Week 13 Reading Reflection

What really surprised me the most this reading when I learned about it was all the different sues that a valuation of a company has. Whereas before I only thought of a valuation when it came to a business selling point of view, I know now that they can be used for raising capital, determining inheritance tax and and establishing stock option plans for employees.
If I had the opportunity of asking a couple of questions to the authors I would probably ask them what conditions would entail a company to use a certain valuation method over the other. I would also inquire as to what exactly makes the pricing formula the way it is, and why those are the only values taken into account.
The one thing I found confusing about this chapter was the LOI, and the way it differs from a terms sheet, as they both seem very similar to me. I did not find anything that I particularly disagree with.

My Exit Strategy

To be perfectly honest and straight to the point, my preferred exit strategy is always decided with one goal in mind, financial profit. I plan to exit my business at some point (as i do plan to enjoy my life and retirement), but that point will come when I feel I no longer have to offer anything to the company i created. In shorter terms, when my usefulness into improving and bettering the company comes to an end, I plan to sell it. And for as much money as I can.
The particular reason I have selected this exit strategy is because of the same reason I started this venture, financial gain. Now while some may say I lack passion and all i think about is money, which I understand given how I have phrased my thoughts, it is also important to understand that doing something I like does not necessarily have to be the same thing I do for financial gain. I simply spotted an opportunity which I could grow into a profitable company, simple.
I think that having financial profit as a goal in my head from the very beginning has been very influential in how I make decisions in the company and how I spot opportunities. Since profitability is a key point, spotting opportunities that are worth chasing has led me to careful evaluation of every step I take with a company. It also affects me in how much I play to grow this company and my decision to sell it.

Week 12 Reading Reflection

The thing that surprised me and I just learned about after reading this chapter is that there was so much depth when it came to growth both as a person and as an entrepreneur. This means that while we may have an exact idea what what we seek for both our companies or ourselves, we may not fully sight our actual objective unless we grow.
If i had to ask the author 2 questions about what it is that makes a person and entrepreneur is what strategy they think is best under different systems and situations? And what if we have inserted a very flexible and volatile market?
I did not specially find anything confusing as I saw the message that the authors wanted to convey. Also I did not find that I disagree with the authors since I am so new to entrepreneurship.

What's Next

Existing Markets:

What I think whats next for my venture, I think that I should begin targeting new customers, find a way to do it and expand the brand.

I think that based on this information that I was given, I am now better able to understand what new demands are and what interests certain customers and what will end up attracting new people in the long run. Now I believe I just have to have find an effective and cost efficient way of approaching all these prospective customers.
The way I plan to do this is by looking to new markets and conducting a customer scan and based on responses I can formulate a way to reach and target the vast majorities. This way I will have a more steady customer base and this will also foster loyalty.

New Markets:
For new markets i planned to target people that are the complete opposite of what I'm currently targeting. This means I will ask pet owners and non pet owners alike. Thus giving me a wide range of people and the way they think.

What I learned from this new market is that many different people have different preferences and different tastes. There fore it is essential to understand a large portion of your market in order to make profitable adjustments. This means that surveys and data collection are essential if one is to understand their target market.
Whether it be by offering special offers, discounts and sales, it is or by opening up the app and encompassing more of the user's life.  It is important to adapt to new trends and new interests that may arise in the public at any give time. And in these options you create, step in and make a lucrative situation out of what other wise might just be a new trend.

