Venture Concept No. 2

The Opportunity:

            I saw an opportunity in the needs of every student, faculty member, administrator, and visitor on UF’s campus. The one thing every single one of these people have in common is that they are in Florida, and Florida is very hot. While walking around campus, many people get sweaty and gross. This makes them less inclined to walk to class and it takes away from the appeal of UF as a whole. The fact that Florida, and Gainesville in particular, is extremely muggy and hot for 9 months of the year has an impact on the UF population. My customers are those who would like to walk across campus but can’t show up to their destination dripping in sweat. My market is not only limited to UF. It includes all large universities in the South that have big campuses and hot weather. Currently the only thing people are doing to satisfy this need is either dressing in weather appropriate clothing, which isn’t always an option depending on where you’re going, walking in the shade, or taking a bus or driving which isn’t as healthy as walking. I don’t think that these customers are loyal to these solutions at all, I believe they are just doing them because it’s their only choice. This is why there is such a large opportunity in this market, there is currently nothing filling this need. This opportunity is large in its nature because Universities are so large that they have huge amounts of people with the same need in the same market. This opportunity window is also going to last until someone else comes up with a similar idea since the climate doesn’t drastically change.

The Innovation:

            My product is nothing that has never been seen before, it is simply being used in a new context. The product is fans that attach to pre-existing poles on campus and use solar panels to power them. There will be a thin battery pack attached underneath the solar panel so if there's ever a time that it's not sunny the fans would still work. They are placed throughout the most highly walked places on campus to create a breeze that keeps the students, faculty, and anyone who happens to be walking through campus cool. This encourages people to walk instead of drive which alleviates congestion on campus as well as promotes healthy lifestyle choices for the University population. Since the fans attach to pre-existing poles on campus, (such as light poles, signs, stoplights, etc) they’re not cluttering the campus with big metal poles everywhere. The product I am selling is the physical fans. Since the fans are going all over campus, each order will be large by nature which is good for revenue. I would sell each fan for $150 since the solar panel technology is included.

The Venture Concept:

            I think it will be somewhat easy to convince people to switch to this product. The issue with my product is that the users whose needs will be filled are not the purchasers. The universities are the purchasers but the students and those walking around most are the users. The way I would encourage the Universities to buy them is by marketing to the students and the student government. At UF in particular, the student government has a large say in what happens on the campus. Once I can get the student body on board, I don’t think it will be a challenge to get UF to purchase the fans. Currently, there aren’t any competitors to this product. The weakness is that it’s a very simple idea, so it would be easy for others to join the market and start competing with my business. My business would have to be centrally located in the South, so it could easily distribute products to all universities who would need it. The business structure would be mostly young college students or recent grads who could market to the target users. A huge area that my business will rely on is the young marketers being able to successfully reach the target users. I would aim to set up contracts directly with the universities to secure a certain amount of fans by a certain date. This paired with the students would hopefully convince the universities to use my product. Packaging and distribution will also be important parts to my business because if my product is delivered damaged that is lost revenue and we would have to send another fan for free. I think my business would be mostly online and spread out for our frontline marketing people, and from there our warehouse would be staffed with enough employees to make things happen. If we feel we could use our own transportation then we could, but we also have third party options to deliver our products for us.

The Secret Sauce:

            The most important part of my business is going to be my young workforce who can connect to the students. They’ll be able to market to the students through social media and on campus events. Being able to be in the students’ life and connect to them will better sway them and the university to buy this product. If you can’t get the students to want the product the university will never buy it. Additionally, getting someone to sell directly to the university and set up contracts would help connect the students wants to the administration who can take action.

The Next Venture:

            I think I could spread this product from the South to the North as well. Instead of fans they could be mini heating lamps so when students have to walk across campus in the cold winter and spring months they can have little spots of warmth along the way.

What’s Next for Me:

            I would like to take this business and see it grow to its full potential. If I ran it well, it could become a nationwide business. I see myself not making this business my main career goal so I could possibly end up selling it to someone.




2. The main feedback I got was saying that only relying on brand ambassadors and student marketing most likely wont be enough. If I want to actually sell my product then I need to set up contracts directly with the university. I also had people ask me to elaborate on the battery pack idea.

3.  I added a little more description about the battery packs. I also added to my "secret sauce" a sales force group solely dedicated to connecting the students wants to the universities action. They would go to the universities and discuss what the students would like and hopefully set up contracts from that.