In a groundbreaking collaboration, SHERAA (Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center) partnered with LAILA—an AI-powered market research platform—to deliver an intensive 4-week workshop series for American University of Sharjah (AUS) students. The program transformed abstract business ideas into research-backed, validated concepts through a structured methodology emphasizing market research, customer profiling, and idea validation before building.

This case study examines how LAILA's AI-powered platform enabled 80 ambitious student entrepreneurs to rapidly validate their business concepts, with 10+ teams advancing to prototype development—all within just four weeks.

Early-stage founders, especially student entrepreneurs, frequently encounter three critical challenges:

• The Validation Gap: Most startups fail not from poor execution but from building products nobody wants.

• Research limitations: Traditional market research is costly, time-consuming, and inaccessible for early entrepreneurs.

• Building Too Soon: Entrepreneurs often rush to development before validating core assumptions.

SHERAA recognized these challenges among their student entrepreneurs at AUS and sought a solution that would instill proper validation methodologies early in their entrepreneurial journey.

SHERAA partnered with LAILA to implement a comprehensive, AI-powered validation program consisting of four progressive workshop modules:

Module 1: Market Research Fundamentals

• Leveraging LAILA to quickly identify market size and trends

• Analyzing competitive landscapes through AI-generated reports

• Applying TAM, SAM, and SOM frameworks to opportunity sizing

Module 2: Customer Profile Development

• Distinguishing between demographics, psychographics, and behavioral insights

• Creating comprehensive Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs)

• Identifying and validating customer pain points

Module 3: Concept Validation

• Implementing A/B testing for different messaging strategies

• Using LAILA's Concept Testing feature for real-time feedback collection

• Analyzing test results to refine value propositions

Module 4: Prototype Development

• Mapping user journeys based on validated research

• Translating insights into initial prototype designs

• Building MVP roadmaps with feature prioritization

The SHERAA-LAILA partnership demonstrates how AI-powered market validation can transform entrepreneurial education and significantly improve early-stage decision-making. By emphasizing research before building, the program successfully addressed one of the most common causes of startup failure—creating products without validated market demand.

This case study illustrates how institutions like SHERAA can leverage advanced tools like LAILA to create a new generation of evidence-driven entrepreneurs equipped to build solutions that truly resonate with their target markets.