25A: What's Next

Existing Market. 

I think the next big step for my venture is creating a sense of community and creating an online platform where those who buy my HD treadmill can engage with each other.

During my interviews, I received the feedback that I should incorporate fitness tracking into my HD treadmill. My interviewees both had apple watches and loved being able to track their fitness data and progress. Tracking stats and progress is the next feature I plan to work on.

Based on my own thoughts and customer feedback, the first step I need to take is finding a way to fund this project. I’ll need to evaluate the pros and cons of different ways to raise money like crowdsourcing, taking out loans, reaching out to my network and eventually, maybe seeking out venture capitalists. Secondly, I need to work on R and D and developing a user friendly and appealing product.

New Market.

I think the next big step for my venture is manufacturing an HD treadmill that reaches a lower-income demographic. Having busy work schedules and not finding the time to go to the gym is a universal problem in today’s world. At first I can do this by setting up an affordable payment plan for my current HD treadmill that will go as low as $50 a month. Eventually I’ll manufacture and release a less expensive version of the HD treadmill.

After interviewing two fellow college students about my idea, they agreed that a payment plan of $50 a month would make my product more affordable to lower income households. They liked the treadmill but weren’t sure it would be worth the price because, with this payment plan, it would take years to fully pay off the treadmill. They would need to be very convinced that this treadmill was worth it before making this investment. 

From this interview I learned that, to target lower income families I would really need to work on marketing and product awareness. The HD treadmill is a big investment and this market segment needs to be certain that it’s worth their money.