सSaral Shiksha Yojna
Courses/Technology Product Entrepreneurship

Technology Product Entrepreneurship

CS9.424
Ramesh Loganathan + Prakash Yalla•Monsoon 2025-26•4 credits
Sample Papers/TPE practice paper · Paper 4

TPE practice paper · Paper 4

Duration: 120 min • Max marks: 100

Section A — MCQs (10 × 1 = 10 marks)

10 marks
  1. 1.** "A new material is invented; what are all its applications?" — which Idea Hexagon move is this? (a) Generalize (b) Fusion (c) Find the Nails (d) Find the Hammers1 m
  2. 2.** Which is the *third* step in Customer Development? (a) Discovery (b) Validation (c) Creation (d) Company Building1 m
  3. 3.** Customer Acquisition Cost for a Mary was approximately: (a) 1,000 (c) 15,0001 m
  4. 4.** The Five Filters' "Inherent Story (Virality)" criterion sits under which filter? (a) Customer (b) Product/Service (c) Economic (d) Timing1 m
  5. 5.** Which is *not* a key question of Customer Validation? (a) Have we found a scalable business model? (b) Have we found earlyvangelists? (c) Have we found PMF? (d) Have we calculated our IPO valuation?1 m
  6. 6.** Rolocule's first formal funding came from: (a) Sequoia Capital (b) Power of Ideas competition at IIM Ahmedabad (c) Apple Ventures (d) SoftBank1 m
  7. 7.** Eventbrite's founders were: (a) Brian Chesky & Joe Gebbia (b) Kevin & Julia Hartz with Renaud Visage (c) Travis Kalanick & Garrett Camp (d) Reid Hoffman & Jeff Weiner1 m
  8. 8.** Pine & Gilmore's progression places "a can of food" at which level? (a) Commodity (b) Goods (c) Service (d) Experience1 m
  9. 9.** In the BMC, which block answers "How costly are they?" referring to relationships: (a) Customer Segments (b) Customer Relationships (c) Channels (d) Cost Structure1 m
  10. 10.** Total Value, per the deck's value equation, equals: (a) Price − Cost (b) Value Created − Price (c) Value Created − Cost (d) Revenue − Marketing Spend1 m

Section B — MSQs (5 × 2 = 10 marks)

10 marks
  1. 1. Which of these are sub-criteria of the Economic Filter**? (a) Healthy Margins (b) Demand Constraints (c) Customer Loyalty (d) Supply Constraints (e) Sunk Costs2 m
  2. 2.** Which forces does the deck list as influencing every transaction? (a) Demand side (b) Supply side (c) Founder ego (d) Formal/informal rules (e) Time of day2 m
  3. 3.** Which of these are part of Pine & Gilmore's five-level progression? (a) Commodity (b) Goods (c) Service (d) Experience (e) Reputation2 m
  4. 4.** Which of the following Rolocule games used the F2P model on Apple TV? (a) Super Badminton (b) Flick Tennis: College Wars (c) Dance Party (d) Bowling Central (re-launched 2015) (e) Touch Squash2 m
  5. 5.** Which of these are valid Idea Hexagon *examples* from the deck? (a) Flickr → Share what? (anything but photos) (b) Banking → AI-powered Banking (c) Phone + Camera (d) Last-mile delivery → drones (e) Selling cars → renting cars only2 m

Section C — Short answer (6 × 5 = 30 marks)

30 marks
  1. 1.** Explain the three core components of a startup's DNA.5 m
  2. 2.** What does the deck mean by "the canvas is never finished"? Reference the Validation Board.5 m
  3. 3.** Apply the Oxygen Test to: (a) WhatsApp for an Indian small-business owner, (b) Spotify, (c) a Rolex watch. Justify each classification.5 m
  4. 4.** What is a "long-tail customer" market, and why was it core to Eventbrite's strategy?5 m
  5. 5. Differentiate Customer Segments (a BMC block) from Market Segmentation** (the S in STP). When does each one matter in the TPE timeline?5 m
  6. 6.** Why did the strategy of "build for Apple TV only" hurt Rolocule, and how did they adapt for Bowling Central and Dead Among Us?5 m

