30A – Final Reflection

 What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?
-- The experience that I enjoyed the most was just getting out there, talking to people about my idea and getting their feedback. I think that by doing that and sharing my idea I was able to spread awareness about the situation that our environment is going through. I believe that sharing my idea could spark another great idea on someone else and maybe that person will start taking action and spreading his/her idea and it is juts a continuous cycle that will help spread the word about the situation and ways to solve it.

 At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?
-- I think that I definitely have a better entrepreneurial mindset now that I had at the beginning of the class. But I don't see myself as an entrepreneur; I think that I have developed a basic entrepreneurial mindset that can help me in the future but it's not good enough to start a business.

 What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?
-- The best advice I have to give someone that is going though this journey is to get themselves out there. I feel like talking to a lot of people, sharing your idea, asking for feedback, and trying to get connections is the best thing to do. To succeed in the class, the best thing to do is to be on top of every single assignment and to have an agenda on when you will complete the assignment because even though they are simple, they take a long time to complete if you want to make a really good assignment. To foster the mindset, you need to take the assignments seriously and not do them just because they need to be completed. If your assignments are really well thought out, then you are definitely developing your entrepreneurial mindset.

29A – Venture Concept No. 2

1)

Opportunity  
     

     What are the forces or changes in the environment creating this opportunity? 

---  The forces in the environment that are creating this opportunity is human behavior. Humans have been littering irresponsibly and this has caused pollution to increase and it has been damaging the environment and the organisms/animals that live in it. The majority of this pollution is made up of plastic.

·       
     How is this market defined geographically and demographically? 
  --  This is an issue that affects the whole world so its something that everyone can help out with and get involved with.

·      How are customers currently satisfying this need?  And how loyal are they to whatever they use now?  
---  One of the ways that they satisfying their need is by using reusable cups. The customers purchase a reusable cup and they bring their cups everywhere they go and ask for their drinks to be served in their cups instead of the plastic ones that fast food restaurants provide.

- 

·      How big is this opportunity?
--- This is a very big opportunity because there are many people, especially students that are trying to get more involved with the environment and are trying to make a change.

- 

·      How long will the “window of opportunity” be open?
--- I believe that this window of opportunity will be open for a long time because as we can see, pollution is only getting worse throughout time. And, even if people start making a change and (hopefully), pollution starts decreasing, the window will still be open because people will still e purchasing the cups so they can prevent pollution from going back up again.

Innovation
I think that my product's innovation is not about creating something new, it's about innovating something that already exists. There are a lot of plastic products that have been replaced from plastic to other non-harmful materials but something that is used very often like cups, has not been changed. They have been selling alternatives for it but they still sell the harmful ones. That's why I believe that in order to make a real change, they should completely replace these harmful cups once and for all with the compostable ones. 

Venture Concept

·      What are the reasons to think customers would switch to this new product?  How hard will it be to get them to switch?  

I think that customers would change to this product because they geniuly want to take some action in order to help the environment. They just need someone to  provide them with an option and a way to do it and I believe that my product gives you that option.

·      Who are the competitors?  What are their possible weaknesses or vulnerabilities? 

My competition would be the producers and distributors for the reusable cups but I think that I would be able to work with them in order to sell both options in restaurants. The vulnerability would be that reusable cups would be more expensive than the compostable ones so people would potentially prefer to just buy compostable cups every time they go out instead of spending the money on a reusable cup so that would probably not make "my ally" very happy and would turn them into my competitor. 

·      What role does packaging, your price points, distribution, customer support, the customer experience or the business location play (if any) in defining your business concept? 

I think that the thing that would atter the most would be customer support Packaging would honestly not matter that much because at the end of the day they are cups and a lot of people need cups so they dont pay attention to the packaging; they would just purchase them out of need. And the price point would not be significantly different from the ones that are being solf right now. But if there is a noticeable  amount of customer support, more and more restaurants will want to get on board with the idea  and start replacing their cups for reusable ones.

·      How would you organize a “business” to support the ongoing production of your new product, service, or process? How many employees? What roles are in the venture?  

My product is meant to be purchased by a bigger company that already has their own employees so the amount of producers, distributors and employees in general would completely be up to the company that purchases my product and takes it as one of their own. 

 

First, describe what you think your most important resource will be.

