30A – Final Reflection

1) Read through your posts from this semester. Recall all of the experiences you've had a long the way -- the highs, the lows -- the fun moments, and the moments of drudgery, and even the moments of dread.

I really feel like my initial idea had a fundamental flaw in it in which people would not want a bigger device and a tab that plugs into your phone leaves the user uncomfortable when using their device and when storing it in their pocket or backpack. I received a lot of great feedback when I introduced a device that would be able to charge your devices wirelessly. It is most practical because it would make the need for a charging port on a phone, tablet, or computer obsolete. 

2) What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?

I think my most formative experience was being able to share my ideas with other students and receive feedback. A lot of the feedback was positive about this product, but when looking at the fundamentals of a product, it was important to keep the amount of demographics huge, so this product would not attract a niche market and become unsuccessful. My most joyous experience was developing the Elevator pitches because I put myself into scenarios like I haven't experienced in a class before. I am most proud of being able to see the public's opinion about a proposed product by interviewing people from multiple industries, relevant and irrelevant, and captivate an audience that I had never knew would want a device. 

3) At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?

I think I definitely see myself more as an entrepreneur. I have learned to see what people truly want and need and being able to promote a device that satisfies a need and make people want to have it make it very powerful for marketing.  

4) What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?

I recommend to always listen what people have to think. You may not agree with what people have to say about your ideas, but you want to have as much feedback as you can get. I recommend to have your friend group and/or random people you encounter to give their take on whatever you are proposing because you may find some valuable advice that you never though about. I recommend they foster this mindset by expanding your mind to find ideas to implement that you wouldn't think about before. 

29A – Venture Concept No. 2 WiPower

Opportunity.

The forces and changes in the current environment that were able to create this opportunity is the continuous use of portable devices in daily life. Since the birth of the iPhone in 2007, portability has been key to the needs of the customer to have information, communication, and instantaneous processing available to them at all times of the day. With the evolution of the smartphone, the development of the tablet, smaller laptop computers, smart watches, portable video games, etc., customers globally have become dependent on their devices. This world wide phenomenon has led to people being addicted to their mobile devices as they communicate, learn, and play on their phone all day. People are heavily dependent on this technology and it is not going away anytime soon. It is upmost important to be able and prolong the life in which individuals are able to use their smart devices to get the most amount of work done and not be dependent on the battery life of the device.

This market is defined globally as a majority of individuals in the world use smart devices to communicate, access information, and distribute results from information at their finger tips.

Customers are currently satisfying their need to prolong the battery life of their devices by using wired chargers, bringing battery packs along for a long journey, and using cases for their devices with built in batteries to inefficiently charge their devices to maybe 1.5-2X the current battery life of their devices. Customers are more loyal in being able to have a full charge to their devices, so that they are able to emerge into the global network known as the Internet. As long as there is a device that provides the user with unlimited battery and access to their phones, customers will be most loyal to a product that provides them with the best experience to give life to their products.

This opportunity is huge due to the fact that it is a key buying point for customers buying smart devices or even small devices with batteries, like a Fitbit or watch, to have  long lasting battery life. As long as batteries stay at their current state, the wireless advantage of charging their devices with little ease will be monumental to the technology industry, the business industry, the banking industry, and any industry that relies heavily on technology and portable devices.

This window of opportunity for this product will be open indefinitely until there is a next revolution in energy, which with the slow development of new batteries and alternative energy will be for decades to come.

Innovation.

This device will ultimately solve the global energy crisis for portable devices. This will be a hand held device that an individual will be able to carry with them on the go in their pocket, backpack, or purse. The technology will be sending current through the air in a limited radius for the user to be able and sync their smart devices with this product and the ionized air particles will interact with the batteries of the smart devices and give them energy without being plugged in directly to a energy source that would not be portable. The service that this venture will be selling the product for $500. The leisure that customers will be provided with will pay for itself in the ability to give the user unlimited amounts of energy from merely the particles of air that will be in the environment. Although the objective is to solve the energy crisis, this device is not perfect yet and the user will have to charge their device after long term use. The average use of this product will last up to a few days, so the customer will not have to charge their charging device everyday. It has come to the point where individuals have to charge their smart devices everyday and multiple times a day, so this device makes the user's level of convenience increase astronomically. Being able to reduce this necessity to once every few device to all devices, will be monumental for the amount of time saved charging those smart devices or leaving yoru phone on standby. This development will increase the productivity of the user as they will have more time to use their phone because individuals do not use their devices while they are charging. It is upmost important that the user will be able to be productive and use their smart devices while they are being charged wirelessly and not have to depend on being near an outlet or electricity source for a few days.

Venture Concept.

The reasons customers will want to switch to this new product is because people are constantly on the move and rarely in one place for very long. The capability of users to be able to use their smart devices on the go and efficiently will be the reasons why they switch. It will not be hard for them to switch because this device gives the user a friendly, effortless experience to charge their smart devices.

There are currently no competitors to this because the technology is just starting to develop. There have been attempts to replicate this technology, but it is still in the developing stages and people post Youtube videos on how to do this, but they end up being scams. Currently, many new devices are able to charge without a wire, but you have to set your phone down on a pad or platform to charge the device.  A possible weakness for this product will be that customers will not want to carry around another device to their armada of smart devices they currently use in their every day life. Another weakness to this product will be appealing to the generations that don't have smart devices or portable devices and would not see any use out of a device that they can not use. Also, people who aren't as privileged to buy expensive device won't use this product because they can't afford a smart device, let a lone a product that charges devices.

Customer experience will play a huge role in defining this business concept because if the individual isn’t able to have a effortless experience in charging their devices, they would rather use traditional methods to give them energy.

This venture will be organized into a business by locating itself in a large city with a growing population, so there is the most opportunity than ever before. The number of employees will depend upon the success of the product, which may go viral, so the amount of people involved will determine the growth of this product. . The roles of this venture will be to give everyone in the world that uses portable devices access to portable, wireless energy and it will be key to development of energy processes for all devices that use energy and electricity.

The three minor elements

This venture’s secret sauce will be the technology of wireless charging. A patent will be made for this technology and it will be very hard for competitors to copy a service that has a patent on it.

The next opportunity for this current innovation will be to increase the amount of range and battery power the device will give to other devices.

Research and development for several years will have to take place to develop a functioning product.

Whats Next

One comment that I received about my idea was not necessarily focusing on phones, but to bigger products like tablets and computers. It is always a struggle to find an outlet at a library during finals week or at your local Starbucks, so if you need to charge your devices while studying or doing anything productive where you are using your devices, you will always have a way to have charge. 

Change

I changed my product to be a bit more realistic in terms of it battery capacity. It was unrealistic to make it last for a week because it would either have to be a huge battery or we'd have to reinvent the battery to be bigger in better, which is another large feat in itself. I also opened my understanding of individuals who can't necessarily afford mobile devices or don't even use them. My idea is to give all people a need for this product, so promoting the use of social media, the Internet, and being able to provide low cost products is ideal towards this product's success to all demographics of people.