Food & Beverage Startup: A startup that partners with hospitality, food and beverage companies to deliver exceptional guest experiences through technology and consulting solutions.
The founder had a vision for an IoT-based coaster device that would alert a bartender when a drink needed to be refilled, among other value propositions. The challenge was to validate the hypotheses around their new product and develop a data-driven business model to test in the market. Hypotheses included:
Strategy Consultant / Market Analyst
I provided market research and analysis and drove the lean startup process for the engagement, working alongside the project lead and development team. I was responsible for the go-to-market strategy recommendations and developing experiments to test hypotheses.
We discovered that the functional prototype invalidated some of the hypotheses we had, so the founder needed to pivot. Although early validation and research suggested it was not feasible to use a coaster and the problem did not seem big enough to solve for most bars, the founder wished to proceed with a prototype, so we built one as cost-effectively as possible
After pitching the prototype to bars and restaurants, the founder ultimately realized (as our research and testing had suggested) that it wasn’t going to work, and now understands the importance of validation before you build something as it can save you a significant amount of money down the road.