"Idea Napkin No. 2"

1) 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?

So the first part of this answer hasn’t really changed based on the feedback I received last time.  Feedback wouldn’t really affect your skillset, so my skill set would be the same.  As far as how I would see the business playing a role in my life, it’s entirely dependent on how profitable this idea is.  If this idea is profitable I would pursue it at least in some fashion.  If not, then it probably isn’t worth investing any surmountable time in.

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

The feedback I received on my previous go around was all pretty positive.  One person suggested that I take it a step further and provide more services directly to the consumer.  They suggested I create an app and provide other services like the ability to alert campus police or let friends know where they are.  These are good ideas but the more profitable option for this technology would probably be the API route rather than a direct product to a consumer.  In response to Greg’s comment about other software companies making something similar – you’ll always run the risk that larger companies will make the product you are making.  Unless there is some barrier like legal (patents), you’ll run the risk of competition arising.  All you can really do is focus on execution and the product.  Most of the time with these large software companies, it is easier (and usually cost effective) to acquire any competition than to start a division directly to compete with them.

3) 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?

I’ve decided that my product would be better structured as an API as opposed to a direct consumer product.  An API would basically allow me to sell my technology to other companies and businesses to use in their own apps.  So rather than provide direct services to consumers, I would provide the backbone for other entrepreneurs to build software off of.

4) 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. 

The only way people or business will pay to use this API is if the data acquired by this API is accurate and useful.  If this API works like it could (and how I want it) it would be easy and helpful to incorporate into other people’s applications.

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

Well if this technology were to work as advertised, we would have unique technology that nobody else has.  So that would set us apart.

I think these pieces are coming together better thanks to the feedback I received on my last assignment.  My business plan is stronger now.  My first take away from the feedback I received was that my commenters thought that the idea was strong and could be successful.  The second take away from the feedback was that several commenters thought my product would be more “consumer aligned” as opposed to an API.  Now I have narrowed my idea down to only be an API.  The third take away was that if I was going to more directly target consumers, that I would have to incorporate other services.  This is part of the reason I didn’t want to target the end user directly.  The fourth take away was that I could encounter competition from other tech companies if they decide to enter the market.  The fifth and final take away was that I needed to narrow my focus and make a decision on what I wanted to actually offer as a product.  I addressed this feedback directly in my idea napkin and described any counter points (or solutions) to the points brought up in the comments on my last post.