Go with the Flow... #GetAnApp

Hi Practicum Class! I am very sorry for the late Social Media Moment, I just got carried away by Thanksgiving break. Anyhow if you are still interested here is my post!

As I read the article The End of the Coffee Line in this week’s Bloomberg BusinessWeek Magazine, it came to my attention how slick and thoughtful these app developers are getting to really come up with useful tools for businesses to enhance their customer’s experience. The OrderAhead app which lets customers choose their order’s pickup time, lets businesses “address latent demand”, gets a 5-10% cut out of every transaction and is now making millions. Starbucks is now in the process of developing their new Starbucks App, which is now being tested in 150 locations around Portland, Oregon. With this app clients have the ability to select their item and pick-up location where they later receive an approximate pick-up time for the order. Customers can pay through a registered account and the app displays recent orders so customers who tend to buy the same thing can do so quickly. Chick-Fil-A is in the process of testing out their new app too. By assigning two or three preferred parking spots, they are now serving mobile ordered food in seconds. Customers are able to choose payment methods and any condiments/utensils needed. In the end, mobile order-ahead apps cost stores about $25,000 to implement but can increase traffic by as much as 30%.

How it works? Well as soon as the person downloading the app checks the box off acknowledging they are waiving whatever privacy right, they are exposing their geographic location to the app. This way, new orders coming into the restaurant through the app do not appear in the restaurant prep queue until that client is within a certain radius from the restaurant. This way, fewer people will be returning their orders and customers will be satisfied.

This being said, as most of us have had to reconnect with our venture ideas after having them in the back of our minds for a week or so, I want you guys to reflect on the following:

1)   As commerce seems to be interrupted by new ways to interact with customers, should an app of this sort be considered part of your initial venture expenses?

2)   After the feedback we received in the past week or so, what “latent demand” have you uncovered for your venture?

3)   How would a user-friendly app help enhance your venture as a whole? (increase customer base, advertising, shorter wait time, etc)

Works Cited:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-26/preorder-food-coffee-apps-can-boost-restaurant-sales 

Eduardo M

Dropbox & MVP

Hello Practicum class,

My name is David Grijalva and for this week social moment I chosen to write about Dropbox. This company is the perfect example of a venture started by using the lean start up method.  Dropbox was founded in 2007; it was officially launched in 2008. Dropbox started with the sole purpose of making an extremely easy to use file storage and sharing tool.  

The company started as minimum viable product, which helped its founders start the learning process as quickly as possible.  Dropbox founders state that along with their product development efforts they wanted to receive feedback from their customers.   In building their MVP, Dropbox founders did not include all possible features that they hoped to add to the product in the future. They only included the central elements that most clearly highlighted the convenience and usability advantages of their system. Then, in order to get the MVP into the hands of potential users they put the idea out there through a working prototype shown on a 4 minute walk through. The developers listened to the comments and developed their "polished" version taken in account all feedback given by potential users.  It was as if they’d put the code into the hands of potential users and in doing so, captured their attention.

There is a link to their product demo (MVP)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QmCUDHpNzE

The video demo turned in a guerilla marketing strategy to reach early adopters. In one day the waiting list for their product increased from 5,000 to 75,000 achieving the critical mass that most startups dream of. In this case, the video was the minimum viable product. The MVP validated Dropbox founder’s leap- of- faith assumption that customers wanted the product they were developing not because they said so in a focus group,but because potential users actually signed up and starting using Dropbox.

Some of the lessons learned by Dropbox founders were the following:

• Biggest risk: making something no one wants

• Not launching = painful, but not learning = fatal

• Put something in users hands and get real feedback as soon as possible

• Know where your target audience hangs out and speak to them in an authentic way

By creating a simple/beta version of Dropbox and sharing it with thousands of people, company founders were able to increase interest in their product, collect invaluable user-feedback and test critical business hypotheses. And then, when the ‘polished’ version was ready for launch, they knew they had a captive audience, who appreciated the value of their offering.
Drew Houston (Dropbox founder) - Lean Startup Conference 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE-C-i74jsY

Questions

1.Do you use Dropbox or any other file storage & sharing tool? 

