What's Next?

Existing Market:

What is next for my business? There are many details I am not quite sure about when it comes to the technology that will be used for this venture. I do want to possible make a transportable version of the system in case a student has to travel, that way the student will not get behind.

Interview 1: April

April is a young mother suggested that there be an actual facility where the younger students, pre-k to 1^st grade, can be monitored while using the system; or that the younger students be taught the curriculum at the facility by the teacher they would have been assigned with the chamber.

Interview 2: Nick

Nick is the father of a 15-year old girl, whom he does not believe to be challenge with her current curriculum at school. His suggestion was to allow some of the students the opportunity to tutor other students using the POD system.

Interview 3: Marsha

Marsha is a mother of two middle-schooled aged boys and is always on the go. Her suggestion was to make a portable POD system for travel so that she can start taking her children with her while also not missing school. She was surprised to find out that her suggest was also what I thought this business’s next move should be.

Reflection:

Setting a path for the future takes a lot time, effort, and detailed planning. I would like to expand my venture (both the product and the service) into something that is transformative. I am not looking just to make money with this venture. I want to change the educational system for the better.

I honestly believe that all three of them had wonderful ideas that would be feasible next steps or moves for POD Schooling. They all just make sense.

New Market:

As of right now, my business venture is for pre-k to 12^th grade students only. However, I can create a radically new market for this product could be businesses and universities. This new idea will create value for others because business can use my product for training classes and universities can use it to make online degree earning programs more interactive and easier access to campus resources like tutoring.

Interview 1: Eric (Publix Manager)

Eric is a manager at one of the Publix Supermarket and he believes that the product and services that POD Schooling can provide would be beneficial to Publix. He believes that it would help associates and managers to better retain the information in the training sessions because it would be more interactive. He also said that of course the curriculum/training content would have to be modified for Publix.

Interview 2: Carla (Manager at a Bakery)

Carla is a manager at a bakery. She said that POD Schooling would be useful in training new hires and making sure that their skills are up to par. She loves that idea, but was concerned as to how the training would work since bakers use many tools in the profession.

Reflection:

I have learned a lot about this new market when I was interviewing people about it. It was not an area that I originally thought to go into. It turns out that it is a much better idea than previously thought. What surprised me the most was the fact that they believed that it would be a viable asset to any business. They loved the idea and the unique, but useful take that it gives.

I received a lot of positive feedback, but also a few concerns about how the actual system would work for them. Some of my assumptions and expectations were correct. This market seems to be just as attractive as my existing market.  

Venture Concept No. 1

POD (Personal One-on-One Development) Schooling

Opportunity

• Children are required to get an education and attend school up until the age of 16, when they can legally choose to drop out. Not every child is thrilled about staying in school or learning when all they are being taught is how to take a test or when it is not something that they have not excelled at, they have just been floated through the grade levels. Private school may be the alternate option, but it is so much more expensive. The other option is homeschooling, but that will not work when parents have to work to support the family. There are also Charter schools, which also have high costs. Then there are programs like Florida Virtual School, however there it is lots of reading and homework with no lectures and no classroom-like feel.

• Just 28% of high- and medium- to low-income public school parents are completely satisfied with their child’s education. Thirty-four percent of elementary parents (grades K through five) are completely satisfied compared with 25% of middle school (grades six through eight) and 25% of high school (grades nine through 12) parents. Despite significant federal and state-level focus on education reform in the past decade and a half, public school parents are no more satisfied today than they were in 2001 with the quality of their own child's education. Children are our foundation and our future, if they cannot get what they need in order to be successful in the future then; I believe we fail as a country. The children deserved a high-quality education where they can thrive without parents having to break the bank trying to make it happen.

• The forces that allow this to occur is all the testing/teaching towards the test, politics, government education policies, and cost of going to a school whether it be the tuition for private schools or the high uniform costs and limited spaces for charter school. The combination of all these things creates a big window of opportunity that will be open until the need is fully satisfied.

• Customers are currently just using the options they have to try to best satisfy the need. I believe that if there were a better option, like my POD Schooling Venture, the customers would happily migrate towards it.

Innovation

POD Schooling or Personal One-on-One Development Schooling is a holographic schooling system. There are two models: the POD chamber and the POD chair & virtual glasses. What this innovation does is bring the classroom to you and in a personalized way to maximize your learning and build a stronger educational foundation. There are many services that come with the system, like tutoring sessions, parent-teacher conferences, etc. Social activities are community based and if students want to participate in sports they still can. The financials are somewhat straightforward in this business model. Private donors will cover the expense and along with fundraisers and gala events, the only expense to the parent would be the POD system. We get most/all of our revenue through the purchase of the POD system and any extra tutoring sessions that are requested above the standard. The students are provided a set number of tutor hours per semester. The cost of the POD system is cut down dramatically through an adopt a student program where a donor pays for all or most of the cost for the POD chamber or POD chair & virtual glasses.

Venture Concept

• POD schooling allows a student to get a better quality of education for less than what it would cost to send the child to private schooling. Customers in my market are extremely sensitive to the quality of the service provided as well as price. Students get to interact with their teacher and fellow peers, learn, and all while saving on transportation.
• There are few (if any) competitors that I know of; there are no businesses of this type using this technology for the same purpose that I am.
• Price is important because I am targeting my concept towards middle- to low-income families. Location, distribution, and packaging do not play a huge part in defining my business concept. However, along with price customer support and customer service is a huge part of defining my business concept. It is built on those relationships I make. One of the main features POD Schooling is customer support. There will be detailed teacher comments for the parents so they can keep up with the student’s progress.
• Essentially, there are two parts to this business; there is the manufacturing part or product and the educational part, which is the service. The number of employees needed is undetermined. There are a lot of different roles, such as:
• Product Designer
• Engineering
• Marketing
• Analytics
• UI Designer
• Lead Developers
• Teachers
• Customer Support, etc.

