2019 J-Term Startup Sprint Concludes Presentations
March 28, 2019
By Manish Devjani and Christina Moazed
The final event for the J-Term Startup Sprint 2019 took place on January 18th, with an impressive set of presentations. A total of 12 teams were involved in the program. The teams were tackling meaningful challenges across diverse sectors from real estate to healthcare, music, and social impact. Each team was required to provide a 10-minute summary of their startup concept, the number of interviews they conducted, business thesis, an overview of high-risk hypotheses about their business idea, and a business model canvas.
- Participants: Abhiroop CVK (Undergrad, Tandon ‘19), Rashid Aziz (Undergrad, Tandon ‘19)
- About: Simple real estate transactions.
- Participated In: Startup Bootcamp, Ignite, VC Pitchfest
Abhiroop CVK of FlareAgent talked about where the team was before they started the sprint and where they are now. “We not only gained a better understanding of our product, but also were able to simplify our website” said Abhiroop. The Engineering roadmap and key milestones were shared in the presentation. The team proudly announced that a new pilot was just landed during the J-Term sprint.
Above: Abhiroop CVK from FlareAgent
Synchealth
- Participants: Alexis Trevizo (Undergrad, Tandon ‘18), Param Kulkarni (PostDoc, School of Medicine), Yada Pruksachatkun (Masters, Courant ‘20),
- About: Synchealth is a Google Assistant for psychiatry patients who access healthcare services and a Bloomberg terminal for their providers.
- Participated In: Startup Bootcamp, Healthcare Makerthon
During the J-Term, Synchealth conducted 55 interviews and gained a lot of insights. The team was able to validate key assumptions needed to move forward. Due to the nature of the initiative, the importance of securing the data was highlighted by many stakeholders. The team was just selected to participate in the NYC Media Lab competition. Synchealth received positive feedback on the small prototype and experiment that was conducted during the sprint.
Above: Yada Pruksachatkun, Alexis Trevizo, and Param Kulkarni from Synchealth
- Participants: Hunter Jamison (Undergrad, CAS ‘20), Joyce Woo (Undergrad, CAS ‘20)
- About: We’re an e-commerce startup selling cannabidiol (CBD) supplements designed to help pets with behavioral issues such as fear, separation anxiety, and aggression.
- Participated In: Startup Bootcamp
The Polite Products team learned of the importance of understanding the customers, how they identify problems and what ways they seek to resolve them. During the sprint, they gained a better understanding of their team dynamics. From their lessons learned, the team plans to move forward with the venture. Next steps include collecting more data and work on the results of customer discovery.
Above: Joyce Woo and Hunter Jamison from Polite Products
- Participants: Carissa Estilo (Undergrad, Steinhardt ‘20), Tanya Gupta (Undergrad, Tandon ‘19)
- About: Curtain Call is a concert discovery platform where users can discover their local music scene for less.
- Participated In: Startup Bootcamp, Ignite
The business model canvas did not change much for team Curtain Call during the sprint, but they gained insight into priorities of the customers. The initial hypothesis that concert goers buy tickets last minute and that venues are willing to lower prices were invalidated during the discussions. A new hypothesis was developed that focused on connecting the venue and artist with the right concert goers. And they learned that convenience is also key for concert goers. Finding the right IT talent is on the list of next steps.
Above: Carissa Estilo and Tanya Gupta from Curtain Call
- Participants: Liz Holden (Stern ‘19), Russell Lieberman (Stern ‘19), William Brower (Undergrad, CAS ‘21)
- About: WiseWallet provides transparency on corporate behavior, empowering consumers to understand exactly what they are supporting in their everyday purchases.
- Participated In: Startup Bootcamp
From their customer discovery, WiseWallet gained valuable insight that consumers did not necessarily connect the message for free items based on their shopping patterns. Based on an ad campaign to solicit interested customers to sign up for social, environmental, and sustainable causes online, they found limited interest. Revenue streams were adjusted based on feedback on problem-solution fit. A pivot in the business model was on the horizon due to their learnings.
Above: William Brower, Liz Holden and Russell Lieberman from WiseWallet
Upright
- Participants: Nicole Parada (Masters, Global Public Health, ‘20), Saim Kazmi (Undergrad, CAS ‘19)
- About: Biometric shoe soles, for older adults with mild cognitive impairment, designed to detect early fall risk indicators through monitoring gait.
- Participated In: Startup Bootcamp, Healthcare Makerthon (Winner)
During the sprint the Upright team interviewed 47 customers and developed experiments to enhance their prototype. The team learned a lot from coaches and realized the importance of synthesizing all the information collected during the process. The team started focusing on customers over 65, instead on focusing on those that had mild cognitive impairments. Their main takeaway was that regardless of validating the problem with clinicians and therapists, the main customer is the caregiver or patient. The team plans to focus on developing a prototype. They are slotted to participate in the InnoVention competition in the Spring.