Venture Concept No. 1

This week I'll be writing about my venture concept and about the process of its inception. This process ranges from the very beginning of this class and culminates in the creation and materialization of my very own idea, which will hopefully one day be put to use in a profitable manner. In order to fully comprehend my venture concept, one must first go back to the origins of its creation; for it is essential to understand a person’s motives if one is to truly grasp what the venture means in a more profound way than just another way to generate revenue. My idea first arose from observing; as in many cases, when one observes the world around, it becomes easier to identify things that aren’t being fully taken advantage of and therefore improve them. Another common occurrence is the identification of a problem and the subsequent creation of a solution. Well my venture concept is based on the latter, as I one day observed a pet owner frantically search for her missing dog. This event reminded me of my younger days, where I would chase my dog around my neighborhood every time it ran away and sometimes I was simply unable to find it. This motivated to find pet owners and simply ask questions; through such simple inquisitive means I was able to generalize that there is no current means for a pet owner to properly and reliable locate its pet. This generalization was able to bring to light an issue that many local pet owners suffer from, thus creating a target market for me. This newly found market consisted of young adults ages 18-30 that owned pets. In a geographical sense, this audience was mostly local due to my confinement and limitation to the city of Gainesville. The fact that pet owners value their pets so highly translates to immediate demand for any means of locating them if lost; yet while this opportunity seems to present itself locally, it is only logical to extrapolate this situation to any town or city with a big enough population of pet owners, thus allowing for the creation of growth for this venture. Thus began the process of creating a solution for this newly found opportunity. The creation of a solution isn’t always as easy as some might perceive it to be, rather it is a meticulous process in which many ideas are subjected to trial and error more times than I’d care to count. Nevertheless what really seems to drive a good venture is a reliable innovation that appeals to a certain market, in my case, local young pet owners. In due time, I came up with an idea which can be considered incrementally innovative as opposed to radically so. I thought that there are current ways to locate lost pets, through installation of chips and other devices that allow for localization of an animal. This process, however, has a cost drawback as not many young adults have the means to afford such an expensive process. This is where I decided to take advantage of a currently popular means of interaction, social networks. Through the modification of a basic network plan, I would in theory be able to create an interconnected social structure dedicated to pets, whether it is finding them or simply interacting with other pet owners. This way I am not creating a drastically new idea, but rather modifying an already successful one and repurposing it to fit the needs of pet owners, my target market. Through the creation of this application and possibly a website, I would attract the attention of many businesses who provide services as well as products to pets and pet owners alike. This source of revenue would be highly marketing based, with some side revenue collected from selling data such as user preferences and interests. With the creation of this new application, users will be able to easily access a network of similar individuals with common goals besides simply interaction. The original goal of this venture is to allow for pet owners to easily and accessibly engage in the finding of their lost pets. What makes this venture especially attractive is the simplicity of access and usage; the user interface will be as simple as some of today’s leading social networks. This venture will be organized as a tech company, driven largely by programmers and information technology employees as well as marketing personnel in order to spread the brand, thus ensuring appropriate staff is in charge of tackling any issues or problems that might arise. My most important advantage going into this venture is the untapped market I will be exploiting, as I am the first to enter this market, I will hold a large market share with virtually no direct competitors. My next target opportunity will be to spread the usage of my network to a national scale and firmly grasp bigger cities and major metropolitan areas. Lastly, I know very little of what the future has in store for me. But I do know where I’d like to end up, with this venture started; I plan to simply continue living and observing. And who knows, maybe I'll find another golden opportunity that will allow me to create another solution for many people out there.

Week 11 Reading Reflection

The single biggest surprise while reading this week's article about not only creating but also maintaining an innovation strategy, is that many companies fail to align their business strategy with their innovation strategy. This then creates discord between the company's general course of action and the goals it sets. One thing that was not all to clear for me is how a company decides where to heavily invest in terms of areas of their business, whether it be R&D or manufacturing or marketing. I feel there area plethora of factors that can dictate what area a company should centralize and they tend to change quite often with new trends emerging. Therefore one question I would ask the author is when and how does a company know which trend to invest in and which opportunities to capitalize given the current state of the market they are in. Another question I would ask is how does a company know when to abandon a set goal and when to pick up a new one, does it depend on financial factors? Or maybe on market trends and opportunities? Or even a combination of both? I believe these questions are essential to ask if a firm is to be the leading entity in its field. Lastly, I do not specifically disagree with anything the author says, his argument and supportive data and reasoning seem all very sound and effective.

Amazon Whisperer

The main sources of revenue, or my main revenue drivers are the cost users of my social network will pay to download an app (which could potentially shift to a free download) and any advertising as well as information any third party company would want from our user base.
I think that a very smart next step would be to design my network so that, much like Facebook, it matches user needs and interests in searches and posts to any potential advertising offers that might satisfy said needs,
This next step does not only create an easier way for our user base to extract value out of using our app, it also inhibits loyalty not only from our users but also from companies who use our app as a medium of advertising. Helping put these two elements in contact with each other will not only save users time, it will also save any company looking to expand its brand a lot of time and money.
While Amazon does not necessarily sell social networking apps, I believe that I could foster a partnership with Amazon to more easily connect users with any specific pet products that they are currently looking for or happen to be trending. This would require a lot of data analysis as well as monitoring traffic and patterns in usage and connectivity. Through this use of a partnership, I believe my social network will enhance its influence over our user base and offer a wider arrange of not only services but also products as well.