Venture Concept Number 1

  

Opportunity: Who and Where?

Age:

·     Teen/Young Adult- By far the most important market. This demographic already holds the biggest share of users in current music streaming services. This group looks towards music technology for social purposes and to stay on top of the newest trends

·     Middle Age Working Professionals- this group (defined from age 30-50) is in need of audio tools for the workplace. Between meetings and presentations, these people need efficiency and no-nonsense solutions to boost productivity.

Location:

·     Internationally- Since my innovation is centered around audio and music; there are no national barriers to its permeance.

·     Socio-Economic sectors- Globally, the biggest opportunity lies within areas of higher disposable income. This demographic is able to pick and choose to purchase supplemental equipment such as mine.

  The need for this product is both for personal enjoyment and professional use. There is much complaint about the limitations of current Bluetooth and music sharing technologies. For professional use there is nothing to test against. Services like spotify, Pandora, and SONOS have set the precedent, but have room for higher collaboration between a share-happy generation. This window of opportunity is open for decades with ability for adaptability.

Innovation

  My product concept is JukeBaux Audio Organizer. The system is comprised of a Bluetooth receiver plug for input to speakers and amplifiers. It creates a channel for up to 10 devices connected simultaneously. Control of these channels comes from the mobile App. The underlying idea is to reduce the frustrations stemming for connection/reconnecting devices, switching outputs, adjusting equipment, waiting for audio to load, and manage all of that on one easy system. For users interested in controlling music for parties or road trips there will be a simple, well-designed interface to cue songs- a timer will prevent users from skipping songs until the first person’s choice has finished playing, collaborate with nearby friends to build playlists in real-time, and “favorite” and keep track/artist info from songs you have enjoyed. For users in professional environments, the device will work mostly the same, but allow individuals to upload audio cues for performances and presentations. Users will use the app like a remote to cue audio when needed then the next speaker can press cue and start their presentation- without any adjustments or awkward technical difficulties.

  The system will come priced at $100 USD and any customers wishing to connect to Jukebaux but have not purchased the full system will make a $0.99 App purchase. In-App advertising is an idea, but no official word yet.

Venture Concept

My product is developed to be utilized for all events, personal or professional. Those wishing to make parties, socials, road trips, etc. more enjoyable and comfortable for all attending will use Jukebaux to collaborate on making universally accepted song choices and playlists. Those wishing to have business presentations and other professional events run more smoothly and effectively will use Jukebaux to program all necessary audio cues so that the event can progress from speaker to speaker without delay or difficulty. Consumers in this generation place very high importance on sharing ideas and getting fast, easy results. My product would be a new innovation and something that could set a standard. Other products exist to create Bluetooth signals for speakers and to build playlists but not in combination like JukeBaux.

 In the future, Jukebaux will have headquarters located in California and pride itself on creative marketing and excellent customer service. We hope to run several promotions involving concerts from prominent artists and contests involving user submitted playlists. Operations will include software development, manufacturing, and customer service, but all of these departments will be small and cohesive. I would like to create a free-flowing, good vibe company culture like Google or Twitter.

Secret Sauce

Besides my product’s inherent innovation, I have a few things that give me a competitive edge. The most important of these is the willingness to go to any lengths to achieve what I really want; some may call this perseverance, I call it life.

What’s next for Jukebaux?

There are three things that we at Jukebaux see happening in the near future

1.   Integration from new product into mainstream service

2.   We would love to work on ways to get the older generation involved

3.   Work out any bugs with the app

What’s next for me?

  The road of the entrepreneur isn’t easy, it isn’t even just difficult. Scientists theorize that the process of building a successful startup could actually reach levels of hella difficulty bordering on challenging AF. That said, I drafted two realistic goals, one for 5 years and one for 10 years from now.

In 5 years….

  I will have created a working prototype of both the device and app, and done concept testing. The biggest challenge I see is the act of physically making a working device with proper app design. The first models will then be given to family and friends. Gauging interest after that, I will start the legal and proper business processes of working out deals for retail and online sales. By the end of the 5 years, I will have a small working base of employees to help with the app programming and manufacturing.

