#CEOGame #StartupChallenges #Entrepreneurship
Hey future CEOs! 🚀 Think you have what it takes to navigate the challenges of running a startup? Join me in the new game, “So, You Want to Be A CEO?” Let’s dive into the first prompt together:
🔹 Market Research:
– Start by conducting surveys and interviews with older job seekers and potential employers to understand their pain points.
– Utilize online platforms and social media to gather data on the market need for Boomerang.
🔹 Developing an MVP:
– Focus on creating a basic platform that showcases the key features of Boomerang, such as profiles for job seekers and employers.
– Use low-cost tools and resources to build a prototype that demonstrates the value proposition of your platform.
🔹 Dealing with Personal Health Issues:
– Prioritize your health and schedule a specialist appointment to address the irregularities in your bloodwork.
– Delegate additional tasks if necessary to ensure you can focus on both your startup and personal well-being.
What would you do in these situations? Share your game plan and let’s support each other in facing the challenges of entrepreneurship! 💡💼 #CEO #EntrepreneurialSpirit
Schedule your doctor appointment asap, go in as soon as they can see you. Nothing is more important than your health.
For challenge 1, find potential boomerangs within your 1st/2nd degree connections on LinkedIn, interview them. Do not spend too much time – this is not the hard part of this assignment.
See if you can talk to people who run return to work programs for big companies, which are typically aimed at mid career parents (mostly women) who have taken a decent chunk of time off to care for young children. Ask what works and what doesn’t, how they see the market for older workers, etc. Pay them if you have to for their time. Goals are to understand the operational mechanics of returning mid/late career people to the workforce, what works/what doesn’t, and if there’s interest/willingness to pay for a program for older workers.
Challenge 2 – Trick question. Create a short deck or very simple prototype (Figma, Bubble, whatever). Pitch to Chief HR officers or heads of recruiting in one or a handful of industries that are losing older workers and having a hard time hiring new ones. Pitch until you win a paid pilot. Only then, use LinkedIn DMs to reach out to potential candidates, create a totally rudimentary website for matching. Succeed, repeat.
Great idea for a game, looking forward to seeing the challenges and the responses!
I am not a HR executive turned entrepeneur so fortunately I don’t have these problems. I go back to working on my app.
1. Determine if you are targeting blue collar or white collar workers. Join Facebook groups for people seeking work or who are semi-retired(forced?) and are now doing things like selling stuff on Etsy of offerup for extra cash. Make friends, get to know them, ask questions on why they left and would it would to get them back. Basically the online version of “feet on the street”, don’t be afraid to sound like an idiot or be wrong, you’re learning about the market. At the same time, do 6-8 hours of market research finding companies (both successful and those that have failed) who are in this market. Also, go international and look at areas with against populations like Japan; google translate is your friend here. Look for interesting “threads to pull on” such as people bitching about why they left the workforce or how much X company(Walmart?) sucks to work for when your older. Dig through enough of these and you will find people who found an alternate means and are now successfully back in the workforce. The output of this will be your messaging to both your customer and/or investors if you’re well connected; different perspective but they will both understand the core problems.
2. Spend 4 hours late at night on Fiverr. You’re going to need some cheap help which means overseas and that means you need to be on their time zone. Find two people: one who has kick ass design skills and a little bit of html knowledge and the other actually knows html and css; designers who know a bit of html avoid making something that can’t be built. Your job is to come up with the content and messaging for the page BEFORE the next day when you’re going to meet with these two folks. Have the designer create a single slick webpage and have the developer implement it. The goal of this page is to garner interest, get feedback and collect email addresses when possible. Think HARO list building but with a google form.
3. Your blood work has probably been irregular for a while. The odds of you dropping dead between now and Friday are slim. Even if you see a specialist on Friday they will want to do more blood work and that will take several days to come back. Set the specialists appointment for the following Monday so they have a full week to work on your blood work.
1. I called the doctor and scheduled my appointment, was told next available one was a month away. Oh well, back to work. Jk, scheduled it. Can’t change my life if I die!
2. Research. With a 55+ yr old workforce market, focus near 55+ communities and honestly, try door-to-door. but anyway, survey/ask questions focusing on what they want to do with their skill sets, type of work they physically can/cannot do, availability, how far they are willing to go to work and if they want to work short term and/or long term assignments. Researching for employers, I want to focus on finding local HR representatives and utilize their network of previous employers and current employers to hire our users. Working on the MVP itself, focus on easy-access and simplicity. Thinking of simple profiles with easy to read descriptions of the employees/employers and the skills they need/have. These profile will also be a resume, but in a simpler form as a lot of the time the true knowledge and skill comes with the communication and execution. So by matching them, they can go into further detail of the work they want and can do. This should be a website and a mobile app but also look into a call center to help connect our users with HR, in any capacity. Something like an HR Ambassador. Make it easy.
This was awesome to think of and work on! Thanks for the opportunity, I’m kind of working on something like this but more on a social level and honestly needed this chance to think on it more cause I’ve been taking a break from it.
Cheers,
Create a weekly schedule that distributes the tasks evenly throughout the week. Plug this into chatgpt to create a day to day plan. Make sure to review every day to double check if anything is being delayed.
Assuming 5 days workweek
Deal with number 3 first.
4 days left to go.
Combine C1 & C2, how?
As I said in another post of mine, perceived value is key. So we will discover what’s perceived value for Boomerang.
This is a two sided market, senior job seeker & enterprises
1. Build user persona
*Senior Job Seeker*
Name: Robert
Age: 55+
Robert, is a seasoned middle manager with over 30 years of experience in manufacturing and operations management. Recently laid off, he seeks a stable job that leverages his leadership and strategic planning skills, with an eventual goal of transitioning into consultancy or part-time work. Facing challenges such as age discrimination and a need to update his technical skills, Robert is motivated by the desire for financial stability and professional fulfillment.
*HR Managers*
Name: Linda
Age: 34
Linda is an HR Manager at a manufacturing company with over 10 years of experience in talent acquisition and employee relations. Earning $95,000 annually, she is focused on improving recruitment processes and enhancing employee engagement. Motivated by professional growth and creating a positive work environment, Linda aims to advance to a Director of HR role and eventually become a CHRO.
2. Hypothesize perceived value props
Robert, I want to use Boomerang because:
“I can highlight my decades of experience so I’ll be noticed by various companies”
“I don’t get discriminated due to my age”
Linda, I want to use Boomerang because:
“I can find experienced hires faster compared to browse LinkedIn”
“I can see candidate’s achievements, certifications, and experiences in one page”
3. Conduct value props validation by interview, 1 to 5 people for each persona.
4. Linda finds that LinkedIn is sufficient for case of finding experienced hires.
Robert due to his age, doesn’t have LinkedIn so he isn’t yet exposed to larger job market.
5. Design an MVP with Figma using premade UX components
a simple dashboard that streamlines Robert’s UX to fill in his LinkedIn
a pre filtered page of senior hires for Linda
6. Realization this product is difficult to monetize, pivot.