Well, as far as learning how they were able to raise funding, it was a bit baffling. However, I’m reminded that venture capitalist not only like to invest in good ideas but most importantly great people because they are tend to be adaptable. They are able to adjust or evolve their business model to ultimately be profitable which is what VCs are all about. Not sure what kind of evolution process most of these business models experience went but it would be great to know in helping to determine how they were able to capture funding. My big take away from this article is that all startups don’t have to the disruption technology ingredient in order to get financial support.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Top 20 Innovative Tech Startups – ETR 500 Week 11 Blog
After reviewing the article on the top 20 innovative tech startups, I was a bit startled that there weren’t more if any that could be considered disruptive technology. I would even say there weren’t any at all. The list in my opinion didn’t feature much innovation by these startups. Most of these companies’ ventures seem to display themes of which are building on ones that currently exist within the marketplace. I wasn’t very impressed by the choices on the list. Not to say that I would have been able to do better but for companies that got venture capitalist (VC) to invest millions, I was expecting more. I like the ZocDoc concept of booking your doctor’s appointment online but once again this is not disruptive technology, setting appointments online is not new. The article did show startups that found a gap or underserve market such as Roundtable. All blogging sites are one way communication and Roundtable offers the opposite.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Sloan Management Review Article - ETR 500 Week 10 Blog
Consumers as they say are now “taking the bull by the horns” and are becoming an intricate part of the product innovation process despite what some businesses would like to think. Consumers are in a position of power and have the final say so as to whether or not a product will be successful. The field of dreams concept that has dominate the industries for decades of, “build it and they will come” is diminishing. Only few companies such as Apple are still successful using that concept and they too have tweaked it with the consumer in mind. Consumers are now taking a manufacturer product and augmenting it fit their needs a lot better or upgrading it to a more effective product.
Technology advancement couple with consumer’s curiosity has seen the evolution of the product innovation process. The internet and the advancement of science have put the consumer smack in the middle of the invention cycle. These consumers are creating, prototyping and executing product testing on their own. Consumers are no longer waiting for the manufacturers to provide them with products that they need or having the OEMs assume what a consumer will need. The consumer is now taking the lead and entering the market place themselves as entrepreneurs or seeking the manufacturers out with their own product innovations. Over the last few decades entrepreneurship has seen rapid growth because consumers are successfully developing their own product ideas. Larger more establish companies are now acquiring smaller entities that evolved through the entrepreneurship process and are saving those large businesses some R&D funding. Some entrepreneurs are utilizing the process of selling their company or product idea an exit strategy such as what John Osher did with Porter & Gamble and his SpinBrush product idea. The R&D process is a critical and expensive area for more established companies looking to maintain or grow their market share. A few of these businesses are now seeking consumer inputs as a part of their market research process and as a way to improve their product design.
Going forward the future looks very bright for those consumers that have an excellent product idea and for those folks that are in the business of entrepreneurship. However, all this is based on the thought the all these entities has a product that is marketable and has profitability tied to it. Not every great idea can be marketed but for those (consumers) who can find the gap(s) within the market place by developing a products such as the SpinBrush then good things are on the horizon.
Technology advancement couple with consumer’s curiosity has seen the evolution of the product innovation process. The internet and the advancement of science have put the consumer smack in the middle of the invention cycle. These consumers are creating, prototyping and executing product testing on their own. Consumers are no longer waiting for the manufacturers to provide them with products that they need or having the OEMs assume what a consumer will need. The consumer is now taking the lead and entering the market place themselves as entrepreneurs or seeking the manufacturers out with their own product innovations. Over the last few decades entrepreneurship has seen rapid growth because consumers are successfully developing their own product ideas. Larger more establish companies are now acquiring smaller entities that evolved through the entrepreneurship process and are saving those large businesses some R&D funding. Some entrepreneurs are utilizing the process of selling their company or product idea an exit strategy such as what John Osher did with Porter & Gamble and his SpinBrush product idea. The R&D process is a critical and expensive area for more established companies looking to maintain or grow their market share. A few of these businesses are now seeking consumer inputs as a part of their market research process and as a way to improve their product design.
Going forward the future looks very bright for those consumers that have an excellent product idea and for those folks that are in the business of entrepreneurship. However, all this is based on the thought the all these entities has a product that is marketable and has profitability tied to it. Not every great idea can be marketed but for those (consumers) who can find the gap(s) within the market place by developing a products such as the SpinBrush then good things are on the horizon.
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