Lean Canvas and the Flea Market

Day 3 opened with homework and presentations of business ideas and how they are being tested using the Validation Board introduced in Day 2 the previous week.

Two of our presenters used the opportunity to introduce their ideas anchored in social entrepreneurship. Charity though, was not on the agenda as the presenters and the class explored the need for a commercial and sustainable business model if their ideas were to gain traction.

The final presenter, a budding app developer, shared his idea about an app for Kasi promoting events in the community. The conundrum of the two sided platform and how to resolve it certainly dominated the class discussion!

After short listing one’s ideas it’s time to apply the Lean Canvas, and flesh out the business idea into something more substantial.

While there was no shortage of business ideas to take into the Lean Canvas module, Green Village was lucky enough to have two members of the Slovoville workshop lead the class and apply the Lean Canvas to a live situation.

A small cohort drawn from the Slovoville workshop are collaborating to launch the KiPiDi Seed Market – a spring day flea market to be held on Saturday, 3 September at the Slovoville Community Hall.

Refilwe and Mbana shared their journey and how they are applying the Lean Canvas to help them work through the challenges of bringing the flea market to life.

Interestingly, a major challenge is promoting the flea market and building awareness of the project in the Ward 53 community. Talk about the need for an app or website that promotes local events in Kasi! Our coder in the class received all the validation he ever needed to take his idea to the next level.