The Three Minor Elements

My Most Important Resource

POD Schooling people (human capital) are my most important resource; whether it is my own support systems, my customers, the students or the teachers my relationship with them all is what can make or break my business. It is hard to copy a personal relationship with, like a fingerprint it is one of a kind.

What Is Next For My Venture?

There are many details I am not quite sure about when it comes to the technology that will be used for this venture. It is not something that is typically standard. I want maybe to look into to how the system can make university online learning more interactive while still keeping that flexibility.

What Is Next For Me?

I may pursue this business idea in the future, but for now, it is just for the class. I do not have the extra time right now that it would take to get everything started, up, and running. Five years from now, I know for a fact this venture will not have launched. If I do decide to continue it within the next 5 to 10 years, I would probably be in the preliminary stages of getting the systems manufactured, looking into the curriculum setup, and running trials. Within the next decade, I want to have started my own business, mostly likely POD Schooling will not be the first business I start.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

A reflection on the feedback you received from your last pitch. 


I did not get any feedback from my last pitch from my classmates. However, I did let a few of my friends and family members see the video and give me feedback. All of their feedback was almost the same. They said that I did a good job and to maybe try and add more emphasis to my pitch.

What did you change, based on the feedback?

Based on the feedback, I tried to add more emphasis without making it look like I was overdoing it. I  also tried to make my speech more clear.

Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1.      Market demographics for this product are wide:

a.      Valuable: Yes, able to reach many different people

b.     Rare: No, there are plenty of products that target a large market

c.      Inimitable: Yes, it is not hard to copy

d.     Non-Substitutable: Yes, your target market cannot be substituted

2.     Capabilities: First-hand experience with this need

a.      Valuable: Yes, first-hand experience is considered a primary source when researching

b.     Rare: Only someone who has experience what not having this need met would understand why POD Schooling would need to be created.

c.      Inimitable: Yes, no one’s experience is the same

d.     Non-Substitutable: First-hand experience has a benefit that cannot be substituted.

3.     Organizational Culture: Open Door Policy

a.      Valuable: Yes, when someone knows that it is not a bother to come talk to you about an issue, you are able to get it fixed quicker than if you had to wait and find out yourself.

b.     Rare: No, lots of companies have an open door policies

c.      Inimitable: Yes, it is not hard to instill this policy in a company

d.     Non-Substitutable: Yes, the only way to find out problems is if you are told about them or you find out yourself

4.     Organizational Culture: Open Creative/Learning Environment

a.      Valuable: Yes, not all schools foster an open creative/learning environment

b.     Rare: Yes, there are not many types of schools that are able to do this because of all the tests they have to make sure their students pass

c.      Inimitable: Yes, but sometimes it is hard to foster that kind of environment a

d.     Non-Substitutable: Yes, the easier you make it to be able to learn, the more a child would want to.

5.     Capabilities: The skills learnt from this class

a.      Valuable: Yes, every skill you learn is valuable in some way, whether it is helping you to find resources, identifying your target market, or just helping you to figure if your idea is a viable one.

b.     Rare: Yes and no, only a UF student can learn these exact skills but you can still earn some of these skills from other places.

c.      Inimitable: No, UF has its own curriculum

d.     Non-Substitutable:  No, you can always just hire people with those skills that are needed

6.     Social Capital: Support System

a.      Valuable: Yes, they are able to offer you a perspective you wouldn’t be able to see on your own

b.     Rare: Yes, not everyone has a support system that will support them and their  idea(s) 100%

c.      Inimitable: Yes, no one person’s support system is the same, but anyone can have a support system.

d.     Non-Substitutable: Yes, a support system is unique to each individual person  

7.     Financial Capital: Potential Investors Interested

a.      Valuable: Yes, money is an important process in starting any business.

b.     Rare: No, there are many investors out there. Just have to find the right ones willing to buy into POD Schooling.

c.      Inimitable: No, there are many investors out there

d.     Non-Substitutable: No, other funding can be found to fund my idea, POD Schooling

8.     Human Capital: Teachers who I have talked to that said they would be interested in working as a teacher in the company

a.      Valuable: Yes, you want to be able to bring teachers on board. But, not just any teacher, the good teachers who feel like they are limited to teaching towards a test or unable to focus on the progress of each individuals

b.     Rare: No, there are many other good teachers out there that feel like they cannot really teach in the environment they are in

c.      Inimitable: No, like I said before there are many good teachers out there

d.     Non-Substitutable: Yes, teachers are one of the main resources we would need in order to make POD Schooling possible.

9.     Lack of Competitors:

a.      Valuable: Yes,  it makes it easier to dominate/control a market when there are less people who could offer someone the same

b.     Rare: No, there are many industries where there are few competitors. Also as technology becomes more advanced more and more ideas similar to mine

c.      Inimitable: There is always the possibility that in the future someone could come along and make a product like mine or even better than mine.

d.     Non-Substitutable: This cannot be substituted.

10.  Capabilities: Good public speaking skills

a.      Valuable: Yes, not everyone is able to speak effectively in front of a crowd and get them to buy in or care what you are talking about

b.     Rare: No, there are most likely more people out there who are better public speakers than I am

c.      Inimitable: No, it is not hard to improve public speaking skills

d.     Non-Substitutable:  Yes, you need the person who is going to pitch your idea to be you. I would want to pitch me own idea, not hire someone else to explain it for me.

After doing the VIRN analysis of my 10 resources, there are two that because obvious to me that it is my unfair advantage. Those two resources are my support system and the open creative/learning environment I hope to create with POD Schooling.