- My most important source will definitely be my connections. Having people that are experiences in every single field that I need to create this product will help me gain more knowledge about the business and make well informed decisions on what to do next in order to succeed.  

Second, what’s next for the venture? 

- My next step would be to finally start designing the cup and doing some research on what would be the best composition for a compostable cup. That way, I can make sure that I am not inserting any harmful ingredients to the compostable cup and ruin the whole purpose of the product. I would also start reaching out to my connections so they can help me getting the word out about the product.  

Third, what’s next for you? 

- By this point, I would've hopefully sold my product by now to a big company that has many resources that helped my product spread all around the world. I would've probably started thinking about my next product depending on the feedback that I got from my first product.  

2) Feedback

- I did not receive any feedback for those two assignments mentioned but when I evaluated myself, I noticed I was being to vague when describing my ideas and future plans. This time, I tried to be more specific about what I wanted to do and tried to give more detail so readers could understand my plans and business idea even if they didn't know what my product was. 

28A - Your Exit Strategy

1) Exit Strategy
- I think that in order for my company to grow and make the big impact it needs to, I would honestly prefer to sell the business to someone that has a bigger company and can have more success than me.

2) Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?
- I am honestly not a business gal; I have no intention of being in a large corporation. I really want to help the environment but I think that once I fight for my product and  it reaches the audience that I want it to, I'll be satisfied. Once I get a large corporation to invest on it and take care of the production and distribution of the product, then I'll be the happiest person ever. I wouldn't mind having a spot on the table were all decisions are made just to make sure that the product doesn't lose its initial purpose of helping the environment. But, I just don't want to be the one in charge of everything because I know there are people that are more way experienced that me in the business that could take really good care of the product and deliver it to where it needs to be delivered and kept at the high standard it should be kept at.

3) How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept? 
- I think it has influenced on my initial decision on what type of product I could  promote to help the environment. Instead of creating something completely new, I decided to just present the idea of upgrading from something that already existed. That way, I had people in the industry that can help me make better decisions instead of creating something entirely new in which I would have to answear and solve every single question with little to no help.

27A – Reading Reflection No. 3

 

Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter. F Ducker

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?
-  The theme of the book is how to discuss with the reader different aspects that you should look at and take into consideration before launching a project. The book discusses things like taking into consideration the area where you want to launch your project, analyzing who is your target audience, adjustments you have to make while your launching your project, the kind of mindset you need to have whenever you face challenge, among other things.

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?
-  One of the things that helped me enhance what I was learning in ENT3003 is the demographics aspect of launching a project. In one of our assignments we needed to create an avatar of what we would imagine our target audience to be like. In the book, the author explained how demographics play a very important role in a business because your project could be a total hit to the people living in a certain area, but it could also be unsuccessful and underrated in another area. So before starting a business, it is recommendable to study your audience.

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?
-  My favorite chapter from the book was chapter 8: Changes in Perception, in which they talked about how a single situation could come across as good to someone, but have a negative impact on another person. So one excersice that I would do based on that is group the classroom into pairs, and give them a sheet with a real life situation. I would make one of them explain to me why the situation could have a negative impact, and the other one would explain why wold it have a positive impact. They don't have to agree with what they explain, but it will still help them understand different sides of a same situation.

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?
- I'm going back to chapter 8 because I absolutely loved it. This chapter opened my eyes because of the examples they used. Everyone always say that every story has two sides, but we naturally apply that to simple situations like "there are people that like dogs and there are some people that don't because a dog bit them when they were young". So you get the two sides of the story so you really can't hate on the person that hates the dog (i mean, who doesn't like dogs though?). Anyways,  the examples they used in this chapter included black people being in situations in which they feel oppressed, vs white people being in the same situation and seeing it as a normal thing. The book explains that its none of their faults to feel how they feel, its just that historically, white people have not been through oppression so they don't have to be tense in certain situations that black people might find uncomfortable.  This example, including a few others, were just a way of the author to explain how perspective can be really different even when presented with the same project or idea. And it can be really serious sometimes so it is something that needs to be taken seriously whenever you launch a project that could greatly affect your public.

