1) A team created an app called PocketRobin to help adults with autism build skills and form healthy habits through reminders and goal setting.
2) User feedback showed forming habits was more important than skills alone, so the app pivoted to focus on habit formation with a virtual assistant.
3) Testing found users engaged more with an accountability buddy feature, but willingness to pay was unclear.
4) After further customer discovery, a redesigned landing page promoted the app's value of managing meltdowns and reducing caregiver stress, resulting in an 8% conversion rate for a $9.99 monthly subscription.
3. KIM SCHREIBER
MBA
“Picker”
KIM SALONER
MBA
“Hustler”
EMMA CHEN
Master’s in CS
“Hacker”
PAULINA BIERNACKI
Education PhD
“SM Expert”
TIFFANY LIU
CS Undergrad
“Hacker”
Week 1
App to help adults with autism
develop confidence and
independence
MARIA LENA POPO
“Mentor”
SABRINA RAMOS
“Designer”
NEURODIVERSITY NERDSPocketRobin
Now
Intelligent Meltdown Manager
for adults with autism
120
interview
s
4. Value Propositions
Channels
Customer Relationships Customer Segments
Key Resources
Key ActivitiesKey Partners
Cost Structure Revenue Streams
Local resource centers
& non-profits
particularly with
housing and vocational
resource matching
Local Governments
National NGOS: Autism
Speaks, Easter Seals
Initial skill assessment
Individualized goal setting
Interactive learning
modules
Engineering
Neurodiversity expertise
Week1
Suppliers: App
platforms and cloud
service providers
Gamification & certification
Community-building
Education Curriculum
Design
Marketing
To increase
independence and
confidence of adults
with autism
To relieve caregiver
burnout and increase
caregiver confidence
in abilities of their
dependents
To provide fun and
simple to use skill-
building curriculum
built specifically for
adults with autism via
a mobile app
Automated services -
personal online profile,
customized user
experience via
assessment
Communities
App platform 30% fee
Continued
development costs
Marketing/advertising
Content development
& research
Technology support
services
Mobile App Via
Caregivers
Mobile App via Word
of Mouth
• Local resource
centers
• Meetups
• Blogs
Adults with DSM 5
Level 1 and Level 2
autism spectrum
disorder
Caregivers of adults
with DSM 5 Level 1 and
Level 2 autism
spectrum disorder
Caregivers of adults
with autism via a
monthly subscription
Employers of adults
with autism
Monthly
subscription fee
(private pay) by
caregivers
Fun and simple-to-use
skill-building curriculum
built for adults with
autism via a mobile app
1) Adults with
Autism Spectrum
Disorder (user)
2) Parents
(payers)
Increase self-sufficiency
Reduce parent burnout
5. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
Our starting hypothesis was that skill-building is the major
challenge for adults with autism facing “the cliff.”
Skill-Building
Curriculum
MVP 1:
Paper Prototype
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
6. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
We found that it’s not new skills, but turning new skills into
HABITS.
“Without reminders, I’ll
forget to take a shower or
set an alarm.”
Adult with autism
"I think habits make a bigger
impact. It’s easy to learn
skills but hard to integrate
them into daily life.”
Parent
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
7. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
Habit
Formation Tool
Skill-Building
Curriculum
Skill-building
curriculum
Would you like to match with a peer with similar goals?
Yes
No. I want to do
it alone
Great! You have set a reminder for:
Wake up at 8 am everyday,, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Every day, 8 am
MVP 2:
PocketRobin
Virtual Assistant for Reminders
So we pivoted to become a virtual assistant to form healthy habits
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
8. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
Adults with autism wanted this virtual assistant,
Parents wanted a resource-sharing platform.
“I need a virtual
assistant that gets me
out of the house.”
Adult with autism
“I wish there was a single
place I could go to have all
my questions about autism
answered.”
Parent
Resource
Sharing
Virtual
Assistant
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
9. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
We tested a virtual assistant vs. a resource sharing app.
Virtual Assistant tool
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
vs
“Siri for Autism”
Resource Sharing
“Yelp for Autism”
6% conversion
rate for BOTH!
