Venture Concept No. 1

Venture Concept No. 1 

Juntos

Juntos: Venture Concept No. 1

Overview

Juntos, meaning "together" in Spanish, is an online marketplace that connects people who are looking to make similar major purchases, allowing them to buy things together. Unlike Amazon or eBay, Juntos will help buyers find, contact, and communicate with other buyers before they make a joint purchase. Unlike timeshare markets, Juntos will allow for the shared purchase of any major item. Examples of such items include: boats, season tickets, condos, recreational vehicles, and bulk goods. Buyers will then be matched with a reliable legal service that will, if necessary, quickly work out a contract granting joint ownership of the purchased item.

Problem

When someone desires a product or property that is out of their price rage, unless that person personally knows someone who is interested in making a similar purchase, they will either have to stretch themselves financial to pay full price, or simply go without it. Each year untold billions of dollars in major purchases are not made because the buyer cannot bear the cost alone. This loss of economic transactions is referred to as un-captured potential. Un-captured potential hurts sellers as products go unsold, and hurts buyers as they miss out on products they want or need. If only like-minded buyers could easily find each other and work together, the potential transactions could take place.

Solution

Juntos provides an easy-to-use online marketplace in which buyers can browse product and property listings, search for and connect with potential buying partners, find contract lawyers, and split the cost of products. Sellers can use the platform to list products, selling more than they would otherwise, and reducing un-captured potential. Juntos screens marketplace participants, and securely processes the transaction between any number of buyers and the seller, protecting both parties from fraudulent transactions.

Opportunity

Global e-commerce sales topped $1 trillion in 2012, a growth of nearly 16% over the previous year. Timeshares, boats, recreational vehicles, and season tickets are a few of the items commonly bought jointly. The timeshare industry reached $10 billion in sales in 2011. The recreational boating industry reached $83 billion. Recreational vehicles sales topped $42 billion in 2012 and are growing by over 15% per year. The season ticket sales in sports, music, and drama are a combined $50 billion industry. There is great opportunity to direct much of the transactions in these industries to Juntos as each industry has only a few scattered, ineffective online sales sites, none of which cater to joint purchases. Beyond capturing large market share of the transactions already taking place, Juntos facilitates transactions that would otherwise not occur, through its buyer connecting platform.

Inovation

·     Connecting buyers: Any buyer can use the Juntos website to quickly find buyers in their area, who are considering the same purchase, allowing them to communicate beforehand to ensure that the joint ownership will go smoothly.

·     Joint payment: No other online marketplace is focused on or even allows shared payment. Doing so is a shift from the norm and opens up vast new sales potential.

·     Marketplace consolidation: Anything that can be bought jointly is found in one easy-to-navigate marketplace. Buyers and sellers are also able to add or request any item to be added to the marketplace. 

·     Legal services: After a joint purchase is made, Juntos will direct the buyers to a contract law firm that will quickly work with the buyers to complete the necessary contractual documents.

Venture Concept

Juntos receives revenue from each payment transaction it processes. Products or properties will be listed online by a merchant or individual seller. As the primary benefit of the platform is to buyers, they pay between 3% and 5% of each transaction to Juntos, depending on the dollar value of the transaction and the number of buyers involved. Each transaction is subject to a minimum transaction fee of $5.00 per buyer. As merchants can list products on their own sites, no fee will be charged for listing products. However, for timeshares and other real estate, a 5% commission will be charged to the property seller. Revenues will also be brought in through partnerships with law firms. Juntos will partner with contract law firms, sending every transaction of a specific type to that law firm, where the details of the new joint ownership will be quickly agreed upon.  

Example Transaction

Will lives in San Diego and is looking to buy a boat. Will browses the marketplace section of juntos.com and sees that the type of boat he is interested in is sold for $10,000. However, most he is willing to spend is $6,000.

Will creates a posting in the buyer section of juntos.com. The posting specifies his location, desired item, and the percentage of the price he is willing to pay. Will decides he would like to have 50% ownership.

Tom also lives in San Diego and is interested in buying a boat, but does not know what type. Tom goes on to juntos.com and narrows down the buyer postings by searching the “Boats” category in “San Diego”.

Among other postings, Tom sees Will’s posting and likes the look of the boat and decides to send him a private message. Tom asks Will about the details of the boat and after a few messages back and forth decides it is what he wants.

Tom and Will agree on a 50-50 split ownership and each pay $5250 through the Juntos online payment system, with total combined payment at $10,500. The $10,500 consists of $10,000 from the cost of the boat, plus the 5% Juntos fee.

