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MBA 600 - Multimedia Applications in Business - Fall 2006

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Class Directory

last update: August 29

Doug Anderson
Doug@RicciStreet.net
Bistro: Doug

Mike Agnello - TheMOVIEFactory.com Don Bouchard - DemoPro
Matt Casper - BackStageLive.com Sean Collins - Worldwide Sports
Laura Crump - Superproducers Tara Doster
Natasha Fields - BluTone Jon Gill - Sessions
Colleen Hunter - Community Improvement Fundraiser & Elevater Colleen Lyons - I-Trade
Rick Mariano - Sportsrecruiter.com Bob Moudgil - BarCast
Marc Poitras - ME (Mobile Entertainment) Kara Pritchard - Smart Jewelry
Lavon Stephens - BitStream Lounge Katia Theodule - At Your Service
Andrea Tirone - PopScrapInc. LeMar Ward - LSaT

the benefits of repeated failure:

An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.
-- Neils Bohr

I make big mistakes. Like I've said, I was wrong 80 percent of the time. But there was that 20 percent ....
-- Artie Shaw

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.
-- Peter Drucker

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Projects

Which future scenario (speedbumps etc) best suits your business?

Open Source Venture Capitalist Answers Your Questions
by Roblimo
Slashdot, October 13, 2006

Richard Gorman, of Bay Partners, is a venture capitalist. Part of his job is to seek out and finance open source companies. He's not easy to snow technically; he has a Master's degree in Computer Science from MIT. And he's not easy to snow financially, either; he also has a Master's in Management. This is a golden opportunity for all you budding entrepreneurs out there to find out exactly what a tech-hip, management-hip venture capitalist looks for in an open source-based startup. (As always, Slashdot interview rules apply.)

...

The venture capitalist is, of course, Richard Gorman, of Bay Partners, to whom we sent your questions earlier this week. He prefaces his answers by saying: "Thanks for all of your questions. They were very insightful and I enjoyed answering them. I also want to thank Salil Deshpande of Bay Partners who contributed to these answers and provided some healthy discussion. Salil is a successful two-time entrepreneur and is very knowledgeable."

1) On the subject of strong teams...
by AKAImBatman

Your profile states your feelings that a "very strong team" is important to the success of a startup. However, most startups only have the basis for a technology team in place, and rarely have a strong executive team. In a recent interview with Robert X. Cringley, technologist-cum-Venture Capitalist Bill Joy stated that his firm worked with startups to assist in installing team members that are missing from a venture. (Google is an excellent example of this in action, with Page and Brin turning over the Chief Executive reigns to the more experienced Eric Schmidt.)

What are your thoughts and opinions on this practice? Does your firm assist startups with more than just financial matters, or do you feel it important that the startup be fully formed by the time you invest?

A: Thanks for the question. For initial investments in startups (Series A) it is almost always the case that key members of the team need to be recruited, and we very much help in this process. In fact we have a person dedicated full time (Karen Loebbaka) to just recruiting people to work for the startups that we fund - we're one of only a handful of VC firms to have a dedicated recruiting director. So we are committed to recruiting world class teams for our startups.

We also often help in the formation of the business strategy; this includes target markets strategy, distribution channel strategy, product strategy, and competitive strategy.

Important in our decision-making about early stage startups is the quality of the team. Usually early stage startups are primarily bets on the founding team.

There are usually a number of important questions about the team. What have team members "done" before? What have they invented / built / grown / managed / sold perhaps at other companies or startups? Have they worked with each other before? Have they toiled away at something before? Even if they haven't had entrepreneurial successes, are they just on to something big? Are they passionate about what they're about to do next? Why? Do they like each other? Will they be able to lead people / will people enjoy going to battle with them? Realize not all of these questions need to have positive answers. Some of the best startups have been founded by very driven people under 30. YouTube is the latest example.

2) Exit Strategy
by blinder

In my (very) limited experience in dealing with the VC world, one of the key concepts that was always in any discussion was the exit strategy. Typically that translated into IPO or sale to someone else. Is this any different with respect to open source companies?

It just seems to me, and I'm just a knuckle-dragging developer here (who also engages in diy projects), that the exit strategies might be a bit different than your traditional concerns.

A: This is a very good question. Yes, open source companies tend to be more of a challenge than traditional companies that own all of their intellectual property. The primary difference is that many potential acquirers may come from traditional business models and have to accept this new open source model that does have ownership of the intellectual property. For instance, in the recent of acquisition of JBoss by Redhat, there was at least one additional company that was ready to put an offer on the table, but stopped its negotiations when it realized that JBoss did not own any of its intellectual property.

