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30a - final reflection

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The thing that sticks out the most from this semester is the overall creation of a product and fake business. There wasn’t any one assignment in particular that was substantial, whether it was the fact that from basically the first week of class I have been working with an idea that I made up for this class and as time went on it became more and more realistic. If I had to choose one thing that did stand out, I would say it is the elevator pitches, mostly because I tried to memorize what to say and recording videos like that is out of my comfort zone. I generally don’t have an issue talking with people in person or doing a pitch (although I wouldn’t perform it like an automation, like the assignment requires), but having to memorize it and perform in front of a camera for a grade was a little different. This is something that I think I did surprisingly well on but it is still something I need to become more comfortable with. I don’t think I have totally adapted to an entrepreneurial...
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29a - venture concept 2

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Part I Opportunity: The opportunity I noticed was that I was tired of having to constantly use dull razors to shave, or be forced to go out and spend time and money buying new ones. My facial hair grows out fast and I like to stay relatively clean shaven, so repeatedly buying new razors is not really an option when you shave as much, and have as little money as I do. People who find themselves shaving often, and don’t have the time and money to buy new razors all the time are the people who would be in need of a product to solve their problem. Furthermore, there are many demographics and/or geographic who may be affected by this issue, because people of all ages and genders who have the need to shave could use a product that solves the problem. Shaving and more broadly personal care is a huge industry and having a product that solves the problem of razors becoming dull too quickly seems to be a big opportunity that could last for a long time. Innovation: The product that I came up with...
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28- exit strat

My exit strategy is pretty straightforward. I plan on growing the company until it's big enough and successful enough to the point where a larger company will buy it out for a large sum of money. I don’t necessarily have a time frame on it, but I don’t plan on taking the first offer I get unless it is one I cannot refuse. The only way I can see myself staying with the business is if I do so well that I can sustain my business and continue to grow it and branch out into making new products and form my own P&G or something similar.  I have selected this exit strategy because it is the most realistic outcome for a new start up that becomes successful. I feel like it's much more likely that I am able to sell the business for a large sum of money and let the larger personal care brands produce my product because they have a lot of resources to design a similar product of their own. Even if I get a patent, I feel as though the bigger companies can get around it one way or ano...
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27a - reading reflection 3

The book I chose for my final reading reflection is Makers: The New Industrial Revolution written by Chris Anderson. The general theme of the book is that we are heading through the 3rd industrial revolution in society, but this time it involves digital manufacturing. In essence, robots and AI machinery are the centerpiece of this revolution because they are cheaper, work nonstop, have an endless supply of workers and have no human error associated with them. This book connected with this class because when starting a business one of the things that is brought up that is valuable to a business is human capital. While there will be a human who starts the business and will be working behind the curtain while the machines work (at least for now) replacing workers with machines could really impact the landscape of business. An assignment we can do for this class is have a short opinionated paper where the students voice their opinion as to whether they support or are against the impleme...
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26 - celebrating failure

Something over this past semester and even extending prior to taking this class that I had failed several times at is writing “something”. I have always had a longing to write something that I was proud of that wasn’t a school assignment. For example, a novel, a short story or even a song (although I am not very musically gifted), but no matter how hard I try I fail to begin writing or I start and can’t live up to my own expectations so I stop. Now and then I will periodically try and go back to what I began writing and most of the time I can never bring myself to keep going with the same piece I had been working on. I learned how much time and effort and skill it takes to truly write and create something that is not only received well by other people, but also yourself. I also learned that I hate sharing my work with other people, mostly because it isn't finished, but also because I care about it so much, it would be hard for me to accept the criticism that would be so personal. ...
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ENC Blog Post

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How Water Started a War - The Role of Drought in the Syrian Civil War  In the first 5 years of the conflict over 500,000 Syrians were killed as a result of the civil unrest in the country according to CNN, who have recently released an updated editorial outlining the timeline of the event. The photo above obtained by History.com shows A man standing atop a building looking at the destroyed Syrian town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, 2015. Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images By: Marcus Manzoni Background Since 2011 Syria has been engaged in a civil war brought on by several factors contributing to civil unrest and the ongoing political regime change in the country. While many of these triggering factors are very complex and intricate, one of the main culprits of the war was none other than water. Yes, the plain water we use every day to drink, wash our hands and brush our teeth. According to Dr. Peter H. Gleick, a researcher at the Pacific Institute, the severe dr...
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25- what's next?

Existing Market: (The response below is to part 3 of the assignment since we are in a social distancing phase because of the virus making part 2 and essentially part 1 unavailable.) I think my product/business venture could likely go one of two ways. The first scenario would be to continue to grow my business. This would involve hiring more staff, securing factories and warehouses, organizing distribution of the product and finding more, bigger ways to advertise and get connected with the existing target market. In this path I could see the business making new variations of the same product to give customers options when buying a razor blade sharpener. Certain specialties could be a product that is all inclusive, one that is just the blade sharpener, one that is the blade sharpener with the fan, one that specializes for on the go usage etc. All these products would be applicable to a very similar market, but having many similar products at different prices based on their features could...
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