The payment is then processed and $10,000 is sent to the seller who listed the boat. Juntos refers Tom and Will to a contractual law firm that handles of all the Juntos boat transactions, and a contract specifying joint ownership and usage is created. Delivery or pickup is carried out as specified by the seller in the product listing.

My Unfair Advantage

My Unfair Advantage

1.       Size of Market: The actual size of the market that Juntos operates in is extremely valuable as it provides huge growth curves. I would not necessarily say it is rare again, it is a big market space. Not easily inimitable and non-substitutable.

2.       Overall Concept: I believe our concept is extremely rare and valuable, which is why I believe it reached the finals of a national collegiate business plan competition. I think the concept would be rather hard to intimate just because the scope and capital it would need to get launched. That is to say, if we developed a market presence first. I also believe that it is non-substitutable for the same reasons.

3.       Human Capital/Team: I would like to say that me and my partner (cousin) who worked on it are extremely rare and valuable as well. We both bring to the project something different but both something non-inimitable and non-substitutable.

4.       Financial Capital: We do not have the financial capital for the project yet, but my point here is that if we were to obtain financial capital and were to successfully launch Juntos, it would be rare and valuable just because of how much capital it would require. This makes it non-inimitable and non-substitutable as well because there would not necessarily be space for capital for Juntos and another website trying to offer the same service.

5.       Mentors: We have some great mentors on our team who have signed on to help. I believe they qualify above for all of the VRIN analysis.

6.       Ability to expand: Similar to point number 1, our ability to expand into other services is rare and valuable. It also makes it non-inimitable and non-substitutable if we get ahead in those new spaces quickly as well.

7.       Convenience: I think Juntos taps into such a large population of people who want to purchase products but cannot finance the cost alone.

8.       Legal Capital: I think another thing that could make Juntos unique is our ideas for the legal side. We would like to offer a streamlined service that quickly grants joint-ownership and contractual agreements which I believe could be its own sort of business later on.

9.       Social Capital: I also think Juntos fulfills the VRIN framework, as Juntos also provides users with a certain social aspect that they cannot get through any other service now. Since Juntos brings qualified buyers together, it has the opportunity to connect people who are interested in similar things.

10.   Ethical Asset: I also believe that Juntos possible could eventually offer some sort of ethical capital as it provides to people the opportunity to purchase things that would be typically outside of their financial range. This opens them up to so many new opportunities.

I think our biggest asset currently, is just how new and unique this business is. There really is no such thing as this on the market currently and nothing even close. I believe this asset will make it successful also because we believe there is a high demand for our service. 

Week 10 Reading Reflection

Week 10 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

I was surprised that the text discussed simple linear regression analysis in developing operating budgets.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

Nothing was confusing to me.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

What analysis uses the Payback method?
Why would you use Payback method over NPV or IRR?

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

I did not think the author was necessarily wrong about anything. 

Week 9 Reading Reflection

Week 9 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

     Probably the biggest surprise to me is the concept that many new entrepreneurs do not identify and analyze their markets before starting some sort of venture. This seems like it just be entirely commonplace and essential before starting any new business; which is an expensive process.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

     One part of the reading that was somewhat confusing to me was the first important point of a marketing concept: developing a marketing philosophy. 

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

     If I were to ask the author two questions, they would be: First, I am extremely curious to which stage of companies usually have the best results from marketing. Second, which stage of companies typically have the largest challenges to marketing approaches.

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

No, I would not say the author had anything wrong. I think some of the marketing plans are rather basic but I do not think their wrong by any means.

My Secret Sauce

What’s Your Secret Sauce?

1)   Describe five ways in which you think you have human capital that is truly unique. What is it about you, exactly, that makes you different? Write this up in a detailed list. 

1.     To start, I believe that something that is rather unique to me and would constitute as human capital is my curiosity. I believe that I am uniquely curious which has allowed me to learn a lot about many different things and people.

2.     I also believe that I am uniquely interested. I am someone who has always done multiple sports, had many different hobbies, and diverse groups of friends. I can get excited about a lot of things.

3.     I would like to say that I am also always very polite and conscientious which I believe has served me well.

4.     I would say that I am also a hard worker in everything I do and I am not okay with mediocrity in any sense really.

5.     Lastly, I believe that I am also really positive. This ties in with my curiosity and interested personality I believe, but I believe that I am very positive on many things.