2.Why was their demo video so successful? Would you have used another method to share the MVP with potential users?

3.Apart of the leap of faith discussed above, what other leap of faith and assumptions do you think Dropbox founders took into consideration?

4. In your opinion, what is the most important element of the lean start up method?

Delano Brown by Louis Mendoza

During the last few years I have been following the work of an artist named Delano Brown, although that is not how he would refer to himself. Delano Brown like to describe himself as an ARTrepreneur. He has been featured on various magazines as well as the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/06/fashion/delano-browns-painted-clothing.html?_r=0). Essentially he has applied his artistic vision to various luxury products and pieces ranging from clothing, furnitire, and cars. The design that got his brand off the ground and into the public eye is his simple rose pattern. Specifically, his custom rose Timberland boots are his most well known product and sell for thousands of dollars because he has managed to keep his products and brands highly exclusive and desirable through his line of clothing "Lano for Public". You can't get what he makes in a store, there needs to be a relationship made with Mr. Brown.


Delano Brown has achieved this by appealing to both admirers of art and fashion by blending the two together. He has customized clothing pieces by Givenchy, Balmain, Chanel, and Louboutin. He has customized luxurious cars like a Ferrari and Rolls Royce. His portfolio contains custom pieces made for celebrities like Kevin Durant, Chris Brown, and Wiz Khalifa who post the custom art he has done on their instagram's. He's also held exclusive art shows in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami.  His New York show featured him painting his famous rose pattern onto a model wearing a white dress. This type disruptive innovation is changing the way most people view high end fashion. He begins with luxury clothing that he knows is already exclusive and adds his own twist to it and lets these high end brands know that he can make them better. Delano has inspired many imitators to the fashion industry but none compare to the quality and exclusive art of Delano. 




When I first learned of Delano Brown I noticed he had just hit a very important point in his career that is essential to any artist, entrepreneur, or creator. The point I am referring to is the point when a creator finds his 1,000 true fans. By true fans I mean Kevin Kelly's definition of a true fan, a person willing to drive 200 miles to see you live, who buys the super deluxe re-released hi-res version of your work even though they already have the low resolution copy. These are the type of fans that share your work through social media and spread the news and keep alerts to keep them updated on new posts. These are the fans that artists can make a comfortable living off of. Kevin Kelly describes this phenomena best in his article "1,000 True Fans" (http://kk.org/thetechnium/2008/03/1000-true-fans/). These fans will gladly pay $100 a year on your products because they love them so much. This essentially gives you a $100,000 of income per year coming only from your true fan base. This day in age social media and the internet has made it the greatest time for artists to find their 1,000 true fans and make a comfortable living through their fan base. This can be applied to various careers such as musicians, photographers, craftspersons, performers, animators, designers, videomakers, or authors. This concept is very important because it gives an artists an important goal to hit instead of waiting for their breakthrough art to catapult them into the mainstream which hardly ever happens and is extremely unlikely. Delano Brown emphasizes this also by constantly writing short inspirational blog posts describing the grind he had to go through to reach this point in his career. He is a very smart artist and businessman and I think observing his art and career trajectory will be very inspiring to watch as his designs have only been getting better and he is still only 23 years old.

Links to Delano Brown:
http://yeahlano.tumblr.com/
http://www.lanoforpublic.com/
http://instagram.com/yeahlano

Questions:
Delano Brown focused on exclusivity, luxury, and customization to reach his 1,000 true fans, what qualities would you emphasize to your target market if you were looking for your 1,000 true fans?

Have you become a true fan of an artist that you discovered through social media? If so then who is that artists and what cause you to become a true fan?

Given the chance, what would you like for Delano Brown to customize for you? (Shoes, Shirt, Car, Watch, Furniture, etc...)