Above: Saim Kazmi and Nicole Parada from Upright
Unetrics IM+M
- Participants: Daniel Vitaletti (Masters, Wagner ‘19), Heather McGee (Masters, Wagner ‘19), Helen Sacco (Masters, Wagner ‘19)
- About: Unetrics is a web-based application designed for impact funders and impact organizations to measure, manage, and report their social and environmental impacts in real-time.
- Participated In: Startup Bootcamp
The Unetrics IM+M team conducted 45 interviews, with 15 more planned. The business canvas changed significantly in the process. Several original value proposition and hypothesis were invalidated. The team was able to focus on target customer segment and redefine the value proposition. Their current goal is to bring easy and quick access to the data.
Above: Heather McGee, Daniel Vitaletti and Helen Sacco from Unetrics IM+M
- Participants: Airis Johnson, Syreeta Gates (Masters, Tisch ‘20)
- About: Yo Stay Hungry is a culinary competition that fuses hip hop with food and beverage.
- Participated In: Startup Bootcamp
The Yo Stay Hungry team completed 87 interviews during the sprint with insightful B to B conversations during their customer discovery process. A key insight was finding out the importance of brand manager compared to account manager. By refining their understanding of the business model canvas, they plan to pitch and speak with more brand managers, since they are the ultimate approvers.
Above: Airis Johnson and Syreeta Gates from Yo Stay Hungry
Elixir Booch
- Participants: Armaan Ahmed (Undergrad, Gallatin ‘22), Jessica Willis (Masters, Steinhardt ‘19)
- About: Elixir is an 8% ABV adult beverage fermented from kombucha that blends the buzz of drinking with the growing trend for mindful consumption to help people imbibe responsibly.
- Participated In: Startup Bootcamp
Team Elixir Booth conducted 100 interviews during the Sprint. A lot of the assumptions on the business model canvas were invalidated in the process. Ahmed stated, “As a freshman, I was relatively new to the startup scene and startup methodology. I learned the basics of each part of the “business model canvas” and how to carefully test my assumptions about each part. Through this validation learning, I was able to gain insights into how the specific market our product exists within works.” Based on their learning, the target customer has now become the bartenders and restaurant or bar owners. The team plans to move forward and look forward to getting one ‘sale’ at a time.
Above: Armaan Ahmed and Jessica Willis from Elixir Booch
KinNect
- Participants: Abdulrazakh Abdirahman (Masters, Wagner ‘19), Thanisa Pariage (Masters, Wagner ‘20), William Coit (Masters, Wagner ‘21)
- About: Welcoming and servicing the population of men and women reentering society after prison through an accessible and holistic website and service.
- Participated In: Startup Bootcamp
The J-Term Start Up Sprint was the very first program that KinNect participated in. Pariage noted, “Ee literally learned everything that has to do with starting a business. The most important part of this sprint was all the consumer base research we did. My start up morphed into just an idea, one that probably wouldn’t work, into a workable startup model.” The KinNect team is moving forward with the project. They are currently looking to place people with criminal records, misdemeanors and felonies, into jobs that they want and can grow within. The team will also continue to do research and place people to further create a workable model before the launch.
Above: Thanisa Pariage, Abdulrazakh Abdirahman and William Coit from KinNect
- Participants: Mir Hwang (Undergrad, CAS ’19), Ryan Kim
- About: Booking music gigs is a flawed, laborious process for both artists and venues. GigFinesse will streamline this process by eliminating all the hurdles both parties face.
- Participated In: Startup Bootcamp, VC Pitchfest (Winner)
The GigFinesse team already had paid customers, but the sprint presented them with an opportunity to start from a clean slate. Mir stated “My team and I were able to not only improve our MVP but really focus in on the biggest problem, narrow down our most crucial customer base and increase our value proposition significantly overall.” They met with 67 new customers during the 2 week period and have completed 350 individual bookings. They continue to work hard to grow the business.
Above: Mir Hwang and Ryan Kim from Gigfinesse
Highline
- Participants: Kanishk Gandhi (Masters, Tandon ‘20), Mittal Rana (Undergrad, CAS ‘18), Nikita Jerschow (Undergrad, CAS ‘19)
- About: App for your road to recovery. Physical therapy exercises tailored for hip surgery post-op care.
- Participated In: Startup Bootcamp, Healthcare Makerthon (Finalist)
Team Highline learned of the power of customer discover and the lessons learned during the J-Sprint were helped shape the team’s mindset in approaching their startup. Rana shared, “We learned that often the solutions that we may want to exist in the market aren’t necessarily the ones needed. Instead, the problem-solution fit must be dictated in large part by the customers. With this knowledge, our team was able to identify a key pain point in our customer segment (not what we originally thought) and direct us in the proper direction.”
Above: Nikita Jerschow, Kanishk Gandhi, and Mittal Rana from Highline
Above: J-term Startup Sprint participants and coaches