#ventureproposal

Our team conducted a separate interview to acquire a wide range of information concerning challenges that Central Mindanao University students regularly confront. In my instance, I had a difficult time doing the interview since I am too shy to approach individuals, especially those I don't know; also, I had to be careful with my language, behavior, and questions in order to avoid any confrontations. We spent a few days conducting the interviews, and when we were finished, we held a group meeting to analyze the individual interviews and synthesize the information we had gathered.

We've seen that the majority of students complain about their difficulty in purchasing necessities, particularly food, because there are few actual stores where they may do so. We took advantage of this chance to create something that benefits both us as entrepreneurs and our target market, which is students. We came up with the notion of offering a service that meets the demands of students. Because the majority of them have problems acquiring their essentials, we proposed the 'Student's Essential Box'. It is a box containing students' essentials that they ordered themselves, and we will have it delivered to them via courier through a cooperation with a certain courier party. From doing the interview to submitting the Venture proposal, it was an laborious endeavor, but we made it through as a team.

The past few weeks of February were a rollercoaster ride. Through interviews, the team was able to identify the rampant problems that CMU students had. These prompted the group to have a vision of startup businesses primarily in printing services or in developing a sustainable product for university litters. Nonetheless, the team first suggested the “Tabang” website intervention during the presentation of venture proposals to alleviate the significant student concern of inadequate allowances. Upon taking into account the panel's feedback, the team has firmly decided to switch to a different venture. In this time and age, the face-to-face conduct of classes has continued. Students from different locations have opted to avail a boarding house or a dormitory for their needed accommodation as they enroll themselves in Central Mindanao University. Despite the comfort of the provided accommodation, the team took the initiative to assess some residents for timely and relevant concerns that they are currently experiencing.

With the team’s passionate attempt of brainstorming ideas from the gathered responses, an idea for another startup business emerged. It is a generated idea of a product that, as a group, we have believed and thought as much more specific, more practical and feasible to venture for the renting students of Central Mindanao University. Upon the conduct of the brainstorming session among the members of this group, we have envisioned paying attention to the prevalent mosquito issue in boarding houses and some college dormitories, as the interviewed renting students of this prestigious university claimed this to be a recurring matter that they experience during their stay.

To validate the to-be-proposed product from our target market, the team has endeavored to conduct another face-to-face interview among the renting students of the university. Prior to the interview, we have hypothesized that all residents in the dormitories and boarding residences around the university experience mosquito-related issues. Another hypothesis made by the team is that all boarding student residents are willing to avail the mosquito trapper product that the group will propose. The team was able to have a conversation this week through interviews with 28 boarding students who concurred that there is a prevailing existence of mosquitoes in dorms and some boarding residences, which is such a distraction for their studying and most significantly at risk, their health. In line with this, 2 students, particularly from the Mahogany dormitory, hesitated to be potential customers. This enlightened the group that not all dormitories have frequent encounters with mosquitoes, given that windows of some dormitories are enclosed with mesh screens. Nevertheless, 26 of the interviewees, mostly coming from the College Park and Field 1 Residence, have given the affirmation of interest and willingness in purchasing the product as long as it is affordable and true to its claims.

As a result, the team has agreed to push and propose a model that will not use fire and will not emit smoke. It will be a portable, rechargeable mosquito trapper through its suction-capability. The display of a red-orange hue light that researches have tested to be effective in attracting mosquitoes will be its prime feature. The device will attract mosquitoes, which will then be captured for the product’s tray to die. The team also thought of an option in associating the mosquito trapper with a solar power panel to make use of the renewable energy from the sun in times of recharging. Indeed, this will make the product become sustainable, compared to when electricity is the only main source of power. In addition, it is crucial to consider that "katol" may be powerful in eliminating these mosquitoes, however, it is not permitted to be used inside the dorms or boarding residences because once it is left unattended, it could start a fire.

Our previous venture proposal has made us realize that in starting a startup, we should consider different factors. The team should focus on one specific issue that we want to address. Our previous proposal was quite broad and general, therefore we should be more specific. Secondly, we should consider our own limitations and capabilities as students. We discovered that as students, we are constrained and incapable of providing as much because creating something is expensive, and we are not yet competent to do so. Hence, the team must always bear in mind that we need to come up with a startup, which is a rich idea that something small yet scalable at the same time.

What I appreciate most about this course's components is that they require me to think critically and expand my knowledge beyond what is common in my area. It is quite difficult; it is often difficult for me to imagine that I am working on this project by myself, but happily, I am surrounded by brilliant and skilled group members. We conducted our interview for our venture proposal two weeks ago and Our main idea is to create an app that allows all the stores on the CMU campus to provide online service for convenience and comfort. Essentially, it is an ordering app, but I believe it will solve the problem of the majority of students not to mention that It will really save them time, energy, and effort traveling to stores from their separate distant colleges.

