16A Secret Sauce

16A

1. I have unique human capital because of my view on life. I believe that everything can always be improved, and I am doubtful when someone says they already have the best solution. 

2. My experiences give me a better perspective on how the world works. I travel as much as I can, and by doing so I have seen all types of different ways of life around the USA and the world. This lets me see how my product could fit into different markets. 

3. I am stubborn. This is sometimes a bad trait to have, sometimes it is good to have when it relates to never giving up on something I believe in.

4. Connections- I don’t believe in burning bridges, this is especially useful in business when you never know when that one person or that one connection will come in handy.

5. I am always looking forward at what is coming to the market. Ideally, I want to enter a market that has just started, or one that is growing rapidly so my business could become a major stakeholder in the market.

I think people noticed that I talk about a lot of random things. I also concur with them that I hate inefficient things, I try to be as efficient as I can in my everyday life, and I wish the world around me could also be as organized and on time as I want it to be. The people I interviewed also said that I seek out challenges, which I why I like entrepreneurship, because it is me vs the entire market, the biggest challenge there can be.

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15A Buyer Behavior #2

15A

Alternative options that customers could buy; a larger mower that is pulled behind a tractor, a normal riding mower, a combination of both of the previous options. I don’t really believe that it would be practical for most people or companies to buy a tractor with a mower attachment. It would be harder to transport, and it would not be able to follow the edges of the yard. The second option of having a regular riding mower is the status quo of what everyone does now, it gets the job done but its slow, and could be done faster. By doing nothing businesses lose money because they are inefficient. Labor is the main cost of their business, so if they could use something to make their workers more efficient then they will save money. Using a tractor for large spaces, and a smaller mower for edges of yards and around obstacles is simply an inefficient solution to the problem. My solution combines both of these in one easy package. Also transporting two machines instead of one would create extra time to load and unload the machines when they got to the job site, potentially eliminating the benefits of using the dual machine system.

Consumers would buy my mower from a big hardware store, like a Lowe’s or Home Depot. It would be about $500 more than a regular mower, but when the average price is around $1200 spending an extra $500 to make the process more efficient would be a good investment.

I believe that this product fills a gap in the market, and would be successful once people saw and tested the product for themselves. After a while, a lawn care company would be at a disadvantage if they didn’t have my mower since they would be slower than the competition. 

14A Halfway Reflection

14A

To keep up with this course the main thing I did is to look at the assignments for the upcoming week. This way I knew if I had a longer or harder assignment I would have to start earlier to get it done in time. While if I saw all of the assignments were shorter then I gave myself an extra day to watch the lectures before starting on the assignments.

For me giving up is something that happens after I have lost up all hope of achieving the goal. The feeling of having a slim chance of success is what normally pulls me through. It is true that victory tastes better after a hard struggle. During the last two months I have developed a better attitude while working a full time job and taking this class. It taught me better time management skills, since I had to complete all of these assignments at night after I came home from a full day of work.

To students taking this class next semester I would say you need to plan in advance when you will do assignments. I didn’t set aside time for the first couple weeks, and I struggled to force myself to do the assignments ahead of time. Later on I set aside a couple hours on my calendar in the week, and then I was able to complete the work sooner and do better work. Hard work is a mindset, once you decide to do something put your entire effort into it so you feel like you did the best you can do.

13 A Reading Reflection

13A

I read the Elon Musk autobiography a couple weeks ago, so I will do my reflection on that. My biggest take away from the book is that in life I need to find a problem, and then find a solution. He is not afraid of any problem, and his great acumen has gotten him a fortune. The biggest thing I learned about being an entrepreneur from him is learning everything about the field as fast as possible. When he decided to get into the space business he went and bought a couple textbooks on rocket science, read them cover to cover in a couple days, and then did his calculations and realized everything could be done for so much cheaper. The only part I wish the book went into was the finances of his companies and how he funded them. I know that financing is always one of the hardest things that startups have to deal with, so I wish the book went into detail about how he decided to complete deals with VC’s, and if he regrets any of the early financing decisions he made.
I think his opinion of hard work is that it’s the only way. Even now once he has made hundreds of millions he still works 18 hour days. His first vacation was more than 4 years after he started Tesla. So if he saw someone working 12 hours a day 7 days on a startup he would question why they are not working harder.

