No, Go. Do the Tech.

In class, we talked about the dot com boom of the 90s. This was a period of time mostly between 1995 and 2000 about many software companies that gathered large amounts of investors and spent way too much money (garnering net losses to their finances) trying to get virtual real estate. Our instructor brought up "Content is King" which was a phrase that was used pretty widely around media distribution websites in the 90s. This was something that a lot of companies followed to garner their investments and profits. It's similar to other companies over-spending on advertisements where their philosophy was "get big fast" to get funding. It seemed to me like a lot of snake oil, but that may have been the nature of the market at the time. There were a lot of novel ideas that came through, but our demonstration really nailed it home. In class, our instructor brought a bunch of plastic toy dinosaurs. These toys were used to represent the companies of the time that just c

The ideas I have around Little Box of Horrors  I haven't broadcasted too loudly. Obviously, I want to use technology like Bluetooth, it may use cards (but no dice), and it will have a mobile application. The reason being is that I partly don't know exactly how everything will be implemented, but for what I do, I keep them as my trade secrets. How the app will be implemented, what are on the cards, how the game pieces interact, what the Bluetooth and mobile app will do with the game are all things I'm keeping to myself. Now, relying on my brain to keep all my business safe simply isn't enough. In class, we talked about trade secrets, but we also talked about copyrights, trademarks, and patents. A patent is beyond the scope of my business. There isn't any piece of technology that I'm inventing or constructing that is unique enough to be worth purchasing a patent for. A trademark will be useful to have at some point, but only in the far future when the company has

The idea for my game, Little Box of Horrors , revolves around modularity and technology, while also being considered a board game. Because it's a board game there are a lot of conventional ideas that most board games use to establish entertainment for the player like the use of cards, how the cards affect the mechanics, use of dice, what the numbers mean on the dice. Since I'm using these conventional mechanics (Except dice, my application will take care of that, although it could be a modular addition). There's a baseline cost to manufacturing the cards with art depictions and high-quality ink, the playing board and it's art and ink, boxes to hold all of these things, and rulebooks to use when the mobile application isn't available. The cost I intend to ask for these games is $175. It seems like an expensive asking price, as most games go for anywhere between $20 to $100. The reason being is that the game includes a mobile application built to interact with the

Stephanie McKenzie is the owner of Metro Coffee. She started working as an employee at Metro Coffee in 2006 when she was 21 years old. She took over management and ownership of the company in 2009 when the previous owner took ill. She talked about how in the beginning she worked with her partner to keep up the business and help it grow. Working with her partner was hard because it was stressful to have both her personal life and professional life wrapped into one. Having her partner there to support her was great though. There were times she couldn't make it to work, either from sickness or mental stress, and her partner was able to provide and cover for her. I was particularly interested in this because it's very likely that for myself that my partner and I would be working together in building what we want in business early on. My partner has had a lot of time spent working in her parent's business, and so we know what boundaries we would need to set for each other to re

Mr. Dimmer's presentation was the most information about funding so far. He has funded/owned thirty-five different businesses and was able to present to us a lot of information on the early stages of business. In particular, for a new business, the sole funder is typically the founder. He stated that in his experience, people that don't put their own capital into their business ideas aren't serious enough about the business itself. In fact, he implied that it's essential for business owners to have a majority of capital in their company so they can control and protect the business from vulture capitalists. Vulture capitalists are a spin on venture capitalists who their major goal is to lower the percentage of ownership the founder has over the company and it's products so they can control it and basically steal the company. It's also important for a founder to have a majority portion of their company so when they decide it's time to exit the company, they h

We were visited by Erik Hanberg last Tuesday. He seems to me like one of the most successful people we've been able to meet with, but that's because the businesses he pursues seem like the most relatable to me. Mr. Hanberg has started several different small businesses with his wife and himself as the only two working for it. This sounds ideal to me because I have far too many hobbies that I start, stop, renew, or keep year by year. Mr. Hanberg mentions something called Multiplier Skills saying, "If you have many skills- writing, design, marketing, persuasion, programming, psychology, etc. - Put it online!" Meaning that, try to make a business out of something you have skills in. Because I have a lot of hobbies, I tend to pick up a lot of general proficiency in many subjects, so this too sounds attractive to me. He does mention that a lot of people who have these skills don't pursue opportunities they could benefit from having their own business around it. Mr