After watching Startup.com in class, I thought the documentary was crazy. The movie followed two young entrepreneurs, Kaleil and Tom who were very young and new to the "get rich" lifestyle. I thought the show did a great job of presenting the lifestyle very realistically, whether it be choosing their company name or visiting many different venture capitalists. Kaleil and Tom decided to launch a new website called govWorks.com. The success is all good for a while but then a failed trip to Silicon Valley sets them up for doom. This show really focused on the Internet revolution and how inflated ideals and dreams of instant wealth were affected by reality and tons and tons and tons of broken promises. The crisis in this documentary is showed from many different peoples perspective and that kind of enhances how big of an issue and how serious the crisis really was.
I really liked seeing how two young friends from high school had an idea of creating a website and how they pursued that. This movie basically tracked the rise and fall of govWorks.com and the trials the business brought to the relationship of these two best friends. In this company they created, Kaleil was the one who raised the money and Tom was the technical chief. Throughout the movie, a third party wanted to buy out their company but they decided they didn't want to do that. The movie has some very stressful moments, especially with always needing cash and for the competitiveness from other companies in improving their website. It was cool to see all the success and the failures in this movie and overall, I liked to see what it was like back then.
Saturday, March 11, 2017
Thursday, March 2, 2017
.COM to .BOMB
The .COM to .BOMB lecture was very interesting and hard to grasp how big of a deal it really was because I wasn't alive back then. I learned the five big stages that took place: an innocent beginning, boom, insanity, and the crawl back to sanity. The innocent beginning, around 1993, wasn't big news to me as the internet was fairly new and HTTP was just two years old. Around 1995, I learned how Netscape became one of the most valuable companies in the world starting the boom stage. I learned about the tons of companies that had great success from the world wide web and this only became more insane from 1997-2000. Big companies were buying littler companies resulting in few but huge companies controlling everything. It all went down hill from 2000-2003 where the bust occurred. Thousands of companies declared bankruptcy as their revenue was completely shattered. The crawl back to sanity was a very rough and slow process for the companies that barely held on. Out of all the companies that I learned about, I find it crazy how everyone doubted Amazon because of their financial model and now look at them. They survived the bust and proved nearly everyone wrong and have done an incredible job with their company. Overall, I had no idea about the .COM bust before learning about it in class. I'm happy to learn about this to know how far we have came and how incredible and important the internet is for companies to survive.
Monday, February 27, 2017
Shadrach White
I personally thought Shadrach Whites presentation had the most information out of all of the visitors so far that I could use going forward in my career. Shadrach's mottos of "be a revenue hawk" and "make friends early but known when to run" were the two main things that I took out of his presentation. He preached often about how business can always be solved with money and how being able to understand what buying/selling actually means is very crucial. I liked hearing his tips of advice starting with smile, make quiet time, and read. I thought it was very impressive how he's created and started up four businesses already but he started with landscaping businesses, laid bricks, dug ditches, and even worked at a retail outlet. I found all of this so impressive because he didn't go to college and got a certificate for network engineering at some small college later on. I was intrigued hearing about his businesses, Financial Systems, Sportsware, Axiom Systems, and now CloudPWR. His biggest product in CloudPWR, Respond, was very interesting in how basic yet efficient it really is. The last thing I really liked hearing was his response for financial planning. He said that an entrepreneur should always have cash reserves and a budget that they follow. He said he always has a plan 2-3 months in advance which I found as very good advice.
Monday, February 20, 2017
Mission Statement
Trackahol, an application firmly committed to pinpointing, protecting, and preventing lives from being taken from drunk driving.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
John Dimmer Visit
John Dimmer, a Cloverville Park High School student just like Andrew Fry, visited our class to talk about his experiences with the entrepreneurship lifestyle and the many businesses he's associated with and has been associated with. Even though Oregon is a big rival to UW, I still respect him for attending that school.
