30A – Final Reflection

1) In the beginning I was very excited about this class. I put a lot of work into this class. However, I quickly became less excited with my idea. I did not realize that we would have to work off this one idea for the entire rest of the semester. As the semester wore on especially around the time where there were a lot of assignments to interview people I lost interest in the class. I think this is reflected in my blog. Then as we moved away from the interviews I regained some interest.

2) The most formative experience I believe where the elevator pitches. These taught me a lot about explaining my idea simply and quickly. They also helped me have a better understanding of my own idea and service. As I spoke my ideas out loud there were certain things that I thought "wow that sounded better in my head". There were other things that I hadn't really thought to much about but when I vocalized them I thought wow that would be really cool.

3) I don't see myself as an entrepreneur yet but I think this class helped me move towards that mindset. I still have a long ways to go and a lot to learn. However, this class definitely helped me in identifying opportunities and looking at their strengths and weaknesses. Staying on my one idea all semester made me see a lot of weaknesses I did not previously know to look for.

4) This class really does not require very much work. To get the most out of it watch the lectures in the beginning of the week and look at the prompts. Some prompts can require a couple days to complete if they require interviews. If it doesn't throughout the week just think about whatever the prompt is. When you have an idea write it down. Then at the end of the week bring all your ideas together for your blog post.

29A – Venture Concept No. 2

1) Opportunity

      Everyone has the need for VR many people just don't know it. As VR and AR improve it could revolutionize the way we are presented information.

What are the forces or changes in the environment creating this opportunity?

Changing technology is the biggest change in the environment. We are finally getting to the point where soon this technology will be possible.
How is this market defined geographically and demographically?
Well my original idea was to focus on historic sites. I believe that the true value of this technology is in the technology to allow realistic renderings on top of objects. The demographic this appeals to is younger people who are open to the idea of VR and AR. Once this technology is invented the possibilities are endless.
How are customers currently satisfying this need?  And how loyal are they to whatever they use now?  
Currently their are some limited VR and AR solutions like the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Google Cardboard. These are all fairly new products that people don't have a sense of loyalty to. They also are pure VR and do not do AR with realistic rendering mixed with views from real life.
How big is this opportunity?
This opportunity is huge. If things could be realistically rendered along side and with real life objects the possibilities would be endless. For example when driving your car a rendering pops up over the a business your driving by displaying some deal. Or something like my original idea to use this technology for tourism purposes.
How long will the “window of opportunity” be open?
This window will be open until someone comes to dominate the VR and AR market. It is a race to develop the technology to make this possible before anyone else. Even once the technology is created depending on how it is licensed it may be possible to pursue opportunities within this field using someone else technology.

     Innovation

The innovation here is new and advanced VR and AR technology. VR technology obviously already exists but it currently requires a very powerful computer to run it well. There are still massive strides to be taken in the field. Especially with AR which is augmented reality. We can create awesome virtual worlds but mixing the real world and the digital world with a smooth transition between the two has proven very difficult.

Venture Concept

People will buy my AR/VR solution simply because there is nothing like it out their yet. My goal is to try to create something brand new. I want to create my own market not enter an already existing one. This means that if I were successful with inventing this technology I believe it would not be very difficult to convince people to use it.

2) Feedback

Based on the feedback I received I became less attached to my business idea and more attached to the technology as a whole. I realized I was thinking to small. This technology if invented could have many possibilities.

3) Change

Because of my feedback I have pretty much stopped focusing on my original idea. I want to completely focus on the technology behind making this product possible. That technology is what builds the value of this company. Once that technology is invented products and services can be built off it in any direction.

4) 

27A – Reading Reflection No. 3

Mindset: Carol Dweck

1. What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The general theme of the book is that there are two mindsets. One is that talent in an inherent trait we are born with. The growth mindset on the other hand believes that most basic abilities can be taught through hard work. It tells the reader how having a growth mindset will lead to more success for a person.

2. How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

Having a growth mindset is important for success in general I believe. Therefor it is of course relevant to the class because we wish to be successful entrepreneurs. As an entrepreneur you face hardship and difficulties that you would not face in other situations. You will have to do things you don't know how to and learn.