In 10 years…

  This company will be functioning at a great level and recognized as a formidable business. We will have started planning for new ventures but haven’t gotten anything 100% yet. Headquarters in CA with warehouses and smaller bases throughout the southeast. I also have lots of consulting and speaking opportunities at large colleges (go gators) and expos due to our success. We have worked out some unforeseen flaws and our product is fine-tuned.

  All in all, writing this venture concept has cemented what I do know, and has forced me to think critically about things I hadn’t even considered. I have realized new challenges that I would face with actually developing this product as well as new solutions. Typing this out has turned a dream into something getting a little bit closer to a reality.

Weekly Reading Reflection Vol. 11

Damn Anthony, back at it again with the reading reflections! This week we get a break from our favorite entrepreneurial textbook author and get to review a real scholars writing. (just kidding Kuratko we love you). No, but we hear from professor Gary Pisano in a Harvard Business Review article analyzing the strategies needed to create efficient improvements in the innovation within a business. It's not as black and white as you think, there is no job of "Chief Innovation Officer" that can just bust into a meeting wearing a lab coat and scream "Eureka, I.. Ive found it. The key to innovation!!!!" Anyway, here's what I took away....


The idea that stood out most to me was the 4 major types of innovation and how much they differed. It was new to me at least. It was interesting to learn how different each of these categories were and how the term "innovation" cant easily be defined.

The technical terms and fast-paced analysis was a little confusing but other than that I don't think anything escaped my grasp of understanding.

Two question I have for Pisano:
"Name a few other rising businesses that are making use of efficient innovation strategy?"
"what is your personal definition of innovation"

I cant say that I disagree with anything in this article. It was very well written and brought up several good points for anyone (not even a novice like me) to think about.


Happy Easter, Go Gators, Go Jesus.

The Amazon Whisperer

This week we read the article Amazon Whisperer by Jason Feifer. A great read, and it brought up great topics to think about when outlining the future of your marketing opportunities and staying ahead of the curve on what customers want. Here are a few points I personally came up with regarding these ideas and my product.

• Revenue Drivers- There are 3 ways I will make money from this product. I will make money from direct consumer sales of the JukeBaux receiver (from retail stores or online site). I make money from businesses that will directly order from the company. And finally, I could see revenue come from app sales. 

• What's Next- I believe that the next product consumers (especially "my" consumers) are going to want will be direct correspondence with a music marketplace, that is they will want to share music AND have a place to buy/download it without any further steps.

• Why it's Next- It will add another step to the user experience. Rather than learning what they want, consumers can now act on that and obtain the selected music they want.

• Similar Product- This exercise is hard for me to complete as assigned, mostly because there isn't anything on the market yet that does what I have in mind. There are many bluetooth streaming devices that give the hands-free, cueable, streaming benefits that I include with JukeBaux, but none of the other collaborative and diverse options I have. So theres really no similar products to what I envision. Here's something sorta close though. It's a SONOS receiver. It'll hook up to all your speaker devices and also any phone or portable device you want to play music or use streaming services like Pandora/Prime. It uses wi fi and can expand to include many output devices. It's very sleek. Very cool. Pretty expensive.

• Customer Reviews- It had a 67% 5 star rating and 14% 4 Star rating. Major compliments were given to it's ease of use, ability to enhance existing stereo equipment, and consistence. Major complaints were about price, quality of sound, problems with lack of outputs and incompatibility, and limits of usage.

• Fixes- I would add an aux and optical input like people suggested, bring down price, and fix the "tinny" sound

• Why its a good addition- It's not really, my product has these features plus a few unique ones that make it better ;)

My Unfair Advantage

1. Network (social capital)

V- this is valuable in order to break barriers to entry and have support even prior to this product coming into the market
R- networks aren't unique concepts, the strength of one's can vary however.
I- same as above
N- a person's network is invaluable


2. Persistence (Human capital)
V- This trait is crucial to separate average from real success
R- True persistence is rare
I- You cant fake it
N-Again, you cant fake it

3. Marketing Knowledge (Human capital)
V- Actual technical knowledge is very important to creating an efficient product
R- Varying degrees
I- The knowledge is common, and can be gained by most anyone
N-It's not crucial but it's a big bonus

