Elevator Pitch

On March 10, 2015, we did our elevator pitches in class. I was the first person to participate and I actually enjoyed doing my elevator pitch. I felt that I was ready to do it because I already had my business plan done. I felt comfortable with the questions that I was asked about my business. Some of the questions that were asked were about funding, expansion, and revenue.

The whole class had to present their elevator pitches as well. It was nice to hear what everyone decided to do as their business. It was also interesting to hear how they would go about creating their business and all the specifications. There were some business ideas that seemed similar yet they were unique. Some of the companies stated that they would make millions of dollars every year. My company only makes about $50,000 before expenses.  

The elevator pitches were a good experience for me. Before the class started, I was a bit nervous because I thought my hands would probably start shaking when I got in front of the class. But, that didn’t happen because I started remembering everything I wrote about my plan. I knew it well enough to the point where I could actually talk to anyone and explain what it’s about.

I am actually considering creating my business in real life. It will probably be in a few years because I feel that I need to gain more experience in my own career for now. I am also a little worried about the funding because to start my business, I need $163,000. I could possibly do a crowd funding and get most of the money. We’ll see what happens in a few years. 

Guest Speaker Jim Kastama

On March 3, 2015, we had a guest speaker named Jim Kastama. He was a Washington State senator for 16 years. He stated that after 16 years of being a senator, he was advised by another politician/friend to start a consulting business of his own. His consulting business’s name is “Jim Kastama & Associates LLC”. He takes his clients’ business plans and boils them down so that their easier to remember and manage. He has been in this business for almost 3 years now. He started off by doing something that he recommends everyone to do at least once, it’s called startup weekend. People meet-up on a weekend and listen to other people’s startup plans. After they have heard all the plans, people join the startup company they like the best. Next, each startup company works on their business plan for 2 or 3 days straight and then presents it to investors.

I really like Mr. Kastama’s webpage where he showed the list of clients he has worked with. Amongst the list were companies like SEA-Lect Plastics, Automobili Lamborghini ASCL, and Greenpoint Aerospace. I personally think this gives him a lot of credential (which is a great thing to have in business). Furthermore, Mr. Kastama said that most of the clients he meets are through other clients. He likes to socialize and build social networks with his clients. This has gotten him very far with his business and I believe if he keeps it up, he will be very successful.

I somewhat am a man of few words. From his whole presentation, one thing I would say that I have taken from it was that socializing with clients is always a good thing. It helps build relationships past the point of businessmen. It makes people that barely know each other become closer friends. I will definitely keep that in mind if I ever start a business. 

Dot.com to Dot.bomb

The Dot.com to Dot.bomb presentation was great. It showed how all of these companies were growing and becoming powerful but in the end only a few survived. Some of the many companies mentioned were AOL, CompuServ, Prodigy, Spry and Yahoo.com. Yahoo.com is currently worth around 40 billion dollars and it was born during the dot.com era. We learned that big companies were buying out the small companies and if the small companies wouldn’t sell themselves they would most likely get crushed. Andrew Fry used dinosaurs to portray this whole story, with the tyrannosaurus as Yahoo.com. It started late but ended up on top by the end of the dot.com bubble burst. We saw that companies started making alliances and joining up just so they could stay in the game and move forward. Examples of such companies were Yahoo.com with Broadcast and AOL with Time Warner. Other companies that didn’t make it throughout the years were Friendster, FreeZone, and Luminant Worldwide either because of competition or personal problems within the companies. In Friendster’s case, it was taken out by MySpace which in return got taken out by Facebook.

I feel that it is very important for a tech company to stay upgraded at all times because once they start falling behind they end up getting crushed. They need to have and be working on the latest technology to stay relevant. Tech companies should also know when it’s time to quit while they can. If a bigger company is ready to buy them out, they should sell themselves. If not, then they become history and forgotten. 

