relevant user’s information database, the platform will fail to constantly adapt to consumers needs and be customized to the ultimate team projects’ procedures. Further, this asset is crucial to advertisers, as this knowledge will allow them to personalize advertising. For example, promote a Finance book in a group work for Financial Decision-Making in a Business Context.
Moreover, the Network itself is crucial, since this market has strong network externalities. (mentioned in “Developing our idea”).
Platform. As mentioned, the platform itself is the basis of our competitive advantage. Therefore, it is our main key resource.
“most important assets required to make a business model work”
Human Resources. Given the centrality of the platform, in-house, highly classified and creative Hackers will be essential to develop and continuously manage it.
Network/Users database. Without a relevant user’s information database, the platform will fail to constantly adapt to consumers needs and be customized to the ultimate team projects’ procedures. Further, this asset is crucial to advertisers, as this knowledge will allow them to personalize advertising. For example, promote a Finance book in a group work for Financial Decision-Making in a Business Context.
Moreover, the Network itself is crucial, since this market has strong network externalities. (mentioned in “Developing our idea”).
Platform. As mentioned, the platform itself is the basis of our competitive advantage. Therefore, it is our main key resource.
8. Key Partners
“describes the network of suppliers and partners that make the business model work”
Social Networks. One of the key value propositions Social Networks offer is the connectivity to people from all over the world, meaning that you can easily find a person without much time-spending research. For our free of charge students, whose University hasn’t bought the LeadTeam platform, a link to Facebook friends could be provided – “add your Facebook friends”. This compatibility with previous tools will be essential to make sure the switching costs are as lower as possible and trigger the networking effect.
“describes the network of suppliers and partners that make the business model work”
Social Networks. One of the key value propositions Social Networks offer is the connectivity to people from all over the world, meaning that you can easily find a person without much time-spending research. For our free of charge students, whose University hasn’t bought the LeadTeam platform, a link to Facebook friends could be provided – “add your Facebook friends”. This compatibility with previous tools will be essential to make sure the switching costs are as lower as possible and trigger the networking effect.
9. Cost Structure
“all costs incurred to operate a business model”
IT. Developing, designing, managing and improving the platform will be the main IT costs. Moreover, registration fee (website) and data storage rental are also costs to take into account.
Marketing. Due to its importance, advertising, promotions and other types of communication will have an important part of the budget allocation.
Human Resources. Having in-house Hackers will represent a fixed-cost during the maintenance period.
Notice that the higher the number of users the lower the cost-per-user of all Human Resources, Marketing efforts and Platform development.
“all costs incurred to operate a business model”
IT. Developing, designing, managing and improving the platform will be the main IT costs. Moreover, registration fee (website) and data storage rental are also costs to take into account.
Marketing. Due to its importance, advertising, promotions and other types of communication will have an important part of the budget allocation.
Human Resources. Having in-house Hackers will represent a fixed-cost during the maintenance period.
Notice that the higher the number of users the lower the cost-per-user of all Human Resources, Marketing efforts and Platform development.
Developing our Idea!
Our initial idea centralized on the
communication problem between group members, which was partially solved by the
combination of Dropbox and Facebook groups.
However, as University Students, we realized that every group work asks for not two, but a great number of different tools!
Hence, our concept changed in order to integrate all those tools in one single platform. This way, we could customize and accompany students from the teacher’s assignment description and initial research, all the way to the bibliography! As a consequence, efficiency would be maximized, boosting student’s team work performance.
We will explore and leverage the following dynamic of network externalities:
The higher the number of students in the platform, the higher the value of this solution for each student. If all the group members, except for one, are in the platform, the former will not be able to effectively communicate, share and review documents with the team. Hence, he/she will have a stronger benefit in joining the platform as more students use it.
The higher the number of Universities, the more students will be in the platform. On one hand, the value proposition of the platform will be much higher through the integration of knowledge and automatization of some functions (form groups, know who is already in a group or not…). On the other hand, as the teachers will use the platform to share documents and upload assignments, the students will feel the need to subscribe.
