Team:SDU-Denmark/Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney

Business model

The Business Model Canvas is a common tool used to provide the basis of a prospective business venture. The business architecture cards, which is a supplemental tool for the Business Model Canvas, was used for further saturation and detailing of the business model.

The illustration below recaps the business outline of the PROSTATUS test.

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The business model of PROSTATUS.

The most fundamental element of the Business Model Canvas is the scope of the value proposition.

The elaborated value proposition of PROSTATUS is:

  • PROSTATUS is a simple and easy to execute self-test that does not require extensive lab work.
  • PROSTATUS offers men a convenient and fast way of testing themselves for prostate cancer at home by maintaining their privacy.
  • An early detection of prostate cancer can save our customers’ lives.
  • PROSTATUS allows our customers a reliable risk assessment without the need for invasive procedures.

The canvas was moreover used as an input for generating design considerations that must be fulfilled to ensure that the target customers of the product are duly satisfied.

The Unique Selling Proposition of the product is:

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The unique selling proposition of PROSTATUS.



As stated in the Business model Canvas the customer segment can be divided into two end-user subgroups:


End-user for PMT

With the PROSTATUS Prostate Malignancy Test (PMT) we are addressing the target group of men, regardless of their race or ancestry in the age between 40 to 80 years. This age group faces an increased risk of getting prostate cancer diagnosed, which is the second most commonly occurring cancer in men and the fourth most commonly occurring cancer overall. Only in Denmark, our total addressable market is worth 494.100.000 DKK (~ 78.300.000 USD) including 1.38 Million men within our potential customer target group.

We are aware that not all persons within our calculated potential target group are automatically interested in buying the PROSTATUS self-test. However, we estimate men for whom one or more of the following behavioural attributes is relevant, are forming our segmented addressable market.

Behavioural attributes:

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Behavioural attributes of customers for the PMT

Thanks to global trends like health-consciousness and medical reconnaissance of the population, we estimate our segmented addressable market on 20%, which represent 99.200.000 DKK (~15.700.000 USD).

In addition to that, we see drivers for further and recurring sales in (1) each year, longer life expectancy of the general population would result in a growing target segment (2) the test should be retaken every 3 years to ensure there is no prostate cancer grown in between. If you know that you are predisposed to develop prostate cancer, the test should be taken annually.


End-users for CRAT

With the PROSTATUS Congenital Risk Assessment Test (CRAT), we are addressing a younger peripheral target group of men in the age between 18 to 39 years. Even though they are not in the critical age group for a prostate cancer diagnosis, the saliva test allows them to check, whether they have a potentially higher risk of getting prostate cancer in the future. Especially when relatives had prostate cancer before, there is an increased risk of getting it, too.

The size of this target group in Denmark is 0.73 Million men, which is worth 242.400.000 DKK (~38.500.000 USD).

Also, in this target group we are forming our segmented addressable market, associating the following behavioural attributes with our target segment:

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Behavioural attributes of customers for the CRAT

We estimate the size of the segmented addressable market on 30%, which represent 72.700.000 DKK (~11.500.000 USD).

We calculated our production costs applying the highest value principle, which means the shown costs of each section are representing our expected upper bound. In addition to that, the costs are based on relatively small purchasing quantities we bought for testing purposes and prototyping. We assume that the production on a larger scale will lead to a drastic cut in costs over all categories due to economies of scale, scope, and learning.



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Cost structure for PMT

We also applied the highest value principle to calculate the cost structure of our saliva test. Equally, we believe that the production on a larger scale will allow us to shrink costs for the above-explained reasons.

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Cost structure for CRAT



Implementing the project in the real world | Action Plan

Not all conceptual proven and basically working ideas end up in being a profitable start-up company. To assess the risk of funding, we would try to set up more expert interviews as our human practice team did earlier to gain more insights and experience. Especially within the field of drugs, self-tests, and diagnosis, it is typical that new products need to pass several clinical tests and stages before they get approved for sales. To what extent this will be necessary for PROSTATUS needs to be included with regards to time and capital for all further activities.

Assuming this is not an issue, implementing the project in form of our two products into the real world requires capital, key partners in manufacturing and sales as well as marketing efforts. Based on the expert interviews and investigations from our human practice group, we found out that there were two considerable ways of implementing PROSTATUS into the real world, namely the private and the public model:

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Potential market entry paths for PROSTATUS.

A possible way of implementing PROSTATUS into the real world based on the private model is displayed in the following action plan:

A great idea and the brand behind it need to be protected. Hence, before we turn PROSTATUS into a start-up company, we need to patent our product and brand.

Venture capital is essential to start any business. Therefore, we would try to collect starting capital using online crowdfunding platforms. In return of capital, we offer our private investors several PROSTATUS products depending on how high their investment is.

To produce our self-test on a large scale in the best profitable way, we need to find a key supplier like a pharmaceutical or biotech company. We are confident to achieve further insights and details into our target customer segment as well as more specific knowledge about prostate cancer and insights into their production techniques. In addition to that, we hope to get access to these key suppliers’ networks to reach potential sales partners.

Since our target customer group are mainly men between 40 to 79 years of age and most likely not all of them are familiar with the use of the internet, we need a nationwide retail chain as a key sales partner. Ideally, this partner has its own online platform we can use to sell our products as well. This adds additional privacy to those of our customers familiar with the internet.

The aim of our marketing campaign is to create awareness of prostate cancer within all our potential target groups. Since capital will be an issue, we need to focus on inexpensive but effective methods with a high range. As football is fascinating are fascinating men along with our entire target group, asking football players to share PROSTATUS on their social media channel or mentioning us in an interview could be an effective way.

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Movember foundation logo.

Also starting a partnership with the Movember foundation can lead to further attention on PROSTATUS. Thereby we need to consider that our marketing campaign should also reach the wives and girlfriends of our potential customers because they could also influence their partners to let them test for prostate cancer. We assume they will most likely prefer our PROSTATUS self-test over the inconvenient examination at their doctor.


Safety Considerations

We need to ensure that using our product is adding value to our customers' lives, not risk. Therefore, we designed our product in a way that the potential customer will not get in contact with any toxic liquids while using it. One action to ensure this is achieved by putting the enzymes in a form of powder inside a membrane. This membrane will only dissolve after it gets into contact with liquid for a certain amount of time.

In addition, we consider the CE certification as a guideline with regards to safety standards. A more detailed description regarding the CE marking consideration can be found under the human practice section of the proposed implementation.

Also, we are aware of the customers and environmental safety when it comes to the disposal of the product. Since the disposal highly differs depending on the private or public model implementation, more detailed consideration about the disposal is postponed.