3. If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

Think about your mindset and which mindset you think you have. Pick something you don't know how to do, it doesn't have to be something super difficult and do it. Talk about you experience learning to do that. That wasn't an inherent talent that was something you just learned to do. And by learning you have grown. Take this and expand it to the rest of your life.

4. What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

Honestly I was not really surprised by this book at any moment. Everything I read I thought this makes sense to me. However here are some cool examples of people who went on to do great things but were not recognized for it early then later became great. Geraldine Page a famous actress was told to quit because she wasn't any good. Darwin and Tolstoy were consider ordinary children.

28A – Your Exit Strategy

My exit strategy goal would be to have my company be acquired by a larger tech company. I don't have a set amount of time I would want to work on my business before being acquired, as long as it took to build something good enough to get the right offer. This might require building the company completely or just partially. The modern technology giants have so much money that they acquire tons of companies that have "cool" and potentially useful technology. They have even been known to buy entire companies for certain patents and scrap the product. Another thing they have done is to buy companies just to get all the engineers working their.

I couldn't see myself staying at one job for decades. Im an engineer I like to create and build, once you reach a certain point in a company the creating and building are done and its just about running it. I would want to do this for a while but knowing myself I would want to eventually leave and move on to creating something else new.

I think this is a very common exit strategy or hope I suppose for tech companies. I think it has affected my business ideas because it means I have no interest in creating a "small business". A large company isn't going to be willing to pay (hopefully lots of money) for something small. For that to happen requires you to be developing technology that a) you have some protected Intellectual Property that is valuable. I think thats what my company idea really comes down to, the whole using it to VR and AR travel is just an example. The real value would be I believe in the technology required to create these realistic renderings, and having that technology better and/or before others.

Due to this I think that it has affected how I would allocate resources with putting a lot into the engineering behind creating this technology.

26A – Celebrating Failure

My biggest failure this semester was having to drop my engineering statistics course. I knew the class would be difficult going in but it was much harder than I anticipated. It started out easy enough because I took and passed AP statistics in high school. However by the end of the first exam we moved on to materials I was not familiar with. The graduate student instructor was terrible at explaining things and extremely boring. We often compared him to Ross from Friends. I tried to study by myself but failed miserably due to a difficult to understand book. I think failure is a lesson. I think if I had dedicated more time to the class and watching videos like khan academy I could have succeeded. Im upset with myself about that. If you try your absolute hardest then it is no big deal.

25A – What’s Next?

Existing Market
The biggest thing that is next for my current market is developing the technology behind it. This will be the hardest part of the entire venture I believe. Pretty much everyone I talked to agreed with me that the thing I needed to focus on was the underlying technology. That will really make or break the whole business. If it is good enough to provide an immersive experience it will be great. If it is unrealistic, grainy, and jerky people will not pay for it. They also all said why limit yourself to this travel VR or AR. If you develop the technology that is good enough companies will be all over you to use it for their purposes.
New Market
The applications for VR and AR are endless. With the technology developed for my original concept I could reach many other markets. One market I thought of is as a training tool.  Think about a medical school student for example. They could use VR to practice or learn more about surgery for example. This creates value because it may allow people to train to do tasks where actually doing those tasks over and over again might be expensive or unrealistic. The first person I interviewed was my aunt who is a doctor. She said she could definitely see an application for this especially among starting med school students. The next person I talked to is my roommates dad who is a former air traffic controller. He said it would be a great training tool for pilots.

22A – Elevator Pitch No. 3

I tried to be clear and straight to the point. I wanted the pitch to be easy to understand for someone with out any technical knowledge.

23A – Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

• Generate a list of all of the resources in your venture (produce a list of at least 10 resources that you already possess). This can include your human capital, social capital, financial capital, and capabilities. You may also discuss the organizational culture you intend to create (but, obviously, it's not a resource that you have, now.) 
• Conduct a "VRIN" analysis for each resource. That is, describe, for each resource, how it is valuable, rare, inimitable (how hard it is to copy by others), and non-substitutable (are there other resources that can provide the same benefits?). 
• Remember, not ALL resources will measure up well. That's OK. You just need one. 
• After conducting the VRIN analysis, determine what your top resource is. Explain why it's more important to your venture than all of the other resources.

1) My first resource is my programming talent.  I have not done VR before but I could learn more quickly than most other people.  

