24A – Venture Concept No. 1

ENT 3003: Venture Concept Write-Up Guide

Opportunity

          The opportunity that is presented for my product is college students, professionals, and anyone who uses their laptop a lot. Students are the specific target audience, but there are others, specifically business professionals. These two groups have a prime opportunity to be marketed to, and purchase, my product. Both of these groups rely heavily on their laptops for their work, whether it be students for class work, or professionals for business ventures, there’s is a clear need for laptops amongst these two groups, and where there is a need for laptops, there is a need for battery life. Both groups are often caught in a dilemma where their laptops are dead, and my product solves that issue, so there is an obvious need for my product in these two circles. Ideally, I would initially target college students at UF, as I feel there is easy access to a large market with this need. The forces or changes in the environment creating this opportunity are the demand for the use of laptops, and laptops abilities to die quickly when they are needed most. Geographically, the opportunity for my product is primarily UF students, or specifically incoming freshmen on campus in Gainesville. Demographically, there is an opportunity to market, at first, to freshmen who often forget to charge their laptops and are late to class, or to their parents who know their students will struggle with tardiness and remembering to charge their laptop for their books. Currently, customers are not satisfying their need, and are often forced to spend class time without their laptop, forcing them to miss important in class without their books. They are currently not loyal to any other product similar to mine. This opportunity is huge, as there are thousands of freshmen who enter UF every year, as well as thousands more upperclassmen who would be interested in this product. The “window of opportunity” will be open for the foreseeable future as I do not know of any other products that fit the niche need that my product does.

Innovation

         My product is a portable charger that charges twice as fast as a regular charger, but only to 50%. While this may seem odd, there is a need for this product, as it plays a specific role. My product will charge a laptop to 50% within 5 minutes, giving the user a laptop that is ready to go for class in the time it takes them to walk or bike to their class. The product itself is a small battery encased in either metal or plastic, with a USB port at the end of it. The USB port is able to be plugged into a specific cord charger that plugs into a laptop. The cords will be sold separately so they can fit all different power ports on a laptop. The charger itself will ideally be the size of an iPhone and will be customizable. For example, the charger will be orange, with a blue Gator head on the top of the charger. Other ideas are that the charger can be any color, with any mascot, or even fraternity and sorority letters on the top of the charger.  Ideally, I would like to make my product for around $10, and sell it for close to $25, but it depends on the price it costs to make my product.

Venture Concept

Ideally, my product would work like this, a student realizes they are late to class, so they grab their laptop, but realize it is dead. The student plugs the laptop into my charger, puts the laptop and charger in their backpack, and head to class. By the time the student makes it to class, their laptop is at 50% charge, allowing them to have access to their books for the entire class period. My product would also work if a student wants to go to the library, take a shower before starting homework, etc. My product also works for business professionals who need to charge their laptops on the way to work so that they can present their ideas to others. I believe costumers would switch to this product because it is portable, relatively cheap, and saves them a lot of hassle down the road. Currently, there are no competitors for my product. Packaging is a large selling point for my product, as having a package that catches the customers eye with their school’s logo is very important. Distribution is also important because being able to reach UF students at first is a huge plus. Business location only matters at first when I am selling to only UF students before I go digital. The business I would establish would consist of 3 teams, sales, marketing, and logistics. I would have sales be representatives who go sell the product and exam revenue. Marketing team would work almost all on social media, as well as with book stores and electronic stores. Logistics team would work with the industry side of making sure the product is manufactured and delivered correctly. Ideally when starting out I would have roughly 20 employees, with a few designated to customer service.

The three minor element

          My most important resource will be the market I have, and the control I will have on the market, at least in Gainesville. With a one year head start, I believe I can capture Gainesville’s interest in UF portable chargers and create a monopoly in the city.

          Ideally, the next step in my products success would be Bluetooth charging for all devices once that technology is created of course.

          In 5 years, I would like to have a strong hold on Gainesville’s demand for portable chargers as well as potentially a foot-in UCF, USF, Miami, or FSU, as well as smaller schools. Within a decade, I would like to be in control of at least 3 successful start-ups. This product helps me achieve that goal by giving me a baseline of success.