213268 Landing page visits
5093 Comments, likes, and shares
1215 Form fills
13. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
We found social engagement was a huge motivator.
I wish I could make friends
and have friends to come
over.
Adult with ASD
Friends, social activity and
helping others motivates me.
Adult with ASD
6
7
8
9
1
0
15. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
Hydrate more
Ennio
Study 30 min
Dan
Exercise
Tameem
Leave by 8:45
Nicholas
Pray daily
Brian
Shave daily
Nick
Shower
Patrick
Make bed
Katie
“Want to continue for another week?”
Users were more motivated with accountability buddies.
6
7
8
9
1
0
17. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
Ok, customers
like your product,
but can you
make money??
...but the teaching team encouraged us to make sure we were on
the right track...
7
8
9
1
0
Ok, customers
like your product,
but can you make
money??
18. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
We asked our customers: “How much would you pay for our app?”
How much
would you pay
for that mom? It’s your money,
son, how much
would you pay?
Uhh...
Uhh...
Willingness to pay was… unclear.
We needed to run more tests.
7
8
9
1
0
19. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
$9.99 / month
0.00% Conversion Rate .6% Conversion Rate
(not statistically significant but still sad)
We built a new pricing test, hoping for the same 6% conversion
rate
7
8
9
1
0
Free
22. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
Parents wanted peace of mind, and adults with autism wanted
support to prevent meltdowns
Adults with AutismParents
9
1
0
8
9
1
0
“peace of
mind”
“manage
my fears”
“I have coping
skills but forget
to use them and
then have
meltdowns.”
25. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
Next, we explored revenue streams beyond private pay.
“Anxiety attacks and
meltdowns cost
$20,000 per hospital
stay per person.”
“We invest in products
that lead to higher
employment rates for
our clients.”
1
0
26. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
Institutional partners ARE willing to pay for PocketRobin.
“I’ll give you $5,000 to
run a 6-month pilot on
100 of our clients.”
- Labor & Employment
Specialist at the
Colorado Regional
Center
1
0
27. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
World-renowned autism self-advocate Temple Grandin
is consulting with us.
“You
should find
Key
Opinion
Leaders!”
Emmy and
Golden Globe
Winner
Time 100’s Most Influential People,
National Women’s Hall of Fame inductee
28. Continuing
the business
?
YES! We are all in :)
Milestones:
● March 2019: Continuing testing assumptions
around emotional support app
● April 2019: Apply for grant funding for initial
development & launch website for early sign-ups
● May 2019: Build initial app with emotion trackers
and anxiety reduction modules
● May 2019: Initial investor meetings with impact
funds and foundations begin
● June 2019: Roadshow across the U.S. to share app
and collect user feedback
● September 2019: Secure seed funding
● October 2019: Launch Version 2
Year - Round - Fundraise - Revenue Milestone
● 2019 Seed $1 million
● 2020 Series A $5 million
$120K
● 2021 Series B $15 million
$1.2M
29. Acknowledgements
Thank you so much to:
Our designer, Sabrina
Our mentor, Maria Popo
The teaching team
Shire House group home
And all of the LLP
students/teams!
30.
31. Total Addressable Market: $71.5B
(5.5M US citizens w/ autism) * ($13,000 avg cost of disability support programs)
Target Market: $15.7B
44% of high functioning autistic adults
Served Available Market: $35.8B
(50% of 5.5M paying for college-level support) * ($13,000 avg cost of disability support programs)
31
Y1-Y3 Revenue: $120, $1.2M, $12M
Estimating $10/mo subscription fee *
subscribed users (1000; 10,000; 100,000)
Sources: US News Autism Housing Network Autism Speaks
Market Size
Editor's Notes
Here is a short summary of our 10-week journey
Each of our lives have been touched by someone with a cognitive disability. This company is for my brother (schreiber). For my mother (saloner). For my friends (Emma). For my students (paulina). And for my brother (tiffany).
Here is our WHOLE team - including our designer Sabrina! And our mentor Maria!