Guest Speaker Graham Evans

On February 12, 2015 we had a guest speaker come to class named Graham Evans. He talked about and showed us what aspects we should take a look at in order to really understand what our business will be about. I really liked the business model canvas that he drew on the board. The group work that we did for the non-profit organization was really helpful for me because now I can use it to do more analysis on my own business. Furthermore, with the business plan canvas we got to see the different viewpoints and ideas that the non-profit could use in order to focus on its tasks. The business model canvas contained 9 critical sections which were: key partners, key activities, key resources, value propositions, customer relationships, channels, customer segments, cost structure, and revenue streams. We saw that many of the things listed in the business model canvas actually overlapped each other. In our example with the non-profit organization, we saw that school assemblies were a great key activity as well as a channel.

Before Mr. Evans presentation, I was having a really hard time structuring and figuring out what I really need for my business. After the presentation, I felt a lot more confident about actually starting on writing my business plan. I feel that the business plan canvas strengthens my ideas and gives me focus. After I have filled out my business plan canvas, I feel that I will be able to answer any necessary questions someone might have for my business.

Guest Speaker John Dimmer

On February 10, 2015, we had a guest speaker come to our class named John Dimmer. He is a close friend of Andrew Fry since high school. He came to educate us about funding for businesses in the real world.  For the first half of the class, Mr. Dimmer talked about his background. He told us about all the experiences and knowledge he has gained ever since he first started working for the Puget Sound Bank. Since he’s had a hand in many successful businesses, he is a great person to obtain information from for novices like me. I know next to nothing about how funding works or even financial stuff but after his presentation, I feel a lot more confident about the options that I have to fund a business. I believe that any person that is an investor for a new business is taking huge risk of not ever seeing their money again, however, Mr. Dimmer seems to be very successful in choosing the right companies to fund.

Some of the experiences that he shared were that he opened a Honda dealership, 4 Airstream dealerships, and at one point even being an owner of a tech company called Free Range Media with Andrew Fry. He went into great detail about the financial stuff with the Honda dealership and the Airstream dealerships. On the side, Mr. Dimmer has funded at least 50 companies as of right now.

I think this presentation/guest speaker was the best one that we’ve had so far. I learned a lot from him. I hope he comes back again one more time this quarter to answer a few more questions that students might have. 

Guest Speaker Amy Sallin

On February 5, 2015 we had a guest speaker come to our class named Amy Sallin. She is an Assistant Director and Business Plan Competition (BPC) Program Manager at the University of Washington. She came to inform us about the BPC that gets held every year at UW Seattle and how it works. She gave us a brochure which had very helpful information for the people that do intend on joining the competition. Furthermore, she talked about how to join, who could join, how much funding a team could win, etc. The BPC has been going on for 18 years now. It’s designed to promote student start-up ideas and venture creation by bringing students and judges from the entrepreneurial community in a multi-stage, real world challenge. There is no fee to join the competition. There are requirements to join the competition though, such as there needs to be at least one student from the state of Washington per team, if not more. In addition, people that aren’t students can join the competition but need to have one Washington State student on their team. A team needs to submit a 5-7 page executive summary. There is a screening process with judges who look at 7 criteria’s. Students can use resources that UW Seattle provides such as advisory from attorneys, industry leaders, etc. There is a grand price of $25,000 as well as other funding. I believe Amy Sallin stated that the BPC has awarded about $1.6 million in prize money since it first started. One thing that she said that I really liked was that, an investor will usually invest in an “A team” with a “C idea” rather than a “C team” with an “A idea”. 

