Community Consulting Program

Since 2008, the Duke Consulting Club has been offering its members the opportunity to get a hands-on, real-world consulting experience through the Community Consulting program.

Through this program, student led teams provide pro-bono consultancy services over the course of a semester or a year to local non-profits and start-ups often started by Duke alums. The program is thus a great opportunity for current student members to network with alumni and learn about the different fields they venture into.

The program has team building, problem solving and accountability at its core. Projects are usually geared towards the following fields:

Strategy & Business Development	Market Research & Analysis	Marketing & Publicity
Develop business models Write business plans Revenue projections	Competitive benchmarking Best practice analysis SWOT analysis	Marketing strategy Fundraising strategy Customer segmentation

“Being a project leader was one of the best learning experiences I’ve ever had at Duke. During my sophomore year, I was the project leader for a fin-tech startup names Zogo Finance. My team and I worked closely with the CEO on a weekly basis, and we all learned a lot about piloting an app and growing the user base of an app. As project leader, I learned a lot about making tradeoffs since there is always a lot to be done in a startup, but not always enough manpower. It was a truly unique and powerful experience, and I look forward to facilitating more great projects this year as a Co-Director”. 

-HUGH LOVE

“My involvement with Community Consulting has been one of the most rewarding experiences I have had while at Duke, because of how it has allowed me to blend my interests while working directly with exciting startups. As a sophomore, I was lucky enough to work on the Trim.AI team developing a pricing model and analyzing the competitive landscape of the market. Trim.AI is a startup founded by a Duke alumni which used artificial intelligence and chatbots to streamline the administrative health data collection process in hospitals. I have long been fascinated by the application of technology to healthcare problems and the business side of startup management, and Trim.AI engaged all of these topics simultaneously and it was a tremendously rewarding growth experience to be involved through Community Consulting”.

-MATTHEW BRECHER

“This past year, I was the Team Leader working with Baebies, a Durham-based company developing innovative solutions and services to improve neonatal care across the world. We worked exclusively with FINDER^™, a revolutionary product using 50 microliters of blood to execute time-sensitive tests.  Our team was asked to expand the customer base for FINDER^™. Research was conducted by surveying the best hospitals, clinics, and private practices for neonatalogy and pediatric cardiology, namely on current tests they run , their advantages and disadvantages  and what tests they wish were available. Extensive information was tabulated, and the team worked on crafting a report for Baebies that prioritized geographical regions and type of tests to develop, and recommended size of institutions to focus on and costs of operation to adhere by. The process fostered frequent collaboration between Baebies’ chief marketing and product development officials and my team, which comprised of 5 other associates, and gave an insight into the medical device industries that would’ve never been gained otherwise. Real world experience like this makes DCC’s Community Consulting program a truly fulfilling experience that cannot be substituted”.

– KABOU YENGO-PASSY