JBoss ended up selling to Red Hat for $420M which was 28 times trailing 12 month revenue ($15M). Red Hat is a publicly held company; its shareholders and management team are clearly comfortable with the open source business model of not owning your intellectual property and valuing the company based upon unit marketshare and support and service revenue. Unit marketshare is a proxy for long term revenue because if the number is large it indicates a lot of customers; the shareholders are betting the management team can figure out how to get revenue from customers over time (ie by potentially introducing new product and services).

3) Common Failures
by paulevans

What are the most common problems that most startups have when beginning talks with you?

A: Most of the early stage startups are very technology-focused but do not have real customers committed to using their products. Customer feedback and adoption of the products is key.

In the consumer internet space, we are looking for initial adoption by consumers. In the enterprise space, we want real businesses that have evaluated the product and would be willing to buy the product if it were available.

4) When to seek VC, when to bootstrap
by morcego

Having started a small website, that quickly turned into a medium sized website, that led to mentions in Private Equity Weekly, calls from Turner, speaking engagements, and emails from a couple Investment Banking firms, at what point should a startup seek outside funding vs. trying to bootstrap their way to success? We wanted to carry it as long as we could (we're not losing money, we can afford to run at this level forever), but we have since been equaled (or, in some cases passed) by a dozen or so copycats with big bankrolls funding their marketing and PR.

At this point, it feels like we've missed the boat (though our traffic and membership is higher than ever before), simply because we didn't take on the outside management and marketing expertise that would have come with real funding.

The question, then, is: does there exist a fundamental 'right time' to contact a VC/IB to avoid losing your competitive edge? Or, does it always vary by company?

A: The answer varies by business and target market. In the consumer Internet space, marketshare is key. Marketshare is the percent of the market that you own. So many companies will be burning money while they are pursuing marketshare. The best recent example of this is YouTube.com. Youtube is #1 in marketshare with 45%+ share of videos viewed on the web, but they are not profitable and are burning cash. That is OK, they lead in marketshare and were just purchased this week by Google for $1.65 billion.

This is an extreme case, but it illustrates for early stage consumer Internet companies that marketshare is often more important than profitability. The founders can significantly hurt the value of their company by delaying taking investment capital in order to wait for a "higher price." Ironically, if the founders later take investment money they will be in the #2 marketshare position or lower and will end up getting a "lower price" for their stock from the venture investors.

As a general rule, for early stage startups in the consumer Internet space and/or the "open source" area being #1 in marketshare is much more important than profitability.

5) How did you get your job?
by s20451

I have graduate degrees and experience in engineering, and I have good managerial and interpersonal skills. I have often wondered what it would take to sit on the other side of the table, and what it is like to have plenty of funding, helping other people bring good ideas to market.

How did you get your job? Is it hard, easy, boring, fascinating, soul-destroying, fulfilling, all of the above?

A: For myself I have over 20 years of software experience including managing a set of products that had revenue over $1 billion before becoming a venture capitalist. In general, the process for becoming a venture capitalist varies dramatically by person. If you are interested in pursuing this industry it is important that you get to know venture capitalists that you can potentially work with.

I really enjoy this job because I get to work with very intelligent and driven entrepreneurs. This is very exciting. It is also fascinating to work across many industries and many different target markets. You are always learning something new everyday.

6) Why Open Source?
by bit trollent

Why have you chosen to fund Open Source based companies?

From a Venture Capitalist's point of view what advantages do open source based companies have over other software companies?

A: The big advantage open source companies have over traditional software companies is the ability to rapidly take unit marketshare and create a new standard. The best example of this is MySQL. Who would have thought five years ago there would have been another database to rival IBM DB2, Oracle, and MS SQL Server? By all estimates MySQL now has my more installations than IBM or Oracle; some estimates show that MySQL has more installations than SQL Server!

Open source allows a company to completely change the rules of the game. MySQL has over $40M in revenue the past 12 months and is probably valued at over $1 Billion. This is an amazing company.

7) First on my mind
by UbuntuDupe

What are the best ways to actually earn a profit, when you're giving away the source code? Are entrepreneurs in this area limited to "support, support, support", or are there other ways?

A: There are a couple of open source business models that have had some success.

a) The open source version as a "trial" product. For Sugar CRM this is basically the strategy. They give away an open source version that has limited functionality, most customers upgrade to a version that is not available 100% as an open source product. They charge customers for the full functionality product.

b) Charge for service and support; give away the full product as open source. This is the JBoss & MySQL version of the business. Realize companies are then valued on a combination of their unit marketshare and their revenue in this model.

c) New open source models. This market is still very young and I am sure other business models will evolve for open source companies.

