Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity:

Recent years have seen the rise of platforms dedicated to selling personal items or services. Craigslist is one of these platforms, allowing any person to make a post in their area of residence in with the intent of selling an item, finding someone to complete a job for them, or even offer their services with a related task. Specific applications, such as the sale of used items, have resulted in the widespread use of Facebook pages as a means of connecting a vendor with a seller. These platforms are both inefficient and hard to maintain as there is lack of built-int organization and accountability.

Users of the previously mentioned platforms are mainly young, with many users being college students. With respect to Facebook, the beginning of every semester provides a large increase in the posts created on “used & for sale” pages as college students try to gather school supplies in an affordable manner. Craigslist and other potentially anonymous boards, such as Yik Yak, are often used by college students to find other individuals willing to help with specific tasks such as painting a wall, moving furniture, putting up a painting, and other tasks.

This opportunity is available due to the fact that existing resale and small job platforms are specific in their scope. While there exist online services to buy and sell used textbook, most students must rely on word of mouth or Facebook pages in order to sell used items. The same can be said of job posting platforms, many of which have little credibility and lack friendly user interfaces. While Craigslist offers a site for users to post jobs they need help with, most of the site’s users are not college students and the site itself has no real way of ensuring it’s users have good intentions at heart. In other words, a level of personal safety is not guaranteed.

The “window of opportunity” for this opportunity is estimated to last for at least two school years, or 6 semesters. A small number of platforms have risen to meet the needs of college students and while most students continue to use traditional platforms (Facebook, Craigslist, job posting boards, etc.) the number of apps in the market are sure to rise. 

Innovation:

The opportunity described above exists because existing connection platforms fail to be inclusive enough in their scope of application. In other cases, new uses for pre-existing social media sites are developed as students with limited time create pages other users can use for free. 

To address these issues, a platform must be created that can not only be applied to a variety of use cases, but also appeals to the average college student. Such an application would focus on reliably connecting students with compatible needs through listings sorted by categories, geographical areas, prices, and other fields. In addition, all payment and contact would be done through the app itself, ensuring financial and personal security. Users would be forced to create accounts on the app in order to make proper use of the platform and as such would have any of their actions directly attributed to their account. 

In this case there is no physical product or service that is being sold to create revenue. Instead the platform itself would be the revenue-creating product. At first users would be able to use the proposed platform for free, with the only money being spent or earned coming from the users themselves. As the user base increases and more students use the platform to sell items or get help with specific tasks, a percentage based fee would be implemented into the system. For instance, if John, a UF student, is looking to sell a piece of furniture for $20 and Liz, another student, agrees to buy this furniture for the listed price, the business would receive $1 and John would receive $19. 

Venture Concept:

I propose a phone/web app called OddJob. This app would provide all the innovation that a student-services connection platform offers while making the process convenient and safe through the phone app’s design. 

Customers will want to use OddJob and stop using existing service platforms due to its ease of use, guarantee of financial safety, and social appeal. Customers will be able to create their account on OddJob through Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms, making the registration process as simple as possible. The use of third-party payment services, such as Stripe, will also allow payments made through OddJob to be as secure as possible, with payments not reaching their destination until 2 to 3 business days after in order to guarantee payment intent. Other platforms such as Craigslist and Facebook simply allow users to easily communicate with each other. OddJob instead focuses on the communication aspect of the connection process, alongside the payment process and platform appeal. As such, most users will find OddJob to be a more convenient alternative and will have no problem switching over.

Some users will be wary of the idea of meeting other individuals in person without having a real-life connection beforehand. This is a problem inherent in current sale and services platforms, meaning that most users will have no problem continuing to meet with strangers. However, safety will be throughly reinforced as users will have to will have to enter their personal information to make an account in the app and safety information will be provided throughout the app and supporting website.

