Entrepreneur guidebook

                The guidebook starts with some statistics to give an idea of the odds a tech entrepreneur has to face and to show that almost all entrepreneurs will have to face failure at one point or another throughout their careers. Because of this, an entrepreneur needs to be unshakable in his belief in the company and the business model. He must have the courage to forge ahead knowing the odds of success. He needs to have a laser focus when it comes to getting the job done and he needs to have the discipline to work through the drudgery. An entrepreneur needs to be a leader, able to build teams and instill confidence in others. An entrepreneur is always thinking ahead.

                The tech entrepreneur’s guidebook defines the three goals of a successful tech entrepreneur as follows:

1.       A technology entrepreneur seeks to innovate and solve a problem that exists in the market, not merely identify and follow a trend.

2.       A technology entrepreneur seeks to build long-term value. They want their company to have sustainability, not just attract investment dollars at high premiums.

3.       A technology entrepreneur seeks to have freedom, is willing to accept the risks that come with the job and is not discouraged by the uncertainty of the future that they face.

Graham Evans visit

            Graham Evans spoke about the importance of breaking your business down into different layers and visualizing how each layer of your business works on a canvas. First, we took business ideas from those who were willing to share theirs. Then we voted on which business idea we wanted to break down and decided on an idea for an electronics recycling company.

We broke the business down into 9 separate layers on a canvas, Key Partners, Key Activities, Key Resources, Value Propositions, Customer Relations, Channels, Customer Segments, Cost Structure, and Revenue Streams. Each team of 2 was assigned a different layer to fill out. My team got customer relations but we weren’t sure who the customer would actually be. We decided that the company could ultimately go in 2 different directions, it could be a for profit organization in which the customer is the one who supplies the electronics and then expects a cut, or a nonprofit like the recycling of glass and plastics that may ultimately lose money but reduce pollution and have the government as a customer.

After we broke down the business on canvas we could see a more flushed out picture of how the business would work. The problem was that only the person with the business idea had a clear view of how he wanted to monetize, so some of the layers left room for a lot of different possibilities.