Here is the evolution of Betacards as a project. In it's history is reflected my way of thinking and decision-making.
The idea
It all started with some workshops we did at Miut to help clients get started with their new business ideas. We realized that some steps repeated no matter the project or the client. For instance questions at the beginning of every process: "Who's this for? What kind of problem is it solving?" and so on. So we worked on a framework that contemplated all of those steps for working with future clients.
It got us thinking "What if we create a game out of it? Visualizing this steps by some sort of board? or cards maybe?". Me and Rodrigo (co-founder, primary shareholder of Miut and mentor of mine) started prototyping Betacards with some post-its on the wall, discussing what the main areas would be, and started calling them "Mundos" which is Spanish for Worlds. We started seeing some potential even at this stage, simply by seeing how a little order help structure ideas.
Experiments
Not too long after we made our first experiment. We printed some cards to try the methodology in a workshop we were invited to. That test went much better than we expected. We were able to gather a lot of feedback (since it was really an early version of the idea). We were surprised at how useful it was for people using it. We decided to give the project more attention and resources (by resources i mean mostly time). Also it gave us some hints that it may not end up being a game, more like a tool.
From that point forward we adopted this Test-Build-Repeat approach, not too worried about not filling all the blank spaces yet. We wanted to know first hand where the value was before entering a polishing stage. From a design perspective, we focused on legibility and color coding to help guide the process. We picked yellow as the main color of Beta, a little homage to it's post-its origin, and the Museo Sans font because it has personality but mostly because it worked pretty well in a printed medium and small size.
Building a community
From that point forward we adopted this Test-Build-Repeat approach, not too worried about not filling all the blank spaces yet. We wanted to know first hand where the value was before entering a polishing stage. From a design perspective, we focused on legibility and color coding to help guide the process. We picked yellow as the main color of Beta, a little homage to it's post-its origin, and the Museo Sans font because it has personality but mostly because it worked pretty well in a printed medium and small size..
Viability
While doing experiments, tests, validations, etc, we kept going to the question of how could we turn this into a business. We set the price for a typical 3 hour workshop using Betacards to be USD 300. At first we split it 100 Beta / 200 the facilitator. But it was a little messy trying to get in the way of each transaction the facilitators made, and once they had the cards, we didn't give them much incentive not to bypass us. So we knew it was a temporary model.
We didn't let that stop us though. After 7-8 months we started to see an opportunity in building the business model around certifications. We found a potential market of people who already were in the business of helping founders and companies navigate innovation. We sell them a certification that can be renewed each year. It includes videos, the set of cards, some tools like a presentation deck and a step by step guide of the whole process and of course, access to the community. Made some spreadsheets, modest projections and decided we were going that way for a while.Slow-but-steady growthRight now we are still on that path, and we also decided not to rush it. We like having a some what organic growth. So far it has kept the community a place where like-minded people could interact and grow around the idea of "Starting companies in a better way", more focused on the user/client, aware of the global issues and with transformative purposes.
Some final thoughts
Visual design was an important factor. As a founder having the ability to put a deck quickly to attract the first facilitators was pretty handy. Also gave me the liberty to do the web on no-code platforms (first Squarespace, and then Wix) pretty much by myself.
Design-wise I also created the first 2 versions of the printed cards, and then decided to outsource it because it took time that i might better spend wearing a founder's hat.It was a really good 360 experience of starting a business by making things that didn't scale, discovering a potential market, and then put it on a growth path. We don't plan to look for investments since with some the current margins we could start making a profit in less than a year if we reach our sales goal, that aren't that far fetched.
