30A--Final Reflection

As this class has gone through its course this semester there have certainly been some real ups and downs. I think the most formative experiences I've had in this course were the countless takes of my elevator pitches.I learned that doing something poorly a first time is something you can use to improve. Something I'll remember for years later is all of the people I had to go around campus interviewing for all of our assignments. My most joyous moment in the class is actually right this moment. I am happy to have gone on this journey and learn entrepreneurial values along the way, which is something I'm most proud of. I've undoubtedly moved myself closer to becoming a real entrepreneur in comparison to the beginning of the semester. My recommendation to future students of this course is to take it seriously as you may learn a thing or two from it. I suggest that they ensure they are on top of their deadlines because every point matters in this class. To foster an entrepreneurial mindset they should wake up everyday with the goal of being better then they were the day before. 

29A--Venture Concept No.2

Opportunity
Who has the need: People who are hardcore soccer fans that have a need to view games through a convenient means.

Nature of the need: Many soccer fans pay for expensive channel subscriptions watch streams that are clunky and lag.

Streaming is becoming more popular than ever before and as such is an opportunity that is well worth being jumped on. On top of this, soccer is still the most viewed sport in the world.

Geographically they don't have to be anywhere specific besides a place that has Internet connection to stream matches. Demographically there's no preset for being a fan, however the demographic for streamers is typically 15-24 and male.

Customers right now are fulfilling this need by either purchasing channel subscriptions on TV or streaming on other services such as Reddit. Loyalty to whatever they use depends on its cost.

I think this is a rather large opportunity given the size of the soccer fan population and the exponentially rising popularity of streaming in today's society.

This item will also be around for as long as soccer is still a sport and people are still a fan of it and streaming is still a relevant means of viewing content. Since this is the case I feel that it is important to jump on the idea earl before others think the same thing.


Innovation
The streaming service I am providing is different from others. It is essentially a forum that will contain a wide array of different sub-forums for each soccer match that is going on that day. Viewers will visit a forum for the game they'd like to watch and stream it from the link provided by the streamer(s) in that forum. Creating an account for the website/app is free but revenue will be made through ads that appear on the site/app. Should users decide to, they can pay monthly $7.99 to get rid of ads and gain access to better quality streams.


Venture Concept Customers would switch to my product because they want an affordable way to watch their soccer matches that is also easy to use. TV channel subscriptions are expensive to pay for and Internet streams on sites like Reddit are usually filled with malicious software and poor quality video. Since this is the case I don't think it would be too difficult to make them switch my service provides affordable easy viewing.

My competitors are TV channels that show soccer and streamers on the Internet streaming soccer matches. Weaknesses of Internet streams are that people may see them as no t worth the time as they are typically not great in quality and tend to give computers a hard time with loading and tend to have bugs. The main weakness of TV channel subscriptions is that people may think the large amount of money they need to cough up every month is not worth it.

Given that my product is not actually physical, there will be no packaging hassles to run into. The modes through which I will have my service are through a smart phone app and a website. This is exactly what defines my business concept because the very point behind it is that it is a streaming service.

I intend to hire a decent sized employment team that will be in charge of moderating the individual game forums. Profit gained from the business will go to further developing the service to be as efficient as possible.


The Three Minor ElementsMost important resource: My top resource in this venture is still going to be my knowledge and passion for the sport and more specifically my drive to make this sport a popular one in this country.

What’s next for the venture: As this service grows in size the next opportunity I'd like to tackle is converting non-fans into super-fans. I want people that don't know about the sport to be experts after using my service to watch all the games they want. Something I also may consider for the venture in the future is adding the streaming of other sports to the service such as American football, basketball and more.

What’s next for me: In 5 years I'd like to be seen as a pioneer in not only sport streaming services, but also as a pioneer for soccer advocacy in the United States. I hope that I will be an important part of the history of the sport in the country.

Feedback

The feedback I received was primarily focused on the fact that my human capital, or my extensive knowledge of the sport, was a great resource to have going into my venture. On the other hand, a critique I received was that exclusive sport streaming services are less popular and perhaps I should look into making the venture a multi-sport streaming service. 

Having taken this feedback into real consideration, I decided that I would be adding more sport streams to the service as it grows over the years. 

28A--Your Exit Strategy

The exit strategy I have decided to implement for my venture is to sell it off in around 5-10 years after its inception. The reason for this isn't because I believe the venture will do poorly or that it will begin to decline in that time, but more because I don't see myself making the venture a main part of my life in the foreseeable future. I would like to relieve myself of the responsibility in return for a nice return. Personally I don't feel as if my decision on this exit strategy has or will influence many decisions I make with my venture. I think that the slight influence it will have is just to perhaps not go all in with financial capital as I don't know how risky such actions would be.

27A--Reading Reflection No.3

In essence, the theme of How to Fail At Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams is that failure is a process that people tend to go through many times before striking success. A way I feel the book correlated to our learning in this course was that the book outlines the arguments that failure is something that should be thought of in a positive light as long as you learn from it. This is something Professor Pryor mentioned in lectures. An assignment I could make for this course that ties in with the book is to have students write down a list of some things they'd be willing to possibly fail at if it meant learning from the failure afterward. The biggest surprise I had reading this book was that Adams went through so many different occupations in his life before he finally became such a big success.

