Pratham Hombal – Final Project Reflection

The project was an incredible learning experience for me, especially as someone who comes from a more technical background. I’ve often approached presentations through the lens of early-stage startups, focusing on validating ideas, building MVPs, and testing product-market fit. This experience, however, gave me valuable insight into how later-stage startups operate and communicate their growth strategies. It was eye-opening to see how they frame expansion plans, evaluate new market opportunities, and justify product decisions to investors and stakeholders with a strong focus on scalability, financials, and operational execution.

Also, while I’ve previously crafted proposals for software-based products and platforms, working on Green Plate gave me a completely new perspective on developing and presenting proposals for physical goods. It required me to think differently about supply chains, production logistics, and customer experience in a more tangible sense. These are aspects that aren’t usually top of mind in software development. Understanding how to tie together the physical and business aspects of a product in a compelling narrative was both challenging and rewarding.

Overall, this project helped me broaden my perspective and improve how I communicate ideas to investors. Working with the group to fine tune the presentation’s details was also a fascinating experience. It was interesting to see exactly which details were more important to leave in the presentation than others. Compared with early stage startups, it seems that the details about the team’s background are not quite as relevant, whereas the company’s fundamentals and financial standing are more important to discuss in the introduction section. Also, because there are more metrics available to later-stage companies, there is more of an emphasis on determining tactics to expand that revenue by entering new markets than how to make the initial revenue. Understanding these differences made the difference between CEOs and product managers clear.