We started as : an app to help adults with autism develop confidence and independence
120 interviews later w. adults with autism, caregivers, service providers, employers...we are PocketRobin! A virtual assistant for emotional regulation for adults with autism
Suggested alternate wording for the last 2 sentences [Paulina]:
After 120 interviews with adults with autism, their parents, service providers such as therapists, and industry insiders, we are…. PocketRobin! An emotional support virtual assistant for adults with autism
This is our original biz model canvas
Mobile skill building curriculum that is: fun & simple to use built to increase self-sufficiency and reduce caregiver burnout.
TWO core customer segments - the adult with ASD and their family - who are seen as the payer
And, our revenues come from a monthly subscription fee
So our starting hypothesis was that skill-building is the major challenge to adults with autism facing “the cliff.”
We built a paper prototype and got outside the building...
Connected with a local group home for adults with autism called Shire house and began attending weekly game nights and connecting with other organizations across the country.
We heard from caregivers that HABITS make a bigger impact and the key is integrating new skills into daily likeWe heard from adults with autism who struggled to remember daily habits like showering and setting alarms
BUT it turned out that The challenge for people was not about exposure to new skills as much as it was turning new skills into HABITS.
So we pivoted to become a virtual assistant to form healthy habits and built a new MVP: a chatbot for daily reminders.
ADVICE: Focus on ONE skillOur main job to be done: Habit formation through Intelligent reminders
And we built our 2nd MVP: a chatbot for daily reminders
Another voice was emerging at the same time. Parents were really frustrated by how difficult it is to find resources for autism. Our team was becoming divided about what to focus on...So we decided to do a value proposition showdown!
We launched a THREE DAY Facebook ad campaign, pitting the virtual assistant app against the resource-sharing app
We got strong positive signals for both, with 6% of visitors leaving their contact info on each landing page! This was huge!
[CLICK]
But the BIG DIFFERENCE was that the virtual assistant app had stronger virality, with almost twice the number of comments, likes, and shares.
--------
Week 4:
Hypothesis: We thought customers would favor a resource-sharing app over a virtual assistant app.
MVP: Facebook ad campaign testing conversion rates for two different ideas
Key insight: Conversion rates were strong for both products, but virtual assistant was more ‘viral’
Bottom line: We decided to focus solely on the virtual assistant!
Secondary insight:
Channel insight: Word of mouth is powerful. This is stronger for virtual assistant MVP than resource sharing mvp.
This week we affirmed our understanding that word of mouth is powerful, but not free. We added app store to our channels and considered how to add these channels in our financial models
Virtualize and simplify the slide maybe
Week 4:
Hypothesis: We thought customers would favor a resource-sharing app over a virtual assistant app.
MVP: Facebook ad campaign testing conversion rates for two different ideas
Key insight: Conversion rates were strong for both products, but virtual assistant was more ‘viral’
Bottom line: We decided to focus solely on the virtual assistant!
Secondary insight:
Channel insight: Word of mouth is powerful. This is stronger for virtual assistant MVP than resource sharing mvp.
This week we affirmed our understanding that word of mouth is powerful, but not free. We added app store to our channels and considered how to add these channels in our financial models
STATS:
Virtual Assistant tool
Number of people reached: 5,290
Likes, shares & comments: 93
Link clicks: 235
Landing page stats
Visits: 268
Conversions: 15
Conversion rate: 5.56%
Resource Sharing: “Yelp/Nextdoor for Autism”
Number of people reached: 3,999
Likes, shares & comments: 50
Link clicks: 209
Landing page stats
Visits: 213
Conversions: 12
Conversion rate: 5.63%
By popular demand, the winner was our virtual assistant!!
[CLICK]
Because virality is key to our word of mouth channel strategy. Even a competitor told us “We rely on word of mouth because this is such a strong community.”
And word of mouth was already working for us!
Jonah Berger, an autism specialist in Colorado, actually printed out a flyer we posted online,
[CLICK]
He handed it out at his class for adults with autism.
Word about PocketRobin spread...
And suddenly people were reaching out and signing up for our Beta version.
So we doubled down on the Virtual Assistant!!