The Importance of Branding

Hello practicum class,

My name is Alejandro Joya and for this week’s social media moment I will be focusing on the importance of company branding. Considering that we are about to present our business ventures I think it would be a good idea to go over what a strong brand consists of. With increasing competition in most markets worldwide there is a growing importance in companies having a recognizable brand with a loyal customer following.

According to entrepreneur.com branding is, “your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your product services, and it differentiates your offering from your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be”.  One of the fundamental elements of a brand is the logo. This is the face of the brand and will be a visual representation that connects your company to customers. Other important elements of branding are your website, packaging, promotional materials and even the way customers perceive staff members. In summary, your brand is all the elements that affect the way customers view and feel about your company.

Many small companies and start-ups fail to establish a clear vision for their brand and long term this can have a strong impact on your business. Taking the time to define this could prove to be difficult and time consuming but with enough customer research and firm decision making a company can establish a solid brand.  Entrepreneur.com provides the following questions to help companies define their brand:

·      What is your company’s mission?

·      What are the benefits and features of your products or services?

·      What do your customers and prospects already think of your company?

·      What qualities do you want them to associate with your company?

As previously mentioned, the importance of brands is higher than ever. Scott Goodson explains the reason behind this in his article “Why Brand Building is Important” for Forbes.com. He states, “Brands are psychology and science brought together as a promise mark as opposed to a trademark. Products have life cycles. Brands outlive products. Brands convey a uniform quality, credibility and experience.” A clear indicator of how important branding has become to companies is the growing trend of company’s acquiring each other for extremely high amounts. One example given by Scott Goodson is Kraft Company’s buyout of Cadbury confectionary for an astonishing $19.5 Billion. What exactly did Kraft pay that astronomical amount for? The chocolate? Factories? Recipes? Candy Makers? No, while those are all valuable assets the most valuable component Kraft bought was their brand. They wanted to enter the confectionary market with an established brand customers already had an affiliation with worldwide. Branding is key for differentiation; if there is no differentiation there is no long-term profitability. People don’t have relationships with products, they are loyal to brands and in a world where there is booming middle class markets (For example Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Indonesia, Mexico and many more) customers are looking for premium brands to consume.

Here is a list given by stategynewmedia.com explaining why branding is important to small organizations:

·      Branding promotes recognition-If branding is consistent and easy to recognize, it can help people feel more at ease purchasing your product.

·      Your brand helps set you apart from competition- Companies now compete on a global scale, what are you doing to differentiate from millions of other companies worldwide?

·      Brand tells people about business DNA-Your full brand experience and all its visual elements tell your customers what type of company you are. Are these points telling the right story?

·      Your brand provides motivation and direction for your staff- provides staff with the clarity your staff needs to be successful. It tells them how to act, how to win, and how to meet organizational goals,

·      A strong brand generates referrals- people tend to tell others what brands they like but you can’t tell someone about a brand you can’t remember.

·      A strong brand helps customers know what to expect- A brand should be consistent and clear, this puts your customer at ease.

·      Your brand represents you and your promise to your customer- you are the brand, your staff is the brand, your marketing materials are your brand. What do they say about you and what you have to deliver?

·      Your brand helps you create clarity and stay focused- A clear brand strategy helps you stay focused on your mission and vision as an organization.

·      A strong brand provides your business value- a strong brand will provide value to your organization beyond your physical assets. Your relation to the customer is the most valuable

QUESTIONS

1-Do you agree that establishing a brand is crucial for young companies? Why?

2-Would you say it is more important to establish a solid product or brand?

3- Any brands that you have strong affiliations for that you do not foresee yourself stopping consumption? Why do you feel that way about them?

LINKS

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/77408

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2012/05/27/why-brand-building-is-important/

http://www.strategynewmedia.com/why-is-branding-important

Crowdfunding

Hi class,

 I am Brian Masterson and I discussing crowdfunding. Since we toured Capital Factory last week and got some good information on funding sources, I figured I would continue the topic.