As previously mentioned, there currently exists only one competitor at the University of Florida for this market. The start-up, called Qwerk, also focuses on students and enables users to provide services for stated rates as well as list items for sale. Qwerk is currently only available as an iPhone app, meaning that Android and users without smartphones will not be able to use the platform in its current state. The start-up is also relatively new, having only released their app and made press coverage in February of this year. As such they will have the benefit of being the first business to tap into this market but will not have this benefit for long as OddJob’s development begins. 

At first the business behind OddJob would be supported by myself and my business partner who has a background in Finance. As development continues and a more accurate business plan is created, other developers would join the business in an effort to streamline the development process. While I have experience with creating web apps, I would need help in creating a proper user experience as well with creating a native iOS or Android app later in time. 

Additional Thoughts:

My most important resource in the creation of this business venture will be my experience as a Computer Scientists and programmer. Having obtained programming experience from classes and personal projects, I will not have to fully rely on someone else to create OddJob for me. 

Assuming OddJob is widely adopted and becomes a success, in five-years I see myself continuing development with the phone app. While OddJob would first become available for students at UF, other colleges in the United States also provide a user base that could be tapped into. As an entrepreneur, by dream is to create a well-designed product that will enable me to work on my own terms and focus on the areas of app development that I find most interesting.

Amazon Whisperer

Revenue Drivers:
 A short summary of my business idea for those of you who have not read my blog before:

• Name: OddJob
• Platform: iPhone/Android/WebApp 
• Focus: Craigslist like platform that allows college students with a task at hand to find other college students that are willing to help or complete said task in return for an agreed form of payment
• Target Audience: Colleges (college students), followed by single lifestyle individuals in cities/urban areas

At first OddJob would be free and would not make any profit.By making the platform free I have the opportunity to get more college students to use the app and raise awareness about the service. After some time however, the app would bring in revenue through a variety of ways. These include sponsored jobs, ads, and most importantly, a percentage based fee for using the app. This last revenue driver is the most important as it does not incur any extra cost to users that have a task for which they need help with. Task-providers are already willing to pay money for help, OddJob would simply take a small percentage of the reward amount before passing along the rest to the task-fulfiller (a.k.a the person who fulfilled/helped complete the advertised task)

Next Steps:

After using the app for some time, I predict most users will want an easy way to make their jobs receive more publicity. This feature would enable users to boost their job to the top of the "job offers board" through a small payment or through a token system that rewards users for using the app in return for an "in-app" credit. By allowing users to boost their job-listings without necessarily having to pay, customer-loyalty will be fostered and some users will be incentivized to use the app more often.

This is of course just one potential way to develop the app further. If you have any ideas please feel free to describe below in the comments.

Amazon Product:

 Seeing as OddJob is a software-based venture it was hard for me to find physical products on Amazon that relate to the business idea well. As such I decided to instead focus on Amazon's Kindle App store and find app's that are similar to OddJob.

Job Search: http://www.amazon.com/Indeed-com-Job-Search/dp/B004JP482I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459124172&sr=8-1&keywords=job+search+app

 Daily for Craigslist: http://www.amazon.com/Lifelike-Apps-Inc-Daily-Craigslist/dp/B00FEMFDWE/ref=sr_1_5?s=mobile-apps&ie=UTF8&qid=1459123934&sr=1-5&keywords=job+search+app


 Customer reviews for these apps indicate that the app is really just one of several ways to access the services the creators of the apps provide. As such "Job Search" is really just a way to use and upload user information related to Indeed.com, the creators of the app. Reviews indicate that some users have had great successes in finding interviews through the app although the majority of users seem to be hourly-waged positions for teenagers, etc.

Given the opportunity to change these apps, I would focus on the "Daily for Craigslist" app. Customer reviews show that the app is not the most stable and sometimes crashes. Some users would also like different search fields for finding posts on Craigslist, such as "miles from current zip code" or "show nearby areas". Adding these features would be a priority for me.

Overall I think that Amazon may not be a good fit for my product and as such in real life I would focus on using the Apple AppStore or the Google PlayStore to find other apps similar to OddJob.