John really broke his presentation into two big things: the big idea and funding. He made is very clear how big of a deal funding really is and all the tons of ways people can make money to start up their businesses. He talked a lot about the main funding source, Equity, specifically on "what is your company worth" and "how much money do I need." He also talked about Debt and briefly mentioned others, such as Grants, Business Plan Contests, etc. He preached how expensive Equity is and how young entrepreneurs are very uneducated about how important Equity is in the long run. He sees these young people giving up way too much equity, sometimes even more than 50%, giving up the control of the company, causing many concerns going forward.
He also talked about establishing the raise, company control, angels, and vc. Overall, I was really fascinated with the companies he currently has ownership in. He talked about owning half of a Honda dealership in Oregon, Round Table Pizza, and even AirStream Trailers which I am very familiar with. I found John Dimmer to be very inspirational and his presentation definitely taught me some business related terms that I didn't know about before the presentation.
John really broke his presentation into two big things: the big idea and funding. He made is very clear how big of a deal funding really is and all the tons of ways people can make money to start up their businesses. He talked a lot about the main funding source, Equity, specifically on "what is your company worth" and "how much money do I need." He also talked about Debt and briefly mentioned others, such as Grants, Business Plan Contests, etc. He preached how expensive Equity is and how young entrepreneurs are very uneducated about how important Equity is in the long run. He sees these young people giving up way too much equity, sometimes even more than 50%, giving up the control of the company, causing many concerns going forward.
He also talked about establishing the raise, company control, angels, and vc. Overall, I was really fascinated with the companies he currently has ownership in. He talked about owning half of a Honda dealership in Oregon, Round Table Pizza, and even AirStream Trailers which I am very familiar with. I found John Dimmer to be very inspirational and his presentation definitely taught me some business related terms that I didn't know about before the presentation.
How To Protect My Idea
My first thing I'd want to do to secure my idea would be to patent my "tracking of alcoholic beverages." I've looked online and this idea isn't patented yet so that's good to hear. I think that this patent will allow me to use this technology with nearly all alcohol beverage companies in the future. The market for alcohol in the world is massive and I think this patent can change the way I approach expanding to the bigger companies in the alcohol market. My initial plan was to go for smaller beer manufacturing companies at the start.
Other than a Patent, I feel that having tight trade secrets would be very important for this business to succeed. I feel this business is tied very closely in with the government and the standards with DUI's and drunk driving. I feel that alcoholic beverage companies would absolutely support what I'm trying to accomplish and would love to be apart of the change I'm trying to create. The main big secret would be not telling the public domain about these chips built into alcoholic beverages. I think that this secret is very important because once one person outside of the government and law enforcement hears about, the whole world will find out and it will make people find sneaky ways to hide from this.
A big thing is I don't want a trade secret to kill this business if leaked because theres always that chance. In this case, I don't think this will kill my company if leaked. In fact, I think it will make people more cautious the next time they decide to drink and drive.
Other than a Patent, I feel that having tight trade secrets would be very important for this business to succeed. I feel this business is tied very closely in with the government and the standards with DUI's and drunk driving. I feel that alcoholic beverage companies would absolutely support what I'm trying to accomplish and would love to be apart of the change I'm trying to create. The main big secret would be not telling the public domain about these chips built into alcoholic beverages. I think that this secret is very important because once one person outside of the government and law enforcement hears about, the whole world will find out and it will make people find sneaky ways to hide from this.
A big thing is I don't want a trade secret to kill this business if leaked because theres always that chance. In this case, I don't think this will kill my company if leaked. In fact, I think it will make people more cautious the next time they decide to drink and drive.
Monday, February 6, 2017
Business Idea Cost
I have not fully liked all of my ideas that I have came up with but I came up with a new one that I will do for this project.
