- What are the technological, social, economic, and political trends that will impact (help or hurt) your ventures?
The technological, social, economic, and political trends of Sierra Leone as a nation are important considerations for our specific venture, as we anticipate our fieldwork trip there this summer. As a developing country, these trends would more so restrain our venture as opposed to helping it. Firstly, Sierra Leone’s technological trends fall behind other nations, although they have started partnerships to launch further technological development. This is an important factor to take note of for the implementation of our diagnostic device in Sierra Leone medical centers. We as a team must ensure that the learning curve and usability of our device is simple and straightforward for our medical professionals and healthcare workers to effectively use. Additionally, There are several factors affecting the economic and social development of Sierra Leone as a nation, including poverty, poor infrastructure, lack of sanitation, and lack of education. These trends would restrain the development of our venture, so our global partnerships are a big aid in launching our diagnostic device. There is a lack of education around Sickle Cell Anemia disease, which our team would have to take into account for our venture. Through the implementation of our diagnostic device, we plan to educate Sierra Leone communities about the disease and how diagnosing it at an early age can reduce mortality rates significantly. Partnerships with organizations committed to improving the infrastructure and sanitation in Sierra Leone would be beneficial to our venture, as both are needed to sustain medical centers and hospitals, where our venture is focused.
https://www.unicef.org/innovation/stories/sierra-leone-transforming-country-through-innovation
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/sierraleone/overview#1
- What is the Total Available Market and Total Addressable Market for your product or service? What are your customer segments?
The total available market for our product would include the guardians of any newborn born in Sierra Leone as well as the healthcare system in place. When considering the guardians of children, it is important to consider the fact that women in Sierra Leone often hold many responsibilities including child care, cooking, planting, harvesting and weeding. Furthermore, the average family size in Sierra Leone, which is around 5.9 according to the Population Reference Bureau (International Data). An estimated two-thirds of the population are Muslims, and about one-fourth are Christians. In regards to the economy, Sierra Leone is extremely poor with most of the working-age population engaging in subsistence agriculture (Sierra Leone – Economic Indicators). According to the World Food Programme, 53 percent of the population in Sierra Leone is living below the income poverty line, which is $1.25 per day. For this market, our customer segments are slightly segmented, as the lifestyle and income differs between those living in the rural countryside to the more urban areas including Freetown and Maketi. These areas are closer in proximity to hospitals, which would make the implementation of our device more straightforward, as we would be able to work with healthcare works and the systems that are already established in the country. On the other hand, those that live in rural countryside are less likely to attend hospitals to give birth and more likely to work with local healers. As a team, it will be vital to consider how our implementation of our product will look different when working with healthcare professionals or with local healers of different communities.
The total addressable market for our product is the guardians mentioned above that actually get their child to see a healthcare provider. As mentioned above, it is vital for our team to understand the implementation of our product in regards to healthcare professionals or local healers. In both these situations, we are working with an established health system. Our current plan does not provide for the device to be sold straight to the families because we want the connection to healthcare and treatment to be established right away if need be. Currently in Sierra Leone, more than 90% of births take place in healthcare facilities (Unicef). This statistic is reassuring in that we will reach many newborns through working in healthcare facilities alone.
Although our device is directed towards newborns – because of the lack of newborn diagnosis – it also works for people of all ages because of its wide dynamic range. The device will be accurate in diagnosis and identification for people of all ages and will likely be used to test an adult who is presenting with symptoms. The framework from the two paragraphs above is the same for adults using our device. Our available market is theoretically anyone with an unknown SCD status – whether symptomatic or not. But, we are only able to reach those who come into a healthcare facility to be tested. There are currently 1.4 doctors, midwives, and nurses per 10,000 people in Sierra Leone (Primary Health Care and Family Medicine). The healthcare worker shortage of about 32,000 poses another problem in our addressable market. Even if we get these people to the healthcare system, we must ensure they have the human resources to get tested and given a treatment plan. This will be a very important consideration going forward – especially in the implementation phase.
Another challenge for both addressable markets is cost. As mentioned, 53% of the population is living below the poverty line. Sadly, parents will likely skip the test if it costs them money and they have the choice. To avoid this burden and expand our addressable market, we will initially fund these devices through outside donors. Eventually, our plan is to work with the Pharmacy Board of Sierra Leone and continue the cost of the device being covered so individual families do not have to pick it up.
- What are your initial value propositions (using the format in the slides)?
- What Value do we deliver to the customer?
Health is one of the main values we will be delivering to our customers in Sierra Leone. Sickle Cell disease affects 50-90% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa, and majority of the children who have the disease are not being diagnosed (Sickle Cell Disease in Africa). With its extremely painful symptoms and high mortality rate if left untreated, we are offering our customers a chance to quite literally save lives. And not just any lives, but those of their own children. ,
- Which one of our customer’s problems are we helping to solve?
Our device solves the problem of the diagnosis of sickle cell disease being too expensive to be routine. This in turn will help to extend the lives of those with SCD as well as helping with birth planning. This will be done by the device diagnosing the sickle cell trait and will allow people to make more informed decisions about reproducing.
- What needs are being addressed?
- Not how you will deliver value
- Not necessarily about your product
- Not about what they are willing to pay
The device addresses the need of routine newborn testing for sickle cell disease. This is necessary to extend lives and must be made affordable to have an impact at a large scale. Our device is meant to address the need for people to be screened for sickle cell disease, as well as the need for data on sickle cell prevalence in countries where it is perceived to be very common.