Pearl Summer Journey
Hello! I’m Taneeya, a member of the Bust Out Solutions summer internship team working on Pearl. I worked very closely with co-interns Erin and Kha under the mentorship and guidance of Mana Sanghvi, founder of Sittereco and Bust Out product strategist. As we begin our junior year at our respective schools — Macalester College, University of Minnesota, and Carleton College — our time with Pearl has come to an end. The past few months have been exciting for the entire Pearl team as we worked to grow the product from it’s early pilot stages to a full fledged startup ready for customer use. Join us as we retrace our steps and reflect on the last ten weeks!
We set off on the Pearl journey by understanding Bust Out’s story for building the product and turning to Pearl’s first pilot program at Child Garden Montessori School for inspiration. The parents raved about Pearl, saying it was “easy, trouble-free and dependable”. Encouraged by the great feedback, we were thrown into a whirlwind week of building financial models and performing competitive benchmarking.
Once we identified vertical targets, it was time to shift gears to product development. The next few weeks were filled with endless back and forth and brainstorming on the product feature set. We felt strongly about many of them and realized it was time to test with the market. Turns out, our target market had very different opinions than we did. As a computer science major — it was a lightbulb moment — testing with customers really is everything! After a long week of product work Pearl was ready for the users. I was excited to try meeting my summer goal of signing up Pearl’s first customer.
Come mid-July, we interns hit the streets, meeting with 50+ florists, daycares, and other small businesses to figure out how Pearl fit their needs. This was a rollercoaster ride where we faced a significant number of setbacks. We were met with language barriers, got attacked by furry cats and even got threatened to get 86’d… However, we did not give up! Despite these setbacks, we generated 5 possible customer leads in less than 2 weeks. As we near the end of the summer, it’s an exciting time for the Pearl team. We have officially signed on Pearl’s first customer!
Throughout the summer, the other interns and I each took a different role to help drive Pearl’s growth. Erin, our social media whiz, built our brand presence on Facebook and Twitter. Kha leveraged her analytical chops to size market opportunity and better understand our target industries. And I hustled the hell out of the product, working from end to end between the product team all the way to potential customers. Going into the summer, I never thought I would enjoy something like this — but failing multiple times to finally be met with success was such a rush. I’ve learned so much about salesmanship, influencing others to drive progress, and most of all, perseverance…especially when it’s rewarded by the thrill of closing a deal!
This summer gave us eye-opening insights into the world of building and growing a startup in its early stages. The summer had its own set of obstacles, when we experienced team conflict, building an initial brand presence, and breaking into a market with already established competitors. But through it all, we’ve learned the importance of grit, collaboration, and optimism in the startup world. The summer has been full of learning — not only from our work on Pearl but from our everyday interactions with the talented, passionate and driven members of the Pearl team. We’ll miss you guys!
The last ten weeks have been nothing short of incredible. Speaking on behalf of the other interns, we will always be grateful for this opportunity. We’re excited to see what is next for Pearl and we wish the rest of the team best of luck!