-This is a valuable resource since pretty much everything involves computers now

-It is not that rare especially at a University

-It is very imitable, anyone can start learning with some googling

-The key to this resource is building the VR engine which will be unsubstituable and inimitable (hopefully).

2) A project as big as this VR would not be possible without a whole team of engineers behind it. So a resource is many of the computer science students I am friends with. Many CS students are extremely entrepreneurial and dream of being the next Jobs or Gates. I could probably get a team together around a good idea.

-This is a valuable resource, cheap engineers aren't that easy to come by

- It is actually pretty rare. The fact that we are at a University means there are plenty of programmers I could recruit. In another town that may not be the case.

- It is imitable, obviously anyone can assemble a team, it might be harder and more expensive else where however

- There is no other resource that can replace a team of engineers

3) I am familiar with start up organization. Many start ups especially tech ones use the Agile framework as a way to organize there business. I have worked at businesses with this framework before and would implement it in mine to maximize efficiency.

-This is an extremely valuable resource. Many people have a great idea but don't know the business side.

-If you have worked with tech startups you have likely seen this, or you can read about it. Therefor it is common.

-Anyone can read about an imitate this.

-You could use other frameworks but this is a tried and trued method.

4) I have connections in the tech startup world. I know members of various venture firms who once I developed an alpha product I could approach. Venture firms fund companies the large amount of money it often takes to develop software. In exchange they receive a percentage of the company and usually board seats as well.

-This is a valuable resource, many companies die simply because they can not be funded

-It is pretty rare, especially for someone my age.

-It is not imitable.

-VC firms are actively looking for investment opportunities. So if your idea is good you can hopefully get in the door without to much trouble.

5) My next big resource is the University. There is a gator VR club I can use to learn more about VR. There are also opportunities to get funding from the University if I wanted.

-This Is a valuable resource, having someone teach me will significantly speed up the time I can learn to build VR apps in.

-This is a kinda rare kinda common resource. It might be common for college students but rare for most people.

-You could hire someone to help you.

-You could use online resource as a substitute but I believe it is best to be in person.

6) Another resource is the time. Im early on this idea its not possible yet. I will be ready when the time is right though.

-It is a valuable resource, 10 years ago it would be impossible to VR, 10 years from now it may be to late. It should become possible within the next 5 years I believe.

-Everyone has this resource

7) Another resource I have is the competitiveness of the VR device market. There are currently only a couple companies all vying for power. This makes the possibilities of getting deals with various manufacturers easier since they are all looking to out do their competition.

-This is a valuable resource, some markets are harder to enter than others.

-It is not a rare resource

-Much of the tech market shares the trait of having a low barrier to entry if you have the skills to create what you want.

-There really isn't a substitute. If you have a great product but enter a saturated established market it will be much harder to break in.

8) I am familiar with start up organization. Many start ups especially tech ones use the Agile framework as a way to organize there business. I have worked at businesses with this framework before and would implement it in mine to maximize efficiency.

-This is an extremely valuable resource. Many people have a great idea but don't know the business side.

-If you have worked with tech startups you have likely seen this, or you can read about it. Therefor it is common.

-Anyone can read about an imitate this.

-You could use other frameworks but this is a tried and trued method.

9) My third resource is distribution, I only have to target certain historic sites when having people use it as a supplement when visiting a site. If people want a completely virtual experience I would distribute it through an online store such as steam or a company website.

-This is valuable since it is much easier to get into an online store and distribution is not an issue.

-It is common among software companies

-No it is not imitable

-The substitute is having a physical product that requires distribution and contracts with stores

10) My final resource is the cheapness it takes to enter the first stages of a tech startup. Above I mentioned the cost and how it was expensive often requiring funding. It is expensive to reach a final product but to begin development is extremely cheap. Often the only cost to begin is the time you spend.

-This is a valuable resource because it means minimal investment is needed to get started

-It is common among software startups

-It is not imitable

-There is no substitute

The real resource and the only one that would matter for this company to exist is the tech to make realistic renderings of VR anchored to points in a video stream. This is what we would have to develop.

21A – Reading Reflection No. 2

1. The general theme of this book was that you cannot have a one dimensional approach to entrpeneurship.

2. This connected with the class because this class encourages you to think differently and look at problems and opportunities from different angles.

3. My exercise is to look at your current business idea. Point out problems with your solution and other possible solutions. How are you gonna beat those other solutions.