8) Financing / Control Questions
by grondak

I realize the answers to these questions vary by project, but let's say we have a pretty hot idea and the only contribution is the software IP. Let's say it's a web site. We've got something working but need money for a production deployment (ie bandwidth, systems hosting, customer service reps, support staff, etc. In short, our cost model can look like PayPal's cost model).

1. What amount of control (ie % ownership) typically goes to the investors? 90% ?

2. How is the VC money returned to the investors? Examples: is it given back as percentage of profit (20 % of gross or NIAT), or like a loan (all returned within 5 years?) or is it in perpetuity (VCs get 20% of everything, forever) ?

3. Does risk still equal reward? Seems to me the reward in the Internet/OSS project space is outrageously high, but the risk can't get any greater than the money you lay out + potential loss of goodwill/reputation.

4. What's the percentage in item 2 that VCs actually get for a project like this? 20%?

A: Thanks for the question. Most software companies consist of intellectual property (IT), but more importantly are the skills of the founders. There are many challenges both from a technical and business perspective that must be addressed by the team. So the founding team is key.

The investments from the Venture Capitalist are almost always for an equity ownership in the company. The venture capitalist makes money when the stock is sold (to another company or through an initial public offering - IPO). It would be very unusual for a venture investor to take a percentage of the profits.

The percentage ownership that an investor takes for a company varies dramatically by company. They key for an entrepreneur is to get investors who will actively work to make the company stronger. Good Investors will help find and recruit key employees, make key business contacts, and help shape the strategy of the company.

9) How do I get to talk to your kind?
by Qbertino

As a lead-maintainer / developer of a successfull open source project and a freelancer and company partner who focuses on OSS I have a three-part question:

1) How do I get to talk to someone like you? What would be the best approach?

2) What do you want to see from someone who approaches you? Neat, well formulated ideas? Implementations? Finished business plans? A running company? All four?

3) What bores you to death and what talks have you had with VC seekers that where a total waste of your time? What where the things they did wrong?
--
[My english is better than most other people's german, so please point out mistakes politely. Thank you.]

A: The best approach to talk with a venture capitalist is to try to have an introduction made through a common acquaintance. If this is not an option, directly approach the venture capitalist by email. Be sure to give your personal background in the email, this will hopefully entice the venture capitalist to spend time with you. If you have a business plan submit this as part of the email.

The ideal proposed business would have the following characteristics:

1) A large clearly identifiable untapped market; ideally an entrepreneur would have personally experienced the pain he or she is trying to solve.

2) A strong management team. This typically includes a strong founding CEO and technical founders. Other members of the team (sales, marketing, CFO etc., can be added over time).

3) Ideally some type of technology lock that prevents other competitors from closely following your success. (YouTube is a clear counterexample to this; here the 1st mover advantage was all that was necessary. Note that YouTube had very good traction before it received its first venture financing).

10) The Magic Ingredient
by Phoenix666

You can and must know your subject area, in this case, tech. You also need to put together a business plan and shop it around. But the thing that there doesn't seem to be a lot of help out there on is the magic ingredient: learning to think like a Yankee trader. There's a certain kind of thinking that works out ways to monetize a technology product or service. Sales people kind of have it. MBAs don't have it, or if they do, in small degrees (learning the CAPM doesn't teach you how). Engineers definitely don't have it.

So where/how can the aspiring entrepreneurs among us learn how to think about how to make money with their marvelous inventions? Do you have any books, organizations, or workshops you could recommend?

A: This is very good question. There is no "magic bullet." The answer varies by business and person. It is not easy to learn to be an entrepreneur. Many entrepreneurs learn a lot through a customer experience, where they are the customer. This often helps them to understand the need and how to monetize it (sell it to the customers).

Sometimes entrepreneurs will learn by studying business models and then dramatically innovating upon them. Google innovated in both its search algorithm and its advertising model. There were a number of well known search engines prior to its entering the market.

One of the best ways to "learn" is from other entrepreneurs.

In Northern California there is a group call Stirr where entrepreneurs get together once a month to discuss their proposed businesses and network with other entrepreneurs and investors.

The Women Technology Cluster is targeted at startups with women as part of the founding teams and provides the entrepreneurs with very good coaching, preparation, feedback and opportunities to meet potential investors.