The higher the number of students in the platform, more attractive it is for the University to subscribe it. In fact, this integration would increase group’s efficiency, so, as much students use it, the more benefit the University will have from the integration (assuming the University’s goal is to enhance the students’ performance).
The higher the number of students in the platform, the higher the value for the advertisers. Two reasons lie before this relation. On one hand, the number of students the advertisers can reach is greater. On the other hand, the knowledge regarding the segment is much superior, bringing the capability to customize and personalize adverts.
The higher the number of Universities subscribing, the more Universities will want to subscribe. If in fact the platform improves team work efficiency, Universities that do not use it will find themselves in a disadvantaged position.
However, as University Students, we realized that every group work asks for not two, but a great number of different tools!
Hence, our concept changed in order to integrate all those tools in one single platform. This way, we could customize and accompany students from the teacher’s assignment description and initial research, all the way to the bibliography! As a consequence, efficiency would be maximized, boosting student’s team work performance.
We will explore and leverage the following dynamic of network externalities:
The higher the number of students in the platform, the higher the value of this solution for each student. If all the group members, except for one, are in the platform, the former will not be able to effectively communicate, share and review documents with the team. Hence, he/she will have a stronger benefit in joining the platform as more students use it.
The higher the number of Universities, the more students will be in the platform. On one hand, the value proposition of the platform will be much higher through the integration of knowledge and automatization of some functions (form groups, know who is already in a group or not…). On the other hand, as the teachers will use the platform to share documents and upload assignments, the students will feel the need to subscribe.
The higher the number of students in the platform, more attractive it is for the University to subscribe it. In fact, this integration would increase group’s efficiency, so, as much students use it, the more benefit the University will have from the integration (assuming the University’s goal is to enhance the students’ performance).
The higher the number of students in the platform, the higher the value for the advertisers. Two reasons lie before this relation. On one hand, the number of students the advertisers can reach is greater. On the other hand, the knowledge regarding the segment is much superior, bringing the capability to customize and personalize adverts.
The higher the number of Universities subscribing, the more Universities will want to subscribe. If in fact the platform improves team work efficiency, Universities that do not use it will find themselves in a disadvantaged position.
Team Platform!
University team works will be less time consuming in
the future
A free platform with a user friendly, tailored interface for University’s team works capable of reducing the time consumed in group’s communication and arrangements.
Problem. As University students, we have all already faced the drama of having several different teams each trimester, with completely different schedules. This situation always calls for an online communication in two different platforms – usually a Facebook Group and Dropbox Folder.
However, Facebook Groups are not designed for team work projects, leading to endless commentaries regarding each one’s availability, files uploaded on Dropbox and work corrections. Unread posts, possible mistakes and a tremendous waste of time are just a few consequences.
A free platform with a user friendly, tailored interface for University’s team works capable of reducing the time consumed in group’s communication and arrangements.
Problem. As University students, we have all already faced the drama of having several different teams each trimester, with completely different schedules. This situation always calls for an online communication in two different platforms – usually a Facebook Group and Dropbox Folder.
However, Facebook Groups are not designed for team work projects, leading to endless commentaries regarding each one’s availability, files uploaded on Dropbox and work corrections. Unread posts, possible mistakes and a tremendous waste of time are just a few consequences.
Solution. To minimize these negative consequences, we propose a single free platform specially customized for University team works that incorporates the functions that Facebook Groups and Dropbox play in group projects.
Taking into account the Customer Development Model, the features and purposes of this platform will definitely be adapted throughout this program.
Nonetheless, the concept requires a user friendly interface that facilitates meeting schedules, files sharing and modification (SaaS), communication, assessment of work in progress and synchronization with personal agenda.
Moreover, partnerships with Universities could allow an integration of information and knowledge, enhancing the platform’s automaticity and customization.
Evaluation the idea:
Taking into account the Customer Development Model, the features and purposes of this platform will definitely be adapted throughout this program.
Nonetheless, the concept requires a user friendly interface that facilitates meeting schedules, files sharing and modification (SaaS), communication, assessment of work in progress and synchronization with personal agenda.
Moreover, partnerships with Universities could allow an integration of information and knowledge, enhancing the platform’s automaticity and customization.
Evaluation the idea: