What I learned from my Lean Startup Experiment

My name is Kingdom Williams I am the founder of the startup Zoomer. Our lean enterprise model is impact oriented with the aim of building products that unfold in accordance with the market. We are developing and launching product tested research based and needs analysis driven startups.

We joined a startup community that enhances our value proposition, through a hypothesis driven program. Our business startup is being funded as part of a business experiment based on founding a business using a hypothesis, called Lean Startup brought about by Steve Blank and Alexander Osterwalder, originated by Eric Ries and being championed by Adam Berk among others.

100 000 Hypothesis is an Open Business Development Concept Stage Incubator that applies lean principles and open innovation as its method of practice. I am grateful to have Boone Bergsma and Adam Berk as my mentors.

After the feasibility study and market research, our market and industry analysis led to the consideration of implementing a solution in form of a startup named Zoomer. On launching the startup; we interviewed random individuals from different backgrounds and in different age groups, face to face, to ascertain their need for general transportation and gauge the current level of satisfaction derived from current methodology of transport services.

A brief description of our Solution and business overview can be found here: https://trello.com/c/1uDLvKV7/183-my-name-is-kingdom-williams-and-i-do-not-have-a-twitter-account-as-yet-and-i-heard-that-the-door-is-open-but-the-ride-aint-free

We interviewed the first sample of people numbering 10 over a period of 10 days, followed by 3 more interviews for the robot mentor. All 13 interview results were positive indicating an acute need for improved public transport services and next level alternatives.

Although it was outside the scope of this experiment we went on to interview 100 commuters and 100 share taxi drivers and owners. To get a profound understanding of our market segment and brace for better General Management, CRM and ERP initiatives.

As the nature of the experiment is interdisciplinary we are finding the experiment to be a combination of Statistics, Research, Mathematics, Sociology, Anthropology, Strategy, Business Income Generation, ICT and Artificial Intelligence.

Commuters will use the Zoomer service because, there is always an interest to curb indefinite waiting periods at bus stops and street corners for a random unscheduled share taxi to arrive and pick up long waiting passengers. And there is a growing interest for safe, timely, reliable, formal and professional transport service.

Being a member of the lean startup economy has been and will continue being an invaluable experience, which has helped us improve our development process and strategies going forward. We have learned to use a minimal team to build product market fit with a repeatable and scalable business model.

We are essentially reducing the failure rate of our startup and joining the ranks of the 10% — 25% of startups that succeed. Using non secretive planning cloak and dagger tactics. Rather we create startups openly sharing our business modeling information with customers, pipeline partners, investors. Lean generation steps towards building world ventures on customer feedback. Social Media is an enabler.

Overall we are learning the three principles of the lean methodology — summarizing the hypothesis into a Business Model Canvas, Customer Development to test hypothesis and Agile Development to tally with demand and growth.

What we have come to realize through the questionnaire, is that; in addition to the fundamental solution we solve other inherent problems that are otherwise invisible on the surface.

This broadens future growth strategies and our social impact in the market of Africa. We are positive that our solution will steadily grow to find users in other parts of the world.

Thank you for creating the opportunity that enables my colleagues and I to be a member of Next level of startup formation.