How can I get feedback from potential customers for an inclusive Christmas vacation concept as part of the customer development stage of my startup?

Find apps that are B2B and go to the review sections. Specifically going to Google's play or Chrome store and look at reviews and follow them to Google+ to engage. I took that same angle for B2C app I was building last year. Check it out. http://blendah.com/post/37331434653/lean-startup-hack

Steve Blank has already covered this in depth in his book 4 Steps to the Epiphany, as well as a video here: http://startupweekend.wistia.com/medias/tao3s8hf7l My approach is based on his outline, with a twist. 1) I try and conduct the interviews at the customers office or place of work, at minimum on their devide (computer, mobile phone) so I can ask to see how they work. 2) I never try and sell them on a the solution, but work hard to truly understand if/where the problem is. 3) Always provide guidance to the conversation, but ask open ended questions. 4) Ask questions like "What do you do 3 minutes before, and after, you do that action (or use our product)? Other tips would be - Write down the words they use. Metaphors and taxonomies are VERY important to ensuring your product is approachable. - Use 3 simple slides: Problem, Current Solutions, Proposed Solution Hope that helps.

I think what Frank says is absolutely spot-on with one exception. In healthcare, you might not have as much choice as you think. Ultimately, if you are dependent on adoption of your solution by multiple stakeholders, you should engage early and equally with all stakeholders so as to understand the eventual objections you'll have to overcome and hopefully acquire some early evangelists but focus on where there is least resistance to try and build a forcing function that reduces resistance to the change you're trying to make. I built an online service in the late 90s that was sold to employers and adopted by individual employees. The Company was subsequently acquired so happy to talk to share that experience with you in a call.

That is an interesting situation and I am sure many others share a similar concern. I would recommend trying out Podio (free), it lets you create all sorts of templates to capture and work with information (text fields, categories, dates, etc). You can set it to receive e-mail for you and it will automatically insert the appropriate information into the fields (including attachments). You can decide if your staff only sees the name of the student and the attachment if you wish. You can also create a workflow that informs you when your staff members finish the corrections and are ready to be sent back. You can even use it to keep track of all pending essays, their progress and due dates so you are always on time. Let me know if you have any questions!

You should be so lucky that someone will steal your idea. The truth is that its all about execution and not ideas. Facebook wasn't the first social network, they just executed better. Same for Instagram, Yammer and Airbnb - all Billion dollar companies built in public.