Reflection

Weaknesses

  • After some research on the different competitors, I found a divide between my motivation of wanting to support/empower mothers through non-for-profit organizations and for-profit businesses that have other target audiences. I had to make a difficult decision between the economic and social value of my product. It was challenging for me to determine a business model that would be appealing to investors but also remained true to my vision. I even explored the idea of a social enterprise as a hybrid with a double-bottom-line, but found the model too complex for this venture.

  • In the elevator pitch, there were a few other business elements that I wanted to include but due to the time constraints found it challenging to incorporate. After many attempts, I tried to be as succinct as possible while including as much information as possible.

  • From the peer review and feedback, it would be beneficial to include some marketing strategies and to consider a long term plan of including different gender identities as the target audience to have a wider scope and fair representation of parents in the workforce.



Strengths

  • Based on my feedback from A1, I learned how important it was to confidently portray my background to the investors and my passion towards the project by introducing myself in the “Meet the Founder" section on the website, a slide in the venture deck and briefly in the elevator pitch

  • My main focus for marketability was the specific audience and market for mothers. Thus, I put a greater emphasis on the data supporting the need for this platform in the problem/ solution slides. I wanted to use my current knowledge and insights as a mother to create a venture for the target group.

  • Some positive feedback from peers included the emphasis on promoting equity and inclusion in the workforce- one of the key features of the micro-internships and decisions in partnerships with companies.

  • Overall, I was satisfied with the final outcome of my assignment. Taking on the entrepreneur role was outside of my comfort level with little to no background in business. It was a steep learning curve but an enjoyable one!