Gazelle Running Shoe
Skills Used
Project Management, Design, Communication, Project Scheduling, Time Management, Product Development, Customer/ Market Research, Stakeholder Research, Presentation
This project was a semester long introduction into how a start-up goes from the ideation phase to getting ready to be pitched to venture capitalists.
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The Mission
Create a venture around a running shoe that, when combined with AI, could help new runners correct their running form and prevent common new runner injuries. Ensure to include a 5-year exit plan.
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A Snapshot Of The Project
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Developed a mock start up from the ideation phase.
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Conducted customer research to ensure product offering was supported by customer needs.
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Created a survey for runners to help understand their needs which garnered 80+ responses.
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Isolated a target market to make a product for.
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Assessed needs from customer and market research.
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Managed financial workbooks and developed key parts of exit strategy.
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Created strategy for manufacturing and production, and product lifecycle.
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Presented pitch deck to the Bresslergroup, UPenn alumni and faculty, and industry experts.​
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Journey to Success
One of the first things my group and I did was evaluate the market that we intended to reach, how we intended to reach them and our potential customers’ price sensitivities. Continuing our research, we spoke to experienced runners to understand what helps them avoid those injuries, as well as understand what they think they would have needed when they first started running. Next, we spoke to new runners to learn about their struggles in learning proper running form. This research helped us better understand what we needed the shoe and AI to do for it to be worthwhile for the user.​We also looked at our competitors (Nike, Adidas, Allbirds, Fitbit, etc.) to better understand their products and how we compared to them.
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Once we had a full understanding of our target market, the price sensitivity of our customers, and what we intended to offer; we started to differentiate our product. We wanted to split our customers into basic and premium users (defined on slide 11) to increase our revenue from runners who were willing to pay a premium to improve their performance with a more personalized approach.
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We took time to determine how we wanted to market and advertise our device, and we found that social media and running magazines were the best targets for our venture. Next, we developed a financial workbook to help us to understand the best way to allocate our resources, manage our operating costs, and determine our exit strategy. Given the scope of the project, we were expected to create a 5 year exit plan and show profitability. Our very generous projections showed what we would need in order for our company to become profitable enough to be bought out. We also planned out our product development, the rest of our product life cycle, and the potential earnings. Once this was complete, we organized a pitch and presented our start up to members of the Bresslergroup in Philadelphia, UPenn faculty, industry experts and alumni.
Results
My team and I were able to successfully present our project to the Bresslergroup, UPenn faculty, industry experts and alumni. We received high praise for our presentation. We created a final report documenting all our efforts, assumptions, and lessons we learned.
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The Tasks I Undertook
Throughout the project, I constantly worked to keep the customers involved. I crafted surveys and conducted interviews to understand what would make our product the most beneficial to our potential customers. I created our financial workbooks, and I outlined our strategy for manufacturing, production, product lifecycle plan and our 5-year exit strategy.
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Lessons Learned Along the Way
There were a multitude of lessons that I learned from this project. It helped me understand how to conduct market research and how to narrow down to a target market. I learned how to talk to potential customers, interview stakeholders and get useful information from to develop a product or a feature.
I gained a new appreciation for the due diligence it takes in developing a startup and a meaningful product that helps the customer. I learned not only how to develop a product, but also how to present that product to industry experts.
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