One thing leads to another one #12

Investors are fond of saying they’d rather bet on an “A” team with a “B” idea rather than a “B” team with an “A” idea. They know that business models change, technologies evolve, and customer tastes are in a constant state of flux. Those same investors will tell you that most business plans are obsolete the second they come off the printer.

 There’s tremendous value in simply getting started and learning as you go. Accept that the first or first 10 version of whatever you’re selling won’t be perfect. The process of trying, fixing, and trying again is how entrepreneurs figure out what their customers really want and what it will take to deliver against those expectations.

Netflix is an online entertainment company. It began life when CEO Reid Hastings mailed some DVDs to himself to see whether it would actually work. The simple act of doing something triggers a reaction sometimes good, sometimes not so much. But the difference between a dreamer and an entrepreneur is that only one of them takes action. Businesses can’t grow if they never start in the first place. Wish I had more time to continue developing my product, because the more time you give it the better it will become.

My business needs a team #11

The way I look at it is that two brains are better than one. For my business venture I need a partner who is also passionate about my niche and an employee who is going to do the job that I don't want to do because I might not be as good at making graphic-design decisions.

I've had trouble designing my website and choosing what colors to pick according to the subcategory. The one thing I'm trying to avoid is making it overwhelming to navigate or even to look at. So hiring someone to remake my logo, website, and app look more professional is definitely a must. On the other hand, I also need a partner that would bring ideas to the table. There is only so much I can come up with but if I had a different approach or idea on how to move more efficiently then bingo. If I can have an employee and a partner then I would consider that a perfect team. However, the question is how can I afford to have an employee since I haven't generated any revenue from my business yet? This is the only thing that makes me go ummm.

Startup school radio #40

Just because your current business isn’t necessarily technology centric, it doesn’t mean that you can’t adopt new technologies, or even branch out into another business that does focus on technology. Keeping an eye on the trends in technology is your first line of sight into new or additional revenue opportunities, or new ideas and products. This is one of the most important things I have learned from listening to this startup school radio. A lot of businesses nowadays, wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for technology and its improvements as it was mentioned in the radio. Adapting to these new technologies is a must in order to succeed in today's world. 

Customers are spending their time online somewhere. The thing is, it could be anywhere. It might be on a specific social media site or just scrolling through a ton of blogs every day. But we all spend time online. Tech trends can help you figure out specifically where your customers are spending their time. They can tell you if a new social media platform has opened that matches your marketing plan perfectly. It can even let them know how you need to connect with your audience: through television, the Internet, a mobile device, or plain old mail.

9- Designing

I have tried different layouts and backgrounds for my website but I don't happen to find the one yet. The ones I have chosen are either too dark making it overwhelming to look at or too simple making it boring. Today I put a background with all the brands that would sponsor these extreme sports. I thought it would be a good idea since it's related. I have uploaded new content from this week and going to continue uploading more content not just of me but of all my friends so they can see themselves and use the website for their enjoyment. What I need to work on is uploading content for the other categories that I have labeled. Finding it and putting it in the website is easy but finding fresh content might be somewhat difficult since I don't know much people that do the other sports. I'm going to have to do some brainstorming here and rearrange my business canvas, because I MIGHT just do it all about skateboarding...

8- Feedback

So yesterday I went to scalzi skatepark located in Stamford and then Norwalk Skatepark, with the objective of getting feedback about my business venture. As I walked around analyzing everybody in the park, I came to realized that most of them were on the their phones filming their friends. Some of them had professional cameras and some of them were just watching. Since I'm friends with most of them I approached to the ones with smart phones that were filming and asked "wouldn't be nice to have a website and app that focuses only on a certain community like our skateboarding community?". They replied confused asking what I meant. I started talking about imagining having an app where you could share your clips in an instant with everybody else but in a format like Instagram. Then I started talking about the app and all these cool features you could have and do with it if it existed. Some of them loved the idea without any feedback and some said that I should do a mix instead of only doing videos. However, I wouldn't want to make it about pictures and videos because then it wouldn't be original. Just videos!

When I got to Norwalk Skatepark, I was given a different perspective. They liked the idea however, they would want a subcategory page where you could be able to find the nearest skateparks and skate-shops around your current location. I did research on that to see if people came up with apps to find skateparks and skate-shops around your current location, and yes its already out there. However, what is not out there is combining these 3.


This is a clip from Norwalk Skatepark which I have put on my website.

7

Key Partners: Facebook, Youtube, Angel Investors

Key Activities: Grow user base, design, market content

Value Proposition: Take great videos and share instantly with your friends and the entire world.
Access to other videos for entertainment.

Customer Relationships: Extreme sports social network

Customer Segments: Android or iPhone users that like extreme sports videos

Key Resources: InstaXtreme platform, everyday new content

Channels: Website and App

Cost Structure: Marketing, Maintenance

Revenue Streams: Ad revenues, Free

Digging (Module 2)

I have spoken to multiple people about the idea but their feedback wasn't very helpful. I've been working on the website uploading existent content and trying to make it look more attractive. After finishing module one, I asked myself how would I able to make money off this.

The last thing I want is for people to visit the website/App and never return. Collecting emails will help "InstaXtreme"grow much faster because I simply email my subscribers whenever we post new content. I'm hoping to approve at least 30 videos per day to keep people coming back and sharing their experiences. It is 7 times harder to acquire a new visitor than to market to an existing one. I'm going to place a simple signup form on the website and app to collect visitor's emails. You can also use the subscriber list to generate revenue from advertisers and sponsors in the future. Also, I could buy a video sharing CMS script that will allow users to do the following:

• Upload a large amount of videos
• Easily scalable to handle millions of visitors
• Loads the site fast in both mobile and desktop browsers
• Good search engine optimization (SEO) factors along with SEO friendly page titles
• Social media friendly

I believe the best way to drive traffic to the website and App is by:

• SEO
• Social media
• Adwords/PPC
• Email marketing

Once I have decent traffic, then it’s time to think about monetization. Monetization should always add value to the user, not take away from the browsing experience. Here are some revenue sources as mentioned before:

• Advertising
• Sponsorships
• Product - Hoodies, T-shirts, etc..
• Adsense
• CPM networks
• Subscriptions
  I believe that for the website, the main source of revenue generators will be banner ads, sponsorships, product, and subscriptions.