Idea submitted to Harvard iLab's VIP program for Fall of 2014

1. The hub for women
The Venusian: App
A Hub for Women
Launching at Harvard University Fall 2015, Spring 2016 all Ivy League Schools
www.TheVenusian.com facebook.com/TheVenusian #VenusianHUB @VenusianHUB
Download the App from Apple iTunes & Android Marketplace

2. The Venusian Hub’s Mission:
To connect women to each other and to untapped resources
that will accelerate their growth and development

3. The Venusian Hub
The Venusian Hub connects college students
to each other and to alumni advisors while
offering daily information and tips on career
counseling, trends and advice

4. Concept
 The Venusian hub aims to aid in closing the gender gap that exists in leadership
and executive positions in Fortune 1000 Companies.
 The Venusian is an integrative hub that assists women in the academic system to
reach their potential by connecting them to successful alumni, and is thus
differentiated from other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc…
 Students gain visibility and engagement with alumni who seek intelligent women
for mentorship and potential employment opportunities for their own businesses
and pursuits, creating a bi-directional benefit for all involved.
 Daily interest and interaction will be maintained with a host of other resources
such as resume and cover letter tips, interview skills, calendar of meetups and
events created by students and alumni.
 Motivated students gain connections to each other to form alliances for
entrepreneurial and academic advancement

5. Two Sided Market
 Primary side: Undergraduate female students aged 18-23 and graduate
females aged 23-33
 Targets seek guidance and connections related to careers in their fields of interests,
internship acquisition, self promotion to potential employers, mentors and
entrepreneurial pursuits.
 For launch, Harvard female undergraduate population is 3,500. Goal is to acquire
1000 students, or just over 25% by December 2015
 Scale to other universities once Harvard reaches critical mass
 Secondary side: University Alumni.
 Targets seek an alternative way to give back to their alma mater by helping
promising young candidates. The App will give them an outlet to extend
mentorship, internship and employment opportunities while sharing relevant
content and solutions from their respective fields.
 US based Harvard alumni population is 271,000. Goal is to acquire 300
alumni, or just over 0.1% by October 2015
 Scale to broader alumni population after Harvard

6. Product/Service
 Venusian Hub: mobile app connects college students with alumni
advisors to help with career coaching, job searching and general
advice
 The central idea is to provide an ongoing, app-mediated interaction
between motivated students and experienced alumni.
 The App will also connect female students to each other to form valuable
alliances with those interested in similar pursuits.
 In addition, the app will promote daily engagement by providing
useful tools and content
 Content themes include interactive evaluation from recruiting
professionals, career counseling including a series of online surveys such
as Myer-Briggs and VIA Strength Test, tips on how to gain traction in their
intellectual and professional pursuits, as well as interesting news and
trends.

7. Mockup of Venusian Forum on iPhone
MENUThe Venusian FORUM
Wendy Hillman
Jane Kimpton and 15 others found this
helpful
MENUThe Venusian FORUM
Mary Booker -
Harvard
Under what circumstances should
you get a loan when you start a
business? I know it’s key to have
enough cash, but I worry about
accumulating too much debt…

8. Mockup of Venusian Forum on iPhone
MENUThe Venusian FORUM
Great question – I don’t think
the experience hurts. You
are interested in social
media, so getting going early
pays off…
Should I already apply for an
internship? Mary Booker
– Harvard ‘18
Wendy Hillman
- Harvard ‘98

9. Pricing and Revenue
Model
 Price to download the App FREE
 As with social networks Facebook and
Twitter, Revenues will be achieved by
selling targeted ads/sponsored content on
the app
 User data will be used to target ads and
provide advertisers with an attractive
audience
 Curation of the data collected from the
Forum will keep the Venusian and Harvard
community informed of the trending
academic & career oriented pursuits of the
female student population, which will drive
the direction of the generation of daily
content
MENUThe Venusian FORUM
Want to understand more
about yourself? Click here
for your Myers Briggs test
Myers Briggs

10. Distribution
 The App will launch on both Android and iOS
platform marketplaces: iTunes App Store, Android
Marketplace
The apps will first be promoted on the Harvard
campus and to the Harvard alumni community, and
will then move on to other universities.

11. Launch
 Launch the Venusian App in Fall 2015, to connect Harvard
college students with alumni advisors. (Expand to other
universities after Harvard’s network obtains critical mass.)
 300 alumni sign up as advisors to Harvard students and
download the App by October 2015.
 1000 students from various divisions of Harvard download the
app in 3 months time, by November 2015.
 Recruit 10 student ambassadors promoting the Venusian
network and contributing to information from each division of
Harvard.

12. Scale Up
 After the Harvard launch reaches critical mass, the network will be promoted and
launched at other institutions
 We will follow Facebook’s scale up model, going from university to university
ensuring each community reaches critical mass as it becomes connected to the
hub
 A launch team will go to each new university to promote the concept, connect
with the student and alumni populations and recruit ambassadors to expand reach
and champion the concept
 Longterm: Potential for students and alumni to connect across universities as the
network scales up, creating a universal and unified hub to empower and coach
promising female candidates
 Collecting the data on the trending topics and solutions crowd sourced from the
alumni and student populations can provide insight to academic and professional
trends which can lead to an incentive for a yearly Venusian Publication.
Measurement of the success of the App can be found by measuring the number of
mentorships, internships and number of employment opportunities gained by the
student participants as well as calculating the number of meaningful engagements
and additional contributions that were obtained from alumni participants.

13. Marketing
Direct Marketing:
Email Campaign for incoming students, current degree
students, and alumni
SMS Direct marketing to mobile phones with link to
VenusianApp and website
Personal Selling:
Encourage Harvard Faculty to promote to students
Encourage Harvard’s women’s clubs to spread the
word, highlighting the benefit of being able to link to
these clubs through the App

14. Promotion
Public relations:
Press release of launch to all Harvard channels,
Harvard websites, Harvard Clubs, homepages, campus
radio stations
Advertising:
Harvard Twitter audiences, Facebook, LinkedIn
Links to App tweeted to Harvard Twitter Audiences
SCAN CODE and ad for the App in The Crimson and
other Harvard publications such as Colloquia
Bulletin boards at Harvard Campuses

15. Promotion
 Promo ad placed on coffee banners on Starbucks coffee at Lamont
Café and other dining places all over Harvard campuses.
 Promo ads placed in all Harvard fundraising campaigns where
alumni are invited
 Café Press competition for most inspirational and original quote for
The Venusian with logo, proceeds going to winner with the most
sold items with the quote
 The Harvard Venusian Logo Design competition; students would
vote on the logo for Harvard division, and a logo and quote for each
of the separate universities. The design with the most votes gets
the logo printed on items sold at the Harvard Coop and websites,
credit given to designer

16. Additional Recommendations
Invite Oprah Winfrey as an Honorary Alumni
contributor and promote Venusian Hub on
OWN channels
Create a podcast available for automatic
download for subscribed users on the App