24A - Venture Concept No. 1

ChoreMate

Opportunity

• The opportunity I chose to pursue throughout ENT3003 was the issue of chores not being evenly distributed amongst household roommates. This problem is inherent, because people often have different standards of cleanliness.
• The driving forces creating my opportunity are lazy roommates, messy roommates, and the high prevalence of students entering college with careless, random roommates.
• People in this market comprise the majority of college students, suburban families with young kids, and young adults who live with their friends. Geographically, this market exists in college towns, big cities, and the smaller cities surrounding them.
• Customers only two current options for satisfying this need are either asking roommates for help or hiring a maid. They are probably not inclined to constantly ask for help since this comes off as a hassle, but if they have had a maid for years then they are likely very loyal to them.
• This opportunity has the potential to be huge; the sheer size of this market as well as the constant influx of college students infer that there will always be a need to solve this problem.
• The "window of opportunity" will be open until someone successfully implements a groundbreaking, new solution to the problem, considering that there are only two other options.

Innovation

• My innovative solution to this issue is a digital algorithm that will optimize the balance of chores and other household duties based on users' personal preferences within individual households. Users will input their preferences (chores they don't mind vs. ones they hate) from a thorough list of options, and my algorithm will evenly distribute daily chores to each roommate individually. This way, the work is coordinated and users will only sometimes have to do a chore they despise.
• My means of profiting from this idea will be selling the software through mobile applications, but I will touch on this more in my venture concept. The app will be free with advertisements, but it will also offer the option to pay $1/month to remove all ads. I feel this is the most profitable execution for my software, because customers would likely be scared off if they were forced to pay some amount, which might quadruple depending on the amount of roommates.

Venture Concept

• As stated earlier, the way I plan to apply my algorithm to the real world is through a free mobile application that will give users all the customization they want, so long as they keep up with their chores.
• The primary reasons customers might switch to my app are the high costs of maids and the hassle of always having to ask roommates for help with chores. It will probably be fairly easy to get cleanly people in this market to switch to my solution; however, it might prove very difficult to get their messy roommates on board. This is another reason the app will have a free-with-ads option.
• The sole competitors who share my target market are maids / housekeepers. Their vulnerabilities consist of high expenses for the customer as well as the difficulty of retaining loyal customers.
• Since my solution is a service, my packaging will come in the form of my app's logo and design. It will be simple, clean, and streamlined for the average user. Price points are very definitive in my venture concept, because they are the driving force for switching competitors' customers to my solution. Distribution will be handled by the respective app stores of different mobile phones. Finally, customer support will play a big role, because my company must be open to new feedback as a startup.
• To organize the business, I would hire around 5 digital engineers to develop the app, 30-40 people as customer service agents, 2-3 chief managers, and a good lawyer to protect my patent. I will hire new agents in accordance with the growth rate of the company.

Three Elements

• In the previous assignment, I decided that my patent was likely the most important resource for my innovation. I still think this holds true, because it would prevent any other company from imitating the unique algorithm used in my application.
• I think since college students would be the primary user base of my app, my next business venture would be creating a similar app that is more tailored to suburban families with children. Rather than evenly splitting the chores, this app would allow parents to assign chores to their young children, who in this day and age are always on their phones, meaning they'd have no excuse for not doing them.
• In 5 years, I want to remain confident in the lasting power of my software, so I know my app was not simply a trend. Furthermore, it'd be beneficial for all if colleges picked up on the app and recommended it to incoming freshman who will soon be living in dorm rooms. In a decade, I want to look back upon my entrepreneurial venture and be able to enjoy both the ups and downs in the long-run; frankly when the time comes, I'd like to sell the company in order to pursue another venture!