1. Andrew Matthews, Stern MBA Candidate
Barrow Reedy, Wagner MPA Candidate
James Wu , Stern MBA Candidate
We eliminate the need for customers to go out and buy bath and body
products by designing and delivering sensor-driven, wifi-enabled
devices that monitor product usage.
Interviews this week: 35
Total # of interviews: 45
2. -Convenience:
eliminate the trip to
the store for essentials
-Curation: identify and
deliver the products
men want based on a
defined set of needs
-Space optimization:
design storage that
helps store products
for easy access
-Cost: purchase in bulk
to reduce cost to
customer
Business Model Canvas – Day 1
VALUE
PROPOSITIONS
CHANNELS
CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIPS
CUSTOMER
SEGMENTS
REVENUE STREAMSCOST STRUCTURE
-
KEY
PARTNERS
KEY
RESOURCES
KEY
ACTIVITIES
-Product
manufacturers, e.g.
Unilever, P&G,
Church & Dwight,
Reckitt Benckiser,
Harry’s, Dollar Shave
Club
-Packagers, e.g. Uline,
Amcor, Int’l Paper
-Distribution
partners, e.g. FedEx,
DHL, USPS, Shiply
-Digital services, e.g.
web hosting, app
development, media
advertising (FB,
Google)
-Shipping and distribution
-Advertising/Customer Acquisition
-Warehousing
-Inventory
-App/website design and
mngt.
-Packaging/box design
-Product curation (both
digital and in the box)
-Customer service
-Packaging and product
curation innovation
-Subscriptions: semester cadence (3-tier model: base,
regular and premium)
-Refills: Single purchases to refill box
-Sponsorships: Brands that advertise on SG boxes
-Website/app
programmer
-Packaging designers
-Social media
advertising company
-Customer service
agents
-Warehouse
-Vendor mngt/buyer
Demographic
-College-age men
(18-22), who attend
university in the U.S.
-Diverse populations
Behavioral
-Visits store 2x per
month
-Unplanned
purchases, based
first on need and
second on discovery
Psychographic
-Style neutral to
style conscious
-Influenced by
classmates and
cultural icons
-Does not enjoy
shopping
-Create style-oriented, digital
content
-Offer event-driven boxes for
special occasions, e.g.
tailgating
-Enlist campus ambassadors
-Partner with universities to
offer teams sponsorships
-Delivery of VP is through
semester-subscription based
box
-Social media and content
marketing, e.g. FB, IG, Vine,
Twitter, with influencer
strategy
-Web/mobile app
3. The Initial Idea:
Curate box for college men to eliminate trips to local
convenience stores
What we learned:
-Men do not mind the trips to local convenience stores
-tracking their usage and remembering to refill is
painful
-They do not use online solution because they feel
there is a delay in product arrival
Men do not need to save trip to the store. They
need to remove the thoughts of shopping for bath
and body products completely
We need to predict personal usage and auto
prompt to re-order
Day One: Hypotheses and Learnings
4. -Convenience: eliminate
the trip to the store for
essentials
Eliminate the need to
think about shopping for
these products
-Curation: identify and
deliver the products men
want
-Space optimization:
design easy access storage
-Cost: purchase at near
wholesale prices
-Provide customer insights
about product use and
purchasing habits
Business Model Canvas – Day 2
VALUE
PROPOSITIONS
CHANNELS
CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIPS
CUSTOMER
SEGMENTS
REVENUE STREAMSCOST STRUCTURE
-
KEY
PARTNERS
KEY
RESOURCES
KEY
ACTIVITIES
-Product
manufacturers, e.g.
Unilever, P&G,
Church & Dwight,
Reckitt Benckiser,
Harry’s, Dollar Shave
Club
-Packagers, e.g. Uline,
Amcor, Int’l Paper
-Distribution
partners, e.g. FedEx,
DHL, USPS, Shiply
-Retailers, e.g. BB&B
-Digital services, e.g.
web hosting, app
development
-Shipping and distribution
-Advertising/Customer Acquisition
-Warehousing/Inventory
-Product development and manufacturing
-App/website design and
mngt.
-Packaging/box design
-Product curation (both
digital and in the box)
-Customer service
-Engineering and product
design
-Subscriptions: semester cadence
-Refills: Single purchases to refill box
-Sponsorships: Brands that advertise on SG boxes
-Retail sales + % fee for refills
-Recurring data sales to B2B
-Website/app talent
-Product designers
-Social media talent
-Customer service
-Warehouse
-Vendor mngt/buyer
B2C
-College-age men
(18-22), who attend
university in the U.S.
in urban settings like
NYC
-Diverse populations
B2B
-CPG manufacturers,
e.g. Unilever, P&G,
who sell men’s bath
and body products
-Create style-oriented, digital
content
-Partner with universities to
offer teams sponsorships
-Low-touch relationships
via retail and mobile app
-High-touch, direct
salesforce and acct mngt.
