(Extra) - Stratis Media

 I think I finally have a clear view as to what kind of business I want to build. I say because there were a lot of ideas that wanted to integrate, but I didn’t know exactly how. While I always had a general idea of what I wanted to do with my business, there was no way for me to find my perfect niche into my market. A lot the challenge I had was trying to narrow down my ideas so for a long time, I kept a broad sense of my business. But I think actually verbalizing what ideas I had in class was really helpful.

Out of it came, my final business plan.    My business is one that buys licensing rights of popular international movies and TV and distributes them legally though the internet. This allows media companies to profit from the international market while letting consumers world-wide legally watch their programming. Companies will a get a majority share of profits in accordance to how many views their shows get. Shows will be securely aired for free, but with advertisements. Higher quality video and complete removal of ads can be done with a premium membership of $12.

While I haven’t worked out every single detail, I think I have a solid foundation to build on, which will make completing my business plan much easier.

The Business Addiction

To me, the most important thing I got from Jeff Goodwin was that the entrepreneur lifestyle has a very concrete structure, but at the same time it is very dynamic. There are many paths that one can take, but they all seem to end in similar ways. Even as a young business with pressure washers, there seems to be a path of success that one can trace. It seems very difficult to exit the entrepreneur lifestyle as there is some kind of urge to continue, even after you have been acquired and had a successful business. In the case of Jeff Goodwin who didn’t initially think about being acquired, it would be strange to think that he would go into another business. It seems to be an addiction to be an entrepreneur.

I think it may be the ability to build on passion that causes it. Instead of building a product company like Jeff did before, he decided to be a service company and I think that is a nice way to mix up a business while still doing something that is driven by passion. Another thing I liked was some of the resources that he presented like 99 designs. It was nice to see some of the innovative ways that Jeff Goodwin took when he wanted to build his second business. This is something I want to try to integrate with my own business. 

SouthSound Network

After to listening to Lynnette Claire talk, it was nice to know that there seems to be a good amount of entrepreneurs around Tacoma and the Southsound. What it probably did most was open my eyes to the fact that entrepreneurs actually work close together and in conjunction with each other rather than trying to work on their own. It was surprising to see how many entrepreneurs in Tacoma actually know each other.

The video that was included kind of gave a sense of identity to the entrepreneur network in Tacoma. It was nice to see successful and up and coming entrepreneurs working together in the video. I’m interested to see how the College Tacoma Entrepreneur Network will work out.

Another thing I liked that helped me out more than I expected was the activity we did with the cards. My top three choices were all ones that were most popular and I also had them ordered perfectly in terms of the class’s popularity. Although I wouldn’t change my top choices, after hearing some arguments, I do think that I prioritize some things on a higher level now.

Rock'em, Everyday, Every Way

What surprised me most about the movie Startup.com was how accurately it portrayed the life of a business as was has been portrayed to us. By that, I mean that it was almost scary as how accurate it portrayed a business. The way that it covered having to buy out a third founder and essentially firing a second founder was very realistic and was a nice glimpse into the non-business aspects of being an entrepreneur. It was easy to see the stress of making the some of the decisions and actions that I the founders did. The business also starting during the dotcom boom was nice because of how quick the process was.

Some of the other things I also saw interesting were Kalil’s relationships with woman, which I saw as slightly comedic and Tom’s relation with his family, which was kind of heartwarming to me.  One thing I would have liked to see however were interviews from the employees of Kalil and Tom to get a better look into how they ran the business. From the end of the video, it seemed like the employees were well aware of what was happening about the founders and the state of the company. Another thing I would have liked to see was a little follow-back to see how Kalil and Tom did after GovWorks went down.

Overall, I liked Startup.com. I think it was a great way to see the rise and fall of a business and everything in between. 

Angels Driving Race Cars

John Dimmer, I thought was an amazing source of information about how to get a business funded. Some of the experiences he had during his entrepreneurial ventures were many of the experiences I envisioned an entrepreneur to have. It was hear stories about how he was able to start a business, have a happy exit and race cars around the world. It was also nice to hear that he was a part of the Tacoma Angel Network and helped start up a peanut butter business.

However, what I really took away from John Dimmer is his knowledge in Angel funding. Before the presentation, I had no idea about Angel Networks or how they operated. After listening to his presentation, not only do I know where to access Angels and Angel groups, but now I know what kinds of Angel groups to target and how to present myself to them. Also something that was good to know was what to expect from Angel Groups. Learning about how much equity to give away and in what form will be helpful even without dealing with Angels. 

Finally some of the best I took away from John Dimmer was his analogy about equity. Attempting to keep as much of the company as possible would seem like an obvious statement, but when dealing with Angels, I think it is a good piece of information to keep in mind. 

Disrupting the Flow

After listening to Ron Kornfeld, I think that I have a different perspective on my business, both in terms of me being an internet business and simply creating a business as a whole. One thing I learned was how a business can make a profit by only sharing data about their users. Netflix, a company I see as a rival to my business probably uses this strategy in the same way. This realization will help me a lot when I begin my start up and have allowed me to reconstruct my startup and exit plan.

Another way that he has helped me alter my plan is though his concept of disruption. The insight he put in terms of how to break into a market and using examples from real life companies was very helpful. Putting “restrictions” on rival companies I thought was a smart way of creating disruption. His success with business’ like DreamBox and Tweetiator are all testaments to these ideas.

A trend that I’ve been noticing is that many successful entrepreneurs do not have any background in business whatsoever. Although I’ve heard of this story many times before, not knowing that Ron Kornfeld was a music major until near the end of the presentation solidified my thoughts of what an entrepreneur can be. Having a major in something other than business can be helpful because it helps with the creation of an idea and maintaining perseverance though passion. That, combined with the business template that he provided makes for a successful combination.  

Help Us Help You

The presentation from Bruce Kendall, from what I saw, was more focused on the endgame rather than the journey. Being the CEO of the Economic Development Board for Tacoma and Pierce County, it showed me a different route of an entrepreneur.  This approach differed radically from the previous entrepreneurs and the businesses they presented. Kendall showed the route of helping business’ help themselves through primary firms, which was a path I was unaware of. By taking this path, Kendall is able to see the growth of multiple established businesses within Pierce County and in turn, the area as a whole.

However, that would mean that Kendall would have a different type of motivation toward growing a business. Finding funding would be somewhat less difficult and the focus would be going through with ideas and making sure they succeed. A lot of key factors such as exit strategy and startup are either non-existent or heavily altered from the “standard” process of entrepreneurship.

What I found really impressive was Bruce Kendall’s knowledge with the large companies of the entire Northwest. Unlike many the entrepreneurs who have presented that possibly could have started up anywhere in the U.S., Kendall’s entrepreneurial ventures are region specialized and to him, location is key. This would make him an irreplaceable resource in finding regional jobs and careers and solving problems specifically for Tacoma and in the Northwest. His work with clean water and cyber security made me think that there will always be a job opportunity in his kind of work.