This new idea is an identification system that would help out the police primarily, but also other security departments possibly as well. My idea is involved with the internet of things (IOT) and my idea is putting a chip in alcoholic beverages, either inside the can/bottle, or epoxy the chip underneath and this will be used to store a simple code. With this chip, I'd create an app for the police departments to use which will use bluetooth to track these chips. If a car goes driving by and a cop scans and see's these chips, he can follow and pull them over. The data on these chips might consist of, temperature change to see if the alcohol beverage is open / a string programmed in to give a code on what the beverage is, just from the app.
As far as cost goes, I would patent this idea of tracking alcoholic beverages. I would then go to beer companies (Budweiser, Budlight, Coors, etc.) and offer my technology to their manufacturing headquarters. I would want a royalty for every beer that has my chip in them. I think a 1 cent royalty would add up very quickly because the alcohol market is a big market. I would then offer my application to the government, but more specifically police departments. I would offer the mobile application at around 40$ per police officer. This app would constantly be updated by my software team and would be instant in finding chips because it would go straight from the app to the chip, no internet needed, only bluetooth.
I would be open to putting my chips in every alcoholic beverage company if they were interested, offering royalties as my main way of making money.
This new idea is an identification system that would help out the police primarily, but also other security departments possibly as well. My idea is involved with the internet of things (IOT) and my idea is putting a chip in alcoholic beverages, either inside the can/bottle, or epoxy the chip underneath and this will be used to store a simple code. With this chip, I'd create an app for the police departments to use which will use bluetooth to track these chips. If a car goes driving by and a cop scans and see's these chips, he can follow and pull them over. The data on these chips might consist of, temperature change to see if the alcohol beverage is open / a string programmed in to give a code on what the beverage is, just from the app.
As far as cost goes, I would patent this idea of tracking alcoholic beverages. I would then go to beer companies (Budweiser, Budlight, Coors, etc.) and offer my technology to their manufacturing headquarters. I would want a royalty for every beer that has my chip in them. I think a 1 cent royalty would add up very quickly because the alcohol market is a big market. I would then offer my application to the government, but more specifically police departments. I would offer the mobile application at around 40$ per police officer. This app would constantly be updated by my software team and would be instant in finding chips because it would go straight from the app to the chip, no internet needed, only bluetooth.
I would be open to putting my chips in every alcoholic beverage company if they were interested, offering royalties as my main way of making money.
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Brian Forth and SiteCrafting
I found Brian Forths presentation to be very educational and I learned more of the software side, than Erik's more business related presentation which was perfect. I found it pretty inspiring that he was creating his business, "SiteCrafting" which teaching. I can't imagine working full-time in the near future and also sparing time for starting a business on the side, along with the rest of your life (family, friends, errands, etc.)
Brian's 3 C's that he preached throughout his presentation were very well explained. They consisted of core, company, and community. Throughout all of these three C's, the big idea that I took out of them was that most companies are all about money and not about relationships, so always be aware that it's a business. SiteCrafting is a business that is propelled by the commitment and loyal employees that he's hired. I personally am a big fan of the commitment work environment where leaving the company never enters employees heads. I think trust and gaining experience with a small group that changes very rarely is a huge advantage for companies.
I found it very interesting when he talked about how some of his employees were offered much higher salaries and benefits from Google but decided to stay at SiteCrafting. I think that says a lot about how important relationships, work environment, and how money isn't everything. Brian said "I want SiteCrafting to be a company where employees can expect to stay and retire." This approach is definitely different than some of the top software companies in the world but I personally think SiteCrafting's approach is morally correct, smarter, and rewards the company with happier and loyal employees on a daily basis.
In the future, SiteCrafting has a work environment that I am absolutely interested in and I feel that commitment and loyalty are underrated and can make or break companies. In the end, I thought Brian Forths presentation was very informative and helped me confirm what kind of company I'd like to work for in my future.
