business model, business model canvas, mission model, mission model canvas, customer development, lean launchpad, lean startup, stanford, startup, steve blank, entrepreneurship, I-Corps, Stanford

1. TEAM
CELSIUS
Day 1: environmental
quality and human
presence hardware
sensor
100 interviews later...
Hybrid work
collaboration +
employee engagement
-
Resegmenting an existing
market as a niche entrant

2. OUR
Journey
Space analytics&
HumanOccupancy
Pain Point: ???

3. OUR
Journey
Space analytics&
HumanOccupancy
VirtualOfficeHUBwith
frictionlessVideo
100 Interviews later
Pain Point: ??? Pain Point:
Collaboration and
engagement

4. OUR
Journey
Space analytics&
HumanOccupancy
VirtualOfficeHUBwith
frictionlessVideo
Pain Point: ??? Pain Point:
Collaboration and
engagement
BUT WHAT REALLY
HAPPENED HERE?!

5. THE
REALITY... ISNOTASSMOOTH

6. MIKE
NICO
Webegan ourjourneybeforellpinjune2020
alex jason +kaitlin +leia
+dave

7. Ready, set,go!Huntingforcustomers
Ourinitialpremise
pre-class
ourpre-classgoal
To find customers for our solution
Our team was formed to start a company based upon
hardware technology that we had built to serve office
space that monitors space optimization, energy usage
and environmental health.

8. Ready, set,go!Huntingforcustomers
KEY TAKEaWAY
There was general interest in our product but...there
was something odd about our value proposition
Ourinitialpremise
Our team was formed to start a company based upon
hardware technology that we had built to serve office
space that monitors space optimization, energy usage
and environmental health.
“We think you’d have to
make a big pivot.”
Lookingback,wewishthatweknew…
We had a solution but not a problem
pre-class
ourpre-classgoal
To find customers for our solution

9. ABITTER PILL:“youhaveavitamin, notmedicine”
WEEKS1-2
We were excited to jump into interviews and receive positive feedback / clear validation, but…..

10. ABITTER PILL:“youhaveavitamin, notmedicine”
Westartedtoseecracksinthefoundation
“Your value proposition
is incredibly vague.”
WEEKS1-2
“Solving for optimal workplace productivity is the
holy grail for office managers today.”
- SVP Corp Dev, Johnson Controls
We were excited to jump into interviews and receive positive feedback / clear validation, but…..

11. ABITTER PILL:“youhaveavitamin, notmedicine”
WEEKS1-2
Wequicklylearned
We have to be open to not being a hardware company
Finding clear product-market fit is hard!
That we should have been focusing on finding a
problem rather than validating a problem we thought
that we should solve.
YETdidn'tso quicklylearn
We were excited to jump into interviews and receive positive feedback / clear validation, but…..
Westartedtoseecracksinthefoundation
“Your value proposition
is incredibly vague.”
“Solving for optimal workplace productivity is the
holy grail for office managers today.”
- SVP Corp Dev, Johnson Controls

12. FINALLY: an“aha”Moment
Week3
So we adjusted our approach and asked more open-ended questions to focus on problems

13. “The only real need to go into the office is for in-person
collaboration.”
- MD Employee Wellbeing, Cigna
“Space is one aspect. Collaboration is a whole other ballgame!”
- VP Software Engineering, QolSys Inc.
FINALLY: an“aha”Moment
Week3
Welearnedwhat matteredtocustomers
So we adjusted our approach and asked more open-ended questions to focus on problems

14. “The only real need to go into the office is for in-person
collaboration.”
- MD Employee Wellbeing, Cigna
“Space is one aspect. Collaboration is a whole other ballgame!”
- VP Software Engineering, QolSys Inc.
FINALLY: an“aha”Moment
Week3
Welearnedwhat matteredtocustomers
"We're not concerned with pollutants in a building- it's
just something you deal with in a city."
- Director, Group Risk, Royal Bank of Canada
...And whatdidn't
“So no one cares
about the sensor.”
So we adjusted our approach and asked more open-ended questions to focus on problems
X

15. FINALLY: an“aha”Moment
Week3
Weidentifiedthecommonthread
Workplace optimization and space utilization is a
means to an end. Ultimately, employers want
engaged employees who are collaborating with
one another in a hybrid world
So we adjusted our approach and asked more open-ended questions to focus on problems

16. To discover how office space can best enable
employee collaboration and engagement
FINALLY: an“aha”Moment
Week3
Weidentifiedthecommonthread
Workplace optimization and space utilization is a
means to an end. Ultimately, employers want
engaged employees who are collaborating with
one another in a hybrid world
So we adjusted our approach and asked more open-ended questions to focus on problems
ANDPIVOTEDTOANEWPURPOSE!