Most of us have heard of the term "crowdfunding," but for those that have not, Crowdfunding is the practice of seeking funding for a business or idea through the use of a web-based service such as "Kickstarter," "Indiegogo," and "Gofundme,"  there are dozens of other websites as well. The main benefit of this type of funding is that it gets your project or idea out to the general public and also the world. Though it seems that this option seems easy, there is some science behind it. An article written in Forbes Magazine, by Tanya Prive gives a brief, yet in depth look into crowdfunding.

In the article, Prives points out that it isn't as simple as adding a few pictures or a brief description of your product or service, the entrepreneur needs to take all of the necessary steps as if their product was actually hitting store shelves. Prives lays out the three reasons why people actively support an idea or a product and this is something the entrepreneur needs to keep in mind at all times.

1. People connect to the greater purpose of the campaign

2.They connect to the physical aspects of the campaign such as the rewards

3.They connect to the creative display of the campaign's presentation

More specifically, it will be key for the entrepreneur seeking to fund their business through crowdfunding to include a creative and professionally filmed video that highlights the innovative aspects of your product/service. In addition, a well written and brief description of your product or service and a good array of pictures. From looking through dozens of ideas on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, I've found that those who have set themselves and their ideas up to look like a real business are the ones who are close or have already been fully funded. 

The details of funding are pretty simple, you can set up your goal amount and then request people to back your venture for as little as a dollar. Many projects give their backers a wide range of funding amounts that come with either the product itself, usually delivered a month or later down the road, or a t-shirt some other promotional gift. 

Now what do the platforms get? Kickstarter for example will take 5% of your funds collected, but if your venture does not reach its goal, then all the money will be returned and Kickstarter will not take anything. 

My questions for you are:

1.) Have you backed any ventures that are seeking crowdfunding? If not would you?

2.) What do think makes for a good crowdfunding campaign?

3.) Are there any ventures in our class that could benefit from this funding option?

Links:

https://www.indiegogo.com/

https://www.kickstarter.com/?ref=nav

https://www.crowdfunder.com/

Article Link:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2012/11/27/what-is-crowdfunding-and-how-does-it-benefit-the-economy/2/

Mark Cuban

Hello class, I am Pablo Rangel and I will be talking about Mark Cuban.
As many of you know Mark Cuban is famous for being owner of the Dallas Mavericks and is a star on the TV show "Shark Tank".

Mark was born in Pittsburgh on July 31st, 1958. He graduated from Indiana University in 1981.During his undergrad he bought a bar named Motley's for 50,000 dls and quickly became the most famous bar during his stay in college. Mark quickly moved to Dallas after college and landed a job selling software. After a few years of working for someone else, Mark decided he had enough experience to start his entrepreneurial career.

By 1990 he sold his first company for 6 million dollars. Mark was 32 years old and a Millionaire. But he was far from over. In 1995 he and Todd Wagner, his college buddy from Indiana University, started a company named Audio Net, which started by his desire to listen to college basketball games online. The company revolutionized the media by being the first one to start streaming live events on the internet. It started getting partnerships with fashion shows, NBA, NFL, NHL you name it. And the best part was that he was the first one in the industry, so he was always ahead of his competitors.By 1998 the company had changed its name to Broadcast.com and was going public at 200$ a share. It was later sold to Yahoo for nearly 6 billion.
Mark is not your typical guy who sells out 1 or 2 times and decides to retire. He is an ENTREPRENEUR, he loves what he does. For Mark, being an Entrepreneur is a lifestyle, he has fun with it.

In 2000, Mark saw an opportunity in a basketball team that had been damaged by poor management. Mark being a lifelong basketball fan and millionaire decided to buy the Dallas Mavericks for 285 million. Cuban took his entrepreneurial mindset to the basketball court. The Mavericks were a team that was coming off a more than a decade of non playoff appearance. He quickly turned everything around. Unlike many owners, Mark attended practice almost everyday and made sure his employees (players) were performing the way they should. He also had fun along the way, often challenging players to HORSE game and developing strong relationships with players and coaches. He also started giving all star treatment to his players. He raised the budget for hotel accommodations, bought a 757 jet for the team and made sure every player had special treatment. Mark also brought some innovation to the NBA by becoming the first owner with an open blog to chat with their fans about the team.