Section D — Descriptive (3 × 10 = 30 marks)

30 marks
  1. 1.** Apply the full Idea Hexagon to the concept "online education for underserved rural students in India." Generate one realistic variant per dimension and briefly justify each.10 m
  2. 2.** Describe the entire process of customer development for a hypothetical AI-medical-imaging startup — from listing hypotheses to verifying the business model. Include the four-step test sequences for both Problem and Product hypotheses, name a likely earlyvangelist, and state where the pivot rule might fire.10 m
  3. 3.** Compare Eventbrite's situation in 2013 with HubSpot/SparkPlace's situation around 2012. Both companies faced a fundamental strategic question about their identity / market. State each question, the key data each company used to answer it, and how each company's choice would change its product, sales, and capital strategy.10 m

Section E — Long analytical (1 × 20 = 20 marks)

20 marks
  1. 1.** A deeptech startup has developed a patented technique for green-hydrogen production with 30% lower energy cost than incumbents. They have one industrial pilot signed. They want to raise a Series A. Build the full investor pitch using TPE frameworks — specify problem framing (with magnitude/frequency/trend), customer & stakeholder map, VPC, BMC, STP + Aha! Grid, USP defensibility tier, lifecycle stage, and a specific ask tied to milestones. ---20 m
  2. 2.** (c) Find the Nails (X↑ — solution exists, hunt for problems)20 m
  3. 3.** (c) Customer Creation20 m
  4. 4.** (c) $5,00020 m
  5. 5.** (b) Product/Service Filter20 m
  6. 6.** (d) IPO valuation is not a Customer Validation question20 m
  7. 7.** (b) Power of Ideas competition at IIM Ahmedabad (INR 20 lakh / ~USD 29K)20 m
  8. 8.** (b) Kevin Hartz (CEO), Julia Hartz (President), Renaud Visage (CTO)20 m
  9. 9.** (b) Goods (a distinctive tangible thing)20 m
  10. 10.** (b) Customer Relationships20 m
  11. 11.** (c) Value Created − Cost20 m
  12. 12.** (a), (b), (d), (e) — *Customer Loyalty is in the Customer Filter*20 m
  13. 13.** (a), (b), (d) — *founder ego and time of day are not deck categories*20 m
  14. 14.** (a), (b), (c), (d) — Pine & Gilmore's fifth level is *Transformation*, not Reputation20 m
  15. 15.** (c), (d) — Dance Party and re-launched Bowling Central were F2P (Apple TV initially, then tablets/phones)20 m
  16. 16.** (a), (b), (c), (d) — *(e) is not from the deck's stated examples*20 m
  17. 17. (i) Innovation — leverages a new technology or business model to create a unique, defensible advantage, often born from research labs (the TPE-relevant origin). (ii) Scalability — designed from day one to serve a massive market and grow exponentially without proportional cost increases (software vs consulting). (iii) Uncertainty** — embraces the Lean Startup methodology of pivoting and iterating on customer feedback, because the startup is a *temporary organization in search of a viable business model.*20 m
  18. 18.** Every BMC block is an *assumption* until validated by customers. Founders must continuously identify the riskiest assumption, design an experiment to test it, GET OUT OF THE BUILDING to run it, and record the outcome on the Validation Board in either the *Invalidated* or *Validated* column. The canvas is therefore a living document — it is "never finished" because each validation loop updates one or more blocks. Only after multiple loops do its blocks become evidence-backed rather than hypothetical.20 m
  19. 19.** *(a) WhatsApp for an Indian small-business owner:* Oxygen — order-taking, customer service, and supplier coordination all flow through it; cutting it off would meaningfully damage the business. *(b) Spotify:* Aspirin — eases the pain of finding and curating music; for most users, life continues without it. *(c) Rolex:* Jewelry — pure luxury and emotional signalling; not vital to any functional need.20 m
