As part of a 4-person student team, I was mentored by prominent local VCs and CEOs in creating a successful market-tested business model for a finance education application.

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[Procedure]

We started with a baseline idea and refined it as best as we could over a series of team discussions. We built a business model canvas - complete with a large set of hypotheses regarding our revenue streams, customer segments, and core value propositions. After that, I created brief mocks to help visualize the idea.

From then on - interviews. Hundreds of them. Every week, the team would venture out and conduct research on our targeted customer segments for hours. On campus, at the bank, online, or at their homes. It didn’t matter where they were, we’d interview people constantly and revise our questions to make sure we were receiving the best feedback we could without leading them to answer a specific way.

We would then collect all insights and validate or invalidate each of our hypotheses, and present an updated business model to the team of VCs every week - receiving a ton of useful feedback in the process. This process was not unlike pitching to a team of stakeholders - we created a fresh slide deck and were grilled to make sure we knew what we were talking about. It was such a lucky learning opportunity - ultimately showing me how a successful business model can be created through the use of customer and market validation processes, as well as constant iteration.

[Aftermath]

While we ended up creating a strong concept for a finance application, the members of the team weren’t able to commit to building a startup beyond the New Venture Competition due to life obligations. That's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes! However, I’m keen on revisiting it in the future. I, as well as many customers, think there’s something valuable to be made in the space.