Aksharika Raja - Kelply - Venture Studio

Kelply is a reusable and biodegradable gel cold pack that can be used as plant food at the end of its lifecycle.

Designing the Business Model

Our Product (Value Proposition)

Cut open once received

Feed it to your plants

Throw the plastic in recycling

Enjoy a happy plant

Cut open once received ⇨ Feed it to your plants ⇨ Throw the plastic in recycling ⇨ Enjoy a happy plant

$18 — Retail

(for a pack of 3)

$1.1 — Wholesale

(minimum order of 100)

Testing the Business Idea

Step 1
Market Study — Talking to industry experts

“Everything we do in our business is to reduce waste and the gel pack is the biggest pain point for us. We’re stuck with what is currently available to us...”
—
Head of Sustainability
Imperfect Foods

“At Vertiv, we were really looking for biodegradable gel cold packs because our customers were asking us for it... Companies like HelloFresh were our customers...”
—
Head of Packaging
Veritiv Corporation

Step 2
Business Validation — Testing our customers' Willingness To Pay (WTP)

Unit Economics

Pricing Strategy

Step 3
Supply Chain Validation (from Vendors & Manufacturers)

“I am glad someone's thinking of a more sustainable solution for the gel cold pack, and I would love to be a part of this and manufacture your product. It's just what the industry needs right now...”
—
Prospective Manufacturer
New York

Sales Forecasting + Go-to-market Strategy

The mice-to-elephant approach.

We received a valuable market positioning insight from the Head of Sustainability and Social Impact at Blue Apron. They said —

"If you want Blue Apron to notice you, you would want to have an already established reputation, with some of their smaller competitors."