The document outlines a technology entrepreneurship course assignment focused on a venture lab project aimed at improving financial literacy through an innovative platform called finfreedom.com. The project emphasizes multi-level marketing strategies, targeting rural populations, students, and professionals, while incorporating games and community-driven feedback to enhance user engagement. Feedback from initial customer interviews is guiding the development of the platform, highlighting the importance of customization, accessibility, and viable media channels for different segments.

1. Technology Entrepreneurship
course (Prof .Eesley, Stanford
online)
Venture Lab
Assignment submission-
Interviews,surveys,feedbacks and analysis for
corrective measures
Team – TechPreneurs
Team Member(s) : Prashant Sahay

2. Games and
contests
Stock Alert :
* Sample site taken from internet to illustrate the idea of our prototype

3. How do we intend to achieve our
Our value proposition value proposition.
1. Help millions learn finance in simple and easy
1. Multi level marketing - To attract new members
language in which they can understand the concepts
and apply them in all basic and daily transactions. and retain existing ones.
2. Have holistic approach towards finance to make 2. Investment in the company- One can buy stake in
use of it in daily walk of life. our company for as low as $1 . By virtue of multi
3. Provide innovative interactive means using layered membership escalation , the stake of all
articles, videos. podcasts. slideshows. images, etc to existing members grow with each new member in
help everyone easily grasp concepts. the chain.
4. Penetration in rural area which is otherwise 3. Gaming/contests/puzzles to attract masses not
isolated with respect to financial knowledge and to interested in finance but in entertainment .
build a large network of co –owners and 4.Personalized end to end solutions to members –
collaborators of our company.
a. Members driven – Members ask and other
members reply . Forum based.
b. Expert driven- Members ask and solutions
provided by our panel of experts/consultants.

4. Key features of our literacy site : finfreedom.com
1. It is based on concept of multi level marketing wherein one customer recommends the website to other .
Customer 1 can buy stake in our co. by investing some money .After that ,he needs to get others to invest
in our co. and based on the no. of customers made by 1st customer and his subsequent links, the share of
all in the chain will keep on increasing.
2. It caters to needs of students in high schools .This has been an untapped segment so far and we propose
to attract this customer base by including games, reward points, goodies, free educational trip etc. to
students who perform well over weeks.
3. We intend to educate masses in rural regions primarily because about 65 % of population of emerging
nations still reside in rural areas. We plan to attract them by organizing village fairs, weekly educational
classes in village community centers.
4. We have also identified armed forces ,small businessmen and retired professional as our potential
customers .We intend to contribute to the rehabilitation of retired personnel and army veterans. We
would offer then our” know all “ software at throw away prices as a part of our corporate social
responsibility.
5. Though we intend to educate the masses through online media primarily, we will also resort to franchise
model of business .this will bring in cash for us which can thus be applied in further growth of the project.
6. We intend to host weekend lectures on all major FM radio channels.
7. We intend to target the departmental stores and stationaries to stock and sell our learning tools like
workbooks bearing key fin concepts.
8. For ladies /households ,We intend to partner with DTH TV operators to include our educational software
in their package so that ladies could learn at ease in home while watching TV.
9. For students or youth not interested in finance but in entertainment, we intend to attract their attention
by advertising our product on popular entertainment sites like fb, youtube etc. .we intend to trap this
segment by introducing fun games like finance-ville etc.
10. No joining fee. Nominal software usage charge. Redeemable reward points.
11. We also intend to provide expert consultancy solutions (end to end) by one user to other. The idea is that
on a forum a member may post his problem(s). This problem will be open an any other viewer can see it
and provide his solutions . All solutions will be ranked/graded by other members and the solution getting
maximum votes/likes will get reward points.
12. We intend to provide professional consultancy solutions for critical problems through our pool of
experts. This will be chargeable.

5. Feeback analysis
After having conducted surveys to capture the key requirements of the people, we could
ascertain the basic features that our product would have.
Now after this step , It is time for us to know the following:
1.How good are our services and features and schemes and media which we intend to provide?
2.Will our potential customer think and accept the product with the same intention and fervor
as we Have while designing and providing the feature?
3.How will our potential customer interpret our offerings?
4.What are the additional things that s/he may need?
5.What are the things that s/he thinks are absolute crap and should be weeded out?
With these questions in mind we proceeded to have face to face detailed interviews with
customers (from our intended segments). We have till now conducted only 18 interviews and the
process is still in progress .We are continuously capturing the various feedbacks and modifying the
ideas accordingly.

6. Sample interview and learning from it
Sample interview for feedback and course correction
Interviewer : Mr. Prashant Sahay : P
Interviewees: Mr. Debashish RC ( working professional ) : D
Mrs. Moumita RC (Mr. Debashishs’ wife ,Housewife) : M
Master Raju RC (Mr. Debashishs’ and Mrs. Moumitas’ son) : R
(I took this interview from a family at their own home. In order to get genuine and undulated opinion from them , I chose this
family who did not know me or my start up beforehand. I approached them via a common friend .
I called them up and went to their house and provided them with the prototype of my product (finfreedom.com) . I explained
them the basics of my idea and plans. I asked them to go through the product and gather their thoughts for any questions,
suggestions or any other opinion for the interview day. )
Interview day.
P : Good morning Madam and Sir ! First of all , my sincere thanks and gratitude for giving me time for this interview and for
going through the reading materials that I provided the other day.
D: The pleasure was all ours’. We are more than happy to help you in your endeavor as we too believe that you are doing a
good work and the idea is work taking forward.
P : thanks for that sir !
P: ok ! so to start with can you please let me know of the your initial ideas about this product. I will start with the lady first .
M : Well P ! This looks good and let me tell you that it has many things to offer .I went through your prototype and I liked
it .The idea of learning from comforts of my home is simply great. Also you have made it so simple and explainative in
simple domestic terms that I got it in first instance. I liked your idea of mutual learning. I liked your proposal for live
interaction between various members .It can work like a social media . I also liked your idea of donation for social causes.