Brian's 3 C's that he preached throughout his presentation were very well explained. They consisted of core, company, and community. Throughout all of these three C's, the big idea that I took out of them was that most companies are all about money and not about relationships, so always be aware that it's a business. SiteCrafting is a business that is propelled by the commitment and loyal employees that he's hired. I personally am a big fan of the commitment work environment where leaving the company never enters employees heads. I think trust and gaining experience with a small group that changes very rarely is a huge advantage for companies.
I found it very interesting when he talked about how some of his employees were offered much higher salaries and benefits from Google but decided to stay at SiteCrafting. I think that says a lot about how important relationships, work environment, and how money isn't everything. Brian said "I want SiteCrafting to be a company where employees can expect to stay and retire." This approach is definitely different than some of the top software companies in the world but I personally think SiteCrafting's approach is morally correct, smarter, and rewards the company with happier and loyal employees on a daily basis.
In the future, SiteCrafting has a work environment that I am absolutely interested in and I feel that commitment and loyalty are underrated and can make or break companies. In the end, I thought Brian Forths presentation was very informative and helped me confirm what kind of company I'd like to work for in my future.
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Erik Hanbergs Life Lessons
Erik's presentation impacted me greatly. I feel his presentation really spoke to me, probably more than anyone else listening that day. I found his Cinema story very relatable in the fact that I've always had thoughts about doing the same thing, but with sports. I know plenty non-profit sports areas where kids play sports and I used to play at them when I was younger, and still do. I think his desire and passion for thinking about the future and the "big picture" in life is very similar to how I approach life. I'm not into reading books or writing whatsoever, but I really respected his approach to his entrepreneurship lifestyle. I actually looked up a few of his books after class that day. I thought his visual graphs on the whiteboard relating to salaries was interesting. The linear graph relating to great jobs such as doctors, engineers, and lawyers showed that they make great money but it is limited to a maximum salary. On the other polynomial graph, it related to the entrepreneurship lifestyle with venture capitalist, actors, authors, and sports and how their salaries don't have a limit but it's a long and hard beginning as the polynomial curve suggests. It was also really interesting to hear about his past businesses such as exit133.com, which was a 2006 blog site about Tacoma stuff and his current business "Side x Side." In the end, I really thought the quote from Seth Godin that he put on his power point really meant a lot. The quote talked about emotional labor and how lacking this trait is a problem in the entrepreneurship lifestyle. Overall, I really enjoyed this presentation and I took a lot out of it.
My Three Ideas
I've always had some ideas that I wanted to take further and possibly make them into a business but I never really thought about the outside concerns, such as money, time, and if there is even a large enough audience for some of them but I love brainstorming and thinking of products that could possibly change the future.
1. I've gone grocery shopping millions of times with my mom and I've always hated the inconvenience of having to go through a check out line at the end, ran by a person which is running a computer operated checkout system. To solve this issue, I've had an idea that would eliminate all check out lines in all grocery stores. My idea is creating grocery carts just like which exist, but add a computer system on each cart. This system would work just like a check out stand. You would scan each product and put it in the cart, which would contain a giant bag, or small bags, that would be getting "checked out" as you shop. This would eliminate all the check out space that currently exists in grocery stores today and also save grocery shoppers time. With this idea, grocery stores would need to have higher security to make sure no none damages or takes the carts home as well as create a few jobs that maintain and take care of these "tech carts."
2. My second idea also pertains to food in grocery stores. My idea is to create a mobile app that allows you to get the nutritional facts from produce at a grocery store, simply by weighing the food on the phone's screen or by taking a picture, or even scanning the food. Produce doesn't have nutritional labels on them but everything else in packages and boxes seems to. I feel this will help families choose healthier foods and really see what they are buying based on the actual produce they are holding, not based on what the average sized produce content is.
3. I love working out. I work out every day and I really hate busy gyms and having to wait for someone to finish what they are doing so you can then use the dumbbells or machine or whatever they were using. To solve this, my idea is to create another mobile app that could tell you how many people are at the gym. With this, this can help people change their schedule to workout because they could see how busy it is ahead of time. This would imply that gyms would need to keep a head count of everyone and constantly update this when a new person enters the gym. This process could easily be automated by having the user check in themselves at the front desk. I think this app has a huge upside in helping people use their time efficiently, helping people get a better workout because there is no wait time, and this idea could also be expanded very easily to other businesses, such as grocery stores, the mall, or even gas stations.
