Once upon a time, an idea was formed by three post-graduate students. Their shared love for animals and their eagerness to help made them realize the lack of information and injustice that existed in today’s society. Thus, the journey of ‘Panteion Shelter’ began….
Our media startup idea and goals
The conception of the central idea of the start-up came during the tragic incident of abuse towards the unfortunate Oliver in Arachova. We had already formed the opinion that there is a huge gap in informing the public about situations regarding stray animals. The animals we call companion animals experience the irregular reality of Greek cities and provinces, living on the streets, away from human companionship, love, care, and protection, with all that entails. Do they deserve this? Is this their place? Is this the “thank you” owed to them? What can we do to raise awareness among as many people as possible about this huge issue? Trying to answer these questions led us to the same conclusions: information and education.
‘When I look into the eyes of an animal, I do not see an animal. I see a living being. I see a friend. I feel a soul.’ — A. D. Williams
At this moment, the number of stray companion animals and those housed in animal shelters, sanctuaries, pensions, and volunteer homes awaiting adoption amounts to tens of thousands! However, how can this be explained at a time when the supposed sensitivity of people towards animals is increasing more and more? Is this issue addressed periodically and superficially and then forgotten?
A podcast and the creation of videos on YouTube promoting collaboration between students, local communities, and shelters can systematically and consistently disseminate the message of safeguarding animal rights, primarily within academic communities. In age groups that, according to our research, are not actively engaged with the issue. Through this start-up and our podcasts we aim to mobilize Universities — professors, students, and staff — to actively engage with the needs of local shelters and to convey the message to schools and communities.
With the goal of improving citizens’ animal welfare reflexes and developing an animal-friendly culture across the country, we start with many ideas and even more enthusiasm, starting from universities! However, we will immediately seek to promote our work in schools, aiming to address the education deficit regarding our behavior towards animals.
The sight of neglected, abandoned, sick, emaciated, abused, disabled, and killed stray animals shocks most people, but they do not connect these images with their own inaction… We are here to change that inaction!
Our Business Model Canvas
The Business Model Canvas serves as a powerful tool for analyzing and designing within the realm of business activities. It consists of nine key segments, each essential for the business process. Through this analysis, we will explore how the media startup “Panteion Shelter” can achieve its goals, engage the Panteion community, and create a sustainable business model in the animal protection sector.
The primary partnerships of “Panteion Shelter” are animal shelters and university groups, with the Panteion radio station playing a significant role as one of our main collaborators. We aim to create multimedia content for raising awareness and promoting animal rights. Therefore, our primary platforms are YouTube, Buzzsprout for podcast creation, through interviews with individuals or groups advocating for animal rights. Additionally, our social media pages (Facebook, Instagram, Website, Buzzsprout) strengthen communication and dissemination of our organization’s messages to a wider audience. Our future goal is also to approach television and radio shows for further exposure and support of our work.
Our key resources include human capital organizing interviews and managing events for fundraising and technological tools for content creation equipment. Social media management is also crucial, as our sponsors are our most critical resource through advertising their brand or products/services. Conversely, value propositions focus on providing information regarding animal rights. Our main objective is to inform the public and therefore advocate for legislative changes, while promoting awareness regarding the adoption of stray animals in the future. From the customer side, our relationship with them, including animal shelters, students, and the university, is personal, continuous, and direct, providing updated content. Communication will be bidirectional, soliciting feedback and ideas for improvement. Our customer segments include already existing organizations for animal rights, animal shelters, people seeking pets for adoption, as well as students or university staff interested in volunteering.
Finally, we will analyze the two main points of the cost structure model and value propositions. “Panteion Shelter’s” cost structure focuses on various aspects, including collaboration with students and voluntary programs of Panteion University, allowing the use of free labor. Moreover, the business utilizes open-source content production tools and platforms to save costs. Finally, our startup holds events and educational programs, ensuring promotion through partnerships with university communities and local organizations without rental costs or equipment. Additionally, our YouTube channel already has several followers ensuring advertisement without additional expenses for the initial operating period.
