‘This AI tool helped me choose the right market for my startup’

Kara Baskin

Jan 7, 2026

Health tech founder Dani Campillo Valencia was struggling to narrow her market focus. An AI tool trained on MIT Sloan’s Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework helped her select a market segment with high odds of success and room to grow.

Daniela Campillo Valencia, SM ’26, remembers the first time she experimented with the MIT Entrepreneurship JetPack, an AI tool developed by the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship.

She’d recently begun work on a startup concept addressing contraceptive side effects — recognizing that unwelcome symptoms, such as pain and mood swings, can cause women to switch birth control methods three to five times in their lives. She envisioned an over-the-counter genetic test combining biomarkers and medical history to help women find the most compatible contraceptive from the start.

While exploring her idea as an MBA candidate at MIT Sloan, Campillo Valencia identified challenges with scalability and limited access to women’s health data.

In a conversation with MIT Sloan contributing writer Kara Baskin, Campillo Valencia described how she then pivoted to microneedle technology to track hormones continuously, which would empower women to better manage their hormonal health.

Still, Campillo Valencia struggled to identify a beachhead market — the initial base market that, once an entrepreneur has gained a dominant market share, allows them to then penetrate adjacent markets with different offerings.

According to the 24-step Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework championed by Trust Center founder Bill Aulet, settling on a beachhead market was a key step in bringing Campillo Valencia’s nascent company, initially called Precisia and now called Femmli, closer to a successful launch.

Campillo Valencia’s use of the JetPack AI tool, part of MIT’s Orbit website for entrepreneurs, helped her refine her base.

The MIT Entrepreneurship JetPack uses a large language model from OpenAI and is trained on the Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework. The tool’s name was inspired by the acceleration a jet pack provides and the need for a human to take advantage of the boost and guide its direction.

A clear approach to market segmentation

Campillo Valencia used JetPack for about an hour per week, tapping into its step-by-step market analysis, persona mapping, and ranking functions to accelerate iteration and avoid having to conduct extensive manual research.

“JetPack walked me through clear steps on how to approach market segmentation, which helped us structure our primary research focus,” she said.

After testing segments of women coping with polycystic ovary syndrome, infertility, menopause, and puberty, she determined that her ideal beachhead market was perimenopausal women.

“The tool forced me to compare segments side by side using Disciplined Entrepreneurship criteria rather than intuition,” Campillo Valencia said.

As Campillo Valencia evaluated the puberty, PCOS, infertility, menopause, and perimenopause segments, JetPack prompted her to define a specific end-user persona for each and then assess factors like urgency of the problem, ability to pay, ease of reaching the customer, and whether word of mouth would realistically exist within that group.

“In doing this, it became clear that some segments I was initially excited about were weaker as beachhead markets,” she said. “It was helpful to have a clear definition of that initial market and persona — you have to be very niche in the beginning. Expanding into follow-on markets is easier and more natural if you find the right market to start with.”

Next steps: Customer discovery and go to market

Campillo Valencia is relying on JetPack to stay focused as her team transitions from market definition into customer discovery and early go-to-market work.

Specifically, she is using the tool to refine and pressure-test personas, structure interview guides, and synthesize patterns from primary research. “It helps us to be clear about what we know versus what still needs validation,” she said.

A laser focus on Disciplined Entrepreneurship

Now that Campillo Valencia has used the JetPack tool for nearly a year, here’s what she’d like other entrepreneurs to know:

“There are so many AI options in general, and so many tools for entrepreneurs. JetPack is different because it’s very easy to digest, and it guides you through the process. It’s a way to keep the Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework front and center as decisions get more complex, rather than jumping ahead too quickly.”

The MIT Entrepreneurship JetPack tools are currently being used by entrepreneurship students at MIT and being piloted outside the Institute; there is a waitlist that prospective users can join.

JetPack is also available to participants in either of two MIT Sloan Executive Education courses:

Entrepreneurship Development Program

Entrepreneurship Development Accelerator