Change of plans!
To see if there was an actual market for our idea, we conducted a market research. We interviewed 52 students and 18 companies within and outside our personal networks. Besides, we also asked for some advice from several entrepreneurs. According to their insights, we have made some adjustments to our business model canvas. The most significant adjustments are described below.
Value propositions
Possibility for teamwork
After analysing the results from our interviews with the companies, we found out that quite a few companies would be interested in hiring a preassembled team to complete certain projects. Depending on the project, companies want to be able to have the choice between hiring individual students or student teams. Therefore, we want to add a feature to our website that allows companies to hire preassembled teams. This means that students are able to compose teams their self and apply this team on the platform.
Customer relationship
Recommendation system
The feedback that we got from the companies was that the review and rating system would definitely be an added value. They would not hire a student based on the rating and review system only, but it will be important to determine which students they will invite for a meeting in person. In the end the face-to-face meeting will be the most important. Furthermore, companies believe that the recommendation system will serve as a way to extra motivate students. This because students would fear that companies will write a bad review about them and in turn other companies would not hire them again.
Customer segment
Students from applied science universities and academic universities
After the market analysis we found that the the focus in the future will be more on higher educated employees, since employment for lower educated employees will decrease due to the digitisation and automation. Student Connect will try to hire students from applied science universities and academic universities and will not focus on vocational students anymore.
Revenue streams
Fixed percentage per transaction
After several interviews with companies (18) we found that most companies are willing to post projects on our platform. When we asked them what seems to be the best method for payment, they told us that a fee per project is the most attractive method for them. They did not want to pay a monthly subscription fee, because our service is not proven at the moment they post a vacancy. Moreover, competitors are only charging fees whenever a match has been made. On the other hand, we asked students what they found a reasonable percentage that we should earn for our service. The average of that percentage was 16%. We have to calculate our future costs in order to make sure this number corresponds with our financial goals.
