25A - What's Next?

Existing Market. 

Step 1: I would pair this platform with LinkedIn in order to expand the reach of the connections between interested students and recruiters. 

Step 2: (1) Increase the amount of companies interested in pursuing this platform. (2) Expand the college-side portal to include other colleges. (3)  Survey users on either side of the service to see how improve on the workings of the platforms. 

Step 3: 

I agree with the proposed next steps for CareerStream, and while all of those eventually would need to be considered in order to be considered a healthy and growing company, I would look to first pursue feedback from my initial customers, working on the interface and platform in order to ensure that the next step that I target has a better experience than the first one did. This way, there is visual growth from those already using it as well, knowing that I took their concerns and considerations into account when looking to improve the service, the feeling of being valued cannot be overlooked. 

As a secondary step, I would now look to expand my service to other colleges around the country, keeping the same list of companies and using that as an additional expansion to the company later on. This way, I can maintain business school who are interested in particular companies while not overwhelming the server and my employees with a massive influx. 

New Market.

Step 1: Because my company is currently a B2B, I would switch from serving in the academia industry to acting as a medium for those interested in presenting their pitches on products or services to companies looking to expand their R&D department.

Step 2: The reason for the radical transition is in order to have an open bidding and sharing platform of ideas in a way that would be safe under an NDA and Noncompete just to enter the platform for the protection of everyone’s idea. While Shark Tank is flashy, this is a way to effectively communicate in real time. 

Step 3: (1) Make sure the user interface is transitioned from student needs to entrepreneurs’ needs. (2) The metric that are going to matter for the interested R&D departments should be listed in the entrepreneurs’ creation of their page so the numbers are easily accessed by viewers. 

Step 4:  

There is a lot to consider when transitioning to a different segment of the market, regardless if the premise of the company remains applicable, the needs of the new consumer(s) will. There must be extensive research before pursuing drastic changes to the entire company.

I wasn’t necessarily surprised that my service could be so easily transferable because as an internet-based platform, the structure is key and then can be applied to multiple industries or needs as adjusted. I do not think, however, that it is more beneficial than my initial idea since I have more experience surrounding higher education and recruiting than corporate America.