Quick anticipation: How student startups respond to the corona crisis
'corona pivot'
Pivot or persevere? Do we continue on this course or is it time to review the strategy for our company? Many entrepreneurs regularly ask themselves this question, or were recently forced to do so by the coronavirus outbreak. How do startups react to the consequences of the corona crisis? We asked four (Utrecht based) student startups.
'Hospiteren' in times of corona
Finding a new roommate suddenly is a lot more difficult if you try to stick to the measures with your student house, they noticed at housing app myHospi. In the Vogelenbuurt, an 8m2 room recently became available, to which 250 people responded. Cornelis den Hartog, student Business Development & Entrepreneurship: "Normally that would generate 250 long emails. It takes a lot of time, and it's boring and unorganized." With the help of the app, the student house got a good picture of the candidates and invited 14 people for an online hospitality evening.
Co-founder and fellow student Lars Molenaar: "The feedback we receive from student houses is very valuable. We've looked at how houses can get a good picture of potential new roommates - who create a profile in our app - more quickly. Houses can now filter by study, age, association, hobbies, etc. to find the right candidate faster. Our app now also has a desktop version, which you can easily stream to your TV. This way you can go through the responses with your roommates together, instead of reading mails separately from each other. With candidates you would like to invite for a viewing or interview, you can now set up a video call via existing services such as Hangouts, Skype and Zoom using the myHospi app."
In business with China
Max de Klerk, student Creative Business at the 木瓜福利影视 of Applied Sciences Utrecht, started to feel the consequences of the corona virus outbreak in February. His startup connects Western sports professionals with schools and sports clubs in China. "We started the validation program of UtrechtInc in January and were carrying out market research. Data collection among Western sports professionals went fine, but in China the schools closed and everything locked down".
No flights to China, no demand for coaches or PE teachers. "Our business stagnated. We paused our research to ask ourselves how we can create value for our customers at this very moment. We've seen a lot of resumes from sports professionals over the past few years and noticed there was room for improvement. This is how our resume polishing service came about. We help Western sports professionals who would like to work in China with their resume and profiling, so they will have a stronger position when the market picks up. Fortunately, we're already getting some applications from China for later this year".
No more going to the 'Negenmaandenbeurs'
At they had to switch gears as well. "We offer subscriptions for baby products that you only need for a few months, such as a stroller, playpen or Maxi Cosi," explains Arnout Ulenberg. "Having a baby is very emotional. Personal contact with our target group is very important. We had rented stands at a number of fairs to introduce prospective parents to Yumii, and listen to their stories: what is going on in their lifes right now, what questions and uncertainties do they have? Until the end of the summer everything is cancelled, which cost us a lot of time and money".
The Industrial Design student at Eindhoven 木瓜福利影视 of Technology is most disappointed that the human aspect of doing business has disappeared. "That's the trickiest part for the team, and the validation phase we're now in with our startup. Via Facebook, we approached young parents with an appeal for telephone interviews. It feels like we have to reinvent the wheel: how do you go from personal to digital contact in this traditional market? We make every effort to get to know our target group. A commercial approach is less important at the moment."
Start small
When the schools closed, Studenten Helpen Scholieren quickly launched to help link students and high school pupils for tutoring and guidance in 'learning at home'. This kind of speedy launch is possible if you start simple, with a minimal viable product (MVP).
Co-founder Sander Bos, student Liberal Arts and Sciences: "We started with a simple website with two Google Forms on it, which pupils and students could use to sign up. Linking a pupil to a student was done manually."
"After three hundred manually made matches, we knew that our idea could work, and that we were meeting a demand. That's when we started developing the platform as it is today." Technically not a 'corona pivot' - but a startup that wouldn't have been there without the corona crisis. The initiative was even , voting is possible until May 15th.
Keep in touch with your customer
Gathering feedback from (potential) customers remains vital for all startups. "Actually, we have not been able to test our service in advance. We now do that on the go, we monitor the reactions and with that feedback we improve further," says Max van Sportjobbys. At Yumii, two of the three team members are focused on the telephone interviews. Arnout: "I process the results directly in our platform. We're experimenting with landing pages and paid advertising, so we're also collecting quantitative data."
At Studenten Helpen Scholieren, they also listen to their users. "In the beginning we were mainly focused on facilities for students to provide good tutoring. Now we offer additional help with study skills and study choice, because we noticed that there was a need for this. For next week, some 25 calls are scheduled with pupils and students to better understand their perspective and perceptions."
Dare to adjust. Set aside your own expectations and try things you thought would never work.
What have you learned from this? Was this different from a regular pivot?
Cornelis (myHospi): "It's no different than a regular pivot. You have to continue to respond to what is happening in the market and with your customers. Make sure that you can adapt quickly, and that you are not too dependent on third parties. So make sure you have in-house pivot skills, both on a technical level and for business development."
Arnout (Yumii): "Resilience, don't give up. Dare to adjust. Set aside your own expectations and try things you thought would never work. Get out of your own head. A crisis like this is the worst thing you can go through as a startup. If you stick with the old situation or your own beliefs, your business won't survive anyway."
Max (Sportjobbys): "I thought this was an extraordinary pivot, especially because it affected me personally. You really got thrown back on yourself. What am I supposed to do now? At some point, it's time to act again. Take the first step, get back to work. You'll get to a point where you think, 'this feels good, this could work'."
Sander (Studenten Helpen Scholieren): "We started because of the corona crisis, so I wouldn't call it a pivot. We will have to pivot though, when the worst part of the corona crisis is over. The needs of pupils will change because of that."