Venture Concept No. 2 for iMobileID

Brittany Traynor

ENT3003 Venture Concept No. 2

Due: 12/06/17

1. Venture Concept for iMobileID:

Opportunity:

            The need I have identified in this class is for student ID’s to be made mobile. College students are the individuals who have this need, and the nature of the need stems from society’s shift toward electronic items rather than physical items. It also stems from society’s current desires for convenience.

·      The changes in the environment are the technological innovations and changes being seen throughout the world, as well as the idea that most things, including debit cards, can be mobilized in today’s society.

·      Geographically, I would probably target a local market, such as students at the University of Florida or Santa Fe. If my business were to become a success, I would expand to universities across the state and potentially even across the country. Demographically, there is really only an age demographic, and that would be college aged students. There is no specific gender, race, ethnic, or economic class limitations on my market demographic.

·      Currently, the need is being met with physical forms of student identification, such as the Gator1 cards here at UF. I do not believe that the market is exceptionally loyal to this product, as my product would serve the same function and would provide more convenience. However, I would not completely eliminate the physical form of IDs anyway.

·      I think this opportunity has potential, but is not huge or ground-breaking. I assume it would be a good business to get me through school and make some extra cash, but I would not expect my life or career to center around this idea.

·      I think the window of opportunity for me would be during my time in college, or shortly after graduation. I think that if I were to wait too long, it would be harder for me to understand the needs of my market as I will eventually be separated with them by age. Due to this, the sooner I capitalize on this idea, the better.

Innovation:

My idea is incrementally innovative, as it is not a completely new idea. Students ID’s are obviously already a widely used product; my idea is simply a new form of that product that is more convenient for users. My idea specifically is a mobile application, that could be downloaded onto any smartphone, that would have the user’s student ID synched to it. That way, students could pull out their phone, and their ID can be viewed or scanned that way. This would make it easier for students to ensure that they have their IDs with them at all times. I think this idea is relatively inexpensive to produce and implement, so the application would not be too expensive, maybe $1.99 0r $2.99 per person. I would like to have the universities purchase the application is mass volumes, and incorporate the cost of that into student tuition. The students would not even feel the difference of the few extra dollars on their hefty tuition costs, and the application could be downloaded at freshman orientation.

Venture Concept:

My product will be attractive to my target market as it will provide additional convenience for them, and it will be in correlation to other technological trends occurring globally. The market I am targeting is particularly attracted to technological innovation and change, so I think my product could be very successful.

·      The market would switch as it would provide them convenience. I do not think it would be hard to get them to switch because as long as the universities were on board with the idea, the implementation and use of the product would be a part of orientation and the overall shift into college. In addition, I am not eliminating the physical form of ID, so they really have nothing to lose by using my product as well.

·      Competitors are makers of physical IDs, and their weakness is that they are not keeping up with technology changes, so they will fall short.

·      I would not have a physical store location, but it would be really important for me to make sure that I advertised this product to universities in such a way that would convince them to start using my product on their campus. In order to do this, I would have to provide evidence or reason to believe that this product is something that students would like and use.

·      If I were to have a business, it would be rather small. I would need a graphic designer, as well as people who can build apps, market them, and serve as an expert in their use.

3 Minor Elements:

·      I think my most valuable resource will be my access to and understanding of my target market. This makes it easier for me to tailor my product to them. In addition, I think it will be hard for others to copy my success as technological innovation spreads quickly, so I would hopefully sell to many universities within a short period of time as long as the first one demonstrates success and convenience.

·      Next, I would hope to expand the mobile application so that it includes more features than just a student ID. For example, it would show student activities broken down my semester, such as swipes into the dining hall, books checked out, game tickets claimed, bus trips, Flex Bucks, etc.

·      I think that this venture would be short lived for me, and then I would either sell it or shut it down once I have sold to many schools and I am graduated and ready to begin my career. Although I think it is an awesome way to make some money for a few years while I am single and in school, it is not what I had in mind for my life career goals.

2. Summary of Feedback:

            The feedback that I received on the first venture concept assignment was pretty much all positive. The students who commented said that I included a lot of detail in my assignment, which made it easy for them to understand each element of my idea and business. One student agreed that my idea is not particularly innovative, and could most likely be described as incrementally innovative as it is really an extension or change to current student IDs. However, after talking to some friends about the idea, they agreed that my original name for my venture, iGator1, was a little too specific to the University of Florida, and that I should change that if I want to market my product to all universities.

3. Changes based on Feedback:

            As I said above, I decided to change the name of my venture in order to appeal to all universities, not just UF. In the feedback I received, one student said that they liked the “i” in front of the venture name, as it makes people think about Apply products and technological innovation. Due to this, I decided to keep that, and change Gator1 to MobileID, so that is is appealing to all schools and it is also descriptive and relevant to the product. I did not think that a fancy name was needed, I think that a descriptive, simple name will make it easier for people who have never heard of my venture to understand what it is.

            In addition to the name, I also made a few minor changes to my venture. For example, I slightly tailored the section talking about what is next, so that it was more fitting to the feedback that I received. I also changed the way I talked about myself in 5 or 10 years, as after the “Exit Strategy” assignment, I realized that it is not only okay to plan on my venture to end at some point, but it is actually normal. I do have other goals for my career, so I decided to say that I would most likely not be changing or innovating my product in 5 or 10 years as I would most likely be selling it or closing it down.

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