Hey guys, First time ever Reddit post so take it easy on me :-) Thanks in advance for reading this post!!My background is Accenture F&PM (Finance & Performance Management) and Capgemini Consulting (Digital Strategy). I've also bootstrapped a $250K/yr business on side while in consulting but I'm quickly losing interest and am looking for my next project.I'm a big believer in doing market research by asking potential customers for advice/input/feedback so that's what I'm doing here. Idea OriginAs a busy consultant that traveled every week, I often struggled to make time for personal/professional development outside of work. A lot of my MBA and startup buddies and peers always talked about how awesome certain online courses or books were, but I simply never made time for them (you know how it is, you get home after a long week and the last thing you want to do is sit down and read or watch training videos for hours). So over the course of a year, I would pay for marketing, sales, communication, and leadership books and online courses but when it was all said and done, I probably finished fewer than 20% of the books I started. It was fine in my early-20s, but as I started moving up the ladder I realized work ethic alone couldn't make up for cutting-edge, "in the know" expertise (both hard skills and soft skills). I talked to a bunch of co-workers at other consulting firms and realized they struggled with the same thing - many of them wanted to continue growing their knowledge and skills (especially soft skills such as networking, relationship building, persuasion/influence, leadership/management, etc.) but they struggled to make time for it. They complained it would take them between 5-10 hours to finish a book, and when they did, they often either forgot the key takeaways or failed to identify opportunities to use it in their career or life. In essence, they failed to truly absorb the value from the material and while they might remember some things in theory, they couldn't realize tangible, real world benefits.The proverbial light bulb in my head went off and I started thinking...how can I help busy professionals and executive quickly "suck the juice" from books/courses/whitepapers/research papers...in a way that sticks with them and ALSO makes it immediately obvious (and easy) to apply to their business/career/life right away? Pain PointBusy professionals who don't have 5-10 hours a week to read business/self development books start losing their edge in the marketplace. Limits their opportunities for advancement of pay and status. Doesn't appear "in-the-know" during social interactions, meetings, events, etc.IdeaDistilling lengthy, time-consuming personal/professional development books of your choosing (or personalized recommendations) into quick, easy-to-digest PPTs (or entertaining videos) that highlight key takeaways and provides real-world application tactics to your specific career.Benefits1) Increase your knowledge of mastery of a valuable topic in under 30 minutes a week vs. 5 hours (average reading time for business books)2) Easily absorb key takeaways and tactics you can apply to your career right away3) Personalized book recommendations based on your career path, seniority, experience, and interests4) Look like the smartest person in the room at all times and never get left out of conversationsMarket Offerings/DifferentiatorsThere are plenty of executive summary services but they only address the issue at a surface level. Yes they distill the key takeaways from books into short text/audio format, but they miss the mark on two spots:1) Personalized books/training tailored to your career path (i.e., training split out by Consultants vs. Salespeople vs. Marketing and perhaps even by industry) and all "curriculums" are voted on by executives and leaders. We would start out with Consultants (Managers and Up) as they are on the hook for always being in the know and also don't have much free time due to long hours + travel.2) Personalized takeaways and real-world application techniques - our coaches distill key takeaways into action items you can implement right away in your jobPotential Upsell ServicePersonalized books/training tailored to your experience - each client would fill out a profile that details their experience, seniority, function, goals, challenges, strengths/weaknesses, etc. and our coaches would build a personalized curriculum and action plan for them.So what do you guys think? Would this be something you would pay for? Are other features could we add to make this more valuable to you? It's a bit early at this point, but what would be a reasonable price point to keep you in the know and at the top of your game at all times?Thanks so much for any feedback and advice - I really feel excited about this but hey, who knows, you guys might prove me wrong. I've already set up a bunch of calls with Senior Managers and Executives at Accenture over the next few days to get their take as well.Cheers,Aaron
