Final Reflection

I wish I could've gotten more out of this class.  The truth is I believe it has less to do with the class itself and more to do with my own circumstances.  I'm in my final semester of 7 straight semesters of classes without a single break, I'm living alone in Gainesville while my wife is in Berlin waiting for me to finish up here so I can join her, and I really just don't have much left to put into a class that requires this much personal motivation.  I'm also a very introverted person, and this class is certainly more geared towards extroverts.

The best suggestion I could have for somebody would be to take this class sooner in their studies, because I believe I may have gotten more from this if I'd taken it two years ago rather than during my final semester.

Making It Real

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1ds-uxSjEjHaktXdTlRWjc1VTg/view?usp=sharing

My Exit Strategy

Simply based on the type of person I am, I know I tend to lose interest when I'm doing the same thing for an extended period of time.  Because of this, I believe I would sell my venture after several years and move on to something new.

I don't believe my exit strategy had much of an impact of my selected venture, I chose it simply as something that I have a personal interest and passion about.  I believe the model I set up would be successful long term, as I wouldn't want to create something that couldn't last past my ownership.  I think there's a problem these days of entrepreneurs creating businesses with weak foundations because their intention is to sell of the business at the first opportunity to the highest bidder.  Many brilliant ideas have been lost or held back due to this kind of entrepreneurship, and I wouldn't want to contribute to such a system.

Celebrating Failure

An activity I've recently picked up is playing Escape Room games.  You and a team are placed inside a room with a locked door, and you have to go through a series of puzzles, hidden doors, riddles and so forth in order to escape the room within 60 minutes.  No matter how close you might be to winning, if you don't make it out in time you've failed, so it's a very binary feeling of accomplishment or disappointment at the end.

It took a couple of attempts in different rooms before I started getting the hang of it.  Without any prior experience, it took some time for my friend and I to get into the right mindset for how to go about solving the room, and it required a lot of trial and error.  But after each failure I felt I'd gained some valuable insight to keep in mind for the next attempt, and I also felt a renewed sense of determination that I was definitely going to succeed the next time.

I'm generally a little bit a perfectionist, and it can actually be a deterrent  against trying new things if I don't believe I can do them to my own satisfaction.  Failure is a difficult thing or me to accept, and I end up dwelling on it for a long time afterwards trying to figure out it could've been avoided.  Some of my experiences in this class have forced me to accept the potential of failure a little more, and try to not feel too much disappointment if I'm not able to do something perfectly right away.  

The Amazon Whisperer

Revenue Driver:
1. Rent paid by developers
2. Membership fees from consumers
3. Sales of VR/AR equipment and peripherals
4. Sponsorship deals with outside developers/manufacturers


Next thing:
High quality wireless audio systems.

These will allow customers to enhance their VR/AR experiences by allowing them to feel more immersed in their headsets without an additional piece of equipment (headphones) on their heads.  It will also help to better simulate the effect of truly being in a different environment, as the audio sounds more natural when it's filling an entire space.

Example: Sonos Playbar

The Sonos Playbar has excellent reviews, with 83% of customers giving it 4-5 stars.  Unfortunately this device is not wireless, at it requires an optical audio cable, so there would be a limited ability to place it around the room.  It would be better to have a truly wireless option to allow for the best positioning without limitation.

The quality of this product is very high, and is perfect for the current target market of VR adopters who will be slightly more affluent than the average person.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

The only feedback received on my previous post in regards to how I might improve the pitch was from one person who said they didn't quite understand what VR was, and so they were slightly confused at the end of the pitch.  Given the time limitations of this exercise, and the fact that I'm already pushing the upper limit of this, I was unable to find any room to trying and work an explanation of the technology itself into the presentation.

Part of the venture itself is to give the public better exposure to VR, as a lack of understanding or experience with the technology is the exact barrier I believe needs to be overcome.  The complexity and need to be "experienced rather than explained" of VR and AR as a whole is exactly what makes the explanation during an elevator pitch difficult.

I believe this pitch will always be unsuccessful to anybody without even at least a passing knowledge of VR, and so that must be something I'll always need to take into account when considering who I choose to pitch to.  With all that in mind, I believe my last elevator pitch is exactly where I would like it to be.

Idea Napkin No. 2

1. Me:

I've worked in retail and consumer electronics for 10 years, in areas of sales, service, management and operations.  I have a passion for technology and innovation, and want to be able to share and spread this enthusiasm with the wider public.

2. What I'm offering:

For the public, I'm offering access to, and experience with, new technological innovations.  For business, I'm offering access to customers, by means of a public facing showroom of in-development technology, and an environment facilitating their development of new products.

3. Who I'm offering this to:

Target audiences will initially be middle to upper class, young to middle aged.  "Gadget" technology tends to first be adopted early by males, partially driven by the heavily male development teams creating experiences appealing to males.  Over time, this demographic will broaden as the technology becomes more widely available and lower in cost, and the variety of experiences increases.  

4. Why they care:

People are always curious about the newest technologies, and most want to at least experience something they've heard about, even if they aren't interested in purchasing.  Achieving that initial interest is the first step, and once you have the customer actually trying out a product it becomes much easier to convince them of the actual utility.  Much of this utility will be unfolding over the next several years, due to how new the technology currently is.

5.  Core competencies:

Passion for the product, experience in retail, sales and customer service, technical knowledge, the ability to demo products for customers before sale.

I believe my experiences and knowledge are greatly beneficial to this type of venture.  One area I may struggle with, I tend to be great at putting together an overall big picture and making "large" decisions, but the normal minutia involved in day to day operations becomes a drag and I have no interest, so I'm liable to overlook these.

I only received one comment, which recommended I elaborate on how to provide access to customers for the developers.