Final Reflection

1.) The high points for me from my blog have always been the elevator pitches. I've always had a problem with public speaking, and talking to a camera was a good way of practicing that. The low points are the interviewing customer assignment questions. I didn't like going up to random people to ask them questions and I dreaded that assignment every time I came up.

2.) The experience that will definitely stick with me was being able to think of a product and kind of working on it for months. I got a lot of positive experience where people said they would actually buy my product. That kind of makes me what to pursue actually making my product real.

3.) I think I have gotten closer to developing a entrepreneurial mindset. After all the assignments and readings, I have a better understanding of what it takes to be an entrepreneur and the work needed to be a successful one.

4.) One tip I would give to future students is to come up with product or service that you really believe in. This is make assignments easier for you. Also it will make them more invested in the work they do throughout the semester.

Week 15 Reading Reflection

1.) The first paragraphs of this article really surprised me. I thought it was a really great way to open it and it really drew me in. Trying to do business in a country and being extorted is really crazy.

2.) The part that confused me in this reading was the "Rethinking Microfinance" section. I didn't have an idea of what Microfinance and the definition that was provided didn't make any sense to me.

3.) One question I would ask the author is how was the full experience of being extorted like he did? Was it dangerous and how did you feel to be in that scenario. Also I would ask him if undermining the company's short term interests  for the customers is something every business should do? Can something as big as Microsoft of Comcast do the same?

4.) While I think that the success that this guy and his company have is amazing, I do question his decisions and their way to make a profit. Volume is great when you have a large customer base, but what happens when you don't. This article was made in 2008, how does his company fair now? Did his customer base ever decrease and did he ever start to lose profit because of his small margins and costly customer relationships?

Venture Concept No. 2

The feedback I got from my previous venture concept post really helped better develop my product. For the most part I got a very positive reception of the general idea. The people who commented loved the idea of a more efficient key chain. They also agreed with me that my competition isn't nearly as convenient as mine. The ways I was told I could improve my product was to also find a way to make sure non-commercial users could use it as well. If someone had an uncommon kind of key that wouldn't fit in my product, there would still be a way they could carry it around. So I decided to add more to the design element to work on this. Also, during the venture concept the pricing of my product was brought to light for the first time. I didn't spend a whole lot of time thinking about a good cost for this, but after seeing feedback saying that I needed to change it I did.

Opportunity

My venture is trying to meet the under-met needs people have with their key chains. What created this opportunity was the fact there isn’t much innovation or redesign happening to key chains in this day and age. The market for this product is very broad. Anyone can benefit from using this product, but the main demographics I’m targeting are businesses and students. Workers in hotels, convention centers, or stores, would benefit from the advantages of my product, KeyBrain, since they would be the most likely demographic who would carry 10 or more keys at a time. Also, as a student myself, I believe that the younger demographic would like to see a more efficient design of a key chain with less of the annoyances a regular one has.
As of right now must customers are just complacent with key chains now. They are aware of the annoyances they have but do not know of a better alternative to fix it. But if a better key chain product became known I think many people would be quick to switch to it. I think this opportunity could have a large impact on the world. A majority of people carry a key chain around with them at all time, especially college students. People are always looking for the efficient versions of products and KeyBrain would be just that for them. I think the window of opportunity for this will be open for at least 10 years. The main detriment to this venture is the widespread use of key-less cars and doors, but these things are just starting to get into use. Also growth of it is very slow since it can be very expensive to implement, so many people just dismiss it entirely and stick with the old-fashioned key ring. If this mentality continues, this venture could still be success for much longer than expected.

Innovation

KeyBrain is a new way to carry around your keys. The old-fashioned key ring comes with many small annoyances. They can be bulky in your pocket and take up too much space, this can lead to them pricking the side your leg when walking or sitting, it can be hard to find the right key when you need them if you carry a lot at once, also they can be noisy by jiggling around when you walk. KeyBrains design is meant to eliminate all these issues. The product is a small, thin container that you slip your keys. The container itself looks like a thin USB drive. On the one its sides are small colored knobs for each slot a key is in. You push these up and down to reveal/ hide the key. With the compact design, it reduces the amount of space your keys take up and the noise it makes when you move around and eliminates the chances of your keys hitting your leg when you sit. Also the knobs on the side make getting the right key easier. There is also key finder feature with it. Many people tend to misplace their keys often. The KeyBrain has a companion app that helps you find your keys. If you lose your keys, you can open the app to trigger a small flickering light on the container to help make it more visible. There is also a small GPS device so you can have idea where they are.
With this product we are making money through customization options. The standard KeyBrain, which holds 5 keys, costs $20. These would come in different colors like dark blue, red, orange, green, etc. If someone just wants to add one more key to the standard product, a key slot attachment is afford at $2 with each different color. For business, the KeyBrain XL houses a minimum of 10 keys at $30 with different colors sold as well. Lastly, there is a small add-on that comes with each product. This is a small little knob and an old style key ring. This is for users who might have an uncommon size key that might not be compatible with the product. So they can still carry around the key and use my product.