7. P: Ma’am! Thanks for your assessment of positivity of my product.
Sir ! What can you make out of my idea and the product ?
D: I totally agree with M. Apart from what she said , I would like to add that your idea has potential to grow .I was impressed
specially by your idea of tapping the untapped segment of rural masses. This is a huge block and is still untapped. I am glad
that you took this segment in consideration. You see ! still a majority of our masses live in rural and semi rural regions and
thus they have a big impact on our economy . If they can learn to use their financial resources efficiently then the country will
stand to gain in totality. What goes round comes back to you. So if a rural person makes a good financial choice, then he will
stand to get good financial benefits in turn.
I loved your idea where in forums, people interact with each other to discuss and solve their financial issues. Thus you are
trying to make a self-sustaining network of members where you don’t need to indulge at all . This media helps people to
carry forward this platform all on their own with your intervention. If people have some complicated problem ,then you
propose that they seek help of experts which is again a great facility.
I liked the concept of customization of learning based on any members’ qualification, time availability and media availability.
You propose to use the concept of multi level cooperative for stake ownership. This will attract more and more people to
your organization.
I even liked the financial games/puzzles.
P: thanks sir ! that was really an enriching feedback .
: R ! what was your opinion ?
R : the screen looks good and attractive but there are many things that I could not understand. I liked the games /teasers
and puzzles. I solved few on my own.( say with pride) . I liked the way you are trying to tell us about use of money in terms
that I can understand with the help of games.
P: thanks R !
: Maam ! please let me know of the things you didn’t like and which you would like to be added or deleted?
M: though I have net connection ,but I understand that many of the housewives will not have any assess to it.So this can be
a pitfall for you. You won’t be able to connect to larger segment of this group.You also need to make the learning interactive
for us . Why don’t you try to re design the learning to include teaching in terms of domestic terms which will go down well
with all housewives. Do something about it. You need to also look needs of rural women .you should concentrate on this in
your future stages.I would also like to say that in your future stages, can you also provide trading gateway for stockbrokers?
P: Maam ! I have noted down your ideas. There are indeed few suggestions that I need to think on work upon. For example,
the media for providing financial literacy to rural housewives. We will work on it.
: Sir ! if you may add something to what ma’am suggested?

8. D: First of all , wrt to the multilevel partnership scheme, you need to be sure that your outflow in not greater then inflows.
You should devise your rewards in such a way that inflow of revenue from this scheme should be greater then outflows.
Secondly, You are offering so many things. But you need to take it one at a time. You need to execute things based on
priority .For Example, you may launch your web enabled services first . Then you should go about the rural literacy
programme wherein you should contact the self-help groups and the village community centers for propagation of your
ideas. You need to think of media for housewives as nt many housewives have access to internet.
P(interrupts) : Sir ! we have thought of catering ot this problem by tying up woth satellite tv service providers which will
broadcast our channel . this channel will have puzzles and knowledge capsules .We also intend to tie up with FM stations for
our literacy programmes. This will help the adjoining rural regions.
D(continues): That’s an excellent measure. Please keep it up. Apart from this, you need to keep all monetary transactions
transparent. Donations are welcome but you need to ensure that it goes to correct hands.
Also you need to administer and modulate your forums. You have to keep on enriching the contents of your course material.
Think of how to make it accessible to rural masses? Think how to make it available at general stores? What can be your
products for that? Think of ways to educate even people who are illiterate.
P: thanks sir ! we definitely are thinking in the direction you are suggesting .however, we will think of plans to educate people
who are illiterates. That’s a really good suggestion.
: R ! what more can we do for you?
R: you need to make more games .(smiles) .he shows few popular games like Farmville on his facebook profile.
: you also need to tell me the project in a language that I can understand. Also can you design online games?
P: we will surely do that. Thanks for the suggestions R .
P: I think I have had a very enriching session with all of you. Some of the suggestions that you made are something which
we never thought of and it came as a learning for future for us. We will work on it.
: thanks once again.
D: we are happy to have helped you with whatever means that we could. All the best for your this project.
Interview ends………………

9. Few notable feedbacks which helped us in course correction
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we do daily - an asian PM. o nc rs
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I am not intere sted. How can it help me in
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-Ms. Kalawati, Rural house
wife Ba
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-M blic
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Seems like a classic ponzi schema
-Ms.olga Ki, Member ,team Imagetech

10. Few learning from these interactions and way forward
1. Customize product.
2. Think of viable media for execution of your product to different segments.
3. Don’t take too many ideas at once. Focus on your priorities and handle things one by one.
4. Relook on your rewards and recognition schemes.
5. Think of your supplementary products and services.
6. Relook at your partnership scheme.
7. Make it more interactive.
8. Educating the illiterates.