  20. 20. A long-tail customer market** is one where each customer purchases a product in low individual volume, but the *aggregate* demand across a very large number of such customers rivals or exceeds the volume of bestsellers. Eventbrite's strategy depended on this: each small event organizer (a yoga teacher, a cooking-class chef, a neighbourhood meetup host) generated small revenue, but the millions of such organizers globally formed a massive total market — one that incumbents like Ticketmaster ignored. The self-service product model was uniquely suited to this distribution shape: low CAC, no per-customer hand-holding, word-of-mouth growth.20 m
  21. 21. Customer Segments** is a BMC block that *describes* the archetypes of customers a venture currently serves or plans to serve (Sams, Marys, fleet operators, etc.) — used in Phase 4 to anchor the business model. Market Segmentation is the *first step of STP* — it's an analytical exercise that identifies *bases* for grouping customers (demographics, behaviour, willingness to pay) and characteristics that matter. Timeline: Segmentation (the verb, STP) happens *before* you can sensibly fill in Customer Segments (the noun, BMC); STP is the analysis, BMC is the resulting documentation.20 m
  22. 22.** Apple TV did not sell as anticipated, so Rolocule's bet on it as the *sole platform* meant Dance Party (built only for Apple TV) suffered from a thin addressable market. Combined with high music-royalty costs that limited the playlist, the game flopped despite USD 117K of investment. For Bowling Central and Dead Among Us, Rolocule changed the strategy: built the games to work on tablets and smartphones as well as Apple TV. Bowling Central was first paid (Jan 2015) then re-launched as F2P (mid-2015); Dead Among Us followed with similar changes. The lesson: avoid single-platform dependence; the platform owner's success is correlated with yours.20 m
  23. 23.** *(Sample variants.)* 1. Generalize: rural education → rural *skilling* (rural healthcare workers, plumbing, electrical) — same delivery model, different content domain. 2. Fusion: rural education + satellite internet (Starlink-class) → offline-first lessons that sync when satellite link is available. 3. Find the Nails: the same offline-first content platform → also delivers government scheme awareness, agricultural advisory, and PHC training. 4. Find the Hammers: how else to educate rural kids? Travelling teacher vans, radio-based learning, asynchronous voice-tutoring on cheap feature phones, AR/VR pods at panchayat centres. 5. Add an Adjective: *vernacular* + *AI-powered* + *gamified* rural education — generate dialect-specific content automatically. 6. Do the Opposite: instead of pushing curriculum from cities to villages, *collect* indigenous knowledge from villages and turn rural students into content creators paid in scholarship credits.20 m
  24. 24.** *AI medical imaging startup — full walk-through.* Hypotheses to test: Product (AI detects condition X with >95% sensitivity), Customer & Problem (radiologists are overwhelmed), Distribution & Pricing (per-scan SaaS), Demand Creation (KOL endorsements), Market Type (new market — AI-assisted screening), Competitive (vs Google's offering / Indian competitors). Test Problem Hypothesis: First Contacts with 30 radiologists → Problem Presentation (do you spend >40% of your day on routine X scans?) → Customer Understanding (validate they want this triaged) → Market Knowledge (size + buying centre). Test Product Hypothesis: First Reality Check (do they trust an AI's read?) → Product Presentation (demo) → More Customer Visits (test in their workflow) → Second Reality Check (do they pay?). Likely earlyvangelist: a radiologist running a high-volume tier-2 city diagnostic chain who actively shares the tool's value with peer chains. Pivot might fire if: after 30 First Contacts, no radiologist agrees the problem is in their top 5 — at which point the hypothesis "radiologists are the customer" is invalidated; perhaps the *hospital procurement office* is the actual buyer. Pivot back to Discovery. Verify: Verify the Product (clinical trial / validation study) → Verify the Problem (signed LOIs from buyers) → Verify the Business Model (a repeatable inside-sales motion). Then Iterate or Exit — at this point either expand or pivot.20 m
