(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. 

An App'd Business

Brian Forth I saw as another example of a person who can unexpectedly make it as an entrepreneur. Given his sports and theology background, I would have not expected him to create a business that would work with a large amount of technology. The nature of his business Sitecrafting was fascinating to me. Working with mobile apps I saw as an intelligent way to break into the market and solve many problems at the same time. It also allowed for a type of creative process to still take place. Overall, I felt that maintaining the business, while probably more difficult seems like an experience that does not get boring. This applies to his employees as well.

What I also saw as a smart move was to avoid his business from becoming too big to handle. The sense of family that Forth described with and the pictures I saw made his business seem like a very attractive place to work.  From what I can assume, keeping a small, personal business along with his mobile app company seems like a good way to maintain a manageable company that does not get boring with an open exit strategy. From my perspective, Brian Forth seems to have found a good balance between the two. 

Quality over Quantity

The technology that differentiates my business from my competitors would be my use in video streaming quality. As opposed to our major competitors, Netflix and Hulu, which simply provide media that is generally unchanged, our business requires that each of our pieces of media to be translated and subtitled to accommodate for our international audience. Because of this, our TV programming and movies must be taken with the upmost care.

Also as opposed to Netflix and Hulu, which provides there media generally passively, our media will be constantly on the clock. We plan to stream our media simultaneously with its native country to allow die-hard fans to watch their shows right when they come out. If this is to be one of our draws, it is important we provide high-quality and easy to understand subtitles. Not only this, but we must also have the ability to toggle on and off subtitles to for native speakers or those who already understand the language. This simple but effective option would allow for people away from their country to still enjoy their native programming.

Overall, our company aims to differentiate ourselves from our major competitors by offering quality streaming and varied options. We hope to differentiate ourselves from Netflix and Hulu, who have already perfected their technology as much as possible to create a new and innovative service.  

Freedom's Lifestyle

An entrepreneur really seems to be in a league of their own. While it doesn’t require any proper training or background to be an entrepreneur, it requires almost every personal and professional aspect of someone’s life to be utilized correctly. As such, it’s not too far to say that entrepreneurship is a lifestyle; a lifestyle that many people are not ready to risk their current lives on. 

If I were to guess the feeling of entrepreneurship it would be “freedom”. At first glance, it seems like a fulfilling and glamorous venture, which for the most part it is. Being able to create an idea, build on it and manage it is, at least in my opinion, seems like a much better way to spend my time than, simply working at a steady income job. When you are an entrepreneur, you are your own motivator.  Whether or not your business venture succeeds is primarily up to how much the person puts in.

This is where many people might be turned off by the idea. Having all the responsibility turned on you is not what many people desire, especially when there are other things at stake for them (such as a spouse or children). Having a steady income job seems like a much safer bet, and there is nothing wrong with that. There is also the process and sustainment of becoming an entrepreneur. For every entrepreneur, there is always some kind of level of stress that one has. There are always things that an entrepreneur doesn’t have complete control over. 

Becoming an entrepreneur is very much a gamble and all a person can really do is try to tip the scales in their favor. But if one is willing to take the risk, it might very well be worth the chance.  

Erik Hanberg's Giraffe

The idea of waking up on a Tuesday afternoon to go to work really seems like my kind of work.

There were a lot of new ideas and perspectives that I learned when listening to Erik Hanberg’s presentation. What I found most interesting was the graph he showed of his total income during the past few years. It really put into perspective how exactly an entrepreneur lives in comparison to someone who works with a steady income. Seeing how quickly and suddenly his income would change not only for himself, but his wife as well was both fascinating and somewhat frightening at the same time. It taught me that to be an entrepreneur; there is a certain level of mental preparedness that one needs to go through. This was especially surprising given that Hanberg came from an English major background with assumingly little knowledge of business.

What I also found interesting was the concept of passive income. While it may not be the largest amount of income, the idea of slowly gaining a return for working on something like a book did help me see a different perspective as to how one can take on the entrepreneur role.  This not only applies for the books that Hanberg has written, but also for the entire entrepreneur process as well. The stress of making money seems to be unavoidable no matter what kind of entrepreneur process one takes. Although, using Erik Hanberg as an example, success seems to come to those who are patient. 

TINST 475 Business Ideas™

With the popularity of services such as Bandcamp, Netflix and Tumblr, consumers are changing the way they interact with their media. Nowadays, consumers want their media options to be widely varied, readily available and prepared for comment and feedback. My ideas focus primarily on the way in which consumers interact with their media.

• My first idea is aimed at the people who want to internationally broaden the horizons on the TV programming they watch. All around the world, new and original TV shows are being released to the masses and the primary reason they don’t get worldwide attention is because consumers simply don’t understand the language. This small issue should not be the deciding factor as to whether or not one should enjoy these programs. This business hopes to break down the language barrier by legally simlucasting subtitled versions of international TV shows on our website for a monthly subscription fee. By working together with these international programming companies, our business can obtain the English (and possibly other languages) licensing rights to these shows and present them to a worldwide audience. If the rising popularity in foreign films is any indication, this business has the opportunity to evolve and grow over time.

• My next idea is for those consumers who wish to create their own media, but are constantly bogged down by big business copyright acts. In the age in which someone could get sued for covering their favorite artist’s song on YouTube, a new artist trying to create their grassroots movie or video can be challenging. That’s why this business idea will provide a medium for potential artists to promote and sell their music and graphic images. Potential artists can sign up on our website and provide free samples of their work that is free of use to anyone. If a person or company likes the work of the artist they discover, they can hire that artist to create that new music or graphic image for them. This company would make money though transaction fees and advertising.

• Finally my last idea would be through the utilization of iPad apps. If one were to compare the number of iPad users who use their iPads for work to the number of iPad users who uses their iPads to play Angry Birds, one may be surprised at the result. The goal of this business would be to streamline many services such as database work and presentation creators to a level that is easier to the mainstream audience. In terms of consumer media, apps can be created to leave notes and comments about videos and music users find and allow them to share with friends.

Consumer media is a constantly evolving medium and as such, new innovations must evolve alongside them.  The business ideas that have been presented intend to take full advantage of this rapidly changing industry.