Halfway to Demo Day!
Weeks 4, 5 & 6
Yep, you read that title right! By the middle of week 6, we are halfway to Demo Day. What an incredible journey it has been. Since joining the Straight Shot accelerator program, we have learned about the different facets of starting a business through lessons and workshops taught by expert mentors. From marketing and finance to branding and development, we are learning it all. Omaha fosters a fabulous entrepreneurial scene, and we are lucky to be a part of it.
We entered Straight Shot with Mommy Assistant, the thriving company Stephanie Feltus founded and directed for many years. With the start of Straight Shot comes the start of a new company, and so Robyn Household Assistant was created to help more busy families manage household tasks across the United States.
In the beginning of the accelerator program, we surveyed our target market to test our assumptions, finalized the Robyn brand, and started to work with our awesome web developers who are creating an incredible matching website. The finished product of the site will pair busy families with individuals (providers) looking to help with household tasks such as laundry, housekeeping, organizing, meal prep, errand running and grocery shopping. Read more about our early stages in the Week 1 and Week 2 & 3 blog posts.
In the weeks leading up to our halfway point, we have switched gears. Our focus can be summed up in one word…TRACTION.
TRACTION
A key indicator of a successful start-up is the amount of traction your business is getting. We need people to start using our service, applying to be providers, referring the business to their friends, asking to be matched with more families, and achieving overall satisfaction from both the busy families and the amazing providers.
Traction is tricky with a dual-sided market. Most of our attention needs to be directed toward developing one side. In our early stages, we found that it was easier to find families in need of our business, so we decided to focus on finding individuals who would make great providers.
Why become a provider?
· You get to set your own schedule
· Determine your hourly pay
· Choose the household tasks you enjoy doing
· Make a huge difference in families’ lives
Our goal is to recruit 20 providers by the end of July.
Marketing Action Plan
After going through our contact lists and recruiting providers who were previously interested in Mommy Assistant, we have a solid 7 providers ready to go. Not bad, but not great. 100% of assistants for Mommy Assistant came from referrals, so we needed to explore marketing options.
In the past, many assistants have been either stay-at-home moms or women seeking a part-time, flexible job. We weren’t sure how to reach potential providers, but we were willing to try anything!
So, we made beautiful brochures and business cards and headed out into the world. We started out by attending job fairs and gradually got more creative. Most recently, we tried walking around the mall, starting up conversations about Robyn, and giving brochures to people who were genuinely interested in our company. Time will tell if our efforts paid off, but for the rest of July and August, we will be looking for providers non-stop.
Investor Day
There isn’t a better way to celebrate completing half of Straight Shot than Investor Day. This had to be one of our very favorite days of the whole journey so far.
Investors were spread out among seven rooms. Each room had two or three individuals who wanted to learn about all eight of the Straight Shot companies. We traveled from room to room and the responses Stephanie and I received were all very positive and enthusiastic about the direction our company was headed. It was the kind of enthusiasm that wasn’t expressed out of general politeness; people were genuinely excited about the work we were doing.
Though we wanted the investors to like us, we also wanted to know what concerned them about our business. It was comforting to hear that their concerns were concerns we are already working to address. Mostly, they shared great ideas that sparked new ideas and made us more eager than ever to hit the ground running.
Coming Up Next:
We will try marketing techniques to recruit providers, prepare a new pitch, and get closer to finishing the amazing Robyn website. Stay up to date and read about the next half of Robyn’s development during the Straight Shot 90-Day Accelerator.
