Akhilesh Balasubramani

The objective of the project is to address the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and startups and employ service design to assist aspiring entrepreneurs struggling to launch their own businesses, as well as early-stage startups attempting to overcome the common obstacles that often result in failure. By analysing startup failures and empathising with the challenges faced by entrepreneurs, the project aims to create a service that would help budding entrepreneurs navigate the intricacies of launching a business.

Despite the rise of startups and new-age high-growth industries driven by technology and innovation, startup failures remain prevalent even in the UK's thriving private sector. With 60-70% of startup ideas stopping at the pre-incubation stage, entrepreneurs face numerous challenges that can hinder their success, such as lack of knowledge and skills, limited resources, and uncertainty about the market. While incubators and accelerators offer valuable resources and support, they may not always be the best option or solution for every entrepreneur or startup.

These programs have extremely low acceptance rates, high costs, and may not align with the entrepreneur's business goals or needs. They prioritise solely on the growth of the business and tend to ignore the well-fare of entrepreneurs. Therefore, entrepreneurs require more accessible and customised help and support to overcome these challenges and increase their chances of success.

In carrying out the research, I diligently identified the problem, allowing me to empathize with budding entrepreneurs and startups, gaining clarity on their struggles. This key understanding played a crucial role in planning the subsequent steps for the project.

Recognizing that the project's focus area was initially broad, I understood the importance of narrowing down the key focus area. By seeking answers to pertinent questions, I successfully honed in on the specific aspects that required attention.

It became apparent that while many resources focused on addressing the challenges faced by established businesses, there was a significant oversight when it came to acknowledging the struggles encountered by individuals during the business setup phase. This realization motivated me to fill this gap by providing a comprehensive solution that encompassed all the problems entrepreneurs face, as existing services fell short in this regard.

To gain deeper insights, I delved into published articles and blogs that aimed to address these specific issues. This in-depth examination proved beneficial in furthering the project's objectives and broadening my understanding of the subject matter.

I have focused my project on catering to small-scale entrepreneurs and leveraging my role as a service designer to provide them with a transformative service that turns their ideas into successful businesses.

The proposed solution/service is a mobile application that encompasses the following features:

Meet: This feature enables users to connect with other skilled individuals for potential business partnerships. It allows users to discover people with diverse backgrounds and skills, find suitable partners to start a business together, offer freelance services based on required skills, and provide consultancy services to fellow entrepreneurs working on startups.

Learn: Through this feature, users can access educational resources tailored to their needs. They can search for topics they wish to learn more about, participate in skill-sharing activities where they can teach their expertise to others (either for free or for a fee), and even sell valuable research data, presentations, case studies, and other resources to assist fellow entrepreneurs.

Connect: This feature includes social sections where entrepreneurs can share thoughts and insights about entrepreneurship. It facilitates random connections with other entrepreneurs using the app, and users can utilize filtering options to find and engage with specific individuals.

AI: The application incorporates an Entrepreneurial AI Assistant that takes into account user data, bios, goals, and skills to provide personalized answers and guidance to user queries.