Question 1 You and your friend conceive a business idea to connect pet owners in Singapore such that pet owners can help to take care of each other's pets for a fee, whenever the owners are not able to do so, during vacation, for example. Presently, there are various pet boarding facilities in Singapore. However, both of you feel that the current pet boarding facilities may be insufficient to cater to the increasing demand from pet owners as post-pandemic overseas travel resumes. Therefore, an app-based platform business can better connect likeminded pet lovers, allowing pet owners to take care of each other's pets, with a peace of mind, when the pet owners are away. Your friend is a software engineering student, and he will be able to design and develop the first version of the website and mobile app. And you, being a business student, would be looking into the commercial aspects of the business. Each of you can commit up to $10,000 to the business, but without a business track record and experience, obtaining bank loans and equity financing to fund your business would be extremely difficult and out of the question during the start-up phase. After a few rounds of discussion, both of you decide to appraise and test the business idea using a Validation Board before plunging into the new venture. After all, as both of you have yet to complete the tertiary education, you want to make sure that the business idea is viable before further committing time and money into it.

Required: You are required to analyse the information given above, and develop a Business Feasibility Assessment Report in a report format with the following sections: Section Title & Contents Marks

Executive Summary a summary of the various key points of the validation board exercise, main findings, and conclusion on the business viability and next steps, if any. Validation Board Construct a Validation Board based on the prescribed format The Validation Board should show the key points in the various required boxes. Validation Board Details Explain in narrative (proper paragraphs) for each of the following: (a) Customer Hypothesis (b) Problem Hypothesis (c) Core Assumptions Describe five (5) core assumptions, with suitable explanations and ranked from the most to the least risky. Identify and explain the riskiest assumption, and why it is selected for validation and the implication to the business if not well tested. (d) Method (i.e., Design Experiment) Describe a suitable approach to do a MVP that will allow to you to conduct the experiment to validate the core assumptions. You must take into account the limited funds and your present capabilities. (e) Minimum Success Criteria Explain, with suitable justifications, the criteria that should be met to validate/invalidate your assumptions. (f) Invalidating Assumption and First Pivot Select one (1) of the core assumptions made and assume that it is invalidated; you can provide any reasonable assumptions so that you can do and describe the first pivot. Describe, for the first pivot: (i) the Customer Hypothesis, (ii) the Problem Hypothesis and (iii) Solution Hypothesis. (g) Validated Assumption Select one (1) of the core assumptions made and assume that it is validated and explain why it is validated. Starting the Business Appraise the capital constrains and explain how both of you may be able to start the business venture, including areas of major expenditure requirements

Conclusion Appraise and provide a suitable conclusion to the viability of the business, and state the next steps to be taken if any.