Business model design for social startup
Proportion & VIsion Vijana
Having poor eyesight can diminish the quality of life. But factors like trust, being afraid of losing employment, no time and money for transportation withhold Kenyans to make an appointment and test their eyesight. Furthermore, the cost of prescription glasses will scare many people to go to an optician.
"Vision Vijana" a Kenyan startup, developed a mobile eye testing kit together with on-the-spot prescription glass assembly. This kit, the size of two suitcases, enables trained mobile opticians to test people's eyesight and provide them with the right glasses right away.
A business model for Vision Vijana was created based on stakeholder interviews, co-creation sessions with potential mobile opticians, and ethnographic studies during fieldwork in Kenya. A promising market for the mobile kit was identified in the transportation sector. Selling eye tests to transportation companies, enabling their truck drivers to get free tests and glasses. In this way both eyesight and road safety are improved.
By using a B2B model a more stable cash inflow is guaranteed and barriers for people to get their eyes tested are overcome. A pilot test has been performed testing the concept with truck drivers and consolidating the first contract with a transportation company.
