Technology Product Entrepreneurship
CS9.424Ramesh Loganathan + Prakash Yalla•Monsoon 2025-26•4 credits
TPE Mock End-Sem Paper 3 (PYQ format — Spring Mock Set 3)
Duration: 180 min • Max marks: 100
Part 1 — Higher-Order Concepts (5 × 5 = 20 marks; Q5 bonus)
20 marks- 1.**Customer Segments — Women's safety wearable.** A startup is building a discreet wearable that pairs with a phone app to send an SOS with live location to pre-selected contacts and the nearest police control room. (a) Identify the primary target customer (it may not be the wearer). (b) State the dominant emotional vs functional pain. (c) Why might this be a *vitamin* not a *painkiller* for many segments, and which segment makes it a painkiller? (d) Suggest one channel to reach the segment that makes it a painkiller.5 m
- 2.**Hypothesis Formula — EV charging network.** A startup is rolling out a network of fast EV chargers along NH-44 (Delhi-Bangalore highway). Write a *Level-3* hypothesis using the Phase 3 formula 'My idea solves [problem] by [solution].' The problem must name the emotional / functional pain explicitly (not the activity 'charging').5 m
- 3.**Idea Hexagon — AR/VR for education.** Generate six startup ideas in immersive-tech-for-education using the Hexagon's six dimensions. Each must specify the target user (student / parent / teacher / institution) and the core problem.5 m
- 4.**Validation Survey Critique — Fintech for gig workers.** A founder drafted the survey question: *'Would you sign up for instant salary advances at 1% per day if we offered it?'* (a) Identify the bias in this question. (b) Rewrite it past-behaviour and quantifiable. (c) State the rule the rewritten question follows. (d) Suggest one additional survey question that tests willingness to pay without baking in the answer.5 m
- 5.**(Bonus, 5 marks) Your TPE startup idea.** Apply the Painkiller test: state your problem's Magnitude (consequence per occurrence), Frequency (occurrences per period per user), and Population. Compute the Total Addressable Pain (TAP). Conclude Painkiller or Vitamin and justify in one sentence.5 m
Part 2 — Advanced Framework Application (2 × 20 = 40 marks)
40 marks- 1.**Case: AgriSense — Soil-moisture sensor network (20 marks).** AgriSense deploys low-cost soil-moisture sensors in 5-acre fields and sends WhatsApp irrigation alerts to farmers in three states. Pilots show 30% water-saving + 12% yield improvement. Adoption is uneven: progressive farmers love it; traditional farmers ignore the alerts. The agriculture ministry is interested in subsidising rollouts. (a) Map the stakeholder ecosystem (seven roles) and identify three different versions of the problem statement (5). (b) Draw the Value Proposition Canvas for the *progressive farmer* segment. Map every pain to a reliever and every gain to a creator (8). (c) Apply STP to choose between progressive farmers / traditional farmers / state-government-subsidy channel as the primary target (5). (d) Identify the Riskiest Assumption and design a cheap MVP to test it (2).20 m
- 2.**Case: HealthLake — Hospital-data analytics platform (20 marks).** HealthLake offers a data-analytics platform to mid-size hospitals (200-500 beds), surfacing patient-flow bottlenecks and OR-utilisation gaps. Hospital admins like the dashboards, but department heads (cardiology, ortho, GI) say the recommendations 'don't account for clinical nuance.' The founders are at month 10 with 12 months runway. (a) Identify the seven stakeholder roles for this B2B sale and label which is Decision Maker, Buyer, User, CFO (5). (b) Draw the Business Model Canvas (nine blocks); fill every block specifically (10). (c) The CFO objects on cost. Identify which Cost Structure line is largest and propose how to reframe the conversation using *Inflow > Outflow* arithmetic over a 36-month horizon (5).20 m
Part 3 — Deep-Dive Case (40 marks: 15 + 10 + 10 + 5)
40 marks- 1.**Case: Dronely — Last-mile drone delivery for medicines.** Dronely operates a delivery fleet of small autonomous drones carrying urgent medicines (insulin, asthma inhalers, anti-venoms) from district hospitals to rural sub-centres within 40 km. Two pilots in Karnataka and Telangana show 35-minute average delivery vs 6-hour road delivery. Regulatory approval was granted under DGCA's 'medical lifesaver' provisional category. Three growth paths: (i) license the platform to government health departments on a per-delivery fee, (ii) sell directly to large hospital chains for inter-facility transport, (iii) partner with insurance / pharma companies for last-mile distribution to chronic-illness patients. Runway: 18 months. Tata Trusts has expressed philanthropic interest in funding a state-level rollout in three states. **(a) Strategic Evaluation (15 marks).** Evaluate the three paths against PMF, revenue potential, regulatory risk, scalability. Plot expected competitors / alternatives on the AHA Grid. Identify the Contenders quadrant occupant. **(b) Recommendation (10 marks).** Recommend the best path. Reference the FOMO/FOLS investor lens — what is the FOMO story, and what FOLS reassurance does your recommended path provide? **(c) Defensibility (10 marks).** Locate Dronely's primary advantages on the USP Defensibility four-tier ladder. Stack the tiers and argue whether the moat survives a well-funded entrant (e.g., a logistics giant like DHL). **(d) Synthesis (5 marks).** Demonstrate at least one cross-phase connection (VPC ⊂ BMC, or Validation Board ↔ Canvas, or 5Ws Who → STP Segmentation, or Painkiller + Contenders + Tier 1-2). Cite the connection by name and apply to Dronely.40 m
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