Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity: All throughout the country hundreds of parties are happening on and around universities every single night. They cause noise, they cause damage, and worst of all, they cause the host to spend all day cleaning up after everyone left. Currently, there are thousands of college students who don’t have the time to clean their apartments and houses, and they don’t have the money to hire professional cleaning companies. At the same time there are thousands of students who need money and are willing to make money by cleaning. Currently, whenever a college student throws a party they have to spend the entire morning hungover and picking up the disgusting sticky red cups while stale beer lingers in the air, maybe if they’re lucky a friend or two will show up and help but that’s only because he forgot his keys and had to get them back. And it’s not only kids who throw parties that need their apartments and houses or dorms cleaned, there are plenty of pre-med students or engineers or Over the years the cost of professional cleaning services has gone up so now only people with real jobs can afford to use them regularly.

Innovation: Many people don’t consider that many businesses sell directly to other businesses and they don’t deal with the general consumer. Ebay, the popular e-commerce website, is known for its forward auction style bidding where consumers bid higher than the highest bid. Meaning the buyers compete for a good from the seller. However, in the business side of trade it’s more common for a reverse auction style, where the sellers compete with other sellers to get the business from the buyer. This means the sellers will usually lower prices to entice the buyer. I want to bring this auction style to the mainstream consumer world. Whenever someone uses the ridesharing app, Uber, the Uber Company takes about one dollar and some change from the exchange. My mobile application would be very similar. The app would automatically deduct a small amount of money from each exchange. However, this would be common knowledge and it would be a very small amount, however, if there are hundreds or luckily thousands of exchanges each day it will be a very substantial payout. Let’s combine this idea with the opportunity.  

Venture Concept: Now imagine a student somewhere just threw a party or they spent 16 hours nose deep in a textbook at the library, when they wake up or when they get home from the library the last thing they want to do is clean their apartment. So using their phone, they would take a picture of the room or a video of the room showing the mess and they would post it on an app, Cleanrs. Students in the geographic area who want to make money as “cleaners” would see your picture or video and they would be able to reverse auction bid on the ability to the room. This means the student gets a price that is much lower than those of professional cleaning services. However, we don’t want “cleaners” pricing incredibly low and doing a horrible job so the user would be able to compare not only the bid price but also the “cleaners” rating. This will allow for users to compare all the competitors at once for price and overall skill. The “cleaners” would also rate the users of course, because we want the “cleaners” and users to both have expectations going into a cleaning job. And of course cleaners would have to go to a background check in order to sign-up and their first job would be for an existing “cleaner” so that they can watch them in action. I believe students will adopt to this idea for several reasons. First, it will save them both time and money. They don’t have to hire a professional cleaning service that costs $70 for one job and they don’t have to spend their entire morning and afternoon cleaning up a mess that only brings back embarrassing memories. They say that time is money, when in reality time is priceless. Second, I believe that students will be trusting of this service because it will be students cleaning for other students. But I do think that the switch will be gradual for a bit until it catches on. To advertise I would create fliers and put them at the cashiers of convenience stores, wholesale retailers, and other stores where cleaning supplies are commonly purchased. I would also run a promotion where I would cover a certain amount of the cost for a certain amount of time, this will get people to try the app. Customer service will be very important in this endeavor because we need to be vigilant if anyone causes issues.

My most important resource will be students willing to take a chance and try out the service. If no one will be the first to use the service the app will never take off. No amount of money can get people to try it.

Next the app could be slightly modified so instead of users wanting their house or apartment cleaned they can take a picture or video of their car and get their car washed at home, or people could come clean the user’s dogs.

In 5 years I would want this venture to be a household name. People enjoy being their own boss and something like this would help. I also think that the more these apps exist, the more that will follow. I know currently there’s Uber for taxi-ing, there’s knack for tutoring, my idea for cleaning. I think if this idea did well I would try to stay in the mobile application business. I just don’t really know where to go from here. Yes, I have a good idea (or I think) but I have next-to-zero coding experience and have no money to pay for someone to attempt to code it.

Week 11 Reading Reflection

1) I think the biggest shock to me was the entire premise of the article. That business need to have an innovation strategy. That never occurred to me, I just assumed that businesses would have brainstorming round tables where people thought of new items/services for the customers to provide.

2) I was confused on how Corning was considered as a good example for innovation strategy. I understand that they provide components and must be a front runner in tech but how does that show their superior innovation strategy?

3) I would ask the author what companies he thinks have the best innovation strategies and who had the worst. I would also ask if companies should plan an innovation strategy specifically or if the company should have their own idea but keep strategy in their mind in case their plan goes too far off path.

4) I think the author was wrong about innovation not creating value. Innovation has driven all forms of technology and each makes our lives easier and better than generation before.

