Build Mode returns with another episode. This season focuses on lessons learned from the world of go-to-market strategies. Startup Battlefield editor Isabelle Johannessen recently spoke with Luna co-founder Jas Schembri-Stothart and Untapped Solutions founder Andre Peart. They shared their unique perspectives on reaching niche customer segments, drawing from their own experiences as candidates in the 2024 Startup Battlefield competition.
In the first episode with Deon Nicholas, co-founder of Forethought AI, the discussion explored what it takes to create a company with a customer-first approach. This second episode dives into guerrilla tactics and experiments that worked for reaching two very different target audiences: teenage girls and formerly incarcerated workers.
For Luna, a well-being app for girls, the difficulty in reaching that audience was clear. The co-founders were no longer teenage girls themselves. To get the feedback and insights they needed, Schembri-Stothart and her team toured schools in the U.K. They described the experience as basically getting grilled by students, who provided harsh but clear feedback and even expressed interest in helping build the app. These students became the beginning of a swarm of brand ambassadors. They acted as behind-the-scenes queens working on the app itself and as creators making social content to promote it. This group became a go-to-market team of their own, setting up activations at major events like Taylor Swift concerts where they knew their target audience would be gathered en masse.
Untapped Solutions faced a different challenge. As a platform described as a LinkedIn for the formerly incarcerated, founder Andre Peart had to find a way to deploy the platform into the many places where currently or formerly incarcerated individuals could access it to help them attain employment. In a space largely untouched by tech solutions, they hit the speaking circuit hard. They also began their own National Reentry Coalition and launched their own event, which kicked off this April. Alongside partnerships with agencies that work with the six hundred thousand people released from prison annually, this has led to increasing ubiquity. Peart stated that they are in almost every prison system, so if you are on a tablet, you already have Untapped.
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