High school project idea · Business & Entrepreneurship
Design recurring value strong enough that customers would choose to stay after the first month.
Create a subscription concept that solves a repeat problem without relying on confusing cancellation or manipulative tactics.
Why this project matters
Create a subscription concept that solves a repeat problem without relying on confusing cancellation or manipulative tactics. This project feels different from a school assignment because the student serves people with a recurring need or interest, creates something visible, tests it honestly, responds to feedback, and explains the decisions behind the final result.
What you will create
Use these deliverables as milestones for Build a Subscription People Keep. Adapt the details to your interests, available time, and real-world opportunities.
Research repeat customer needs, membership cadence, delivery costs, churn risks, onboarding, retention, and transparent cancellation. Document the needs, constraints, credible sources, and perspectives of people with a recurring need or interest.
Turn the evidence into a focused plan for the subscription business prototype and retention plan, including success criteria, ethical boundaries, scope, and a realistic path to completion.
Create the first complete version of the subscription business prototype and retention plan. Include a subscription promise, sample first delivery, tier structure, onboarding flow, unit economics, retention system, and cancellation policy.
run concept interviews and a mock first-month experience, then measure what participants value, question, or would cancel over Record what happened, what failed, what users or reviewers said, and which changes you made.
Publish the final subscription business prototype and retention plan with a portfolio-ready case study showing the challenge, evidence, process, revisions, results, limits, and next version.
Make the work stronger
For Build a Subscription People Keep, use these checkpoints to protect the quality of the work without turning the project into a performance for admissions.
Skills you can build
College application value
Can demonstrate initiative, curiosity, reflection, and growth through the student’s choices, response to setbacks, work with people with a recurring need or interest, and development of Retention Strategy, Recurring Revenue, and Customer Discovery.
The goal of Build a Subscription People Keep is not to manufacture an impressive activity. Do real work, keep evidence of the process, and reflect honestly on what changed.
Build a Subscription People Keep is an original Compass educational starting point designed around real work, visible evidence, feedback, and reflection. It is not an admissions guarantee.