On the other hand, value propositions include creating educational content regarding animal care and rights, offering participants the opportunity to build a community and network, aiming for ideas, experiences, and information exchange. Social media and the website also play a significant role, allowing the audience to communicate with us to create interest in upcoming topics on our podcasts. Every month, we conduct research to identify problems encountered, such as adoption promotion programs or animal care methods. Finally, Panteion Shelter has so far created collectible mugs to promote and spread our vision. And more are yet to come!
Our Future Personas
Let’s define what a persona is in the business environment. A ‘persona’ is a tool in the marketing and product design field used to better understand our end users or customers. A persona is essentially a fictional character representing a specific segment of our market.
Our future personas have emerged from our UX research, which preceded the UI design of our website and our social media curation. Below, you will find the description of three indicative personas for our startup Panteion Shelter.
Persona 1: Panos
Panos is a university student.
Age: 22
Characteristics: Panos is a student at the University of Athens and has a keen interest in animal rights. He is well-informed about animal protection issues and wishes to further educate himself on this topic.
Needs and Desires: Panos seeks information and content related to animal protection and public awareness. He desires to be informed about initiatives taken for animal protection and to actively participate in them, either through information or voluntary work.
Persona 2: Maria
Maria is a new mother seeking content for her children’s education.
Age: 28
Characteristics: Maria is a new mother with young children and aims to educate them about love and respect for animals. She seeks educational content that is entertaining and understandable for her children.
Needs and Desires: Maria needs pedagogical content that is both fun and educational, allowing her to instill values of respect for animals in her children’s daily lives.
Persona 3: Eleni
Eleni is a Social Sciences professor.
Age: 35
Characteristics: Eleni is a Social Anthropology professor at Panteion University. She is interested in issues of social justice and animal rights and strives to incorporate these topics into her educational content.
Needs and Desires: Eleni seeks content that highlights the importance of social justice and animal rights. She desires information and initiatives that promote awareness and action on these issues, as well as content that she can use in her classes to encourage her students to think critically and seek change through social anthropology
Our challenges — Our solutions
Coming up with a unique idea is not easy. Implementing one though and seeing it in action is another part of an innovator’s struggle. Even after solidifying the theoretical aspect of our start-up, the hurdles along the way did not stop. The first thing that troubled us was the organization of our podcast’s pilot episode. We had no idea of the guests that we would like to invite and the kind of conversation that we wanted our journey to start with. Through brainstorming, we figured that we could use our previous connections with intellectuals from other academic fields to help us firstly build the legal “backbone” of our dialogue. Reaching out to them was not hard, since we specifically chose people with a similar passion for animal rights advocacy.
The technical steps were the next thing that we needed to figure out before our idea took off. From the recording and editing of the podcast, to finding the right platform to host our work, everything was based on mutual research and debate. And thus, the pilot episode of “Panteion Shelter” was uploaded.
Creation of our social media accounts became another one of our creative “headaches”. Our profiles in Instagram and Facebook needed content, in order for the targeted audience to start engaging with our idea. And when we published content and we started seeing some traction, our Instagram account got hacked. And then close down. So it was time for “take two”. And the show -again- went on.
Persistence and collaboration were the things that at the end of the day, helped the idea of Panteion Shelter become more than just an idea. We never stopped brainstorming and we always stayed open to changes (not that we had a different option). Our different academic backgrounds also helped our case a lot, because each of us was able to provide not only different perspectives, but use our already existing networks to promote our work and get feedback.
Learning Outcomes
When it comes now to the Learning Outcomes of our innovative journey, the answer can not be simple. Probably the first thing that should be mentioned is the rich creative part of the whole process. From identifying “white spaces” of opportunity to using the business model canva to step by step building on an idea, everything helped enrich our entrepreneurship skills and become accustomed to the ways a start up can exist.
We tried learning throughout the process, by reaching out to the market and hearing the needs of already existing players of the field. We were open to change and rethink our ideas again and again, since we wanted our product to connect with the needs of the market to the maximum.
Production of our podcast also helped us to express and expand our creativity, while finding new limits. Through our start up process, we became aware of the opportunities that exist in today’s market and how one can have impact without. Now the only thing that is left for our “Shelter” is for it to keep being a place of advocacy and justice, all while shedding light through the power of dialogue into Greek society’s animal related issues.
Professor: Ms. Betty Tsakarestou
Team and editors: Maria Ganiari Joannakaraisarli Maria Ravani