4.

20A – Growing Your Social Capital

Quick rant first before I write my interviews. Asking us to interview these people is excessive. If someone is a "market expert" they are probably a very busy person who does not have time to be interviewed for a class like this. I tried to meetup with many people only to be declined/ignored/have a meeting scheduled for after this assignment was due.
1. The first social contact I made is with Micah. Micah is the CEO of a tech incubator. They assist tech startups in by giving them a place to work and providing them with advice and connections. I am counting him as a domain expert, even though he does not know much about VR he is familiar with the tech startup scene. I know Micah because my dad is a part owner of the groundswell, and I have facilitated contact between himself and computer science club leaders at UF. I contacted him over email and then we talked on the phone. This person did not do a favor for me but rather I did a favor for them. I assisted in organizing a large group of UF students to attend a conference he is hosting. Including this person in my network is very valuable since they have lots of experience and connections in the tech startup area.

2. The second social contract I made was. Finding a market expert was extremely difficult and I didn't know where to start. I was not able to schedule a meeting with any VR tourism companies so I ended up settling for a hotel manager. Denny manages a large number of hotels across the US. This is not exactly my market but it is tourism so I will pursue it. I contacted Denny by getting his email address from his son who is a longtime friend of mine. I asked him about appealing to tourists, what are they looking for. Along with the process of having a hotel advertise your service to the guests for you and various other marketing tactics. I hope that I can transition Dennys knowledge of the US tourism market to the European one.

3. The third social contract I made was Owen. Owen is a tech recruiter who specializes in helping smaller companies find talent for highly technical projects. I am saying this person is my supplier since they can supply a team of talented individuals to build this product. A better supplier would be someone who actually builds VR devices but that is all done by major companies where I could not secure a meeting. I found Owen because I had heard his name mentioned before so I asked a person I knew had been recruited by him for his email. In our exchange I introduced myself and asked him to walk me through the steps he takes to discover and recruit talent. The favor he did me was taking the time to explain this process. Including this person in my social contract will help me take advantage of an opportunity because I will need programmers to assist in developing my project.

Reflect - First please refer to my starting rant if any instructor actually reads these posts. Honestly I do not see this experience changing the way I behave at net working events at all.

19A – Idea Napkin No. 2

1. I am a Computer Science student at the University of Florida, I grew up in Melbourne which has the highest concentration of engineers in the country outside of Silicon Valley. My father was an engineer turned attorney turned venture capitalist. Due to this I have been around tech startups my entire life and have always imagined myself working for one.

2. Historic sites in Europe are in a state of ruin after hundreds or thousands of years of existence. It is often difficult to imagine how the site originally looked all those years ago. Augmented Reality meets this problem by allowing people to actually see how the site looked.

3. I am focusing on augmenting travel rather than just simulating it. This means that I am mostly focusing on upper middle to upper class customers since they have enough money to travel to these sites. I see the main use of my product at historic sites so it would mostly be used by those with some interest in history. An entire customer profile could be found in the previous blog post.

4. Customers will believe this experience is valuable to them because its cool and interesting. No one else is currently offering this experience so we would be the customers only option.

5. As I said in the previous post my core competencies are my technical and programming knowledge. An issue many engineers face is communication problems. I believe I have much better communication skills than the average engineer that puts me at a huge advantage.

I believe all the elements of my idea napkin fit together. The biggest problem I face is the technology behind the Augmented Reality. It would take a lengthy and probably expensive development process to develop it.

The feedback exercises in this class are kind of ridiculous I believe. The feedback you receive and give generally is not very useful I believe and does not help in doing the 2nd version of the project. That being said The first point I took away was I had to be clearer that I want to do Augmented Reality not Virtual Reality. This is a distinction that many people do not understand. The second point  I got was people agreed that making it look realistic enough would be very difficult.

18A – Create a Customer Avatar

My customer is an American or Western European tourist. Probably between the ages of 20-60. If they are on the upper end of this range, they don't feel old. If you asked them they'd say their a "cool old person". Since they can afford to be traveling I believe they are at least middle class. For Americans probably upper middle class since going to Europe is expensive. They are technically friendly, meaning they don't get intimidated by technology, the younger someones age the better for this often.

