How my company has a Technology Differentiation

My company idea has changed a little bit from the beginning, but in essence is very much the same, just with a more broad scope as to create a larger market. The company will be called Industrial System Labs (ISL)and will focus on creating excellent software systems for companies with already great mechanically sound products that contain limiting software. This idea came from my working experience in the logistics fields through FedEx and UPS. Both this huge companies have great hand held devices for their couriers and other employees, but despite all the hardware features these devices contain the software does not take advantage of them. For example the FedEx powerPads contain GPS and touchscreens, but the GPS system is not used at all and the touchscreens are extremely limited. With the proper software these devices could help couriers for example in many different ways, from using the GPS to map the route most efficiently and to ensure the likely hood of missed deliveries or late deliveries are eliminated. Another example is Watts Technologies industrial pipe cutting machine. The machine does its job mechanically great, but due out of date software the users of the machine often are unable to get the proper cuts on their pipes despite the machine being very capable of doing them. My company will take the Technological strong points of other companies (our clients) and make them flourish with the use of specialized and innovative software. So our Technology Differentiation is that of quality software that is not made to fit many different models, but made just for the one product.

Lynnette Claire

Today Lynnette Claire from UPS and founder of Tacoma Entrepreneurship Network came to class to day to talk about networks and their importance in the entrepreneurship world. Before her talk I had a vague understanding of the importance of networks, but didn't fully understand their purpose and true importance. I thought of networks as pure networking and just knowing the right people to get the most out of a project and company. That is just the tip of the iceberg though for entrepreneurship networking. As Lynnette explained entrepreneurship networking provides you with ideas of others, support, connections, leads, and cooperation in a community. The Tacoma Entrepreneurship Network is a great example of why an network is needed to make a entrepreneurship community strive. The network is needed to help the community know what is needed and how to deliver the product or service in a way to will help the community flourish and in turn help the economy of the area stay strong. At the end of her talk Lynnette had us take a survey and prioritize some keys to entrepreneurship and networking. The prioritizing really let me see what I find most useful out of a network if I was to ever create my own business, I was surprised to see that my top three features where actually the same as most of the class.

Startup.com

We watched the documentary film StartUp.com today in class. This film did a great job at showing the rise and downfall of a business. Getting to see something happen in the real world every step of the way really gave me a taste of what to expect if i am ever to start a company of my own. The film also showed the personal aspect of creating a company. The toil of the hardships of the company had a friendly fire feel about it on the friendships that started the company govWorks.com. Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman had the opportunity to take a great idea and break into an undiscovered marketplace, but as the film shown they did a few things wrong and combined with the dot com bubble pop, saw their company go bankrupt and fail. This film showed the importance of have a stable and very clear management hierarchy and business plan. Constantly in the film confusion was seen in employees and investors because Tom and Kaleil never really separated their positions in the company and appeared as co CEOs and each seemed to be on separate ideas on the direction of the company. I really enjoyed this film and wished more information was provided throughout the film and even the lives of the two founders after, such as did Tom ever get any kind of settlement after he was let go?

John Dimmer

Today's guest speaker was John Dimmer. John is the kinda of entrepreneur that I would love to strive for. That being an entrepreneur who has reached a level where he is simply involved in business because he wants something to do not cause of something he needs to do to live. A good portion of his talk was discussing how he got to where he is today. The cool thing about John is that he races formula one classic race cars, which is something i would love to do (with motorcycles) and shows what kinda of personality you need to succeed as an entrepreneur. John also talked about financing a company, which cleared up a lot of question i have about investors. John discussed at what stages of your company to you got after certain type of investors and how to get them to invest. John's talk really helped me clear the finance portion of my my business plan.

Ron Kornfeld

Today Ron Kornfeld spoke for our class. So far the topics discussed by Ron I have found to be the most interesting of all the guest speakers topics. His opinion of using disruptive strategy was extremely interesting to me. This strategy is choosing a product or service that cannot be taken advantage of by other companies because it will cut into the profits of their already existing products or services. The example used by Ron was Apple IPads and how HP was able to make a solid tablet, but couldn't because it would have cut into their successful laptop sales. This strategy applies to my company in that I will be making software for various types of hardware that is more unique for that piece of hardware then the generic software loaded by the manufactures. For example the software loaded on the Motorola powerpads used by fedex is just a simple windows shell that doesn't take advantage of the bluetooth, wifi, and touch screen features of the hardware where my software will.