What does it take to turn a simple observation into a viable business concept? For Executive MBA, jointly organised by BMI Executive Institute and Louvain School of Management, alumni Massimo Venegoni and Alex Carrella, the answer involved combining their professional experience, challenging assumptions and putting their EMBA learning into practice.
Their Capstone Project explored an idea they described as an “Airbnb for clothes” – a marketplace that would allow people to rent clothing for short periods rather than buying it or carrying it when travelling.
A business idea born from a real-life experience
The inspiration came from a familiar inconvenience.
Travelling to a wedding in southern Italy, Massimo had to carry a suit that arrived wrinkled anyway. It raised a simple question: wouldn’t it be easier to rent the right outfit at the destination?
What began as a practical observation developed into a much broader business concept during the EMBA Entrepreneurship week in Singapore in September 2023.
The idea was to create a marketplace connecting people who need clothing for specific occasions with those who have garments available to rent – from formal attire and traditional clothing to ski gear and statement pieces.
Looking more closely at the market, Massimo and Alex identified an opportunity at the intersection of two developments: the growing interest in circular fashion and the search for new revenue streams in the travel and leisure sectors.
On one side, retailers and individuals often have garments that remain unused. On the other, travellers and event-goers may be willing to pay for the convenience of having the right clothing available when and where they need it.
The question was whether these needs could support a commercially viable marketplace.
Bringing different perspectives to the same challenge
One of the project’s greatest strengths was the combination of Massimo’s and Alex’s professional backgrounds.
Massimo brought expertise in programme management and supply chain operations, focusing on the practical requirements of running a marketplace – from logistics, cleaning and returns to operational costs and financial viability.
Alex contributed his sales experience and commercial perspective, focusing on customer needs, market demand and the attractiveness of the proposed offering.
Their different approaches helped them challenge each other’s assumptions and explore the idea more thoroughly.
As Massimo explains:
“My reflex is to lay out risks and dependencies first, which is valuable later but can slow a team at the ideation stage. His was to ask what happens if this works.”
This balance between assessing risks and recognising opportunities allowed them to progress faster while testing the concept from multiple angles.
Putting EMBA learning to the test
The Capstone offered an opportunity to bring together knowledge from across the Executive MBA programme.
From entrepreneurship and marketing to finance and operations, the project required Massimo and Alex to apply different disciplines to a single business challenge.
Rather than simply developing an appealing concept, they had to examine the practical questions that determine whether a business idea can work.
Who would use the service? What would customers be willing to pay? How could the marketplace operate efficiently? And what evidence would be needed to convince potential investors?
The project also involved market research and discussions with experienced professionals in the online second-hand clothing sector, helping them better understand existing consumer habits and the infrastructure supporting circular fashion.
One of the most challenging stages was testing customer desirability.
“Which part of the market actually wants this? How much will they pay? And how do you prove it to an investor panel instead of asserting it?” – Massimo Venegoni
Working through these questions helped them move beyond assumptions and build a more structured business proposition.
Beyond the business plan: Learning what makes an idea viable
By the end of the Capstone, Massimo and Alex had developed a defined target market and a business model they could present and defend before a professional panel.
They also gained a clearer understanding of what would still be required to bring the concept to market.
Developing a functioning digital marketplace, even as a minimum viable product (MVP), would require technical resources beyond what was available to them during the project.
This became an important learning outcome in itself: recognising both the potential of an idea and the practical limitations that must be addressed before investing further.
For Massimo, the value of the experience extended well beyond the particular business concept.
“The transferable value for me was the method: how to move from a loose idea to something investable, and how to recognise when to stop.”
More than a final academic requirement
While not every Capstone leads to a new company, the experience of developing and testing a business idea can have a lasting impact on how executives approach challenges in their professional lives.
For Massimo and Alex, the project brought together entrepreneurial thinking, cross-functional collaboration, commercial judgement and the discipline of testing assumptions before committing resources.
It also demonstrated the value of learning alongside professionals whose experience and ways of thinking differ from one’s own.
Massimo offers a particularly relevant perspective to executives who might see the Capstone as simply another academic requirement:
“Not every Capstone becomes a business, and that is fine. But the possibility that one does is real, and treating it as a box to tick gives up that option for nothing.”
Their experience illustrates an important part of the BMI Executive MBA philosophy: creating opportunities for experienced professionals to explore new ideas, challenge established thinking and translate learning into practical capabilities they can carry into their future work.