I want to try and be more like Musk in the way that I approach problems. Starting a new car company, when there had not been a successful startup in over 80 years, no problem. Creating a rocket company and privatizing something that once cost billions of dollars, no problem. If I approach problems with this type of attitude I will not let the magnitude of a problem stop me from attempting to solve it.

12A Figuring Out Buyer Behavior

The biggest thing that I learned is that control over the mower is the number one concern for most people. Zero turn mowers have greatly increased in popularity, and as a result this is a consideration that I would need to design around when coming up with initial design. They were also concerned about the safety with a potential open blade on the side of the mower, and what precautions would be taken to ensure that it couldn’t accidently cut someone. How the extra blade would be powered is another thing people had concern with. I wanted to power it with an extra engine, but most people didn’t like this solution because of all the extra maintenance. I would have to design a way to power the extra blade off the main engine. Based on these interviews I think that I have a bunch more work to do. I would need to talk with as many people as I can, and try to figure out what the customers want.

11A Idea Napkin

My talent is coming up with the most efficient way to solve the problem. I thought about trying to make a lawnmower that is completely autonomous, but I feel like the development costs would be so high, and there are so many variable that it is better to have a human driver the mower until the technology progresses.

I am offering an innovative solution that will increase the efficiency of mowing lawns. It is a simple investment for the customer to make, and it will provide long term gains for them without any extra investment.

The main demographic would be professional lawn care services. My secondary market would be anyone who buys a riding mower, and wants an even bigger mowing width.

They care because it would increase the profitability of their business. They would make an investment today for a long term gain in the future.

My core competencies are that I will be first to the market, and after that everyone else will try and catch up. I will also ensure that I constantly innovate, and have the best design and function to stay ahead of the rest of the market.

10A Elevator Pitch

9A Testing the Hypothesis

9A

Questions: Do you mow the lawn or know someone who mows the lawn? Have you or your parents ever used a professional lawn mowing service? Do you think you would benefit from a wider mower? What other problems do you have with your lawnmower?

Benji: I mow the yard when I am at home with a regular push mower. There was a time when my parents had a professional service, but then we decided it wasn’t worth the price and I took over the duties. We might benefit, but im not sure, our yard is too small for my parents to buy a riding mower. If the push mower was easier to push or lighter I would be fine with it, but it’s hard to push.

David: Yes I mowed the lawn when I lived at home in middle and high school. My parents have never used a professional service, since I was old enough to do it I have been mowing the lawn. I think my house would benefit from it. The backyard is very large and it is an open space, so if the mower was wider I could finish the yard faster. The mower was too slow, at full throttle it could only go like 5mph, that was fine for when I needed control, but it was too slow for the open spaces.

Brad (owner of a local lawn care company): I think we could benefit from a wider mower. I would be concerned with maintenance cost as we constantly have to fix or mowers since we use them all day every day. If we could knock off 5 minutes from every lawn that would be a great help. Control of the lawnmower is a major factor that we look at when buying a new mower, if it is not easy to drive then we cannot provide a clean cut for our customer’s lawns.

Paul: I mow the yard. Never used one, too expensive. I have a regular mower, I would mind if it was wider because that means I could cut faster. I am fine with my mower, it doesn’t need any additional features.

Steve: I mow the yard. A wider mower would be helpful for the open spaces, but I also need it to be able to make tight turns because I have a lot of trees. My mower currently doesn’t reverse well, If a mower could go equally as fast in reverse that would be nice because my yard is oddly shaped so I drive in reverse a lot.