They enjoy reading and enjoy reading history and historical fiction. They may or may not have children. If they do have children they are not young but rather teenagers or adults. Since they are interested in history enough to pay for an enhanced view of these sites they must have an interest in history. Its a very intellectual experience your paying for so I believe that the person would probably be well educated. They are probably socially liberal, do to a willingness to try new things.

I believe I am very similar to my customer avatar and for good reason. I thought about using VR and AR to enhance travel while I was standing in the colosseum. I was standing there thinking of how cool it would be to see it in its former glory. In that moment I absolutely would have purchased a VR or AR headset so I could get a better feeling of the place.

I feel that this might not actually be my most ideal customer in reality. Maybe the asian tourist market would be more friendly to the idea. However this is impossible to know without proper market research.

17A – Elevator Pitch No. 2

I had two comments of feedback on my first elevator pitch. Both were positive and did not offer any specific suggestions of things to change. I think expecting us to get and receive feedback from our classmates is kind of ridiculous. We are all at the same point so we will probably all be making the same mistakes meaning no one will point out those mistakes in there feedback. Also people generally will be very nice in their feedback, even if it is not the truth, to avoid hurting others feelings.

The closest thing to criticism i received was one person voicing concern about how people would feel about it since its not "the real thing". My idea would be used to supplement the experience of going to see the real thing not replace it. There will be technology that is completely virtual tourism, going to sites without ever leaving your living room through VR. However while it is not "the real thing" it is meant to be an alternative for those who cannot afford travel, not as a replacement for those who can.

13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

1)

• I was not aware of Elon Musk's childhood in South Africa and how it affected him to this day.
• The thing I admire most about Elon Musk is his tenacity and innovative spirit. He has succeeded many times and immediately poured that money back into his next venture. He is not afraid to try and fail to make his ideas become reality.
• This thing I admire least about him is his obsession to work. He has no work life balance and is known to be extremely compassionate towards others. This led to his wife leaving him.
• He has faced adversity many times. Growing up in South Africa he was bullied and then he emigrated to the United States, no easy task. He was ousted from Paypal and could have simply retired but he instead turned around and started another company.

2) He achieves the unbelievable and does what many think is impossible. I believe this is because of the dedication to work he demands from all his employees. Above I said it is something I do not admire about him, and i dont. But I believe it is a trait that was necessary his success.

3) Elon Musk himself confuses me. He is a very eccentric man and I often wonder if he often has motivations we do not understand. I dont mean that in a sinister way but it would not surprise me if there were things that he did not tell the general public.

4) I would ask him about his future plans for Tesla and Space Ex. Both are massive companies known across the world but they are not profitable yet. How does he plan to keep them afloat in the long run if they do not become profitable. I would ask him about what other ideas he has that he simply has not shared with the world yet.

5) Elon Musk is well known for his work ethic. He often takes it to extremes sacrificing in other areas like his personal life. He is also known to demand the same from his employees. While I do believe in working hard I also believe in a work life balance. I think Elon Musk takes hard work to an unhealthy extreme.

15A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

1) Interview 1 -  The first person i interviewed was my mother. She is currently visiting eastern Europe. She reported that price compared to quality mattered the most. Since this is already an expensive vacation I think many people may be willing to spend a little extra for a potentially once in a life time experience.

They are most likely to us a credit card if the service was offered from a physical location near the historical site. If the service was offered where there was not a physical location and it could exist only using hardware the customer already has such as a phone it would change the distribution method. It would then be strictly software so customers would buy it through an online store.

The quality of the experience is what determines whether the purchase was worth it for her.

2) Interview 2 - The second person I interviewed was my old employer. He just went on his honeymoon. He said that if the experience was really amazing he would be willing to rent special hardware to experience it. If the experience was pretty good he would be willing to use it only if it could be run on a phone or tablet.

He would be most likely to download the service online to a mobile device. Probably thought the apple app store or the google play store.

The easier we make it to use this software with minimal hardware the more people will be willing to use it. This would also eliminate a lot of cost in having actual physical locations.

3) Interview 3 - The third [person I interviewed was the wife of my former employer, mentioned above. For the most part she agreed with her husband. She said her husband would probably buy it since he is more technically savvy. This made me realize that there are non-tech people who may be intimidated by the service but would be interested in what it has to offer. One point she did raise was that it might be a deterrent if the AR headset looks bad. People will not want to walk around wearing it if it is ugly and strange looking.