26A--Celebrating Failure

An instance in which I failed this past semester (on several occasions) was while playing pick-up soccer on campus. I was not used to the intensity at which people played soccer here as all the soccer I would play was casual with my friends back home. As a result, I was not playing very well and holding on to the ball for too long. This prompted me to play quicker and know what I want to do with the ball before I receive it. Personally I try my hardest to take failure with an optimistic view, and not let it bring me down. This class has taught me that failure is something that shouldn't be viewed as bad as long as you learn something from it. I'm almost certainly more likely to take risks now than I was prior to beginning this course.

24A--Venture Concept No.1

Opportunity
Who has the need: People who are hardcore soccer fans that have a need to view games through a convenient means.

Nature of the need: Many soccer fans pay for expensive channel subscriptions watch streams that are clunky and lag.

Streaming is becoming more popular than ever before and as such is an opportunity that is well worth being jumped on. On top of this, soccer is still the most viewed sport in the world.

Geographically they don't have to be anywhere specific besides a place that has Internet connection to stream matches. Demographically there's no preset for being a fan, however the demographic for streamers is typically 15-24 and male.

Customers right now are fulfilling this need by either purchasing channel subscriptions on TV or streaming on other services such as Reddit. Loyalty to whatever they use depends on its cost.

I think this is a rather large opportunity given the size of the soccer fan population and the exponentially rising popularity of streaming in today's society.

This item will also be around for as long as soccer is still a sport and people are still a fan of it and streaming is still a relevant means of viewing content. Since this is the case I feel that it is important to jump on the idea earl before others think the same thing.


Innovation

The streaming service I am providing is different from others. It is essentially a forum that will contain a wide array of different sub-forums for each soccer match that is going on that day. Viewers will visit a forum for the game they'd like to watch and stream it from the link provided by the streamer(s) in that forum. Creating an account for the website/app is free but revenue will be made through ads that appear on the site/app. Should users decide to, they can pay monthly $7.99 to get rid of ads and gain access to better quality streams.


Venture Concept
Customers would switch to my product because they want an affordable way to watch their soccer matches that is also easy to use. TV channel subscriptions are expensive to pay for and Internet streams on sites like Reddit are usually filled with malicious software and poor quality video. Since this is the case I don't think it would be too difficult to make them switch my service provides affordable easy viewing.

My competitors are TV channels that show soccer and streamers on the Internet streaming soccer matches. Weaknesses of Internet streams are that people may see them as no t worth the time as they are typically not great in quality and tend to give computers a hard time with loading and tend to have bugs. The main weakness of TV channel subscriptions is that people may think the large amount of money they need to cough up every month is not worth it.

Given that my product is not actually physical, there will be no packaging hassles to run into. The modes through which I will have my service are through a smart phone app and a website. This is exactly what defines my business concept because the very point behind it is that it is a streaming service.

I intend to hire a decent sized employment team that will be in charge of moderating the individual game forums. Profit gained from the business will go to further developing the service to be as efficient as possible.

The Three Minor Elements
Most important resource: My top resource in this venture is still going to be my knowledge and passion for the sport and more specifically my drive to make this sport a popular one in this country. 

What’s next for the venture: As this service grows in size the next opportunity I'd like to tackle is converting non-fans into super-fans. I want people that don't know about the sport to be experts after using my service to watch all the games they want. 

What’s next for me: In 5 years I'd like to be seen as a pioneer in not only sport streaming services, but also as a pioneer for soccer advocacy in the United States. I hope that I will be an important part of the history of the sport in the country. 

25A--What's Next?

Existing Market

I think that the next big thing coming in terms of streaming services like my own is making them to be seamless hubs of many diverse sources of information. Interviewee one has told me that we should be prepared to start the facilitation of sponsorship for streams or streamers. Interviewee two told us to be wary of the huge influx of potential streamers we could be getting. Interviewee three informed me that we should also be prepared to fight virus software or malicious computer content that streamers could attempt to plague viewers with. Funnily, all three interviewees told me that they feel consumers will really just be wanting to see an incredibly crisp way to stream; meaning ad-free, popup-free and quick streaming.

Based off of the information I received, the way I'd like to move forward with my venture is simply to keep my original vision in tact and continue to strive to give soccer fans the greatest possible game streaming service on the market. That means giving a hassle free means to viewing a wide array of matches across the globe.

New Market

The primary market I am targeting is hardcore soccer fans that watch the sport on a regular basis (several games a week). That being said, the new market I'd like to go after is people who are not big soccer fans or people who would like to get to know the sport.
I think that my service can create value to this market by providing them with easy access to get to learn a sport they don't know a whole lot about. One person I interviewed suggested I add stream moderators to each stream that can help explain different things about the matches being streamed that the viewer isn't very familiar with. The second interviewee said I should create forums for less knowledgeable fans and one for the experienced ones.

I learned that this market knows very well what I can do to help create the most value for them. I was rather surprised by the fact that they were so eager to learn about the sport and willing to do what it takes to do so. I think that this market certainly has the potential to be just as attractive as my initial one.