Inside the Boundary	Outside the boundary
Anyone who mows large lawns	People who don’t mow their own lawns, or if they only have a small lawn
The need is to mow more efficiently and save time and money	Their need is not met because they don’t spend a significant time mowing the lawn
Mowing the lawn is something that many people complain about, saying it takes too much time	Potential customers might not want to buy the product before it is completely tested and proven

8A Solving the Problem

8A

The problem: Commercial riding lawnmowers need to find a balance of being small enough to maneuver around the edges of yards, but they also need to be big so they are efficient when cutting wide open spaces in the middle of the yard. They also need to be narrow enough that they can easily fit on a trailer to move from location to location.

Solution: My solution is having an attachment that is added to the regular lawnmower to increase the cutting width of the mower. A standard commercial mower is about 50 inches wide. I would create an attachment that can be folded down when cutting wide open spaces, giving the mower a cutting width of around 90 inches. Then when cutting small area where the mower needs to be able to turn faster or for transportation the attachment would be folded up vertically and stowed. This would decrease the time required to cut open spaces by about 40%, and in the lawn care business time is money. This attachment would cost a couple hundred dollars, and if it let the person driving the mower cut an extra two lawn per day the payback period on their investment would be somewhere around a month.

7a Testing the Hypothesis

The opportunity I have identified is housing options for summer interns across the country. It is very difficult to find a short term lease for 10 weeks or 3 months for the summer. Apartments have high signing fees if they would even do a lease that short, and other places like Airbnb have rates based on per night, not based per month which would give a lower price. Ideally there would be one centralized place where people looking for short term tenants (1-6 months) would be able to list their place online.

For this assignment I interviewed other interns that I was working with, as this is a problem they might have, it would have no relevance to someone older who has a house.

The questions I asked were;

1.      What is your current living situation like?

2.      How did you find your current place?

3.      How hard was this process?

4.      Do you think you are getting a good rate including all fees?

5.      Would you be interested in a website where people are specifically looking for short term leases (1-6months)?

David: I am currently living with my old high school friend who also works at Northrop Grumman and who living in Melbourne. I found it because I knew my friend from high school. The process was pretty easy, we are frequently in contact, and I knew his roommate was leaving, so I took the spot of his roommate. Ya, I am subleasing from the other guy, so its not like I had to pay any crazy re-signing fees or anything like that. I mean it wouldn’t really affect me, but in the future if I had an internship in a city where I didn’t know anyone I would at least check it out if I couldn’t find an apartment somewhere else.

Ben: I am currently living in a condo that I found on Airbnb. I tried looking for apartments, but apartments only did longer leases, so I could rent anything for only the summer. After the apartments didn’t work I thought about Airbnb and when I searched there I found a place that wasn’t too bad. Even though my place is for longer term rentals I still think its overpriced, but its pretty much the only option I had. Ya that sounds like a good website that I would use, hopefully it would have a large selection of apartments so I find one that I like.

Matt: I am living with a family friend. I reached out to this friend and they let me stay with them. It wasn’t hard at all. I stay there for free so that’s a good rate. I wouldn’t use it, but if I didn’t have family in town I might use it.

Lauren: I am living on the FIT campus at a dorm. My parents told me to check it out, and when I did they had availability and even though it is a dorm its fine because it came furnished. It took a decent amount of work since it was through the university I had to fill out a bunch of stuff. I think I could rent a bigger and nicer place cheaper if I had a longer lease, but I couldn’t find any apartments for a short term lease. I would check out the website, if there was some centralized place for sub-leasing I would use it and hopefully take over someone’s lease if they left the Melbourne area for the summer.

Maddy: I am currently in a condo that I found on VRBO. I found it by looking on VRBO, a site my family has used to rent places for a week while on vacation. The whole process took a while, I searched online for a long time before I settled on this place, it’s a big decision to make. I think I am overpaying a little, people set up their rates based on people staying there for a week, I should get a discount for staying there for 3 months. Yes I would be interested in using a site like you describe, it might let me get a cheaper rate.

Based on my interviews it looks like people would be interested in using a site that I would create. If it got them a cheaper rate since they are renting long term then people would use it instead of Airbnb.