Week 11 Reading Reflection

Personally, the biggest surprise from this week's reading  was variety of innovation types that were presented. Previously I simply thought of innovation as a buzz word used by companies when creating a new product or business strategy. I now realize that innovation takes many different forms, some of which I had not considered to be types of innovation until now.

One part of the reading that was confusing to me was how the author narrows down the areas in which innovation can create value but then states that innovation can create value in many different ways. I'm not sure if he is referring to many innovation types within their respective broader categories or to something else.

Given the opportunity to ask two questions to the author I would ask at what stage in a companies development should it start focusing on routine innovation and what other companies have implemented architectural innovation. During the course of the reading, routine innovation was really only referenced with respect to very large and well known companies. Is routine innovation just as effective in a small, but dedicated market serviced by smaller companies? With regards to architectural innovation, I simply had a hard time thinking of other companies that have had to implement this kind of innovation to continue operating in a profitable and sustainable manner.

Overall I do not think there was anything the author was wrong about. I did find it interesting how most of the companies he referenced as examples were also companies that he had consulted for.

My Unfair Advantage

Resources:

1. Computer Science background and programming knowledge
•  This resource is extremely valuable, especially in the context of a business venture that is based around a software application. Computer Science is a field that is in high demand by other fields. While there are many programmers and Computer Scientists out there, they are more uncommon than most people think. This also ties in to how non-substitutable this resource is. If I did not have any development and programming knowledge, I would have to hire a programmer to bring my ideas to fruition. This would bring additional costs to the venture since speaking from experience, most programmers don't work for free.
2. Accumulated savings
•  While this resource is very valuable with respect to obtaining capital to fund a new venture, it's really not very unique or rare. Many individuals have savings (maybe not college students specifically but I'm considering the population as a whole here) and I would not want to necessarily take on all the risk of a venture by funding it myself. This resource is highly substitutable. Banks exist for this very reason.
3. Multiple sources of income
•  Once again, in terms of the financial health of a new venture, this resource is very valuable. Multiple sources of income mean that I can stop receiving income from one source and be fine in the long run. Realistically speaking however, loans and investors would most likely be the best option for funding a venture (for the most part).
4. Bilingual (can speak Spanish fluently)
•  Having the ability to speak more than one language is extremely valuable, no matter what the languages are. In the case of being able to speak both English and Spanish, I have the opportunity to very easily make my venture accessible to the Hispanic market. While this is not an extremely rare resource (especially in Latin-American countries), most individuals in the United States are not fluent in Spanish.
5. Professional Network
•  This is a resource that is important in terms of social capital and how easy it would be to receive outside help when needed. I have had the opportunity to work at several different companies which corresponds to having met a large amount of professionals. While this may not be an extremely rare resource (everyone has a social network after all) it is certainly hard to replace.
6. New Car (2016 Kia Forte)
•  Recently I had to purchase a new car in order to replace my previous vehicle. While this resource may seem strange at first, I include it in this list because it signifies a reliable form of transportation. Many people take cars for granted and fail to realize how many opportunities would be missed without a reliable and consistent form of transportation. This resource is very inimitable and not that rare, but it still constitutes an asset that can only help in a new venture.
7. Willingness to dedicate time outside of the normal work week
•  While I find that many people claim to follow this mindset and consequently label it a resource, most of those people don't actually follow up with their claim. I work 23 hours a week while being a full time student, which only makes me available either right after work or during the weekend. Anyone can obtain this resource and work hard when others aren't willing to but it takes a large amount of perseverance to work at this.
8. A drive to succeed and persevere at a large opportunity cost
•  This resource is very similar to resource (7) with the exception that it pertains more to the opportunity cost of working hard. Persevering and working that "extra amount" to succeed really comes down to staying focused on the task at hand, even when there are other more desirable things to do. Once again, while anyone has the ability to copy this resource, most people will have to condition themselves to working hard when needed to benefit from their work later on.
9. Computer game knowledge
•  Some people may consider this resource to be extraneous and irrelevant, but together with resource (1) this resource represents a significant amount of value. Most ventures that I foresee myself involved in are related to technology and the culture that is inherently a part of technology. This resource is neither rare, hard to copy (all you have to do is play games for a long time), but it does give a slight advantage when developing a business centered around a software product.
10. Ability to easily move to location of greatest opportunity
• This resource is slightly different from the resource described in bullet point (6). Here I am describing the fact that as a young college student, I don't have any extremely strong ties to where I am located. If a new venture required me to move from one end of the country to the other, it would be a change that I would definitely consider. This resource is directly related to how many familial responsibilities an individual possesses and the fact is that the older a person gets the less likely they will be to have access to this resource. It's always possible to create opportunities but very little can replace the flexibility of being able to move when needed. 