BUT we saw users’ interaction with the chatbot decrease over time. Now, the bigger question was, how would we keep users engaged?
We reflected on what users said was motivating to them.
[CLICK]
We heard that making friends was a big challenge.
[CLICK]
And that social activity was motivating.
So we added an accountability feature into our habit forming app. For our 4th MVP, each of us was paired with an adult with autism.[CLICK] We set daily goals and motivated each other via text message and photos.
Users were more motivated with the social component. And after 1 week of testing we asked, [CLICK] hey want to continue for another week
[CLICK] We heard - YES! almost everyone wanted to continue with PocketRobin.
We were excited to have found product market fit.
[CLICK]
And updated the canvas to include the accountability buddy system.
But the teaching team reminded us: You’re a for-profit, you have to make sure your customers will pay for this! Where’s the money!?
So we asked two of our customers, a mom and son, how much they would pay for our app.
[CLICK]
Neither was clear on who would pay, and we needed to test our pricing assumptions.
[CLICK]
Our original landing page offered our product for free and had a 6% conversion rate.
[CLICK]
To see if customers would pay for an accountability buddy, we built a new MVP with pricing.
[CLICK]
Although this ad reached fewer people than our original test, the results were disappointing: we had a 0% conversion rate when we showed pricing!
-------
Compare to the free virtual assistant landing page with 5.56%, there is 0 conversion on the $9.99 accountability buddy landing page
ADD QUOTE - parent said to pay, child said he will not pay
… this is a massively negative signal
we got sad and everyone freaked out. this was our moment of DOOM AND GLOOM. mixed signals from caregivers.
We like to call this the moment of doom. This was a rude awakening for our team. Yes, we’d found a product people liked using for free but they weren’t willing to pay. Sure, we screamed for a minute, but then brushed ourselves off and got started on deeper customer development.
Remember those customers who’d signed up for our virtual assistant? We reached out to ALL of them to find out what had drawn them to our product and why they signed up.
Through these interviews, we uncovered what “virtual assistant” meant to our customers and why they would pay.
Caregivers wanted peace of mind & progress tracking. To them, that meant help for their child in managing fears and anxiety in real-time.
Adults with autism told us: ““I have coping skills but forget to use them and then have meltdowns.” They wanted a virtual assistant to help with that.
---
In interviews, we heard that people wanted peace of mind via a PORTABLE TOOLKIT for ANXIETY that identifies triggers, offers real-time self-calming support and intelligent emotional tracking to see progress over time.
“People have coping skills but they forget to use them”
“An app to increase self sufficiency & peace of mind”
“I want a virtual assistant to help me manage my fears”
Other possible language we can include:
“Overcome a lifestyle of chronic worrying”
“promote self-awareness with on-the-go calming tools”
----
WEEKS 1-3
STARTING HYPOTHESES:
Out of three value props (peace of mind, daily progress tracking, smart scheduling), scheduling would be the most popular
That customers would be willing to pay at least $4.99/month.
TEST / GOOB:
Created FB ads testing our 3 value propositions
A/B tested landing pages with 2 pricing options: $4.99/month vs. $9.99/month.
Interviews at Shire House, in Colorado(10 adults with autism, 16 caregivers, 9 service providers, 1 employers)
Met with businesses with similar business models through the teaching team and our mentor (This is where insurance option comes from)
WHAT YOU LEARNED:
The $9.99/month price got even more traction than $4.99/month (learning: we can test higher prices)
“Peace of Mind” and “daily tracking” were the top value props
People want and will pay for a virtual assistant
Received a statement of intent for a 6 month pilot at the Dept. of Vocational Rehab in Colorado ($5000 over 6 months)
If we can prove reduced hospitalization/insurance costs, insurance companies may be willing to partner and pay
WHAT YOU HEARD:
Keep your landing page SIMPLE!
Test WTP by showing the price + clicking “Sign me up!” button, then offer a free trial
WHAT CHANGED AS A RESULT OF LEARNING:
Our revenue streams expanded from pure private pay to working with state Depts of Vocational Rehab and exploring insurance options
After reframing our caregiver value prop with these new learnings, we went from a 0% conversion rate to an [CLICK] 8% conversion rate for a price of $9.99 a month, which was crazy, and we felt confident again that we were on the right path.
