Summary: "Prior to going through Co.Creator, mental health wasn't even on my radar. I never would have prioritized it higher than sex ed if I hadn't actually gotten out of the building and spoken to potential customers. Despite my resistance, I couldn't ignore what customers were saying and I came upon another idea that also addresses a huge problem in education and will be sure to have an impact while also potentially being a sustainable business. 8 weeks ago, I could not have foreseen being on this path at all. I made tremendous progress in terms of understanding the needs and wants of my customers by simply asking them to share their experiences with me. In 8 weeks, I literally developed a brand new idea that I never would have thought of otherwise. I also connected with some very helpful players in the mental health space including the CEOs of Breakthrough and PresenceLearning who may become advisors or investors in the future. I actually see a path to quitting my full-time job now and running with a startup, which I had not seen prior to this point."

 

Key learning: "I've learned a lot more about the process of developing a business plan, MVP, pitch deck and then testing the hypotheses contained within it with customers. I've also had a lot of opportunities to practice customer development interviews, testing my hypotheses, and then ultimately attempting to sell a product. In terms of mindsets, the biggest shift has been in treating my ideas as hypotheses first and foremost, testing them with customers, and then iterating upon them and refining them and retesting. That has completely changed the way I approach solutions and has helped me learn a lot just by listening."

 

Speed/Urgency: "This (Co.Creator) program really pushed me to act quickly and with urgency and I cannot believe how much I accomplished. It also forced me out of my comfort zone in terms of conducting interviews and testing my hypotheses and I learned a lot more than I probably would have otherwise as a result in a very short amount of time."

 

Virtual co-founder: "It was helpful to debrief the interviews. It brought up a lot of insights and possible new directions that I may not have noticed or given as much thought to if I had been reflecting on them on my own. I also am much more excited to talk to customers than I was before when I first thought about the idea. Even if we hear things that we don’t want to hear, at least we know them now rather than speculating. It’s disappointing to hear that some of our hypotheses may be wrong (PE teachers don’t want to learn to teach health, schools don’t want to pay for health PD) but in the long run, that information should make us more successful the first time.

......I particularly appreciated debriefing the interview with Jeff and hearing feedback on how to better control/steer the conversation in the future. That honest feedback is helpful and the best way for me to learn quickly. That brainstorming session around creating a visual value proposition was really helpful as I had no real clear idea about how to go about doing that. I’m glad the process led to something concrete and not just a “framework” or way of thinking about the problem differently.

......In particular, discussing the interview with another person helped to look at the problems that were brought up in a few different ways. Rather than completely rule out entering the telemedicine space because Mark cautioned against it due to security issues, Zevae spun it as a challenge to think of a way to solve the same problem without needing to deal with those issues. Much more optimistic than completely ruling out entering the space, and still seems feasible."

.....I had some lows going into the call regarding difficulty getting in touch with people for interviews, and also general confusion with all of the different opinions I was hearing from potential customers and the different possible directions we could go. While some of the uncertainty still remains (and surely more to come), I have much more clarity about the different possible options we can pursue after this conversation."

 

Leadership development: "In terms of 'leadership development' and thinking about replicating this experience and/or taking myself down this path on my own in the future, the structure of this document and this experience have been really really helpful. Things like the interview script and 4-quadrant innovation chart have lent rigor to my decision-making and actions whereas otherwise I may have thought about these problems but not necessarily known how to organize those thoughts. I find that structure empowering in terms of having confidence to methodically move forward in evaluating my hypotheses in the future.

After:

"In the next 8 weeks, I intend to test 2 different possible business models around virtual mental health. By the end of the (next) 8 weeks, I hope to again know which of the two paths I'd like to pursue (or perhaps neither and a third option will emerge). I also would like to have signed up at least one paying customer and have identified the additional co-founders that I will need to sign on so that I can apply to an incubator like Imagine K12."