26A – Celebrating Failure

1) A time when I failed: 
 -- Currently, I work at the O' Dome where I am a supervisor in training. Whenever you get promoted to supervisor in training, you have to go through some evaluations in order to become a full supervisor. In these evaluations, you have to lead a shift and other supervisors rank your work with a rubric and you have to get a 4 or a 5 in every single category in order to pass. I have been evaluated 3 times and I have passed two of those 3 evaluations. When I failed one of them, I was fine at first but then when I thought about it I was low-key mad. I thought it was unfair because in my mind, I did a really good job and they didn't pass me by 1 point which I though was ridiculous. But after a few days passed and my anger dialed down I started seeing that the reasons they had for failing me were honestly fair and that I should just take the feedback that they gave me with open arms and use it whenever I get to repeat my evaluation. I then passed that evaluation but when I went ahead and worked another evaluation (you need to pass 4 evaluations in total) in which they failed me AGAIN and it was the same person that failed me on the other one. I really thought that they had something against me or something because I honestly thought that I was doing a really good job again and the reasons to fail me were not fair.

2) What I learned from it
 -- I learned that even if a superior fails you, it doesn't mean that they're out to get you or something. They have the experience and they've been through that so they know what's best for you. It's better to just listen to them and try to let them guide you instead of fighting them. If you stop and listen to their feedback, they can actually help you grow as an employee and be successful.
  
3) Reflection
-- Failure is something that I've learned to accept as I keep trying new things. I was use to succeeding in almost everything when I was in middle school and high school and when I failed I would get so disappointed in myself. But now that I'm in college and everything is so difficult I've learned that it doesn't matter if I fail, what actually matters is how hard I try to achieve what I want even if I fail a million times trying to get it. It has showed me that there are some things that are actually not worth fighting for and that there are other things that deserve to be fought for till the end.
-- I think this class has helped me with the same aspect I discussed earlier; listening to feedback. This class has been all about creating a products or a service and at the beginning, I thought I had the most perfect idea and that I had everything figured out. Having to go back to my posts and reading the feedback has helped me make my product better and fix aspects of it that I thought were so perfect but could actually make my product fail.

25A – What’s Next?

Existing Market. 
Step 1:

 Next for my product would be to start designing how I would like my product to look like, how I would manufacture it, and how will I distribute it. The designing part will just be me and maybe a few other people designing ideas. But for the other part, it will include a lot of talking with investors and potential business partners that have more experience than me in developing and distributing products

Step 2:

 My 3 customers agree with me, they think that I should get started on a prototype design before I go to investors so they can also probably help me modify the design if they have any better ideas. One of them pointed out that I should probably also do some research on existing plant-based products and their ingredients. That way, I can see if there is something that I could also modify in that area.

Step 3:

I think that what’s left for this is just doing the research, getting a design, and contacting potential investors. Most of my feedback on the product has been positive and all of them agree that there is a need for a product like this. I think it’s time to stop focusing on just the straws and trying to change many more products. I just think that in order to keep growing, I have to advertise the idea more.

There are many people that are really concerned about these extreme climate changes that we’re having and want to genuinely do something about it. So after I design all of it and have a more solid idea, I just want to advertise and promote the product. I would probably just want to start talking about it more and contacting companies that work with these kind of products and gain their feedback and interest.

New Market.
Step 1:
            A radically different market would be creating cheap water filters for poor civilizations. A lot of poor areas in the Eastern side of the world have to walk to the nearest lake or river to collect water. But most of the time, these waters are contaminated so they’re not good to use. I would want to create an attachable filter that would attach to whatever they’re using to collect their water (i.g a bucket) and then they would be safe to use the water to cook, take a bath or clean their clothes.
Step 2:
            I think my venture concept will still help me with this product because it all has to do with helping the world, it’s just in another area. The social capital that I have for my original venture can also help because one of my contacts is experienced in creating and developing sustainable products. That means that he would be able to help me design a product like this one and can also help me distribute it.
Step 3:
            Something that my interviewees liked about my product is the fact that even though it’s targeted for poor countries that have a need for clean water, they could easily buy a product like this and use it on a camping trip or something like that. They could also benefit by it if they ever decide to have a trip outdoors and they encounter a river. They could use it to make sure that the water they collect either to drink or something else, is clean and safe.  They also talked about how I could make it different sizes and shapes that way it is able to easily attach to any type o container.
Step 4:
            What surprised me was the quick response both of my interviewees had when I asked how my product would help them I don’t know why but for me it was a little bit hard to think about how I would relate my product to people that don’t come from a poor country. I also liked how they were giving me so many great ideas in how to modify it. I wasn’t surprised by the positive reaction they had to it because I know them both very closely and I know that they are really passionate about helping the world so hearing about a product that will do that, would just bright up their day.
            I think my existing market would be more attractive just because it’s something that could be implemented in every single place that sells drinks. I think that in order to make my second product more attractive I would have to make a lot of modifications to it and adapt it to many different places. It would also require more research than my existing market just because I really know nothing about how to create filters and what kind of materials it would require in order to properly work.

