29A – Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity:

For my product, the people who have the need are scooter or bike owners who don’t own or wear a helmet. These scooter and bike owners need to wear helmets for their safety, but many do not. Through my research, I have found that a big factor in people not wearing helmets is that they feel uncool wearing them. I want to create a helmet that people are excited to wear. Because people have the need for a safety device that looks good, I think I can fill it. Geographically, this topic is pretty much restricted to only Gainesville, since we are the only school to really have scooters. There is no one set demographic, but it would be targeted mostly to college students, since they are the ones who normally use scooters. Customers are not satisfying their need, they are risking their safety for coolness. This opportunity could realistically take over Gainesville, but it would struggle outside of Gainesville. This opportunity will continue on as long as students don’t wear helmets.

Innovation:

My innovation is a helmet that is engineered to be smaller, more compact, and better looking than the existing helmets on the market. This is an incremental innovation, because I am only looking to improve the current design for helmets, not create a new one. The higher end of helmets can cost somewhere around $100, while the median is around $40ish. I want my helmet to cost $19.99, a price that college students would be very willing to pay for a safe fashion accessory. I want the helmet to be customizable for a higher price, and I want it to be engineered in such a way that the helmet does not give its users helmet hair. I think that with these qualifications, my helmet will sell pretty well.

Venture Concept:

I don’t think that getting people to wear my helmets will be too hard. Although many look at them with disdain, I think that the use of social media influencers in my case would be greatly helpful. Since students currently don’t wear helmets, customer acquisition is all about making them realize that my product fits all their needs, and then it will be a hit. There are no direct competitors as of now, thankfully. Some possible weaknesses I have come from the engineering side, not the business side. If I can’t get costs down a lot, or pass inspections to be considered safe, then my company will fail. I really want to try my best to overcome those. I think that price points, customer experience, and location will all play big factors. This business won’t work if these helmets are too expensive, or if I move it out of Gainesville, or if the customers give negative reviews to the helmets. For now, I would contract a manufacturing deal, and then only really pay some influencers and myself.

My top resource:
My top resource has got to be knowing scooter shop owners. I think that by meeting these people, I have a place to sell my helmets and get my name out there. If they give out these helmets free for people who buy scooters from them or something, this is great advertising for me.

What’s next:

I think I could possibly move on to other scooter accessories later when I have my brand set up.

What’s next for me:

I would be happy selling this company once it gets big, and I think that the money I get from the sale could fund a different entrepreneurial venture down the road.

2) Provide a summary of the feedback you received from your previous venture concept description. You certainly want to include the student feedback, but you may also include the feedback you received from others during the "What's Next" exercise. You want to summarize all of the feedback, but be sure to place an emphasis on what people recommended you change about your idea. (In other words, don't just describe the positive feedback.)

The feedback that I received mainly dealt with the my resources. I was told that I really need to capitalize on social media, as well as make sure to put my network to good use. I agree wholeheartedly and have reflected that.

3) Describe how you changed your venture concept, based on what you learned from the feedback.

I have made sure to heavily include social media in my marketing plan, and I think that I could also have incentives for my friends who own scooters to buy my helmets as well.

4) Include a picture (for illustration!).