All that showed in the team's performance during the following years. Since Cuban came to the Mavs, they have won at least 50 games each season (2nd best in the NBA) , and won a championship.
It is obvious that success follows Mark everywhere he goes, he has that vision and mindset that all entrepreneurs dream of having.

Mark is also a great example of how entrepreneurs often face criticism for their challenging attitude. Mark has changed the status quo in the worlds of media technology and sports. And along the way he had to face some adversity as well. He has been fined more than 2 million dollars in the NBA for making comments and trying to change things in the organization. He was investigated for insider trading by the SEC in 2004, the case got dismissed in 2009 and Cuban plead not guilty.
So Mark has a mindset of changing the way things are done around him and he is not gonna let anything get in his way. A trait that a lot of entrepreneurs need. That fire that Mark has is why he is so successful, he likes it when people don't believe in him. He believes that if everyone thinks you are crazy, you gave a chance of doing good "The more people think im crazy and out of my  mind... typically the better I do".

He like to treat business as sports, "In basketball its 48 minutes, in business its 24/7 and the whole world is trying to kick your a**. Mark has disrupted every business he has touched and plans to keep fighting.


Question
1.- Do you think its good to have that much passion when it comes to business?
2.- When is it too much?
3.- Mark is successful because he found his passion in sports, what is your passion?

Links
http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/columns/story?id=4793301
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1171860/bio
http://www.biography.com/people/mark-cuban-562656#controversy

Malcolm Gladwell: What Makes People Disruptive

Hello class,

My name is Jeran Smith and for my blog entry I will be talking about Malcolm Gladwell. As many of you know, Gladwell is the author of a number of best-selling books including "Outliers" and most recently "David & Goliath".

Last week, Gladwell gave a speech at the World Business Forum in New York. His topic was on innovation,what really makes people disruptive, and battling giants.

He believes it comes down to three personality traits, which many successful entrepreneurs possess.
According to Gladwell, they are open to experience, conscientiousness, and disagreeable. These three traits are also part of the Big 5 personality traits.

Open to experience means how you relate to new information. This can be a huge indicator of creativity. I agree that very creative and imaginable people tend to get excited about new experiences.

Conscientiousness describes how closely you pay attention to details. Conscientious people are very organized. They set goals, plan ahead, and are extremely responsible. I agree with Gladwell that this can be a huge indicator of success.

Being disagreeable means that you do not care what others think. Gladwell also argues this point in his book "David and Goliath" saying it is a major predictor of making innovation happen.

According to Gladwell, the combination of these traits is as scarce as it is powerful. Anyone can be creative or just organized. However, it is rare to find someone with the imagination to dream up something big and also have the focus to see it through.

However, the crucial trait, is being disagreeable. Innovators must be people willing to take social risks and do stuff that others may not approve of. As humans, we are hardwired to seek the approval of others, but a radical and innovative thought goes nowhere without the desire to challenge norms.

Gladwell says that, when you have these three traits, you get Steve Jobs and Ingvar Kamprad. Steve Jobs had no problem stealing the graphic user interface from Xerox PARC. We don't use Apple computers today because Steve Jobs was smarter than the people working at Xerox PARC. Jobs had a sense of urgency. He was interested in doing things "at that very moment".

Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943 when he was just 17 years old. It is now worth $11 Billion and one of the most recognized brands in the world. Gladwell attributes his success to disagreeableness. When Kamprad first came up with the innovative process of "flatpacking"the furniture so the customer can assemble it themselves, people boycotted because of how much it cut costs. He wasn't allowed to make furniture in Sweden so he decided to move his operation to Poland. This was in 1961 during the Cold War. Hostilities and tension were high. This was a very disagreeable decision. Many people back home were very upset and called him a traitor. However, he did not care. He is not the type of person to care about what others think. Being disagreeable made all the difference as he is now worth $3.8 billion dollars.