-Delivery of VP is through
semester-subscription based
box
-Brick & mortar retailers
-Website/mobile app
-Direct salesforce and
account mngt.
5. The Initial Idea:
Men are willing to pay to not have to think about
shopping for bath and body products
What we learned:
-95% college men are willing to try the service and pay
~ $1 more in premium on the retail price
-They do not want hold excess stock
-They do not want to wait for product arrival
Customers is willing to pay, but does not think this
is a high priority problem.
We need to use a sensor-driven, wifi-enabled
devices that monitor usage and prompt user to
refill through our ecommerce website
Day Two: Hypotheses and Learnings
7. -Convenience:
eliminate the trip to
the store for
essentials
Eliminate the need to
think about shopping
for these products
-Curation: identify
and deliver the
products men want
-Space optimization:
design easy access
storage
-Cost: purchase at
near wholesale prices
-Provide customer
insights about
product use and
purchasing habits
Business Model Canvas – Day 3
VALUE
PROPOSITIONS
CHANNELS
CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIPS
CUSTOMER
SEGMENTS
REVENUE STREAMSCOST STRUCTURE
-
KEY
PARTNERS
KEY
RESOURCES
KEY
ACTIVITIES
-Product
manufacturers, e.g.
Unilever, P&G,
Church & Dwight,
Reckitt Benckiser,
Harry’s, Dollar Shave
Club
-Packagers, e.g. Uline,
Amcor, Int’l Paper
-Distribution
partners, e.g. FedEx,
DHL, USPS, Shiply
-Retailers, e.g. BB&B
-Digital services, e.g.
web hosting, app
development
-Shipping and distribution
-Advertising/Customer Acquisition
-Warehousing/Inventory
-Product development and manufacturing
-App/website design and
mngt.
-Packaging/box design
-Product curation (both
digital and in the box)
-Customer service
-Engineering and product
design
-Subscriptions: semester cadence
-Refills: Single purchases to refill box
-Sponsorships: Brands that advertise on SG boxes
-Retail sales + % fee for refills
-Recurring data sales to B2B
-Website/app talent
-Product designers
-Social media talent
-Customer service
-Warehouse
-Vendor mngt/buyer
B2C
-College-age men
(18-22), who attend
university in the U.S.
in urban settings like
NYC
-Diverse populations
B2B
-CPG manufacturers,
e.g. Unilever, P&G,
who sell men’s bath
and body products
-Create style-oriented, digital
content
-Partner with universities to
offer teams sponsorships
-Low-touch relationships
via retail and mobile app
-High-touch, direct
salesforce and acct mngt.
-Delivery of VP is through
semester-subscription based
box
-Brick & mortar retailers
-Website/mobile app
-Direct salesforce and
account mngt.
8. The Initial Idea:
College men should be our target customer
OEMs are willing to pay customer consumption data
What we learned:
-Not only the college male are willing to pay for our
service, single men in general would willing to try it
-Analytical data business is mostly saturated.
Businesses are unwilling to pay for data
The initial revenue need to come from sale of the
devices and re-fill of the products. We can target single
men in general in this market
To reduce risks, we should go through Amazon’s
eco system and taking orders as they come.
Once there is enough demand, we can carry our
own inventory and logistics
Day Three: Hypotheses and Learnings
8
9. MVP 1 MVP 2
Experiment: Pilot usage of MVP with 28-year-old male to confirm
ease of and interest in product use
What we thought: Men would find the object
foreign, clunky, and invasive, causing an
unwillingness to pay for the product.
What we did: We asked a 28-year-old male to
place the product in his bathroom and explained the
functionality.
What we found: He responded overwhelmingly
positively, noting that he found the product non-
invasive and the proposed functionality would erase
the pain of thinking about outages. We also found
that he had already been empty on several
bathroom products, confirming that men find the
shopping process cumbersome.
What we will do next: We want to confirm that our
experiment is not just noise. We would like to
conduct similar experiments with a larger MVP to
understand their receptivity to the product.
10. -Convenience:
Eliminate the need to
think about shopping
for these products
-Cost: purchase at
near wholesale prices
-Time: Receive
products at or just
before you run out
-Provide customer
insights about
product use and
purchasing habits
Business Model Canvas – Day 4
VALUE
PROPOSITIONS
CHANNELS
CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIPS
CUSTOMER
SEGMENTS
REVENUE STREAMSCOST STRUCTURE
-
KEY
PARTNERS
KEY
RESOURCES
KEY
ACTIVITIES
-Product
manufacturers, e.g.
