Disciplined Entrepreneurship

We all seemed to have agreed that hypothesis building and testing is crucial to a successful venture. This said, I recently acquired access to a energy audit database formed by Diagnostic Energy Auditors of Western Pennsylvania (DEAWP). The hypothesis there is that there is a relationship between household parameters and energy efficiency measures' costs/savings. Such statistical relationships (if valid) will be most important in our algorithm.

We are in the process of hiring summer interns and will pilot EEme with 50 households upon completion of the prototype this summer. We have to understand how smooth the user interaction is. Also, whether we are presenting our customized solutions in a sufficiently compelling way. I believe this summer pilot can make or break our venture.

Other at first obvious (at least to me) but still questionable hypothesis to test are our revenue sources. So far, we have been making the assumption that retailers, contractors and utilities will perceive a value in our venture and pay for our services. To test this, I will be meeting with retailers and contractors very soon. Utilities being very conservative entities, may need a working product before they are fully convinced that there is value in EEme. This was implied in my phone conversations with utilities although I was wearing my student hat.