Assignment 24A – Venture Concept No. 1

-       Opportunity:

o   Earth has been gone through a lot of extreme climate changes in the last few years, like snowing in places that shouldn’t be snowing, extreme tornados, and massive hurricanes. We have also been going through exponentially increasing animal extinctions. This has been observed to being one of the consequences of pollution and contamination.

o   A lot of trash and debris has been found on beaches and other environments and they have also been found inside animal’s stomachs. The primary type of trash that has been found is plastic residues.

o   This creates a need for many products manufactured with other materials that do not include plastic, or other harmful materials that could cause the death of animals and the destruction of the environment.  

o   The forces that create this opportunity is the convenience that plastic products allow, the low price they require to produce, and the enormous demand that they have. Because this issue has just been getting worse throughout the years, there is a huge window of opportunity here that comes from the huge need for a change that we have. And, this window of opportunity will just keep opening up even more as the years go by as we continue to spread awareness.

o   Customers are currently satisfying this need by buying reusable cups that they are able to take everywhere instead of buying plastic cups wherever they go. Customers are semi-loyal to this solution because they often forget their cups at their houses and end up having to buy the plastic cup.

o   The geographical and demographical opportunity is really big here because we basically need to have this change wherever we go, since most countries are having pollution problems, which makes this opportunity very big as a whole.  

-       Innovation

o   My product is basically just a step up from something that has already started. My idea is to change the plastic cups that are sold on campus, for compostable ones. These new cups would be plant based, which means they will be able to easily decompose once they’re thrown away. If they end up in an environment instead of a landfill, it won’t be harmful for the environment since it will decompose quicker and it will not possess any harmful materials that would be absorbed by the environment.

o   This will also be harmless to an animal if it were be consumed by it. It will easily disintegrate in the animal’s stomach and, once again, because it will not have any toxic ingredients, it will not be harmful for the animal if it digests it.

o   My idea is to also change the plastic lids from plastic to plant – based materials. Same as the plastic cups, the lids will not possess any harm towards the environment it ends up in or in any anima’s stomach if it is consumed by it.

o   For individuals, this will help them reduce their internal stress whenever they forget to bring their reusable cup. By having all three (cup, lid, and straw) composed of plan based materials, people will not have to worry if they leave their reusable cups because the cups that they purchase will not be harmful for the environment.

o   For businesses, changing from harmful cups and becoming a sustainable restaurant will bring more customers. There are a lot of people that care about the environment and seeing a restaurant go the extra mile to help as much as they can to help the environment will increase their interest. They will feel motivated to support them and will want to visit them more versus a restaurant that does not have this change.

-       I think my customers (the restaurants) would want to change into this product because they know that going green will attract more customers.

-       Potential competitors could be reusable-cup manufacturers because their idea is to get rid of cups as a whole, but I think that something could be worked out in which the same restaurants can have the option of selling reusable cups to the customer if they prefer it over the other ones. Which also presents my weakness of “would people just stop buying reusable cups if they can just purchase a cheaper, plant based one” Which is not such a big weakness on me, it would just make it a weakness if it makes the reusable cup sellers not want to work by my side.

-       I think the thing that will define my concept the most would be my location. I want to launch this product in university campuses which are filled with very busy young adults that can barely remember the date. Having these cups will take their stress off whenever they forget their reusable cup.

-       This business would have to be presented to an investor because it requires the creating of a product from scratch. It would have to be bought by an investor that has a factory at his/her disposal and their own employees.

The three minor elements

-       My most important resource will be my connections. Having a lot of people that are experienced in this business will help create a very innovative and unique product.

-       For my next venture I would just like to keep replacing more plastic products with other non-harmful materials.

-       Next for me, I would just like to be a part of a big corporation dedicated to helping the environment. I just want to be able to make a lot of products that won’t be harmful to anyone.