Thursday, December 16, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Where Do Good Business Ideas Come From? *Podcast Script*
How did Jeff Bezos come up with Amazon? What made Joseph Pedott conceptualize the unconventional Chia Pet? Why did Art Beloff commit so much of his time and energy to creating the Bagel Wizard Safety Bagel Slicer?
Simply put, they were able to identify an opportunity that would make things better, easier, entertaining, or more affordable. Great business ideas come from a number of different places, but most often, they are derived from experience. After cutting numerous bagels, Art Bellof realized that cutting bagels precisely down the middle was a pain in the ass! Jeff Bezos thought that there HAD to be a way to aggregate buyers and sellers in order to open up the "marketplace", and he had a hunch that the internet was the medium to do this with.
Experiencing these problems made all of their brains fire in a way that uncovered their own, unique solutions to these problems. This epiphany alone, however, does not create a profitable business. The second part of this is understanding that there are enough people out there with similar or identical problems. These people make up the market, and this market needs to reach a critical mass in order for a venture to be profitable. If there were only 5 people that needed a bagel cutter, I am positive that Art Bellof would not have spent so much time on his damn Bagel Wizard Safety Bagel Slicer. The reality of it is that millions upon millions of people cut bagels every single day, and this is what made it worth Art's while to push this venture forward.
This experience-based idea creation process is extremely typical among entpreneurs; however, there are much less organic approaches to conceptualizing ventures. Specifically, I'm refering to the more practice of problem analysis. So, tune in next time to get a brief, yet thorough assessment of problem analysis, and how you can use this more abstract approach to come up with your million dollar idea.
Simply put, they were able to identify an opportunity that would make things better, easier, entertaining, or more affordable. Great business ideas come from a number of different places, but most often, they are derived from experience. After cutting numerous bagels, Art Bellof realized that cutting bagels precisely down the middle was a pain in the ass! Jeff Bezos thought that there HAD to be a way to aggregate buyers and sellers in order to open up the "marketplace", and he had a hunch that the internet was the medium to do this with.
Experiencing these problems made all of their brains fire in a way that uncovered their own, unique solutions to these problems. This epiphany alone, however, does not create a profitable business. The second part of this is understanding that there are enough people out there with similar or identical problems. These people make up the market, and this market needs to reach a critical mass in order for a venture to be profitable. If there were only 5 people that needed a bagel cutter, I am positive that Art Bellof would not have spent so much time on his damn Bagel Wizard Safety Bagel Slicer. The reality of it is that millions upon millions of people cut bagels every single day, and this is what made it worth Art's while to push this venture forward.
This experience-based idea creation process is extremely typical among entpreneurs; however, there are much less organic approaches to conceptualizing ventures. Specifically, I'm refering to the more practice of problem analysis. So, tune in next time to get a brief, yet thorough assessment of problem analysis, and how you can use this more abstract approach to come up with your million dollar idea.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Effin' Textbooks= Best Place to Search for Books
Effin' Textbooks
Save yourself and your friends time and money by instantly finding the lowest price from the best textbook renters/sellers in the market (Chegg, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, BookRenter, etc.)... with Effin' Textbooks.
Donor Universal- Venture from Start-Up Weekend
Donor Universal: New Venture from Start-Up Weekend
We're making the blood donation process more convenient for those interested in donating blood, and we're helping blood banks increase the supply of blood they have on hand.
Who Am I?
I'm still trying to iron out some of the details regarding my "sense of self", but this is what I'm sure of.
My birth certificate reads "Robert Ashton Caucci", I'm an Atlantic City native, I'm getting a BBA in Entrepreneurship and a BS in Business Economics, I'm a resident advisor at 55 John St., and my twin sister, Gabrielle, is my only sibling and I love her to death.
I consider my greatest achievement to be escaping from the complacency and talent trap that is Atlantic City. At the age of 21 I'm a serial entrepreneur having recently launched my first two ventures in the past six months. The first being Effin' Textbooks which is a textbook price comparison Facebook application and website. The second being Reslutions which is an enterprise software type solution that is delivered to collegiate housing departments via "the cloud". This past weekend I participated in Start-Up Weekend, and was part of a 6 person team that developed a mobile application with the purpose of informing potential blood donors when there's a blood bank near them. It is making the blood donation process easier for those interested in donating blood (you'd be shocked at how many fanatical blood donors there are), and we are helping blood banks increase the supply of blood they have on hand.
Despite a very busy schedule, I enjoy nothing more than kicking it with friends and having a good time. I also enjoy snowboarding, passing out on the beach, and traveling. The "geekiest" activity that I thoroughly enjoy is performing opportunity analysis on potential business opportunities.
The most useful experience that I've had at Pace would have to be the Business Plan Competitions as well as the Pace Pitch contest. Leading a team at the Dannon Trust Challenge (business simulation competition hosted by The Dannon Company) was an experience that led to my first, full-time job offer. I am very thankful for all of these experiences!
My birth certificate reads "Robert Ashton Caucci", I'm an Atlantic City native, I'm getting a BBA in Entrepreneurship and a BS in Business Economics, I'm a resident advisor at 55 John St., and my twin sister, Gabrielle, is my only sibling and I love her to death.
I consider my greatest achievement to be escaping from the complacency and talent trap that is Atlantic City. At the age of 21 I'm a serial entrepreneur having recently launched my first two ventures in the past six months. The first being Effin' Textbooks which is a textbook price comparison Facebook application and website. The second being Reslutions which is an enterprise software type solution that is delivered to collegiate housing departments via "the cloud". This past weekend I participated in Start-Up Weekend, and was part of a 6 person team that developed a mobile application with the purpose of informing potential blood donors when there's a blood bank near them. It is making the blood donation process easier for those interested in donating blood (you'd be shocked at how many fanatical blood donors there are), and we are helping blood banks increase the supply of blood they have on hand.
Despite a very busy schedule, I enjoy nothing more than kicking it with friends and having a good time. I also enjoy snowboarding, passing out on the beach, and traveling. The "geekiest" activity that I thoroughly enjoy is performing opportunity analysis on potential business opportunities.
The most useful experience that I've had at Pace would have to be the Business Plan Competitions as well as the Pace Pitch contest. Leading a team at the Dannon Trust Challenge (business simulation competition hosted by The Dannon Company) was an experience that led to my first, full-time job offer. I am very thankful for all of these experiences!
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