Top Resource:
 My top resource is definitely resource (1). In my opinion, a Computer Science background coupled with programming knowledge is exceedingly useful in today's economy. Most venture's that I set out to start will be based around software, and the ability to create the product myself is, in my opinion, indispensable.
 

Week 10 Reading Reflection

After completing this week's reading I was most surprised different ways in which a "break-even" analysis can be used. From being to see how much of a product must be sold to return a profit to aiding in the decision making process for questionable costs, the contribution margin approach formula is definitely useful.

One part of the reading that was confusing to me was how the internal rate of return method can be used for capital budgeting. While the payback method seems intuitive to me and I have learned about net present value in my accounting class, I'm simply not familiar with the internal rate of return.

Given the opportunity to ask two questions to the author I would ask the following:
1.) In what scenarios is it most appropriate to allow customers to purchase a product on account?
2.) What other statistical techniques can be used to prepare a sales forecast?

While I understand that allowing customers to sometimes buy products on account can increase sales, the risk associated with such an endeavor seems too high to me. At what point is a customer important enough that they are allowed to purchase on account?

I do not think there was anything incorrect in this chapter. Most of the concept discussed were taught during Introduction to Accounting and as such, I was already familiar with them.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

Pitch:

Feedback Reflection and Changes:

Since I've kept my business opportunity the same throughout the entirety of this course, I've had the opportunity to receive a large amount of feedback already. One of the pieces of feedback that I receive several times before, including the last time I did an elevator pitch, concerns the security of the app. Many potential users are worried that the users they end up interacting with as a result of the app may not be trustworthy or safe. This time around I tried to change my elevator pitch to contain a small section that addresses those concerns. I think that if the safety concern is addressed early on, users will be more likely to adopt the app in earlier stages of its development.

As always, thanks for reading and please leave some honest feedback below.

Week 9 Reading Reflection

I was most surprised by the different pricing strategies mentioned towards the end of this weeks reading. While I've always known that competitive pricing is important to stay relevant in some markets, I was not aware of the large number of developed strategies available. Some of these strategies, such as "skimming" seem counter intuitive to me but make sense after some thought. Early adopters are more willing to pay more money for early access to a product and as such can provide more capital for new businesses.

I was most confused by the web design tips as seen in Table 10.3. The first tip on this table states that in order to provide a description of the firm one should avoid scrolling. While I understand that it's important to display the most important information first on a website, most consumers have no problem scrolling to see what other information is available. I would argue that having a clearly visible "About" section would perhaps be a better tip as this is where most users will head to to find out more information about a firm.  

Given the opportunity to ask two questions to the author I would ask what the cheapest form of marketing would be and which marketing strategy is primarily used for immaterial products, such as businesses based upon a software product. One of the tables in the chapter (Table 10.2) laid out the different aspects of traditional marketing strategies, such as direct mailing, telephone, and mall intercept. I would be interested in finding out which method provides the most reliable feedback and the lowest cost. Most of my business ideas and opportunities are related in one way or another to technology. Therefore, I would be interested in learning if the author has any information about marketing specific to the tech-field.