4. Start up Funds (financial capital)
V- Very valuable, this kickstarts your whole efforts
R- Money don't grow on trees
I- You either have it or you don't 
N- Absolutely

5. Uniqueness of product (attribute)
V- this gives the product a better position within the market
R- Very rare
I- Yes
N- It's not necessary but theres no substituting for innovation

6. Market attractiveness (benefit)
V- This is certainly valuable, a more wealthy, knowledgable, active target market is a benefit
R- A good deal of research and environmental factors contribute to the rarity
I- Cant imitate
N- It completely changes the way you approach the conception of the product

7. Public Speaking skills (human capital)
V- Very valuable nowadays
R- Rare in the general population nowadays
I- No one can pretend to be a good speaker
N- 

8. Understanding of music service (Human capital)
V- This is almost the most important, the product centers around playing off the current trends in the audio industry
R- Not rare, but not everyone can apply it
I- Cant fake it
N- Definitely not substitutable 

9.. I have resourcefulness

V: Very valuable

R: somewhat rare

I: not very inimitable

N: non substituable 

-10. I have tenacity

V: very valuable

R: somewhat rare

I: not very inimitable

N: non substitutable

My top resource, all things considered, is my knowledge of the music industry and audio services.This is an attribute that is at the core of my idea, and overall has more importance because of that. 

Week 10 reading reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

I especially liked the included perspective on currency and it's tempestuous fate in the global market.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

Balance Sheets.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

"what grades did you get in your finance classes?"

"How do you propose the financial aspects of small business will change in the next decade?"

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

Kuratko has been on a great streak lately, really doing wonders for his credibility these days.

Growing My Social Capital

Vincent Caggiano, computer engineer, studied at UCF

 Caggiano is my domain (technical) expert. He is on the software engineering team at Spotify where his job is to maintain quality of the music service and develop new tools and features to make the product more intuitive to users. Since my product relies so heavily on the efficiency of my Jukebaux App, I need insight from someone who writes the program for similar music technology

 He is a friend of a friend who I reached out to, thinking they might know someone successful in the same computer engineering pool. And they delivered: name, email and everything. I left him an email with basically my whole pitch for this potential product and was honest about my lack of knowledge on the technical side. I then left my phone number and received a call about 2 days later! We chatted about spotify, my ideas, and computers for a while and had a grand old time. He explained the basic process and ideas behind the data and development of an app of this nature. The return expectation is i'll continue working on my project and be a loyal spotify user.

It's simple. I am not a technical expert. He is pretty darn close. I need the technical skills to make this product a reality so it'll definitely enhance my ability to exploit the opportunity.

Cisco Neri, Asst. Manager, Best Buy

My good friend Cisco will have to do for the slot of my market expert. I thought that Best Buy would be a retailer most likely to carry my product, and that also knows a lot about how relevant customers behave. He is competent and knows how the store operates, so he could enlighten me on the finer points.

I found him hanging out at another friends house and we've been boys ever since. For the purposes of this assignment though, I met him for lunch and explained what i was thinking and why I needed his help. 

Our exchange was pleasant. Initially, we talked a lot about girls. Then the conversation turned serious and he helped me understand what I was looking for. He explained what it takes for Best Buy to carry a certain product line, and also told me the latest trends in what customers want from the music industry. 

Knowing this person is beneficial because I would intend to sell my product to Best Buy for retail.

John Mirsky, customer service, Bluetooth

I was sort of at a loss for this category, as my product is pretty specific. However, I chose this person in hopes that he could give me any info on the way bluetooth is operated and how they have grown.

I called the phone number under "contact us" on the Bluetooth website.

Our conversation was brief, polite, and not too informative. When I managed to finish my summary of why I called, all he could tell me was a short company history and info on how well the company is doing. 

This person is one way another part of the business I want to get into, but I am not sure how knowing Mr. Mirsky will personally help me.

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This experience was interesting. In the future, I know that people (depending on personality) will be of more service to you if you mention how you can help them, or if you're passionate enough about what you're doing. Yea it differed from previous networking experience by being slightly awkward and very uncertain. Thanks for reading.