Our new MVP FIRST asks you to [CLICK] submit how you feel on a scale from 1-5 throughout the day, and when your [CLICK] emotions peak, we trigger customized coping mechanisms [CLICK] like soothing music or instructions to go to a quieter place. Over time, the app learn the user’s [CLICK] schedule, [CLICK] locations of high anxiety, and [CLICK] anxiety triggers, and [CLICK] pro-actively prevents meltdowns.
=======
Our next MVP was a dashboard [CLICK] of emotional support tools for adults with autism - it checks in with the user a few times a day as it learns the users [CLICK] schedule, [CLICK] location and [CLICK] anxiety triggers.
Over time, it pro-actively prevents meltdowns by queuing custom coping strategies.
While discovering that there IS a private pay model for our product, we also explored TWO other revenue sources: [CLICK] Insurance companies interested in reducing anxiety-related hospitalization costs AND [CLICK] state governments as part of their autism service model.
IN FACT: the Colorado state government gave us a statement of intent to run a 6-month, $5000 pilot [CLICK] on 100 of their clients.
At this point, we are confident that we’re on our way product-market fit for a potentially 80-million dollar annual revenue business at 30% market penetration.
[CLICK] In addition, in one of our office hours, Steve Blank told us to look for Key Opinion Leaders. [CLICK]
As we were working on this final presentation, we got a call from Temple Grandin, [CLICK] who is quite literally the face of autism! She’s the most famous autism self-advocate in the world, with movies, [CLICK] books, [CLICK], and more [CLICK]. We’ll be consulting with her moving forward.
Our goal the whole time has been to help adults with autism navigate the world and be more confident and independent, and we’re thrilled where our project has landed us now. This is just the prologue to our adventure as a start-up, and as I know [CLICK] everyone is wondering if we are continuing.
The answer is, [CLICK] YES WE ARE ALL IN! And we are so excited to [CLICK] continue exploring the autism space and developing PocketRobin.
Last but not least, we’d love to give a huge thank you to all of the people who have helped us along this journey. This entire process would’ve been impossible without you--thank you!
We started at the cliff.
[Click]
We felt great, building a skill building app
[Click]
Then our customer interviews sent us mixed signals, we were feeling confused and divided as a team.
[Click]
But we came together, really excited with a new idea for an accountability buddy app.
[Click]
That’s when the devastation hit. We got negative signals on our value prop and felt defeated.
[Click]
Nevertheless, we trudged on, meeting with advisors, mentors, and reforming our value prop.
[Click]
We started feeling positive again, and even more bonded as a team.
[Click]
Our customers were sending us positive signals too.
[Click]
And here we are today, excited to see where pocketrobin leads us next.
Economic Costs
The cost of caring for Americans with autism had reached $268 billion in 2015 and would rise to $461 billion by 2025 in the absence of more-effective interventions and support across the life span.
The majority of autism’s costs in the U.S. are for adult services – an estimated $175 to $196 billion a year, compared to $61 to $66 billion a year for children.
On average, medical expenditures for children and adolescents with ASD were 4.1 to 6.2 times greater than for those without autism.
Passage of the 2014 Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act allows tax-preferred savings accounts for people with disabilities, including autism, to be established by states.
Passage of autism insurance legislation in 48 states is providing access to medical treatment and therapies.
More than half of young adults with autism remain unemployed and unenrolled in higher education in the two years after high school. This is a lower rate than that of young adults in other disability categories, including learning disabilities, intellectual disability or speech-language impairment
31% of children with ASD have an intellectual disability (intelligence quotient [IQ] <70), 25% are in the borderline range (IQ 71–85), and 44% have IQ scores in the average to above average range (i.e., IQ >85).
“The most recent attempt to account for actual special education expenditures ... found that average expenditures for a general education student that year was $6,556 compared to $12,474 for students with disabilities.”
http://www.michiganradio.org/post/how-much-does-it-cost-educate-student-special-needs-nobody-knows