Unilever, P&G,
Church & Dwight,
Reckitt Benckiser,
Harry’s, Dollar Shave
Club
-Packagers, e.g. Uline,
Amcor, Int’l Paper
-Distribution
partners, e.g. FedEx,
DHL, USPS, Shiply
-Digital services, e.g.
web hosting, app
development
-Shipping and distribution
-Advertising/Customer Acquisition
-Warehousing/Inventory
-Product development and manufacturing
-App/website design and
mngt.
-Customer service
-Engineering and product
design
-Inventory mngt. and
supply chain
-Vendor mngt.
-Product sales of device
-% fee for product re-orders
-Recurring data sales to B2B
-Website/app talent
-Product designers
-Social media talent
-Customer service
-Warehouse
-Vendor mngt/buyer
B2C
-College-age men
(18-22), who attend
university
-Post-college men,
who are “tech
experimenters”
B2B
-CPG manufacturers,
e.g. Unilever, P&G,
who sell men’s bath
and body products
-Low-touch interactions via
web/mobile app
-On-demand customer
service
-High-touch, direct
salesforce and acct mngt.
-Brick & mortar retailers
-Website/mobile app
-Direct salesforce and
account mngt.
11. The Initial Idea:
Cost of manufacturing for sensor-driven device
puts our product in affordable range
Women also have products that they are brand
loyal to, and runs out quickly
What we learned:
-Initial R&D cost is about $12,000
-Each unit cost to produce is about $4.75
-Women have potential need for convenience for
personal hygiene products
We can expand our customer segments for female
audience as well
We need to do a detailed manufacturing cost
analysis to figure out our breakeven point
Day Four: Hypotheses and Learnings
12. Channel Economics
% of
Retail
24% 47%
$1.00 $2.00 $4.25$1.25
29%
EndCustomer
COGS
Profit + SG&A +
R&D
Whole Sale Distributor
EU
Discounts
Reseller
Our RevenueOEM
•We get
- 47% of retail
- the OEM gets 29%
- the wholesaler gets 24%
less any discount we offer the customer
13. -Convenience:
Eliminate the need to
think about shopping
for these products
-Cost: purchase at
near wholesale prices
-Time: Receive
products at or just
before you run out
Business Model Canvas – Day 5
VALUE
PROPOSITIONS
CHANNELS
CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIPS
CUSTOMER
SEGMENTS
REVENUE STREAMSCOST STRUCTURE
-
KEY
PARTNERS
KEY
RESOURCES
KEY
ACTIVITIES
-Product
manufacturers, e.g.
Unilever, P&G,
Church & Dwight,
Reckitt Benckiser,
Harry’s, Dollar Shave
Club
-Packagers, e.g. Uline,
Amcor, Int’l Paper
-Distribution
partners, e.g. FedEx,
DHL, USPS, Shiply
-Digital services, e.g.
web hosting, app
development
-Shipping and distribution
-Advertising/Customer Acquisition
-Warehousing/Inventory
-Product development and manufacturing
-App/website design and
mngt.
-Customer service
-Engineering and product
design
-Inventory mngt. and
supply chain
-Vendor mngt.
-Product sales of device
-% fee for product re-orders
-Website/app talent
-Product designers
-Customer service
professionals
-Warehouse
-Intellectual
Property/Patent
-Vendor mngt/buyer
-College-age men
(18-22), who attend
university
-Post-college men,
who are “tech
experimenters”
-Women aged 18-35,
who are tech
savvy/aware,
brand loyal for
specific product
categories
-Low-touch interactions via
web/mobile app
-On-demand customer
service
-Website/mobile app
(for device sales + product
refills)
15. Next Steps
Hypotheses Actions
Women aged 18-35 are a potential
customer segment.
Store intercepts with MVP to
inquire about interest and usage.
The unit economics – even when giving
away the device – provide a favorable
payback (breakeven) period.
Detailed model with assumptions of
users and all-in costs per unit
(including contract manufacturing,
C&F, 3rd party logistics, and mail
delivery service).
For product categories with brand
loyalty, discretionary purchasing
behavior, and annoying in-home
outages, customers will seek a
technology solution to eliminate the
need to remember to shop.
Build a low tech Arduino prototype
to pilot the experiment with 5
people. Build time estimated is
about two weeks. Cost is $75 of
Arduino Kit + Sensors and the cost of
labor.
16. Digital Campaign
Test: Will they sign up?
Single Male 18 – 40
Test 2: Who will click?
Demographic data of the Facebook
audience that clicks the ad