Guest Speaker Erik Hanberg

On Thursday January 22, 2015, a guest speaker named Erik Hanberg came to our entrepreneur class. He shared his experiences and knowledge of having many businesses. Mr.Hanberg said that his first business that he opened was a theater. I think it was for plays but not movies. Due to a lack of profit in the business, he shut it down. Mr.Hanberg started writing books after that and even set up a website from which he could sell his books through Amazon.com. I believe, he currently has written seven books and is working on his eighth. The books he has written vary from non-profit to fiction to mystery. Most of his books are series. Furthermore, he went on to talk about his wife and how she is a graphics designer. He stated that she has a lot of skill and experience in the work she does. They both brought their skills together and started a company called “Side x Side”. In this business, Mr.Hanberg provided his experience to new start-up businesses while his wife did the graphics design for the start-up businesses. On another note, Mr.Hanberg also has a job as a commissioner of the Metro Park in Tacoma, WA.

I was very impressed when he said that he now has two children and how it affects his businesses but he still somehow manages to do everything. Some important points to mention about what he said: “Be a starter”, “Everyone has ideas”, and “2 kinds of work”.  The first one, “Be a starter”, means that no matter what idea you have that you believe in, you need to just start shipping.  The second, “Everyone has ideas”, means that everyone has ideas but you need to put in the work to make something happen. The last one, “2 kinds of work”, he mentions that you could either sell your time or sell something else. Selling your time is like working a job like a 9 to 5. Selling something else is like selling a product or whatever your business may be. 

3 Business Ideas

Truck Dispatch Business – This business will provide truck dispatch to local truck drivers in Washington State. It will be a middleman by providing service for both local companies that are partnered with it and truck drivers in need of work. This dispatch business will take its commission out of the partnered companies pay and give the rest to the truck drivers for their labor. Future goals of this business will be to dispatch all across Washington State and perhaps neighboring states as well. My brother, father, and I will be the founders of this company.

Truck Transportation Business – This business will provide truck transportation for import and export goods in Washington State. Washington has a huge port in Seattle where goods are always imported and exported. This business will team up with companies to both receive and distribute its containers to their designated locations. My brother, father, and I will be the founders of this company.

Taxi Cab Business – This business is solely for leasing taxi cabs to drivers. It is a private business, in a sense. It will have up to two drivers working 12 hour shifts at all times. The drivers can work as much as they want in their respective 12 hours shifts but will have to pay their lease for every shift. It will start with only one cab. Depending on how much profit is made, more cabs will be added. My brother and father will be my partners (founders) in this business. This business will strictly be based in Washington State. 

Thoughts on Startup.com

I personally enjoyed watching this documentary/movie. At times it seemed like it was a reality show because Kaleil and Tom would argue over their business ways until something was settled amongst the two. I think Kaleil was a real badass. He was really aggressive, motivated, and a great team leader. He knew what needed to be done to make money and run a business. Tom, on the other hand, I think was too soft at times. He really didn’t seem to value money as much as his friends and family. We got to see the kind of household he was raised in. He was a boys-scout type of person.

The one thing I really liked about the movie was the fact that Kaleil and Tom made it seem like the cameras weren’t present. It felt like you were actually next to them, like in the scene where the lawyer didn't show up for the meeting. You could, in a way, feel the intensity in the room at the moment.

I didn’t completely understand what happened towards the end of the documentary. I know they were having some technical issues with their website and some other things. I think they weren’t able to make it over that speed bump which pretty much destroyed their business. But they made a lot of money in the process and even had 233 employees at one point. They started the business off with only 8 employees.

Even though the business sort of failed I bet Kaleil and Tom experienced many new things that will stay with them forever. Other startup businesses consulted them because of their experience.

Expectations for the Course

I am taking this course to hopefully learn a little bit about how to start, manage, and close a business. I have no experience with how a business works besides working as an associate in a retail job for two years. I have seen how the hierarchy of employees is laid out in a retail environment. Furthermore, I have also experienced products get shipped in and sold out depending on the demand of the customers. I am really looking forward to working on the business project that was talked about in class. I believe I have a few good ideas in store for the project and want to see what we do. I know technology plays a huge role in almost every flourishing business nowadays. I want to learn about how and when technology started impacting businesses for the better (and maybe even for the worst).