TIE -- The Indus Entrepreneur -- helps entrepreneurs with seminars, networking, and forums to seek feedback from potential investors. I attend events from all three organizations on a regular basis.

 


Communities
 


Online Services
 


Professional Services
 


Retail
 

Colleen H | Rick
Jon | Andrea

Marc | Sean
Bob | Mike | Matt

Tara | Laura
Don | Katia

Natasha | LeMar | Kara
Lavon | Colleen L

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Communities

Colleen H | Rick | Jon | Andrea

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Colleen H

Community Improvement Fundraiser & Elevater

commYOUnity
imPROVEment
fundRAISEr
&
ELEVATEr!

Slogan: You prove, raise, & elevate!

description / NAICS

a not-for-profit that provides the service of organizing fund-raising events for other not-for-profits

Not for profit fundraiser organization. with concerts and festivals with up and coming local talent. Major artists, too.

Local talent will be able to perform with a major act to raise money. Showcases local talent and raises $ for the non profit.

market / customers

The market will have a couple of components. The community as a whole is a customer, because they will pay to see the talents shows and watch the artists perform. Secondly, the performers are part of the market, as they have the opportunity to be exposed and noticed by so many others. Lastly, community organizations that will benefit from the proceeds are customers as well.

product / services

The service is a series of organized events that will benefit the needs of the local organizations that serve our community. In addition, it will give the people of the community an opportunity to raise the funds for their community, as well as give them the chance to prove their talents and expose them to better (career) opportunities.

competitors

There are no competitors that are a threat to the success of the fundraiser. The only competitors in this non-profit are the organizations and agencies that are competing for the benefits proceeds.

comp adv

 


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Rick

SportsRecruiterUniversity.com

logo/

Company Name: RMJM, Inc.
Business Name: Sports Recruit University . com AKA S.R.U

“Bringing college coaches to you, and you to college coaches.”

description / NAICS

Internet portal service (free, like mySpace) for high school athletes who need visibility with college sports programs. HS athletes to put their profile out there so coaches can search them. He will pitch. Revenue from access to the demographics of these students as well as advertising space to the record industry. College coaches would have free access to the student information and the record industry could push content to the student subscribers based on demographics.

SportsRecruiterUniversity.com provides an expeditious, cost efficient search engine for college coaches recruiting effort. Concurrently, providing college bound athletes an opportunity to display their interests, skills and personal bio for every coach in the country to view.

NAICS 516110 Internet Publishing and Broadcasting

This industry comprises establishments engaged in publishing and/or broadcasting content on the Internet exclusively. These establishments do not provide traditional (non-Internet) versions of the content that they publish or broadcast. Establishments in this industry provide textual, audio, and/or video content of general or specific interest on the Internet.

market / customers

High school athletes, College coaches and athletic directors

product / services

Provide college bound, high school athletes the opportunity to display themselves and provide their information to every college coach in the country. At the same time, providing college coaches a simple, valuable cost effective way of recruiting.

SRU is a search engine website providing services specifically for college coaches, high school coaches, and high school athletes. A high school athlete interested in college athletics can join SportsRecruiterUniversity.com and display his/her bio.

College coaches can sign up with SportsRecruiterUniversity.com and access all of this information. A coach will be able to specify the search from sport of interest to height and weight and much more. For example, if a coach is looking for a shortstop, taller than 5’10”, about 170-180 lbs, from Florida, interested in going to school in Carolina. The coach can enter the search information and all members of SportsRecruiterUniversity.com that fit that description will appear on screen. The coach can do many things with this list but most impressively, with a few clicks he can send a mass email to everyone on the list informing them of his interests.

competitors

Athletes Advance - College Sports Recruiting and Stat Tracking from Athletes Advance

comp adv

 

 


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Jon

JamSessions

logo/slogan

description / NAICS

A web community where music is broken down into its basic components-riffs from individual instruments. User compile riffs to compose their own music.

market / customers

 

product / services

 

competitors


 

comp adv

 

 


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Andrea

PopScrapInc.

Let's Scrap -  Celeb Style!

description / NAICS

Interactive online scrap booking.

