Just the Beginning: Week 1
Welcome back! Thank you for staying updated on our mission to launch a company that offers household assistance to busy families across the nation.
The 90-day clock started ticking as Mommy Assistant joined the 8 tech start-ups going through the Straight Shot accelerator program. To give a brief recap, this accelerator provides mentors, seminars, workspace, and support for rising entrepreneurs who have founded early-stage tech companies.
Each company has one or two founders and is matched with an intern from Creighton University or University of Nebraska Lincoln. This is where I come in! My name is Claire Roehri and I am a student at Creighton University aspiring to make a positive difference in the world through a TBD career in business. Stephanie and I were matched together and met for the very first time the morning of Straight Shot Day 1. I was extremely excited and a little nervous to meet her because the next 90 days depended on our teamwork. We didn’t know why we were paired together by the Straight Shot director, but it only took a few days to realize that pairing us together was not a good decision; it was a great one. We became the dream team.
Mommy Assistant is a successful company in Omaha based off of the assumption that busy families benefit from having help with household tasks. So far, that is proven to be true. However, by our second day, we attended a seminar that caused our hearts to race a little. The seminar began by stating why startups fail.
There are five main reasons:
1.) Poor Teamwork
2.) Scaling too fast
3.) Inability to admit you are wrong
4.) Inability to take advice from others
5.) Fear of embarrassment and trying to please everyone
It was good to know these five reasons, but there was one reason in particular that made Stephanie and I take a step back. She and I are both very audacious shoot-for-the-moon type of women who want this company to redefine the household management industry and scale nationally. Like I said, we are the shoot-for-the-moon type. However, it is probably unrealistic in 90 days and this seminar brought us back to earth. We couldn’t scale too fast; especially because we weren’t sure our assumptions were 100% correct. But entrepreneurs are never 100% sure they will succeed, right? Isn’t entrepreneurship all about taking calculated risks? This sent us spiraling into the period of the week I’d like to call “The Identity Crisis”.
The Identity Crisis:
We needed to test our assumptions, determine our MVP (most viable product not most valuable player), and ask some tough questions. Currently, Stephanie runs Mommy Assistant manually, and this just isn’t scalable. Stephanie can’t interview every family and potential assistant in America, be the matchmaker to all, and provide personal services like meal preparation. Thus, the new business model needs a software program that matches families with assistants based on quite a few factors. The questions that ran through our minds were:
Would families value a great vetting process that included background checks and weighing important factors like location, skillset, pay range, and availability?
How would families continue to use our services once they are matched with an assistant they like?
Is there truly a need for our business?
Will the model work outside of Omaha?
What will our new name/entire rebrand be that doesn’t only target moms and fully represents who we are as a company?
These were concerns that serious entrepreneurs face, and I was grateful that Stephanie and I were in this together to answer these questions and start an incredible business.
WE GOT THIS:
Even though we were nervous those first few days, we came up with plans to answer these questions. We had great mentors speak to us, who are experts in their fields and often founders of their own companies. We attended workshops that taught us about how to test our assumptions through empathy interviews with potential customers to see what services they are truly in need of when it comes to household management. But most of all, we were gaining confidence and excitement every day.
The ultimate test was when Stephanie gave a great speech about Mommy Assistant at our kick-off event on Thursday evening (Day 4) to community members and Straight Shot supporters.
Coming Up Next Week:
Stephanie and I test our assumptions, learn awesome things, and take strides toward Day 90 when Stephanie will pitch her company to a room full of investors and community members. Stay tuned.