Amazon Whisperer

My idea in the making is a mobile application that I have named SqueakyClean, name not final. If someone needs their room cleaned, they take a picture or video of it and people nearby who signed up as cleaners could see pictures/video and bid on the ability to clean the room. This will make the cleaners use lower prices to be competitive.

1) How would the app make money? It would be similar to Uber. For every cleaning that my app creates, I would make a certain percentage. I would wait several months though before I implemented this, so the app gains traction without people claiming that the company is skimming too much off the payments. Even 5% would make the company a tremendous amount of money if the app got large enough. 

2) Maybe the app could have a section specific to cleaning animals. I know many dog owners in the world where mobile grooming would be very convenient.

3) I think the addition would make the app more inclusive. The more people are on my app the better likelihood they'll use the cleaning services.

4) Since my business idea is an application, my product will be related but obviously different. Included is a "Woof Washer Dog Cleaner." The item is a hose attachment that creates a circular loop that blasts water AND soap from many spouts. You basically thread your dog through a hose needle. 

5) There aren't many reviews so I will use reviews from copycat products as well. Some say that the product doesn't work as intended, mean soap and water isn't coming out properly. Some people also complain that the ring is too small and they need different breed sizes.

6) To improve the product I would improve the quality first. I would also make 2 sizes. One for medium dogs like the one picture and one for large dogs and I would research what breeds needed the large size so customers didn't improperly order.

7) I think these additions would be good because they would expand the market and it would help more dog owners.

My Unfair Advantage

Resources:

1) Social capital - I know a decent amount of people. I am VP of a fraternity, involved in Growl and DM among other organizations. I also know several people in the industry.

2) Financial Capital - I come from a wealthy family and they would be willing to invest

3) Financial understanding - I have been investing my entire life and have taken several finance and accounting courses.

4) My venture is in a niche market

5) Realistic goals - I want to start small at first before expanding

6) I possess dedication

7) I'm IN the target market - I have inside knowledge

8) Education - I go to University of Florida

9) Social Media capabilities - I know how social media works and could use it to help me.

10) Physical Capabilities - I could demonstrate the cleaning capabilities to show the abilities of the app.

VRIN (Value, Rare, Inimitable, Non-substitutable):

1) This is incredibly valuable. It's all about who you know. It can also be quite rare in this day and age. To have my exact social circle is not imititable. There are no substitutions to who you know.

2) This is very valuable for getting the company started. It is somewhat rare, but not incredibly rare. Other wealthy people can imitate. There is no substitution.

3) This is also very valuable. It is also rare. It can be imitated. There are no substitutions.

4) This is valuable, non-niche goods usually don't do as well as the counterpart. It is not rare. It can be imitated, many items have niche markets. There is no substitution I can think of.

5) Very valuable, starting too big causes many failures. It is somewhat rare for new ventures. It can be imitated. There can be substitutions.

6) Very valuable. Not that rare. Can not be imitated to my degree. No substitution for dedication.

7) Being part of the target market gives me a valuable insight. Somewhat rare. It can be imitated. There are substitutions, for example hiring someone in the target market for ideas.

8) Education is very valuable. Not rare. It can be imitated. There are substitutions.

9) This is very valuable in today's world. It is not that rare. It can be imitated. There are no substitutions.

10) This is somewhat valuable for my idea. Not that rare. It can be imitated. It can be substituted.

Numero Uno:

My great asset is either social network or my financial capabilities. To pick one, I'd say the financial capabilities. Having money will make starting a business much much easier. However, it must go along with my other assets.

Week 10 Reading Reflection

1) I think the biggest surprise was what constituted a vertical analysis and the purpose of an analysis. I never knew it was to find mistakes.

2) I'm still quite confused on developing an expense budget.

3) I would ask him the most important cash flow, and I would also ask him more about pro forma statements.

4) I really don't think the author was wrong on anything.

Growing My Social Capital

1) First, an acquaintance of mine that I met named Jonathan. Jonathan is responsible for coding an app that is popular in the area. I would need someone with technical coding skills to help me code my app, squeakyclean. Another acquantince of mine who works with Jonathan, Ben, is targeting a very similar audience that squeakyclean would target, young college students. Finally the last person who works on this app with Jon and Ben, his name is Richard. He works with companies that process debit card and credit card transactions through their app. This would be very important for app because there will be money exchanged.

2) Jonathan is the domain expert, he knows phone applications.
Ben is the expert in the market because we both have similar audeince targets.
Richard is the supply expert because he knows how to work money exchange with is necessary in making my app function.

3) I actually met the app crew through using their app. They eventually contacted me to tell me that I was using the app more than anyone and we had several discussions since then and they often ask me questions on improving their app. The haven't done me any favors per se but I enjoy their app and I appreciate that they want my feedback. Makes me feel like a very valuable customer.