I did not directly disagree with any of the points made by the author, but I do think more relevant and up-to-date information could be presented in the "Internet Marketing" section of this chapter. The Internet is very susceptible to change and is constantly changing in regard as to what consumers are attracted to. In the past companies have relied on pop-ups and other forms of Internet ads that created such an unpleasant browsing experience that individuals went out and created ad-blocker tools to stop these ads from appearing. The Internet is undeniably a wonderful medium for marketing a product or business, but such marketing plans should be well thought out. Inexperience with marketing over the Internet can often times cause more harm than good if performed incorrectly.

Idea Napkin No. 2

1.) You:  As I stated in my previous Idea Napkin, I am very willing to put in the extra work in order to succeed with my own venture. I find that I am more productive when working on my own and with my knowledge of Computer Science I have the advantage of making many of my personal projects a reality. If I were to start OddJob, the business would take up most, if not all, of my free time. I also have no problem speaking with members of my "target audience" and would be willing to try different approaches to spreading the word about my business.

2.) What are you offering to customers?:  With OddJob I am offering an easy way for individuals with some extra cash to get troublesome day-to-day tasks finished. As I stated in my previous blog post, this app would function similarly to Craigslist, but it would be focused on reaching individuals via their smart phones. Feedback from my last Idea Napkin indicated that there were concerns as to how to ensure the "hired" individual fully completes their task as well as how to perform security screenings on users of the app. The first point could be dealt with by making it so that individuals only received payment after completing the tasks. The "reporter" (person asking for the task to be done) would have to upload their payment to the app before accepting help, but this money would not be deducted from their account until their task has been fully completed. Security is a harder problem to deal with. The easiest solutions include having users take a picture of the ID and upload it to the app, after which they can begin using the app. OddJob would also display helpful tips, such as encouraging first contact with individuals outside of personal residences. The idea is that individuals will be much less likely to commit a crime or scam the system when forced to upload their ID and credit card information (in order to pay or get paid).

3.) Who are you offering it to?: College students would be the primary target audience for OddJob, at least at first. College students are more willing to out new technologies and often find themselves inexperienced with simple, but uncommon problems. At first OddJob would offered to UF students solely, but over time other colleges would also be eligible for OddJob.

4.) Why do they care?: College students would care about a product like OddJob because they are normally young, inexperienced individuals that don't necessarily have the knowledge or man power to complete day-to-day tasks. College students moving out without the help of friends or family members can struggle moving furniture. What about a student looking to put some art up on their wall but don't want to damage their wall? Name the task and there is surely someone out there who has struggled with completing it by themselves.

5.) What are your core competencies?: A.k.a what makes my idea different? College students are likelier to trust other students than they are to trust other strangers. While Craigslist is well known, it misses out on a younger market that is more and more likely to use technology their friends use. Additionally, the need for a smartphone to use OddJob can facilitate security checks and can lead to a safer experience for all individuals involved.

Feedback Memo:  After receiving feedback from my last Idea Napkin I was able to take away five main points from what I read.

1. Personal security is a concern - Students are worried about dealing with strangers and want to ensure there is some degree of safety associated with using OddJob
2. Payment guarantees need to be made - Without being guaranteed the monetary payment associated with completing a task, students will be unlikely to use OddJob
3. Completion of work must occur before payment - Similar to insight (2), students won't use OddJob if there is a concern of paying a stranger for work done incompletely or incorrectly.
4. Students like the idea so far! - Feedback I received indicated that at least those individuals that read my blog post would be willing to give the app a try.
5. A market exists with students that have not heard of OddJob's competition as of yet - While there are other apps out there that provide a similar service as OddJob, not all students are aware of their existence. 

I tried to incorporate the feedback I received from the last blog post by changing the second section of the Idea Napkin. Giving some possible solutions for maintaining OddJob safe and reliable definitely strengthens the idea of the app overall. I also came to realize that even though OddJob may have competition, there is still plenty of room to grow. Additionally, as I learned from one of our recent weekly readings, competition in a market can indicate that an idea has the potential to succeed with the knowledge that a market exists to begin with.