Assignment 29A- Venture Concept No.2

4-in-One Anti-Theft Lock Venture Concept 

• Opportunity:

• Scooters are very popular modes of transportation in college towns and many cities around the world. I believe there is an unmet need for effective antitheft locks for scooters and mopeds. Anyone who owns a scooter has this need. There are high volumes of scooters as a mode of transportation in college towns. These locks are not just applicable to scooters in college towns, motorcycles, and mopeds anywhere can have this same problem.
• This need is definitely not new. Ever since the 1800s with their invention, a moped size and mobility have caused it to be an easy target of theft. According to the Metropolitan Police’s official website, “Over 9,000 scooters, motorcycles and mopeds were stolen in London in the last year.” Companies have made various locks that decrease the chance of a scooter getting stolen. However, a lock that prevents the roll away, starting, moving, and has tracking has yet to be made.
• The need is for scooter owners to be confident in the safety of their transportation and reassurance that it is safe. 
• The forces that allow this to happen are the mobility of scooters, the volume of scooters in certain areas, the human nature of some people to steal, and the difficulty tracking down scooters once they are stolen. Humans will never stop stealing, so the window of opportunity will be there as long as individuals own and buy scooters.
• There is no full-proof resolution to this problem. From my interviewees, I have found out that individuals have used different variations of locks and have still gotten their property stolen. This is why the product would have a focus on having a tracking system, to try to fix the inevitable. There are various chain locks, grip locks, and disk locks. However, I believe a combination of the three and a tracking system would be the problem solver of this ongoing issue. If my interviewees were able to represent the whole market, it would suggest that no one is 100% satisfied with their current method of protection. 
• The tracking system would need to be discretely placed in the seat compartment of the scooter, which needs a key to unlock. This would prevent the tracker from getting removed or disabled. I think it would be possible to add an alarm in case the tracker is messed with to scare away thieves.
• Potential Customers: College students who own scooters, rental companies in tourist areas, and scooter users in various cities around the world. Main focus on tourist companies and college students. I would need to convince rental companies to change their normal ways. 

• Innovation:

• The product is an adaptation and combination of different locks that already exist. However, the innovative part of the product is the tracking system. The disk lock will prevent the tires from rolling, the chain lock will be attached to a post in order to keep the scooter in place, the grip lock will be used to prevent the throttle from being used, and the tracker will be placed in the seat where you need a key to unlock it.
• For individuals, they will be able to purchase the locks online if they are personally concerned about the safety of their scooters. They will also be able to find them in retailers such as scooter stores. They will be around $150-200   dollars, depending on manufacturing costs. When comparing this to the cost of storing your scooter for a month, $200, this is a great one-time investment. 
• For businesses, they will be able to buy the locks in bulk. From interviews, I would imagine that they would use them as a sales approach to be able to sell more scooters. If they include the lock with the purchase of a scooter, people would be more enticed to buy a scooter. Since they will be buying in bulk, it will probably cost retailers anywhere from $75-100 dollars per lock. 
• I could initially make money by selling the locks in bulk to rental companies that rent out scooters to tourists. This could build initial capital. 
• Venture Concept: 
• Individuals will buy my products if they are not satisfied with their current lock and if they do not already have a lock.
• The competitors only produce single lock systems that leave different parts of the scooter vulnerable to theft. Their weakness is that there is not enough protection and there is not a method of repossessing your property or scaring away the thief. 
• Individuals will buy my product because the few hundred dollar investment is worth protecting their thousand dollar investment. Also, they can save money in expensive storage fees when they have to leave their scooter for extended time periods. 
• Businesses will buy my product because they could use it as a marketing strategy on why people should buy scooters from them. They could offer a package deal that includes the lock, in order to entice customers to buy the scooter in the first place. 
• Rental businesses would buy my product because they could keep track of the rentals and make sure they do not get stolen when rented out to customers and when they are being stored. Without the scooters, they have no business. 
• Price Points: I feel that if my lock price is around $200, it will not have a problem selling. This is cheaper than storing your scooter for a month.
• Distribution: To increase start-up capital, the first target would be rental companies. I would sell in bulk to rental companies to have some capital to market to individuals, and then produce more locks for scooter business deals.
• Customer Service: We would have to have a skilled customer service because they would have to deal with technical issues of the trackers and mechanical issues of the physical lock. 
• Location: College towns, major cities (especially European), tourist towns, and online.
• Packaging: Reduce bulkiness as much as possible and emphasize the tracking feature of the product. Have visual instructions on the back of the box. 
• Employees:

• Limit to around 20, to begin with.
• Material engineers and product designers.
• Web Designer
• Marketers
• Distributors

• Unfair Advantage: I think my businesses most important resource would be the tracking aspect of the lock. I have not been able to find any locks that include a tracking feature. This tracking feature would make my lock the most attractive one when customers and businesses need to decide what kind of antitheft lock to buy.  
• What’s Next: I may broaden the function of my tracking system, to allow for different vehicles to be tracked as well. 
• For Me: I want to focus on my degree and pursue a Masters degree in International business. I do not see myself starting many companies in the future, but want to utilize the skills I have learned from this class for whatever career I do decide to pursue. 

Feedback:

• Make the tracker undetectable so it cannot be removed
• Focus on the tourist market and rental companies
• Higher price to pay for tracking system and ensure quality
• Some self-feedback after reconsidering first iteration:
• Might be difficult to have rental companies change current methods 
• Need to revisit plan based on my exit strategy
• Some sort of sound alarm if the tracker is messed with

How I changed my Venture Concept:

• I added that the tracker would be placed in the seat which requires a key to be unlocked, making it hard to disable. I also thought that the tracker would have an alarm set off if it was tampered with to discourage the thief. 
• I realized that yes the tourism industry could potentially be a big market. However, after further reflection, I added that I would need to figure out a way to convince them that their current method of protecting their rentals just is not good enough. 
• I never thought that making my price higher would be a good thing. However, I increased the price with a reasoning that the tracking system would be expensive to establish and so that customers believe the product is high quality and not too cheap. 
• I realized that I would have to evaluate how much this whole concept would cost to me and evaluate if it is worth it after establishing that I would not be sticking with the venture for very long in my Exit Strategy.