Build Mode is back with another episode! This season highlights lessons learned from the world of marketing strategies. Startup Battlefield editor Isabelle Johannessen sat down with Luna co-founder Jas Schembri-Stothart and Untapped Solutions founder Andre Peart for their unique perspectives on reaching niche customer segments following their own nomination during the 2024 Startup Battlefield competition.
In our first episode, with Deon Nicholas, co-founder of Forethought AI, we explored what it takes to build a company with a customer-first approach. And in our second episode, we dive into guerrilla tactics and experiments that worked in targeting two very different targets: teenage girls and ex-incarcerated workers.
For Luna, which is a wellness app for girls, the challenge of reaching this audience was clear: None of the co-founders were teenagers anymore. To get the feedback and insights they needed, Schembri-Stothart and her team toured UK schools, “basically getting grilled” by students and getting tough but clear feedback and even interest in helping build their app. They in turn started a swarm of brand ambassadors, who were both “behind the scenes queens” working on the app itself and creators creating social content to promote the app, becoming their own go-to-market team and creating activations at big events like Taylor Swift concerts where they knew their target audience would gather en masse.
Untapped Solutions had a different challenge. As the “LinkedIn for ex-prisoners,” Peart had to find a way to make sure the platform could actually be deployed in many places where people who are already or have been incarcerated could access it in order to help them find work. And to do that, in a space largely untouched by technology solutions, they hit the speaking circuit hard and even started their own National Reentry Coalition and event, which launched this April. This, alongside partnerships with agencies working with the 600,000 people released from prison each year, has led to an increasing ubiquity.
“We’re in almost every correctional system,” Peart said. “So if you’re on a tablet, you already have Untapped.”
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