475 Post: Kickstarter Levels of Reward

In order to start we will need to have raised about $25,000 of which 2/5 comes out of my pocket and the rest comes from family and friends. The funds will be used to get all the legal and administrative paperwork, rent a place for our business and equip it, import medicines, run ads, etc. We will appreciate people’s pledge and reward them accordingly:

LEVEL#	LEVEL DESCRIPTION	PLEDGE	REWARD
1	Getting legal and administrative paperwork	$15	Get 10% discount on their first purchase
2	Renting business building	$20	Invitation to business sponsored community events.
3	Equipping business building	$20	Get 15% discount on their first purchase
4	Business building utilities	$5	Customized thank you cards to backers.
5	Marketing	$5	Backers mentioned in ads materials.
6	Delivery transportation	$10	Get 5% discount on their first purchase.
7	Importing products	$100	Postcards with backers’ pictures and formal invitation to the grand opening.

PS. Reward for every pledge at every level includes a formal acknowledgment of backers on our website.

475 Post: Jim Kastama’s Talk

We had several speakers for our class this quarter and each one has been conveying a more compelling message. Last but not least, Jim Kastama talked about the Innovation.

For a brief bio Mr. Kastama is a retired, spent 16 years in WA state legislature, went to China, created State Economic Commission, and the ER (Entrepreneur and Resident) Program. Unfortunately, Jim lost the 2012 WA state Secretary elections.

Jim argued that Innovation is different from invention. It has to do with dissimilar ideas and technologies coming together to work. On the contrary, invention is the creation of new things. However, innovation is not a top-down process. It can come from anywhere. Jim illustrated this point with the example of Boeing employees who found another way to put seats on the aircraft that cut off the task time by almost half. He also brought in the case of people in Washington who found solution to a problem through video game.

Innovation leads to what Jim called Innovation Partnership Zones (IPZs). WA state has plenty of these making the Pacific Northwest Economy a powerhouse. According to Jim, innovation is responsible for a 2/3 of GDP. The WA state would rank 14^th economy worldwide if it were a country. There are also economic clusters in the U.S. These are geographic area that has a certain business and an appropriate technology associated with that specific business. Thus, Oil is associated with Texas, Aeronautic associated with WA, Hollywood with California, Financial Services with NY, etc. An entrepreneur might consider being around the appropriate economic cluster.

475 Post: Dot.com to Dot.bomb

Our class seems to end on the same wave length it started, from “startup.com documentary”to “Dot.com to Dot.bom” review via what it takes to start and succeed in business. Reggie Aggarwal and Mark Esposito had already warned us that entrepreneurship is a way of life which can have great rewards, but also has downfalls and frustrations. Dot.com illustrated exactly this thought since its review reveals how it has been almost caught up falling apart. Moving from dot.com boom to dot.com bust, the dot.com business followed the trajectory of a projectile kicked off in the air. 

   

However, there is this crawl back period that leads us to moderate our judgment of dot.com. If leaving the ground level the projectile is naturally expected to return to it, dot.com didn’t really fall apart. The effects of the bust were softened by companies buying others.  Technology has then changed our lives in an irreversible way, although we can still see the scares of the bust. Some lessons were learned and some measures were taken to prevent similar disaster. 

As stated before technology entrepreneurship is a risky business which has sorrow along the way. Many successful entrepreneurs have failed at one point or another. As for me I just need to have the motivations and characteristics required of a true entrepreneur before I put my idea(s) in motion. Other people’s mistakes may be a warning for future entrepreneurs.  No matter what the outcomes, there are always lessons to learn from and experiences to gain.

475 Post: Brian Forth’s Talk

Mr. Brian Forth is an entrepreneur, founder and CEO of SiteCrafting, a Tacoma based website design and app development firm. He is Tacoma former 5^th grade teacher who built websites with his then students for other grades. He left the teaching career once he realized that his entrepreneurship sense couldn’t be restricted to a classroom. Mr. Forth shared his employment bad experience in North Carolina but praised Disneyland as employer for his training to deal with customers.As a matter of fact 90% of Mr. Forth current work is referral. 

According to Mr. Forth the way you present the truth to others is a key to success. Our guest illustrated this point by presenting his company’s pipeline. His company is well known for its good training of employees. It survived the dot.com bust because it’s small. It is today in 3 locations: Spokane, Seattle, and Tacoma. However, people think serious businesses are located in Seattle; business in Tacoma is for fun. Now that many people are able to design website SiteCrafting takes also into account apps and web mobile development. The company has already built some apps such the winery tour app, the winery kiosk is next. However,  app’s biggest issue is that it’s a code that needs to be updated often and customized to devices.

475 Post: Graham Evans’ Talk

Graham Evans was a respected speaker with a rich work history. Evans has worked for Cascadia Med-Term Acc., Cascadia Velocity, EQ² , WCTA, Washington Technology Center, PNC/C+L, etc. He talked about the relevance of knowing the market and doing the right thinking in business.

1.      Marketing

Evans articulated the importance of marketing in 3 equations:

1)      Great Product + Lousy Marketing = No Money

2)      Lousy Product + Good Marketing = Some Money

3)      Great Product + Great Marketing = Good Money

It’s obvious that you need to know your market in order to succeed in business, bring in a great product, and do a good marketing. A bad example for this was the British trying to penetrate the U.S. market without of good knowledge of it. Ultimately they hailed. Another example to avoid is the Microsoft tablet marketing. The ad shows people dancing instead of explaining what is good about the tablet.

2.      Thinking

Evans presented six ways to go about thinking:

-          Brain storming / Reverse brain storming: getting ideas and prioritizing them according to some criteria.

-          2 x 2 strategic matrices

-          SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threat)

-          Morning Pages: writing what you have in mind every morning.

-          Six hat thinking

-          Business planning

-          Belbin.

Our guest argued that it’s important for an entrepreneur to keep an open communication, to know what he doesn’t know, and to recognize challenges to his paradigm.