The concept was undoubtedly subjected to analysis, and at least five people were interviewed by each member of the group. We questioned them about the five most prominent problems they could observe in the local area, how they would advise resolving them, and how they believed people may profit from their solutions. Technically, we asked them such questions rather than pondering them ourselves. According to those who participated in the interviews, our team developed an ordering application that addresses all of the needs present in the CMU market and primarily addresses the issue of the shortage of different kinds of establishments close to the colleges. The team came up with two options: delivering only food products or being versatile with various products included, so we chose the latter. As a result, we opted to incorporate other products to make sure that the app interface has a variety of product inputs. We six members of the team understood the value of following a methodical procedure for conducting a systematized interview and appreciated how important it was in terms of how it could support the proposal that was being suggested. Fortunately, it helped our team come up with a wonderful idea, which, despite the emergence of other ordering apps, I feel can still assist our fellow CMU students. Now that we had acquired information, we had an online group conference. In just one hour of conversation, we were able to determine the essence of the project we wish to pursue, and therefore we choose Tap&Go as our pioneering idea. Numerous considerations were made; however, we are nevertheless aware that our proposed notion is lacking and requires clarification and criticism for improvement. Then, when we presented it, I learned a great deal from Ms. Tumaroy; however, despite the fact that I always eagerly listen to her discussion, I missed some information that would have strengthened our output. When the moment arrived, I assumed it would only be bitter, but it ended bittersweet. We lacked data for our validation with store owners, motorela drivers, and many other factors that must be taken into account before we can declare this concept successful. In order to establish a successful relationship or cooperation with the stores within CMU, we are now creating, pacing, and attempting to construct the necessary information, questions, and proposal. Aside from the venture proposal, I also enjoyed doing rejection therapy, which was a bit awkward but truly enjoyable, and I was ecstatic to learn that, out of all the groups, ours was the only one to successfully construct a spaghetti tower, which makes me proud and perhaps reflects our group's effective communication, collaboration, and synchronized mindset.

CMU (Cycling Me and U)

            On the first day (August 24, 2022), there were four (4) people we interviewed about their problems and concerns encountered at Central Mindanao University. The first person said that there is no stable internet connection and not enough transportation to go from one place to another. The second person expresses her thoughts about a very distant market to her department and that transportation is hard to find. The third person finds it difficult to have no enough street lights, no street food, and a lack of transportation. The fourth person said that transportation is nowhere to be seen or is difficult to access.

             On the second day, we conducted the interview (August 30, 2022), there were six (6) people shared their difficulties and concerns encountered. The first person said that the weather is so hot in going to the department. The second person said that there is a poor internet connection, not enough space in the market, especially at lunch, and tricycles do not go straight to the destination. The third person has a concern about the Identification Card, the RFID, which takes time to get, and a bad internet connection. The fourth person shared her thoughts on having difficulties concerning no proper drainage especially when flooding and the internet connection is very poor. The fifth one has a huge concern about security especially nowadays and how expensive the food is. And, the sixth person has concerns about the hot weather, expensive food, and lack of transportation.

             Transportation tops as a common problem/difficulty and concern of the students of Central Mindanao University. Transportation is a necessary activity that allows people to get to services and activities such as education, jobs, shopping, and social gatherings. The quality of accessible transportation alternatives influences people's capacity to participate in social and economic activities. Because of this, we decided to solve our customer’s concerns in the field of transportation. We come up with two (2) ideas whether a bicycle or a scooter. Upon discussing our options, we consider the speed and time consumed by a particular vehicle. We opt for a vehicle that could take our customers to their destinations in no time and could still be used on hills. That’s why we decided that bicycle is way better than a scooter. After, then, we call it a Bike Rental.

3/09/22

SEMESTER HAS ENDED AND I'VE JUST LEARNED SOMETHING

It was like last week since the semester started, and now it is about to end. This subject is about to end and I can’t dare to say that I haven’t learned anything, with that, I will be sharing my learnings from this subject in this last blog. In the whole semester, this subject has a total of 3 lecture series that were about business and innovation, 2 pitching presentations that were considered as the midterm and final exams, and ordinary class discussion were held.

During the first lecture series that was conducted by the guest speaker, Dr. Dumancas who talked about the “Intellectual property Rights and Technology”. I have learned from this lecture that there will be something generated by the mind, including inventions, creative works, and more. I have also learned that, defending one's intellectual property is important for preventing competitors from copying your product, developing and implementing its identity, and negotiating licensing agreements with other companies to allow them to regenerate it. It was a great opportunity also that I was able to know various intellectual property rights that are available. This lecture series is important and helpful especially in strengthening the business.

The second lecture series was all about the START-UP journey that was discussed by the guest speaker, Ms. Nacua of EHATID, a multi-talented entrepreneur who worked in digital design, education, management, sales, and marketing. I have learned that, before implementing ideas, we must understand the innovation's goal, which should not be solely based on profit, but on the value, it provides to the masses and its growth. We must ensure that everything is working toward the same goal. In addition, by identifying the problems, weak points and lacking, as well as continuing to develop concepts and ideas, we can surely make the best possible team for our START-UP.

As for the last lecture series that was conducted by the guest speaker, Ms. Lacadin, and was all about the “Resource Generation for Startups". Through this lecture series, I have understood more about how START-UP works. During the discussion, she stated that, entrepreneurs today must use digital marketing to grow their businesses or must take risk falling behind. She also added that, a lack of market needs and cash, an insufficient team, and being outcompeted are all reasons why start-ups fail. I have learned from these lecture series that identifying problems and lacking, opening minds to develop new ideas and concepts, as well as having the best possible team would possibly make reach the Start-up goals.

Group Venture Proposal

It's almost 2 months since the semester started, new lessons and activities were unlocked. Venture proposal was introduced and the class was divided for this team or group project. Our proposal product was based from my teammate idea, and what I did was to support since I like the idea and I can’t come up with any suggestions. The product proposal was about a Wifi/Cellular Range Extender signal intended for people especially students who are residing in remote areas or those people who are experiencing an unstable internet connection. The plan of earning is to introduce and produce it to target areas in a friendly price. The proposal was checked and returned for some revision. However, our group decided to change the product proposal and each of us will have to suggest a product and voting will be done for finalization of the group’s venture proposal.