  25. 25.** *Eventbrite (2013):* Question = *"Are we a social media company, a ticketing company, or a high-growth transactional tech business?"* (and consequently, do we IPO or raise Series F at 12 per social share), TAM proxy via gross tickets / GDP in metros, multiples of comparable companies (Facebook vs Ticketmaster vs Airbnb/Uber/Etsy). Choice consequences: identity choice determines valuation multiple, investor expectations, exit timeline, and disclosure trade-offs. The founders chose *transactional tech* (Airbnb/Uber peer group) and accepted Series F over IPO. *HubSpot/SparkPlace (2012):* Question = *"Do we serve small Sams, medium Marys, or both?"* Key data: 5K acquisition cost; 50K LTV; 2 marketing ROI; 1.3M vs 0.5M market size; differing stickiness and cancellation rates. Choice consequences: product features (depth vs simplicity), pricing tier design, sales motion (inside vs field), software architecture, adjacent product roadmap. HubSpot's real-world answer was Marys-first, then resell to Sams via indirect channels. *Common thread:* both companies were forced to define their *strategic identity*, and the choice cascaded into product, pricing, sales, and capital decisions — exactly the cross-functional consequence the TPE course emphasises.20 m
  26. 26.** *(Sample full pitch.)* Problem framing (Phase 2): *Magnitude* — global green-hydrogen demand projected at 200 million tonnes/year by 2050; current grey-hydrogen production emits 830 Mt CO₂/year. *Frequency* — every industrial-fertilizer plant and refinery uses hydrogen daily. *Trend* — EU/India green-hydrogen mandates accelerate adoption. Oxygen-level problem for fertilizer producers under decarbonisation pressure. Customer & stakeholder map: *End user* — plant operator; *Buyer* — head of operations; *Influencer* — sustainability officer; *Decision maker* — CFO/Board; *Evaluator* — third-party engineering firm. VPC: *Customer Jobs* — produce hydrogen at lowest LCOH, meet ESG mandates. *Pains* — high electricity OPEX, capital lock-in of electrolyzers, carbon penalty risk. *Gains* — predictable LCOH, ESG compliance, optionality on carbon credits. *Pain Relievers* — 30% lower energy cost via patented process; *Gain Creators* — modular deployment + carbon-credit-ready measurement. BMC highlights: *Customer Segments* — large industrial hydrogen consumers (fertilizer, refining, steel). *Value Prop* — patented 30%-cheaper green-H₂. *Channels* — direct enterprise sales + EPC partnerships. *Revenue Streams* — long-term offtake contracts + technology licensing. *Cost Structure* — R&D, regulatory approvals, manufacturing scale-up. STP + Aha! Grid: Beachhead segment = Indian fertilizer producers under Mandatory Green Hydrogen Consumption Obligation. Plot competitors (NTPC, Reliance, Adani) — most are *Leaders* in scale but *Challengers* on LCOH; the startup occupies the whitespace at "high benefits (low LCOH) + moderate price" — i.e., a strong Contender position. USP defensibility: *Patent on the production technique* (Tier 1 — cannot be imitated) + proprietary operational data from the pilot (Tier 1–2). Plus EPC partnerships create switching costs (Tier 2). Lifecycle stage: Early (Series A) — MVP/pilot live, customer base forming, monthly revenue beginning. The Ask: "We are raising ₹50 Crore for 24 months to commission two industrial-scale units at our pilot customer site, secure two additional offtake contracts with tier-1 fertilizer producers, and achieve ₹15 Cr ARR by month 18 — establishing the first patented, cost-leading green-H₂ platform in India." --- ---20 m

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