We caught up with recent Venture Accelerator Program alumnus, Copypants, to get some insight into their experience in the program last fall. Co-founders Chris Adlparvar and Maarten Haubrich share their greatest challenges, best words of advice, and how they’ve since sharpened their ability to continually learn from their customers.
Copypants is an automatic copyright protection service for photographers online. Their tool allows photographers to locate their unauthorized work online, then request credit, compensation, or ask that it be taken down. Copypants joined our Venture Acceleration Program last fall, to work on their business and learn from their customers.
Interview with Co-Founders Chris Adlparvar and Maarten Haubrich.
NVBC: What were/are the primary challenges facing your business and how did your experience in the VAP help address them?
Copypants: The goal was to gain traction – would enough people think this was a good enough idea to be viable? We also wanted to connect with the local startup community.
What was the most challenging part of the program for you?
Two areas were most challenging:
- It was difficult to implement the ideas and content that was being presented in the program into the business as quickly as new ideas and content were being covered.
- While working through the program, we realized that the changes we wanted to make to our venture were going to be difficult to achieve in the 12 weeks allotted. Some had to be shelved temporarily until after completion.
What was your biggest takeaway from completing the customer discovery interview portion of the program?
We did a lot of surveying of our customers beforehand, and felt as though we had a good understanding of what they wanted.
A big takeaway was understanding how to ask “how much will you pay for this?” in a meaningful and appropriate way. We had a sense of that beforehand, but we had always been coming from a market research perspective rather than actually speaking to our customers.
What are the best words of wisdom passed on from your mentor?
We discussed pricing and questions such as having enough data to confirm demand. Ean and Joseph [the program’s Executives in Residence] provided interesting advice, especially about talking to enough customers to corroborate our data.
How has the VAP helped your Venture move forward?
The customer interview component was really valuable. Also, having deadlines and an external group motivating us to work towards our goals was useful. We took stock of the focus on looking outward, rather than looking inward to improving our product. Overall, the VAP team was phenomenal, as was the feedback provided. We’ve now entered the BCIC-New Ventures competition.
Do you have any advice to future participants?
The VAP is a good program if you want to understand your customer. It is important to recognize that apart from all the readings, activities, and everything going on throughout the program, the focus is on how to create a process, or culture, within your business to continually learn from your customer.
Find Copypants online:
- Follow on Instagram
- Follow on Twitter
- Visit www.copypants.com
Join our next Venture Acceleration Program (VAP) cohort
The 3-month, cohort-based Venture Acceleration Program is targeted at very early-stage ventures in the customer discovery phase of development. Emphasis is placed on customer discovery, product market fit, and mentorship.
Want to be a part of our next cohort? Applications close June 3rd.
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