23A - Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

1. Human Capital / Connections

• V: I have valuable connections with engineers who have fresh knowledge on things like coding, which are essential for my app's development.
• R: As a student, I have just happened to befriend a number of engineering students who would be more than willing to help me out.
• I: My connections are inimitable, because I have known these people as friends for a number of years. I could replicate this, but it might take years.
• N: This resource is fairly substitutable, but like I said before it could take years to develop the same relationships.

2. Experience

• V: I've considered myself an entrepreneur for many years, so I have experience with profit margins, common mistakes, etc.
• R: I'd consider my 6+ years of experience pretty rare, especially for my age.
• I: This is only imitable through gaining years worth of experience of your own in the industry/field you desire.
• N: There are not any other resources that could substitute the benefits of my experience.

3. Approachability

• V: My approachability is valuable, because anybody with an idea can come to me for feedback and consideration.
• R: It is also fairly rare, because it is a known stereotype that bosses/managers can be overly narcissistic.
• I: It is not very imitable, because it stems from a combination of my enthusiasm, my appearance and my likelihood to smile.
• N: There are certainly no other resources that could reap the same benefits as this.

4. Dedication

• V: My dedication to this opportunity is valuable, because I will quit at nothing to prove my idea would work in the real world.
• R: Most entrepreneurs are genuinely dedicated to their ventures, so I wouldn't consider this a rare resource.
• I: Dedication is also fairly imitable, because it is easy to look up to successful brands and follow their practices.
• N: There are other resources listed that can substitute the benefits of dedication, because they go hand-in-hand with it.

5. Individuality

• V: The individuality of my service is undoubtedly valuable, because this idea has never been tested in the market, hence it is one of a kind.
• R: Individuality in branding is very rare, as proven by the rampant competition across all industries.
• I: Individuality is highly imitable, especially once the word gets around. It's almost guaranteed someone will reform your idea in the market.
• N: The benefits of individuality can and will be substituted by those of my patents, another resource I list.

6. Diverse Target Market

• V: The sheer size of my target market is very valuable, because it helps measure my potential for success.
• R: Having a diverse target market is not a particularly rare resource for a brand to have, unfortunately.
• I: This resource can easily be copied by any entrepreneur, because it's not difficult to come up with an idea that could benefit millions or more.
• N: This resource is non-substitutable, because my target market is already set in stone.

7. Patent

• V: The patent I plan to acquire on my app's algorithm will be very valuable, because it will eliminate the majority of copycat entrepreneurs from my business.
• R: Patents are fairly rare, especially in the mobile application industry.
• I: The whole concept of a patent is protecting your product/service from imitators.
• N: While the benefits of a patent cover those of individuality, the opposite is not quite true; therefore, this resource is non-substitutable.

8. High Interest Before Launch

• V: Having a general scope of the demand we anticipate is very valuable information for our digital management team, who will need to implement some number of servers.
• R: There is a fair amount of consumer interest in my venture solely based on prior research, which is definitely rare for a small, up-and-coming brand.
• I: Having high demand before even having a release date is an inimitable resource, evidently.
• N: The benefits of having high levels of consumer interest before launch tie into the benefits of having a large target market, in the sense that both gauge my brand's potential for success.

9. Financial Capital / Cost-Effectiveness

• V: Since my business venture is a service, there are not many fixed costs. With that being said, I must have a formulaic way of estimating variable costs for tasks like server maintenance. This would be an extremely valuable resource, because I could estimate things like profit, costs, and growth rate.
• R: An entrepreneur providing a service with minimal fixed costs rather than a product is not rare at all.
• I: All websites and applications providing a service try to cut costs in the same way, so this resource is highly imitable.
• N: There are certainly other resources listed that could help to cut costs, so this resource is substitutable.

10. Organizational Culture

• V: I want to develop a welcoming and neighborly office environment; this will be valuable, because my employees will love coming to work everyday.
• R: Having a rather informal, comfortable working environment is pretty rare these days when every other employer requires you wear a suit.
• I: Having a balanced organizational culture is pretty inimitable, because it all depends on the attitudes of the employees.
• N: The main benefit of this resource is the overall happiness of our staff, which is not reinforced by any other listed resources.

I believe the best resource I own that correlates with my venture is the patent that would protect my brand name, logo, and the algorithm used by my app. Individuality is up there too, but since the benefits of a patent are overbearing, I would say this is my most important resource. The next top resources I'd list would be my human capital as well as my experience, but they did not check off the VRIN analysis as thoroughly as my patent does. Most of my other resources were imitable, substitutable, or a combination of both, so again my patent stood out the most to me.