1. I've gone grocery shopping millions of times with my mom and I've always hated the inconvenience of having to go through a check out line at the end, ran by a person which is running a computer operated checkout system. To solve this issue, I've had an idea that would eliminate all check out lines in all grocery stores. My idea is creating grocery carts just like which exist, but add a computer system on each cart. This system would work just like a check out stand. You would scan each product and put it in the cart, which would contain a giant bag, or small bags, that would be getting "checked out" as you shop. This would eliminate all the check out space that currently exists in grocery stores today and also save grocery shoppers time. With this idea, grocery stores would need to have higher security to make sure no none damages or takes the carts home as well as create a few jobs that maintain and take care of these "tech carts."
2. My second idea also pertains to food in grocery stores. My idea is to create a mobile app that allows you to get the nutritional facts from produce at a grocery store, simply by weighing the food on the phone's screen or by taking a picture, or even scanning the food. Produce doesn't have nutritional labels on them but everything else in packages and boxes seems to. I feel this will help families choose healthier foods and really see what they are buying based on the actual produce they are holding, not based on what the average sized produce content is.
3. I love working out. I work out every day and I really hate busy gyms and having to wait for someone to finish what they are doing so you can then use the dumbbells or machine or whatever they were using. To solve this, my idea is to create another mobile app that could tell you how many people are at the gym. With this, this can help people change their schedule to workout because they could see how busy it is ahead of time. This would imply that gyms would need to keep a head count of everyone and constantly update this when a new person enters the gym. This process could easily be automated by having the user check in themselves at the front desk. I think this app has a huge upside in helping people use their time efficiently, helping people get a better workout because there is no wait time, and this idea could also be expanded very easily to other businesses, such as grocery stores, the mall, or even gas stations.
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
What I Want To Learn
When I heard that T INST 475 Entrepreneurship was offered as a computer science credit, I was slightly confused but also interested in the potential this class has to offer me. First of all, I do have to admit that the primary reason I considered this class was because it worked great for my schedule and I didn't have any other options that fit my schedule because they were all full. Other than that, I've always had an interest in entrepreneurs as I watch Shark Tank almost every time it's televised. I've always envisioned entrepreneurs as wealthy, business smart, and someone I'd love to meet. I feel I have a great opportunity to learn the business side of software that could help me in the near future if I decide to pursue that path.
When thinking about this class, I really want to learn how easy or difficult it is to start up a business once an idea for something special is created and planned out. I've always idolized mobile app developers, such as the creators of "Angry Birds" or "Doodle Jump". I've always wanted to know how hard it really is to get your product on the market, make it sell, and how not to screw things up.
Lastly, I've always thought Entrepreneurship is too risky to get involved with. I've heard from family and friends that starting something up and putting all your time and effort into something is a huge risk that can be very successful or the opposite. I've wondered "is the risk worth the reward or not?" Entrepreneurship definitely intrigues me but I just want to be more educated on the risks, the challenges, and last but not least, the potential for success.
When thinking about this class, I really want to learn how easy or difficult it is to start up a business once an idea for something special is created and planned out. I've always idolized mobile app developers, such as the creators of "Angry Birds" or "Doodle Jump". I've always wanted to know how hard it really is to get your product on the market, make it sell, and how not to screw things up.
Lastly, I've always thought Entrepreneurship is too risky to get involved with. I've heard from family and friends that starting something up and putting all your time and effort into something is a huge risk that can be very successful or the opposite. I've wondered "is the risk worth the reward or not?" Entrepreneurship definitely intrigues me but I just want to be more educated on the risks, the challenges, and last but not least, the potential for success.
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