17. TRYING TOPIVOT WHILEholding ontothepast
WEEk4
We tried to explore our newfound problem without letting go of our old technology

18. TRYING TOPIVOT WHILEholding ontothepast
WEEk4
But we were adding new tools while
keeping the older ones
Wedesignedourfirstsaasmvp
We tried to explore our newfound problem without letting go of our old technology

19. TRYING TOPIVOT WHILEholding ontothepast
WEEk4
“Tracking movement in an office is a
third or fourth order concern."
“I fully expect to never have a desk at Johnson Controls
again! But no coffees, lunches or water cooler chat … I expect
this to be a detractor to peoples’ and team’s development.”
- Head of Healthy Buildings, Johnson Controls
whilefeedbacksuggestedditchinghardware
We tried to explore our newfound problem without letting go of our old technology
But we were adding new tools while
keeping the older ones
Wedesignedourfirstsaasmvp

20. TRYING TOPIVOT WHILEholding ontothepast
WEEk4
Cracks in the foundation led to fissures in our
team that soon came to a head …..
Meanwhiletheteamwaslosingalignment
We tried to explore our newfound problem without letting go of our old technology
But we were adding new tools while
keeping the older ones
Wedesignedourfirstsaasmvp

21. UNCERTAINTY LEADING TOLOST MOMENTUM
WEEKS5-6
We were unsure of our value proposition as interviews continued pointing to collaboration

22. “[with Zoom] I miss the ability to recreate all of us sitting in
a room together. You can read the room and body
language.”
- Chief Customer Officer, VirBELA
Theproblemwasbecomingclear...
“The most important thing in business is trust. It is easier
to build trust in person. That sense of camaraderie is
what businesses want.”
- CEO, Sharp Development, Inc.
We were unsure of our value proposition as interviews continued pointing to collaboration
UNCERTAINTY LEADING TOLOST MOMENTUM
WEEKS5-6

23. “You’re circling around a very hot
space! But need to zero in on the exact
painkiller.”
We were trying to determine which feature was
the core value proposition, and should have
made a decision to move in one direction
Instead, fragmentation in the team grew,
leading to unfocused, confusing interviews
...Butthesolutionwasnot
We were unsure of our value proposition as interviews continued pointing to collaboration
UNCERTAINTY LEADING TOLOST MOMENTUM
WEEKS5-6
“[with Zoom] I miss the ability to recreate all of us sitting in
a room together. You can read the room and body
language.”
- Chief Customer Officer, VirBELA
Theproblemwasbecomingclear...
“The most important thing in business is trust. It is easier
to build trust in person. That sense of camaraderie is
what businesses want.”
- CEO, Sharp Development, Inc.

24. Sowehadtomake a decisionaND RALLY BEHIND ONEIDEA
1. Hybridspacecollaboration
2. Peopledensity
3. Environmentalrating
WEEKS5-6

25. All handsondeck: FOCUSonhybridcollaboration
WEEKS7-10
Interviews were completely focused on learning about collaboration and testing the new MVP!!!!

26. MVP 3.0
Virtual office hub with:
- Frictionless video tech
- Open / closed door availability
with calendar integration
- Location information: in-office
or remote
- Breakroom
All handsondeck: FOCUSonhybridcollaboration
WEEKS7-10
Interviews were completely focused on learning about collaboration and testing the new MVP!!!!

27. All handsondeck: FOCUSonhybridcollaboration
WEEKS7-10
Interviews were completely focused on learning about collaboration and testing the new MVP!!!!
“This is awesome. Challenges integrating remote
with the in-person workforce remains in my
perspective the biggest challenge.”
- Human Capital, Deloitte
“I really like it. It feels natural and I can see how it
slides into the way I work. Also having a open /
closed door that you can always see is a good
mental cue to remind yourself to talk to others.”
- Head of Talent / HR, Nova Pioneer
“I would love to use it. I like how it looks - friendly
and neat.”
- Head of People Development, Pluspetrol
AND….THEYLOVEdIT!

