BACKGROUNDWhen Jennifer Beall steps in front of a group and shares the CleanBeeBaby story, she almost imme-diately explains that she does not yet have children of her own. She says it unapologetically and with a grin—knowing that her audience often presumes parenthood for those at the helm of baby busi-nesses. In fact, it is the first indication that Beall has never been all that interested in building a small c o m p a ny.Upon receiving her MBA, Beall went back to Roll—continuing her full-time job as a consultant for 18 months. At the same time, “flying under the radar,” she began to proactively pursue launch of her own company. Many work days ended at 3 a.m., a sched-ule that took a toll on her energy and her relation-ships (“my boyfriend dumped me”). Those costs aside, her entrepreneurial efforts began paying off quickly and quite literally. She used the seed funds to purchase a van, first supplies, and the equipment needed to start a Los Angeles operation. Within four months of hitting the road, her business was cash flow positive.Beall started realizing that the value of her ser-vice was so great to retailers, who told her their sales tripled or quadrupled on days when she vis-ited, that she had no need to pay them for “place-ment.” With this insight in hand, she began to barter for free space at baby expos and trade shows. The event organizer would get more sales, while Clean-BeeBaby would get free marketing to a large group of prospective and targeted customers. She would also trade free cleaning services for mommy blog-ger attention. She observed, “The few times I’ve spent money on marketing, I’ve felt that I’ve not gotten my money’s worth.” In addition to bartering for space, she eradicated what would otherwise be the second largest cost for her company (after labor)—convincing cleaning product manufacturers to sponsor CleanBeeBaby. At different points in time, both BabyGanics and The Honest Company provided free cleaning supplies to Beall; doing so helped them market their own wares.By July 2012, when Beall felt ready to leave the safety net of her “regular” day job, she also began noticing some of the challenges of growth. Among her discoveries: in the same way that her classmates had little passion for baby poop, those cleaning it (and other baby-related “stuff”) weren’t all that passionate either. They also didn’t love having to drive to a different location every day. Good and committed cleaning technicians were challenging to find—and, in the early days, almost impossible to keep on board. Beall spent four months driving her own van, cleaning a seemingly endless supply of seats and strollers, and meeting her customers. At the same time, she tried to build the business beyond its launch location. When Beall started the New York branch, she initially did it without local staff—instead moving there for a summer to build the business herself. Question:1.Who are CleanBeeBaby’s target customers, and what is the value proposition that CleanBeeBaby offers? What problem is Beall solving?

Question

BACKGROUNDWhen Jennifer Beall steps in front of a group and shares the CleanBeeBaby story, she almost imme-diately explains that she does not yet have children of her own. She says it unapologetically and with a grin—knowing that her audience often presumes parenthood for those at the helm of baby busi-nesses. In fact, it is the first indication that Beall has never been all that interested in building a small c o m p a ny.Upon receiving her MBA, Beall went back to Roll—continuing her full-time job as a consultant for 18 months. At the same time, “flying under the radar,” she began to proactively pursue launch of her own company. Many work days ended at 3 a.m., a sched-ule that took a toll on her energy and her relation-ships (“my boyfriend dumped me”). Those costs aside, her entrepreneurial efforts began paying off quickly and quite literally. She used the seed funds to purchase a van, first supplies, and the equipment needed to start a Los Angeles operation. Within four months of hitting the road, her business was cash flow positive.Beall started realizing that the value of her ser-vice was so great to retailers, who told her their sales tripled or quadrupled on days when she vis-ited, that she had no need to pay them for “place-ment.” With this insight in hand, she began to barter for free space at baby expos and trade shows. The event organizer would get more sales, while Clean-BeeBaby would get free marketing to a large group of prospective and targeted customers. She would also trade free cleaning services for mommy blog-ger attention. She observed, “The few times I’ve spent money on marketing, I’ve felt that I’ve not gotten my money’s worth.” In addition to bartering for space, she eradicated what would otherwise be the second largest cost for her company (after labor)—convincing cleaning product manufacturers to sponsor CleanBeeBaby. At different points in time, both BabyGanics and The Honest Company provided free cleaning supplies to Beall; doing so helped them market their own wares.By July 2012, when Beall felt ready to leave the safety net of her “regular” day job, she also began noticing some of the challenges of growth. Among her discoveries: in the same way that her classmates had little passion for baby poop, those cleaning it (and other baby-related “stuff”) weren’t all that passionate either. They also didn’t love having to drive to a different location every day. Good and committed cleaning technicians were challenging to find—and, in the early days, almost impossible to keep on board. Beall spent four months driving her own van, cleaning a seemingly endless supply of seats and strollers, and meeting her customers. At the same time, she tried to build the business beyond its launch location. When Beall started the New York branch, she initially did it without local staff—instead moving there for a summer to build the business herself. Question:1.Who  are  CleanBeeBaby’s  target  customers,  and  what is the value proposition that CleanBeeBaby offers? What problem is Beall solving?

Accepted Answer

While pursuing my MBA at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, I came up with the…