Venture Capital

The main reason customers would switch to this new product is because they see how more convenient it is over the old fashioned key ring everyone uses. In this day in age, people are buying new products for things that have always been the same for the sake of convenience. Modern takes on coffee machines of picture frames are a few of the examples that show this. One customers see how much better KeyBrain is compared to their key chains, I believe they would quickly make the switch to it. Today, if something isn’t working as well as it should be, people are quick to find something to replace. I believe that many people are sick of the annoyances that come with carry a full key chain and are waiting for something like KeyBrain to fix these small annoyances in their life.
The biggest competitor to my product is the Keyport, a modular key chain. However, their product isn’t as user-friendly or as well designed as mine. First of all, their product standard product is the size of what my XL model is. Also, it isn’t as easy as sticking your keys into it and its done. People have to order their keyport and send their keys to be made to fit into the container. With packaging, the simpler the better would do well for this kind of product. Having it placed in a small plastic box works well since the customer could fully see and imagine how the product would work. I also think our price points help define our business concept. We’re all about designing products that have maximum efficiency. Having these priced at $15 to $20 is a reasonable price for the product we are selling. The distribution, customer service have a small role in my businesses concept. With this venture I would like to keep a small number of employees. I would partner with a manufacturing company to make the product, and have a 5 man design team for future innovations, and 20 man business team to deal with company accounting and deals.

The three minor elements

My most important resource will be my design experience. Having prior knowledge on how to properly design something that’s user-friendly will give me an edge when starting this venture and help differentiate my products from others. The next product I aim to make is a modular phone case. With this you can add different peripherals to the back of your phone like a battery pack or earbud holder. Like the KeyBrain, it aims to maximize the efficiency of a product. If this venture launched, in 5 years I would like to be working on this business full time. After 10 years, I hope to have created a handful of products that people use every day. Hopefully, this venture would be the first of many.

Elevator Pitch no.4

With the feedback I got from the previous elevator pitches, I tried to trip over my words less. If it did happen, I tried to keep going and make things as smooth as possible. That's the feedback that was the most important to me. I'm not the best public speaker so I'm always trying to find ways to improve in that. I was very surprised to see the positive feedback that my product has gotten.

Since the 2nd elevator pitch, I've made the same kind of speech but with a few small additions to what I say. For this one I talked about things that I just mentioned in my venture concept. I talked about the different sizes my product comes in, and whose the target audience for each. I think that made my pitch a little more streamlined.

Google Gold

1.) I used one kind of approach to get search engine optimization. I put a link to my blog post whenever I commented on someone else's posts.

2.) At the beginning of the semester I didn't have any key words that I could attribute to my blog. After the first elevator pitch I used my venture, Key Brain, as my key words. This was something unique to my blog.

3.) I didn't use any other kind of social media to enhance my SEO. I just made posts and shared a URL to it when commenting on other peoples blogs. I don't think anyone followed those links though. If I shared my blog on my Twitter or Facebook I would have gotten a lot more views on each posts and I would have probably enhanced my SEO.

4.) The post that got the most traffic to my blog was the first elevator pitch. I think this happened because it was the first time I posted a video on to my blog. It was also the first time I had introduced my venture.

5.) I never made it to the first page of Google. Even when you type in my venture nothing related to mine comes up. However, if you search up "ENT3003 Jason Jose" the first page is filled with all my blog posts.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

1.)In chapter 3, I was surprised to see that "do not punish failure" was a written corporate philosophy. I thought that failure was something people would understand how to deal with in the corporate world already. I thought they would already know that failure can be a learning experience.

2.) One part that confused me from chapters 3 was the traditional management practice, Control against plan. The book stated its adverse effects and recommended actions, but it was hard to understand what that kind of practice was.

3.) One question I would ask the author is are there any other ways to define a social entrepreneur. He listed a few characteristics in chapter 4, but are there any other ways to define them. Also, which of the social enterprises obligations is the most important. Is the conservation  of energy or environment or community involvement more important than the others.

4.) One thing I don't agree with the author on is in chapter 4. He listed average commute time as a bottom line measure of social performance. Compared to the other examples listed, I don't see this as an important factor. There are many other ways to measure someones social performance than how long it takes them to get to work.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

1.) What I was surprised to see the most in this chapter was that there is a method of venture evaluation only for last resorts. I didn't expect there to be a specific method just for one sort of scenario.

2.) I had a hard time understanding the idea of dividend preference. In the book, I don't think they provided a good definition for it. Also it didn't have an idea of what a common and preferred stock was.

3.) One question I would ask the other is does he think that Facebook will still be profitably and have growth in the future? Does it seem more likely that it will fade away like things like Myspace or digg? Also, is there another website he believes is valued way more than its actually worth? Facebook was thought to be too highly valued, is something like twitch or another site similar?

4.) I don't believe emotional bias is a common issue, or at least one that is big enough to warrant its own section in the book. If an entrepreneur can keep a business running for a while, they have an understanding of how their business fairs with their competitors. The only time this could really apply is if your company is as huge as Facebook. I don't think a small business could have this issue.