28. All handsondeck: FOCUSonhybridcollaboration
WEEKS7-10
Interviews were completely focused on learning about collaboration and testing the new MVP!!!!
Thoughit'sneverthatsimple
“You’re onto something but
you are not there yet.”
AND….THEYLOVEdIT!
“I love this idea. But I wish you would just
pitch this to Google and they would do it
so I wouldn’t have to download another
app.”
- Marketing Manager, Netflix

29. Continuing inthehybrid collaboration direction
We are still testing our key value proposition through interviews and a pilot
We hypothesized that large vs. small
companies would prefer different value
propositions
To test, we interviewed HR and people
managers from both segments and asked
them to rank our key MVP features
Testingourkeyinsight
Physical location info - in
/ out of office,
distributed locations
Who do we exist for?
Who are our key
partners?
Virtual office - open /
closed door
CEO (organizations under
100 employees)
B2B distribution
Keep: SaaS model and
evolving data analytics
/ insights
People - software
engineers to build
front-end software;
sales / marketing; data
analytics
Seed funding
Software engineers - to maintain
latest / evolving user interface
Product Development
Data analytics
Acquire: B2B sales and
partnerships, freemium
model
Grow: word of mouth,
partnerships, upsell to
premium
Sales & marketing /
customer service team costs
SaaS subscription revenue
model
What are we building
and for who?
What problem / need
are we solving?
Drag and drop video -
instant casual check-ins
HR (organizations over
100 employees)
Category: hybrid office
enablers
CIO (very large
organizations)
Category: day-to-day
users
Employees seeking the
social connection and
ease of conversation in
offices
Calendar / scheduling
tools (Outlook, Google)
Potential Integrations
Collaboration tools
(Slack, Discord, Teams)
Sales
Fundraising
HR software
Widely used enterprise
software (e.g.,
Salesforce)
Office share orgs
expanding offerings (e.g.,
WeWork)
KEYPARTNERS KEYACTIVITIES CUSTOMERRELATIONSHIPS
KEYRESOURCES
COST STRUCTURE
VALUE PROPOSITIONS CUSTOMERSEGMENTS
CHANNELS
REVENUESTREAMS
Break room ?
?

30. Continuing inthehybrid collaboration direction
Frictionless video is the leader at the
moment!
Testingourkeyinsight
Physical location info - in
/ out of office,
distributed locations
Who do we exist for?
Who are our key
partners?
Virtual office - open /
closed door
CEO (organizations under
100 employees)
B2B distribution
Keep: SaaS model and
evolving data analytics
/ insights
People - software
engineers to build
front-end software;
sales / marketing; data
analytics
Seed funding
Software engineers - to maintain
latest / evolving user interface
Product Development
Data analytics
Acquire: B2B sales and
partnerships, freemium
model
Grow: word of mouth,
partnerships, upsell to
premium
Sales & marketing /
customer service team costs
SaaS subscription revenue
model
What are we building
and for who?
What problem / need
are we solving?
Drag and drop video -
instant casual check-ins
HR (organizations over
100 employees)
Category: hybrid office
enablers
CIO (very large
organizations)
Category: day-to-day
users
Employees seeking the
social connection and
ease of conversation in
offices
Calendar / scheduling
tools (Outlook, Google)
Potential Integrations
Collaboration tools
(Slack, Discord, Teams)
Sales
Fundraising
HR software
Widely used enterprise
software (e.g.,
Salesforce)
Office share orgs
expanding offerings (e.g.,
WeWork)
KEYPARTNERS KEYACTIVITIES CUSTOMERRELATIONSHIPS
KEYRESOURCES
COST STRUCTURE
VALUE PROPOSITIONS CUSTOMERSEGMENTS
CHANNELS
REVENUESTREAMS
Break room
We are still testing our key value proposition through interviews and a pilot

31. VIDEO

32. THANKYOUFOR
THEJOURNEY!