14A – Halfway Reflection

1) Success is all about getting into good habits. Though starting these good habits may be hard at first the result is extremely rewarding. I believe a big part of being able to stay tenacious is to not procrastinate. You will be under a lot less stress in the long run.

2) I never felt like giving up on this course but I have felt like not doing assignments before, especially when i was busy studying for other exams. You just cant even accept not doing work as an option. If you work hard you will succeed.

3) Tips

• One good habit for this class is to read the assignments well in advance. Many assignments require a fair amount of preparatory work.
• The next is watch the online lectures, they will give you a good perspective to write from for the blog posts.
• Finally, pay attention to businesses around you. They can provide a lot of good inspiration.

10A – Elevator Pitch No. 1

12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

1. The segment I am picking is American tourists visiting historical European sites.

2. I don't know anyone currently visiting Europe but I do know people who have visited in the past. These people are also likely to visit again so they are a good example of our target market.

3. Interview 1 - The first person I interviewed was my father. Two summers ago we traveled to Europe together where we came up with the idea for an augmented reality experience. He is most aware of the need while planning for a vacation or once he is actually at the site itself. The more historic and ruined the site the more aware of the need he became.

Interview 2 - The second person I interviewed was my roommates mom who just cam back from visiting Europe. She had never thought of this before but said that if she was aware of this need while there she would have been willing to search for a solution. If there had been a physical place renting units or she had seen people walking around with units this probably would have made her realize the need and she would have rented one as well.

Interview 3 - The third person I interviewed was my grandmother who is planning a trip to Italy. She was completely unaware of this need and I had to give her a fairly through explanation of what augmented reality was. Once she understood she thought it was super cool and wanted to try it. However she said the only way she would do it is if it was all set up for her and all she had to do was put it on. I think many older people who are not as comfortable with technology would feel this way.

4. They google their need first. They look at tourism blogs and reviews of places. They also look at a sites website if it has one, and for tour agencies. They generally search for virtual and augmented reality or use the names of popular VR devices like google cardboard. Sites must be in English to cater to American tourists. Then after google they turn to friends or family that have visited that or other similar sites. 

5. Most people are not aware of the need. People are willing to download an app but augmented reality, AR, requires some viewing device.If people are actually on location already they are willing to look around for something they can rent. People often realize this need while on site but do not think of it before getting there.

6. This segment is often not aware of this need simply because it is something they have never thought of before. However upon hearing or realizing about the need most people become interested in finding a solution. Some are willing to search for a solution harder than others but most are at least willing to do a quick google search. Unfortunately AR requires a viewing device, even if it is phone based AR. This would mean there would probably have to be some sort of device rental service on site.

11A – Idea Napkin No. 1

1. My name is Lee and I'm a sophomore computer science student. I think my biggest talent is my programming ability. Iv grown up around tech start-ups my entire life, with my dad working as a venture capitalist. I have also worked for tech start-ups in the past and am currently working for one now. If there is one thing I know about start-ups is there is only one way to go in and thats all the way. Especially with tech start-ups it seems the only way to be successful is to allow it to consume your life and work long hours. However the pay off in the end can be huge. Personally I am willing to make that trade off.

2. I am offering a way for people visiting various locations to enhance that experience through Augmented Reality. This could mean many things such as changing the way a place looks to more resemble its past, to adding npc characters to really bring a place to life.

3. I am focusing on augmenting travel rather than just simulating it. This means that I am mostly focusing on upper middle to upper class customers probably. I see the main use of my product at historic sites so it would mostly be used by those with some interest in history.

4. Millennials focus on experiences rather than material objects more than any other generation in the past. An experience is what my product is offering. I believe that most people would believe it is worth a little extra money to enhance their experiences when traveling.

5. Several things set me apart, the first is my programming ability and general technical knowledge. The second is my experience having worked for and around startups in the past I have an inside look at what it takes.

The biggest weakness of my business is making the Augmented Reality look real enough for the customers. This will take a lot of technical talent and probably require a lot of very complicated math. It will also require an artist which I am not. I would need to find and recruit someone, preferably with some experience in 3d modeling.

