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.