Gladwell also uses shipping magnate Malcolm McLean as an example.
Link: What Makes People Disruptive: Malcolm McLean

Additionally, here are some links to other videos/interviews Gladwell has given:
TED talk on David & Goliath
David & Goliath talk at Google

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you agree with Gladwell's three traits that makes people disruptive?

2. Do you believe with Gladwell that being disagreeable or "not being concerned if everyone around you thinks you're crazy" is necessary to do innovative work?

3. Considering his examples of Steve Jobs, Ingvar Kamprad, and Malcolm McLean, can you think of any other successful entrepreneurs that also possess these 3 traits: open to experience, conscientiousness, and disagreeableness?

Links:
http://superheroyou.com/3-traits-to-change-world-malcolm-gladwell/
http://www.wobi.com/event/world-business-forum-new-york-2014/?email=WBF14LevDub
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_k7XRr-se4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8JAi_zaboU

Student Startups

    You hear a lot about students who, once they stumble upon the idea of a lifetime, drop out of their ivy league school to focus on growing their business. Rarely, however, do you hear about those who drop out of school with the same type of idea, but fail to make the millions of dollars they had one day seen as an obvious outcome and end up without an education and  without a business.
     This week I decided to focus on an article I found on Entrepreneurial Magazine's website -- if you don't follow them on facebook or check their site regularly, you should, because they post great, informative articles.
     The article profiles three different student entrepreneurs who are taking their student project to the next level without dropping out of school. They either came across their idea in an experience outside of school or they found it in the classroom. Both are valid ways to generate an idea. Since creating their businesses, they have been able to continue taking classes as well as use the university to their advantage.
      The first entrepreneur profiled is Spencer Quinn from BYU. A summer job dealing with athletic tape led him to think about its other potential uses. With a bit of tweaking and help from professors at BYU he was able to adjust athletic tape to a form that would work to fix leaky pipes. Fibrefix, the resulting product, has been featured on Shark Tank, QVC and is in Home Depots and Lowe's having sold over a million units.
     The next entrepreneur is Lindsey Stewart, who was a news network producer in LA. She decided to enroll in graduate school at Wharton's SF campus. There she was able to pitch an idea she had in her head for quite a while. She noticed that videographers had trouble connecting with potential interested news networks when they had footage of something newsworthy. At the same time networks would do anything for footage including showing fuzzy youtube clips if that was all they had. Stringr would be the way to upload footage and get paid.
    Now, having graduated, Lindsey is taking her project into beta testing in SF based media accelerator Matter. An interesting caveat to this story is how her business partners feel about joining such a new company in their later years. This part of the article highlights the benefits of starting a businesses while in or just out of school. When you are 40 or 50, like the other members of the Stringr team, you have a lot more to lose.
     And a final profile, shows us the story of Carolyn Yarina who, after a visit to Africa, had the idea of a centrifuge that does not require electricity. With this idea in mind she took more businesses classes at Michigan and realized how she wanted to approach her new idea. She ended up creating a team of other Michigan graduates and together they started a health products company that creates medical devices with the health and economic situations of developing countries in mind.


Here is the article:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237411

Discussion questions:
What factors would you rely on to decide if your start up was worth postponing your education to focus on?

What are some experiences in college that you can say have inspired you the most when it comes to potential business ideas?

With the stories profiled in this article would you say that, depending on the idea, education is important no matter what? or that you still think it is acceptable to quit school and be an entrepreneur if your idea is that good?

Do you think that being in one's early 20's offers significant advantages to the entrepreneurial pursuit? Or that having more to lose and more experience are actually better for being the founder of a start up?

