19A – Idea Napkin No. 2

 Idea Napkin No. 2

You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

My name is Kai Heller-Spencer, I am a junior at UF, majoring in finance. My personality type under Hollands code is conventional, realistic and enterprising. Which means I like being organized, use common sense but also take risks. When I have an idea I research it, find out everything about it; and once I am confident in my idea, I go for it.

Starting off this business would be very time consuming, developing the app and marketing it to businesses. Once I got it up and running, I would do an alpha stage were the app would only run in my town. I would try and fix any major bugs before launching it in Fort Lauderdale and then in Miami. The app development and beta stage would take roughly two years. Basically perfect timing because I will be graduating college in roughly two years. Out of college I will be working full time, but dependent upon the feedback and success I get from the app, could cause me to quit my job and go full time into the company.

What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 

I am providing to two markets, the consumer market as well as to businesses. To the consumer I am offering a way to find the best deals and promotions in town for bars and clubs, at no cost to the customer. In regards to businesses, I am offering a platform that will advertise to their target market, in their region.

Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

The demographic is mainly college kids and people in their twenties. A college kid refers to someone who makes minimum wage or barely above minimum wage. They love to socialize, go out with friends and get extremely drunk. The type of college kid who wakes up at noon, drinks all day then goes out and parties all night.

A college kid doesn’t only have to be someone who drinks 24/7, it can be a person who enjoys going out on Friday night with a few friends and drinking a little bit.

Older people will also be using this app, especially if they are on a budget. Generally, people in their thirties or forties will also be using this app. Not as heavily as college kids, but if they still budget conscious then they will be a target audience.

The other demographic is business owners, for bars, clubs, cigars lounges, even hookah lounges. Eventually I would like my market share to expand into coffee shops, restaurants, and general events.  

Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service.

Business owners will pay to have their establishment on our app because online advertising is the new evolution of advertising. These small establishments can’t afford to run adds on TV or on YouTube. However, paying a small fee in order to have their bar advertised to their target market in only their region, is a marketing goldmine. Plus, there is a package were it won’t cost them a dime, only a reduction in profit margins.

Customers will use this app because it’s completely free to them, it actually saves them money. If on average a college kids spend $15 at a bar and goes every Friday night, they will spend about $750 a year. If they use this app and can save $5 each time, it will save them about $250 a year.

What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has?

The advantage I have over someone with much bigger pockets, is my social contacts. Being a college kid, I have a lot of friends who are in sororities and frats. That will allow me to spread my app around very easily and once I can get all the frats and sororities to use, it will be easy for the whole school to adopt it. After that it will spread like crazy. Having three colleges very close to each other will allow this app to grow at an immense rate. Once I can capture the Boca Raton market I’ll move down south to Fort Lauderdale and eventually Miami.

In addition to these five elements, please spend a paragraph evaluating whether you believe these elements fit together or whether there are aspects of your business concept that are weaker / out-of-joint with the others.

I think these five elements fit together, I would say however that the “You” element is not strong. When I do create this opportunity I would need to bring on a coder to assist. I believe I have a decent understanding of how a business operates and how to reach new clients, but creating the product will be a challenge. I think an additional element should be “team.” Most startups have more than one person, an imaginative person, and a realistic person. That way the bounce ideas off each other, and keep each other in check. 

On my first idea napkin I did not receive any feedback, so I decided to provide my own feedback and use what I have learned since starting this project in order to enhance my idea napkin. The first thing I changed was the “You” element, specifically how it will play in life. On my first napkin I just said it will take up my whole life. This time I included a more realistic approach, I explained the alpha and beta phase, then what would happen if it is successful. I tried to provide a more in depth look into what my life would be like if this app came to fruition. The second thing I changed was my demographic. After doing an avatar for the last assignment I become more aware of who my actual demographic is. My main demographic is college kids, but particularly ones who enjoy partying. Not the ones who would rather go to a house party and drink, or go out and get frozen yogurt.