There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovert.
—— Enrico Fermi, Physicist
The journey of start-up is all about hypotheses and assumptions and what you do about them. Here comes the biggest chunk of hypotheses of BetterPartners: business model canvas. I believe many parts of it will evolve as time goes by.
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| Business Model Canvas |
In developing our business model canvas, we have some major hypotheses and "pivots" taken into consideration. Here are top three pairs.
Customer Segment
Hypothesis: NGO/NPO/social enterprise have the awareness of the benefit from professional services and they are willing to pay for them.
Pivot: such clients may not be the target at the initial phase, or we start from some pro bono services to raise the awareness and build relationship.
Value Proposition
Hypothesis: our expertise and experience in private sector are transferrable to solve organizational and managerial problems NGO/NPO/socail enterprise are facing in China.
Pivot: our services to this sector may "pivot" from business side to people side by providing only leadership and talent management services.
Revenue Streams
Hypothesis: our clients have approximately homogeneous price appetite towards professional services fee.
Pivot: we may need to customize pricing strategy for each client or client category. For example, for NGO/NPO/social enterprise, our pricing model may be performance-related.
At last, I found this video about "pivot" very interesting. I like how Eric Ries (author of The Lean Startup) puts it: Pivot is a change of the strategy without a change of vision. My interpretation: Do whatever you need to do, but say the same, louder :D
Just as you have some pro bono work, you might want to also do some commercial consulting (to earn $ and to build expertise / credibility)? I think having several "products" you deliver up front is a good idea so that you can follow whichever direction is the most fruitful (essentially, continuing to experiment). I like the idea of performance-related pricing, but remember the cash conversion cycle! You probably would need an upfront or ongoing fee and then have performance be a "true up" at the end. I love the video -- that's a very succinct way to describe pivoting.
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