Shyp

I was trying to look for a good article for my social media blog post and one of the things I did to get on the right direction was to go over again all the earlier posts of this blog. We have discussed several times in class and in this blog about angel investors, entrepreneurs following the Lean Start-Up method, how accurate the ideas have worked, and many other things. We have mentioned AngelList a couple times and how helpful this have been for many new ideas. I was reading again the post about Tim Ferris and how he was also an angel investor himself and made me do a little more research and finally got to learn about Shyp.

Shyp is a San Francisco-based company that utilizes a mobile app to provide an easy on-demand shipping experience. The app aims to replace the need for consumers to visit the post office. The company picks up, packages, and ships items through USPS and other major carriers. The company was founded in 2013 by Kevin Gibbon, Joshua Scott and Jack Smith. Shyp's service is currently running in the San Francisco area; with "Shyp Heroes" aiming to arrive on demand within 10-15 minutes of being requested. On September 23, 2013; Tim Ferris posted a blog post encouraging his readers to invest in ship alongside him, which resulted in the company raising $250,000 in only 53 minutes.

The product? The product is an iPhone app in which users enter pick up and destination addresses, upload a photo of the item that will be shipped, and their contact and credit card information. The process was described in a Techcrunch article as: "You open the Shyp app and snap a picture of the item you'd like to be sent away. This picture is sent out to Shyp's network of contracted employees (which they call 'Shyp Heroes'), any of whom can then elect to pick up the package. They show up at your location, grab the item, put it in a padded bag, and take it back to be packed and shipped."

Here is the link to a short video explaining how Shyp works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DheulkmtR7Y

So, after doing some more research I found that the company was going to expand to different locations around the U.S. and found a great article in entrepreneur.com about how Kevin Gibbon, who is the CEO and co-founder provided 5 lessons in expanding to a new city.

1. Make sure your current customers love you.

Gibbon said customers’ repeat usage helped him realize that Shyp had found the right product-market fit.“It was about people continuing to use it over and over again … and over time, people started shipping more items as well from their eBay stores or their Etsy stores. They started selling more since using the platform, so it was a key indicator we were on to something,” Gibbon said.

2. Know what characteristics you need in a city.

New York City may seem like a no-brainer for startups looking to break into the major leagues, but Gibbon said the Big Apple also had the right factors in place for Shyp to succeed. “Just the overall population in the areas we’re starting in, in Brooklyn and Manhattan … our service works in denser areas, so we’re able to do more pickups per hour with the same drivers,” Gibbon said. He added that the high concentration of artists, makers and small businesses made NYC a prime target.

3. Dip your toe in first.

Before announcing the expansion, Gibbon and his team launched a private beta program in New York City for four weeks. “We looked at the pickup times, and then started expanding to more zip codes,” Gibbon said. (Shyp promises to pick up packages 20 minutes after orders are placed.) Gibbon said that here, they realized that they could use more people on bicycles to cover areas more quickly and efficiently.

4. Stagger your expansion plans.

Gibbon said Shyp will expand to Miami in November, giving the company time to get used to the New York City market. As with New York, the decision to open up shop in Miami was strategic: According to Gibbon, Miami has the greatest number of e-commerce sellers per capita in the U.S. Additionally, the launch will occur right before Miami’s Art Basel festival – just in time to ship those paintings and sculptures to buyers’ homes.

5. Find the right people.

When you’re launching in a new city, it’s important to make sure you’ve assembled the right team, Gibbon explained. “We look for a lot of experience and for people willing to take on a lot of risk,” Gibbon said. “We are mildly successful in at least one city … but we want people who are going to make it their mission to grow this company.”

So, these steps may look pretty obvious for many people, but is always good to hear what real entrepreneurs think about what a company need to succeed in a different environment in this case, and what details should people look before making a move with their businesses.

Questions:

1. What do you think should be the factors defining the decision of expansion of your business

2. What do you think about the concept of Shyp and how would you approach to potential customers to get their attention?

3. What do you think about the future of the company against bigger shipping competitors around the U.S.?

4. If the company is already starting to expand through the U.S. do you think that it could become really successful expanding to different countries? Why?

-David Arismendy-