2)   Interview the five people who know you the best. Ask them what they think makes you different -- remember, focus on your knowledge, skills, abilities, emotions -- in other words, your human capital. Try to stay away from discussing your other types of capital (such as who you know). Record each interview. In your blog post, please post each interview, as well as a two-three sentence summary of each interview, explaining what your key takeaways are.

Since I had to interview five people and I have four family members plus a cousin who all know me quite well, I figured I would interview each of them.

1.     Mother: My mother obviously has a special place for me in her heart, so she spoke very positively about me. She touched on many of the things that I actually wrote about myself. She first talked about me being extremely passionate about a lot of different things, which ties in with my first two points.

2.     Father: My father also touched on many similar things. For one, he said that I am very polite and always respectful. He also said that I am very competitive which drives me.

3.     Sister: My sister talked about my interest in a lot of things and basically said most of the other things that I referred to in my points.

4.     Brother: My brother made more jokes than anything and I couldn’t really get any serious answers from him but he also said that I might be considered a hard worker. He was mostly being sarcastic here.

5.     Cousin: I am pretty close with my cousin so she knows me quite well. She touched on my curiosity a lot; saying that she knows me as someone who is extremely curious about many different things and that this has made me ‘smart’. This is why I also, in her opinion, have played and done a lot of different sports and hobbies.

3)   Reflect on the differences. How do you see yourself, and how do others see you? Are there differences in how you assess yourself compared to others? What do you think causes these differences? Do you think your interviewees are correct about you? Finally, going back to your list from part 1, would you make any corrections to the list? How? 

     I would say for the most part, I looked at myself very similarly to how my family looked at me. I wanted to ask my family, firstly because they were easy to comply, and second because they do know me extremely well and have seen me throughout my entire life. I would say though that even within my family, there are definitely different perceptions such as my brothers versus my mom or dad. If I were to go back to the list from part 1, I really probably wouldn’t change anything because my family members mostly touched on everything that I wrote for my human capital.

Idea Napkin No. 2

Idea Napkin No.2

1)    You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

My name is Sawyer Lambert, similar to what I wrote in Idea Napkin No. 1. Similarly, I have always considered myself quite entrepreneurial and enjoy forming potential ideas. I have participated in a few business plan competitions while in college, one where I went to the finals. I am highly interested in investments or something finance related so that is what I am working towards. I see this business becoming a major role in my life if I were to start it.

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 

            My company is called ‘Juntos’, which means “together in Spanish”. Juntos is a company that will offer an online marketplace that connects buyers who are looking to make similar major purchases, allowing them to buy things together.

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

            Juntos is a company that will offer to any customer who desires a product or property that is out of their price range. Since I received some good feedback on Idea Napkin No. 1 about specializing on a particular market instead of the broad approach of any market. Juntos will originally start in the real estate and season-ticket markets. Both of these markets will be good places for Juntos to bring like-minded buyers together so that these potential transactions can take place.

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 

            Customers will care because Juntos captures the uncaptured potential that takes place in markets where one participant cannot afford a product alone. Juntos will help buyers find other buyers who will help finance the cost. There is no other service that brings together like-minded buyers in this sort, so customers will pay our measly cost compared to the cost that they would have to pay if they were to try and finance a purchase by themselves.

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 

            Juntos provides many competitive advantages. First, Juntos is the only company that provides this sort of marketplace where similar-minded buyers can find each other to make purchases. Second, Juntos operates in the real estate and season-ticket markets, two markets which have a large base of buyers who want to purchase a home or season tickets but are unwilling to do so because they know they will not be using the home or tickets full time. Juntos will also provide a legal advantage as we will offer quick easy joint purchase legal contracts to both buyers. These contracts will also be easily customized to each buyers preferences which will allow the buyers to negotiate among themselves and find an agreement.

            Juntos will provide many advantages to both beginner buyers and seasoned buyers. For the beginner buyer, Juntos will allow them to possibly buy that vacation home they have always wanted with a reliable partner to help split the cost. Seasoned buyers/investment buyers can use Juntos to find other investment partners to purchase real estate all across different markets. I believe that these elements fit in together. One thing that I am still working on and considering is the primary markets that Juntos will operate in initially.

            Feedback Memo:

1.    First and foremost, I heard about my original post being too broad, needed specialization.

2.    How do you find reliable buyers?

3.    Who pays for the repairs?

4.    Who pays for insurance etc.?

5.    How does the legal side work?