Assignment 23A

1.     Social Capital: Large network of potential customers already established.

§  Valuable: This is valuable because every company needs customers.

§  Rare: Not very rare to have a network of customers.

§  Inimitable: Others could do this.

§  Non-substitutable: I guess I could pay for access to target segments but that is unnecessary.

2.     Capital Raising Experience/Knowledge: From both working at a mezzanine fund and my future career aspirations of being an investment banker, I have learned a lot about different ways to raise capital and how to go about each type of capital.

§  Valuable: The cost of hiring an outside entity to determine how to raise the capital gets about 1% of the total transaction value without even raising it so this knowledge is very valuable.

§  Rare: Only people who have worked in financial services industry would have this knowledge.

§  Inimitable: This isn’t the easiest thing to learn and there is no reason to already have it if you haven’t worked in the industry.

§  Non-substitutable: You have to raise capital so there isn’t a substitute.s

3.     Capital Raising connections: Already have connections in the financial services industry which are needed to raise capital effectively.

§  Valuable: Whether you use personal or new professional connections, you must raise capital for startups so this is extremely valuable.

§  Rare: Not many have these connections unless they have started a business already or have worked in the industry.

§  Inimitable: Some people already have these connections but many don’t.

§  Non-substitutable: If you don’t have capital of your own, there is no way to substitute the necessity of raising it through debt or equity.

4.     Personal relationship with Engineers: Having these relationships, especially with one that specializes in plastics, is a huge resource for the supply chain

§  Valuable: They have knowledge that I truly will never have, so it is pretty valuable to me.

§  Rare: Being an engineer is extremely hard so it is rare in a sense but there are still a lot of them.

§  Inimitable: This can be imitated by having similar relationships

§  Non-substitutable: I could cold call other engineering firm but this makes for a much easier process.

5.     Promotion experience: I have worked for an event planning and promotion company in the past. Although we promoted events, the same techniques can be used for products.

§  Valuable: Even if you do have a network of potential customers, you must know how to successfully reach them and convince them to buy your idea.

§  Rare: Not everyone has this experience

§  Inimitable: Other people definitely have this skill and experience but many don’t.

§  Non-substitutable: Marketing and promoting your product/service is a necessary part of any business

6.     Business startup knowledge: Working for a mezzanine financing firm, I have learned a lot about how companies actually become profitable by working on a variety of deals.

§  Valuable: Many companies fail in the growth stage, I can emulate the practices of successful companies I have seen to help my own succeed.

§  Rare: Many people think they will just start a business but don’t know what it actually takes to succeed.

§  Inimitable: If others have had experience with successful startups or been around them then they would be able to have the same advantage.

§  Non-substitutable: Only way to substitute this knowledge is to hire someone who does have it.

7.     Lack of competition: To my knowledge, there is not a similar product already out there so it makes my idea seem better.

§  Valuable: Perception of an idea by a target market is extremely important for new products.

§  Rare: This isn’t too rare but it is a necessary aspect of success.

§  Inimitable: Couldn’t be imitated in the same industry

§  Non-substitutable: You don’t need to be the only product of its kind but it definitely helps.

8.     Relationships with retailers: Already have relationships with a few people who own home stores in Gainesville and Orlando

§  Valuable: They are the people who would hopefully be selling my product so this is valuable to me.

§  Rare: I would say most college students don’t know these people but they might, who knows.

§  Inimitable: You could just go introduce yourself.

§  Non-substitutable: Its necessary to have these relationships, however you get them.

9.     Knowledge of retail supply chain: Learned about the different companies that mainly supply home stores and how they are advertised.

§  Valuable: Need to know about the supply of home goods to be able to get my product into stores.

§  Rare: Most people do not have this knowledge already

§  Inimitable: You can probably research this pretty easily.

§  Non-substitutable: May not be necessary for success (sell direct instead) but definitely helpful.

10.  eCommerce knowledge: One of the deals I worked on involved a company that only sold via online retailers/amazon. This allowed me to learn a lot about how different online retailers work with manufacturers of products.

§  Valuable: Definitely a good base to have if I wanted to sell my products online

§  Rare: I would guess most people wouldn’t know as much about this as I do simply because I was doing research for a potential investment so it had to be very thorough.

§  Inimitable: Easily imitable by doing research as well.

§  Non-substitutable: Not necessary to know unless you are going to sell online.

Top Resource

Capital Raising Connections and Experience:

You always have to raise capital for any kind of business so without this, my product would be dead in the water. It seems pretty clear to me that this is the most important resource I have.