9A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

• Interview #1 - The first person I interviews was a friend from back home. He wishes to travel more but cannot afford to. His main reason for wanting to travel revolves around wanted to surf around the world. Due to this he was uninterested in the idea of VR to travel since it could not recreate that experience accurately enough.
  
• Interview #2 - The second person I interviewed was my grandmothers friend. She loves to travel but does not go as often since her husband died. She was very interested by the idea but said it sounded "much to complicated" for her. She said she wasn't very good at "computer things". This made me realize that the market for VR is reduced because many people dont understand it.
  
• Interview #3 - The third person I interviewed was one of my roomates (not the same one interviewed in 7a). He said almost exactly the same things as the person in interview #1. He travels for experiences and while he would be interested in the VR travel it would never be a solution for him.
  
• Interview #4 - The fourth person I interviewed was a fellow computer science classmate of mine. He absolutely loved the idea of VR travel and had the technical know-how to use VR technology. However his computer was not powerful enough to run VR and the cost to build/buy a computer that could run VR was to high for him. He pointed out he "could just take a trip" for the same cost.
  
• Interview #5 - The final person i interviewed was a fraternity brother of mine. He did not believe that VR could create a realistic enough experience to simulate travel.

The biggest difference between those with this need and those without are "observers vs participaters". Those who wish to travel to observe and learn were very interested in the use of VR technology to simulate travel. Those who wished to interact with their surroundings and environment are less interested in the use of VR for travel.
Even among those who wish to do VR travel there is a split between those more and less technically inclined. An easy to use platform could be built for people who who already are familiar with the concept of VR and have VR devices. These devices also often require special equipment like powerful computers. However to appeal to a larger audience it would be necessary to create a simple to use all in one VR device. I dont believe the technology to do this cheaply exist yet, but once it does this would be a great opportunity to take advantage of.

7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

1. The summer after my senior year of high school my family took a vacation where we traveled through Italy and Greece. It was amazing, but everytime we walked through old ruins I would always think "I wish I could see what it used to look like". I believe that there is a huge market for augmented and virtual reality in the tourism market. Virtual reality means that people could "visit" historic sites they would not be able to get to otherwise. Augmented reality means people could see what ancient areas used to look like in order to get a better understanding of that people and culture.

2. People who wish to travel to various sites but can not physically do there for some reason.
The Who: People who wish to travel but physically can not
The What: Cannot physically visit locations but might be able to using VR
The Why: Travel can be very expensive and time consuming and many people can not afford it.

3. Interviews

• Interview #1 - The first person I interviewed was one of my roomates, he has never traveled outside of the United States. He was very interested in this technology. Having heard of stories about places abroad from friends but not being able to go due to a lack of funds is not a good feeling he said. This could possibly allow him to see all the cool places he's heard about.
  
• Interview #2 - The second person I interviewed was a disabled person who must use a wheelchair. Travel has gotten easier for her over the years especially within the United States and western European countries. However many countries that she would like to visit do not have the accessibility for disabled people that we have here. This makes traveling to those countries a stressful en devour.
  
• Interview #3 - The third person I interviewed is my cousin, a senior in highschool. He has traveled with his family growing up but as he begins to reach financial independence worries he will no longer be able to afford travel. He was interested but said it would never compare to the real thing. "There is no way to simulate the majesty of watching a herd of zebras run", according to him. This has reinforced my idea it is best to focus on places and not events for our VR travel.
  
• Interview #4 - The fourth person i interviewed was my grandfather. As he is getting older he is not as mobile as before, making travel much harder for him. He was interested in the VR aspect and really wanted a chance to try that out. However he was less interested in the travel aspect saying "its not real". He did point out the opportunities in education for this product.
  
• Interview #5 - The final person I interviewed was my aunt who used to be a teacher at a Montessori school. Montessori schools are known for their non traditional approach to learning and trying to make it "fun" for kids. She said this technology would be perfect for their schools. It would be like taking the students on a field trip to anywhere in the world.

What I learned from my interviews is there is interest in using VR to simulate travel. However due to many people not having computers with the ability to run VR using older video game technology would allow a wider market to be reached. Also people who wish to visit historic sites in their "travel" like the idea because they want to see something. People who travel for experiences (going to the beach etc) like the idea less because even VR cannot simulate many experiences. The education market could potentially be huge.