4) Having this team in my network pool is incredibly helpful. Besides a few aspects are applications are quite similar in their underlying functions.

5) This networking instance was very random and unplanned. Just goes to show that anyone you met can be very important later on.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

2) Biggest and most common critique last time was that I needed to practice more because my last pitch lacked a certain professional attitude. I rehearsed many times before recording this one, however, I am a little sick and I think it sounded a tad more robotic this time. I agree my last pitch was too ill prepared, however, I did it in an elevator and had to be quicker because elevators are fast,a and in the event of a literal elevator pitch you aren't going to be able to bust out a scripted version of your idea. Some people also said my app was good which I agree with.

3) I rehearsed a ton this time. I wrote out a script and read it and tried repeated it many times without looking. I also changed some words to help my speech flow better. However, to me, this pitch sounded a little too much like I was reading off of a script so I need to find a balance.

Week 9 Reading Reflection

1) I was quite surprised to learn how much went into the marketing process. They make surveys and do early market testing which is quite surprising. I thought that marketers would just create ads that they thought we good.

2) I was most confused by the social media marketing and what it really is.

3) I would ask the author if he thinks market research is useful or if he thinks that it's irrelevant and already known. I would also ask what the most successful marketing strategy he thinks is.

4) I don't believe the author was wrong on anything.

My Secret Sauce

5 things about me that are different:

1) I'm very resourceful. For example, I needed index cards to study but I couldn't find the 3x5in cards in the 50 pack, and I needed several. So I just bought bigger cards and cut them in half and they worked great.

2)I'm ambitious.

3) I get things done. Not only am I ambitious and set my sites high, I also achieve my goals.

4) I'm creative. I love thinking of new things and how to improve how things currently are.

5) I speak my mind.

1) He said I was a good communicator, and confident.

2) He said I was a good problem solver and was able to multitask well.












3) She said I was flexible. I was able to make light of situations and a was caring/dedicated.

4) She said I was ambitious and she also said I was a risk taker.

5) She said I was a great problem solver, I'm a good communicator and I'm outgoing.

I would say what I thought aligned well with what my friends caring thoughts. If I could go back and change my list I would add I'm a skilled communicator to the list. I would also add risk taker.

Idea Napkin No. 2

Unfortunately, for the first assignment I was not given any critiquing feedback, I was told my idea was good though.

1) My name is Collin Dieffenbach, I am an Applied Physiology and Kinesiology major, so my idea doesn't really pertain to my major or current aspirations, however, I wouldn't mind changing my aspirations and focusing on becoming an entrepreneur if I felt my idea had real substance and could potentially make it. I enjoy partying and I've had many issues where I was left having to clean up after a party and it was miserable and almost made me regret throwing the party in the first place. Or frankly, I am too busy to make time to clean my room and it will take several days before I can get to it.

2) I am offering a mobile application that will match users to a nearby cleaner, one that is much cheaper than professional services. Users will share a video of their mess and nearby cleaners can bid on the ability to clean it. It will be reverse auction style so the user gets the cheapest price. The cleaners will have ratings so the user can keep that in mind when he picks his cleaner. Cleaners will have to give enough personal information if they want to be registered to clean, that way if there's an incident the cleaner can be located, and background checks will be good to stop most incidents proactively.

3) I think this app is aimed at young people, college age, that enjoy throwing house parties or are extremely busy. The cheap price and convenience also makes the app enticing to college students. Based on feedback the app should also be aimed at the elderly because they aren't always able to clean-up after themselves. However, there might be a technology disconnect.

4) People will pay money for this app because they find that their time is more valuable than spending the time cleaning up. Imaging all of the school work that can be done on Sunday morning that gets wasted (pun intended) by cleaning up the damage from a rager the night before? Based on the feedback I got, there needs to be a very effective rating system. That way people will not only be able to select lower prices for their cleaning service but also know who has cleaning experience, who is trustworthy, and who is skilled. 

5) Several things make this system original. 1) reverse auctioning - reverse auction lets cleaners bid for the job, so they will offer lower prices to stay competitive. 2) local - people won't have to schedule appointments they can get the cleaning done quickly. 3) Saturated workforce - there will be a high amount of cleaners so more jobs can be done simultaneously, this is where the companies lack.

I believe these elements do fit together quite nicely, however, I'm not sure how the app would work in the real world. One reason Uber succeeds is because so many people need rides and some people need rides multiple times a week. However, how many people need their apartment/house cleaned multiple times a week? I'm unsure of how successful it could really be.

Feedback Memo:

I didn't receive enough points of feedback to have 5 points. However, one that people mentioned was to make sure the rating system is effective which I completely agree with. The rating would be based on satisfactory of the time it took, the job and other factors. We could also make this college based so you have to have a ufl.edu email to sign-up that way students are doing the work which might make some students feel more inclined to using the app.