Interactive teen magazine, pop star fanclub and scrapbooking

NAICS 516110 Internet Publishing and Broadcasting

This industry comprises establishments engaged in publishing and/or broadcasting content on the Internet exclusively. These establishments do not provide traditional (non-Internet) versions of the content that they publish or broadcast. Establishments in this industry provide textual, audio, and/or video content of general or specific interest on the Internet.

market / customers

Our business is mostly targeted to the teen market.  Scrapbooking is a popular hobby and is growing more everyday - even adults enjoy it to savor memories of their children as they are growing up.  This new business will segment a new type of hobby bundling together a favorite hobby and the joy of music at the same time.  Why not digitally scrap book your favorite pop star's music with photos and video clips or incorporate your own memories with some of the products we offer?  We will gain newly interested parties since this will make a great gift for the hard core scrapbooker.

product / services

Related scrapbooking products, video clips, photos and other items.

competitors

Other online scrapbooking enterprises

Note for MBA 604: the phrase following the colons below are the contents of the title tag in the head of the HTML when you do a view source of the site's welcome pages.

ex: <title>Phanfare - Better online photo and video sharing, faster uploads, no advertising on albums</title>

Phanfare: Better online photo and video sharing, faster uploads, no advertising on albums

Scrap Girls: Printable scrapbooking supplies, digital scrapbooking supplies, card making and paper crafting supplies

Popstar! Magazine

comp adv

Each page a user creates is a magazine page in itself.....to post, share and purchase as a tangible product if desired when complete.  I feel that this is different than MySpace because you can purchase from the site and it will provide the ability to interact with music icons as a fanclub and my idea is bringing consumers together with a special interest in scrapbooking-only in a more modern and exciting way.


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Online Services

Marc | Sean | Bob | Mike | Matt

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Marc

ME
(Mobile Entertainment)

logo/slogan

It's all about ME

description / NAICS

Online music management broadcast to mobile devices.

market / customers

 

product / services

 

competitors


 

comp adv

 

 


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Sean

SBC Worldwide Sports

Logo:  a dollar bill, with a football in the middle (because this is the most watched, and most gambled on sport) and the initials SSC WWS inside the football in the middle. It is basic, but it gets across the point, which is Sports, Gambling, and Our Company. In the bottom line, it will also have SSCWWS.COM, which is our website for now.

Sports. Gambling. Now.

description / NAICS

24/7 simultaneous sports broadcasts and wagering from around the world.

market / customers

My market has a couple of segments. First off, we offer live broadcasts of all sports from around the world, so you can use and enjoy our product even without placing a wager, you can watch for the love of sports. Secondly, we attract gamblers, who will use our system to watch sports, to wager on them. You can watch live as your wages are playing out, or you can use the system to scout teams that you may wager on in upcoming weeks. Our third segment to attract is sports reporters, such as ESPN. We have footage from around the world, and we hope for ESPN and local sports stations to use our coverage for reports and updates, this will also help us get our name out there in the industry.

product / services

Our product is an internet-based system that allows the customer to watch sports broadcasts, live, 24 hours a day from around the world. You can watch skiing in Nevada, and switch over to golf in Ireland, in less than a second. We have consulted with Bodog, to create our system for online gambling, and we will use their software to complete our "2nd Tier" package, which takes customers to the next level. Also, we have consulted with slingbox, creating our own device, which will enable customers to flip games and events to their television sets, wherever they are, even if they do not have access to their home computer.

competitors

No one offers as many sporting events as us from around the world. No one allows customers to watch the events, and have a scroll bar of their wages on the same screen. We have no competitors, we will compete with ourselves to get our name, and product out in the open, once this happens, the sky is the limit.

comp adv

We have combined two of the fastest growing phenomena's in the world, and placed them in one easy to use package, sports and gambling, instantly, enough said.


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Bob

BarCast

logo

Music the way you want it, when you want it.

description / NAICS

NAICS 515112 Radio Stations

This U.S. industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in broadcasting aural programs by radio to the public. Programming may originate in their own studio, from an affiliated network, or from external sources.

Customer service and a business partner with the customer. They make $ I make $.

market / customers

Bars and Restaurants across upstate NY

Target 100 bars / restaurants for the 1st year.

Why will they choose you? Cost I will be cheaper.
Why will they choose you again? Customer service.

product / services

A wifi Sirius jukebox

competitors

Ecast

Commcast

comp adv

Cost

Barcast is cheaper and is only about 22.95 per month compared to $5000.00 for the unit and a monthly fee.

 


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Mike

TheMOVIEFactory.com

Create your own DVDs...Fast, reliable and easy.

description / NAICS

Download movies directly to your computer and transfer to DVD.

market / customers

segments:

current customers of companies like Netflix and Blockbuster

everyone currently burning movies and cds with their computer

product / services

We offer any movie to be directly downloaded to their computers for free once they purchased our program. Then we offer the availability to transfer that file directly to a blank DVD with our program that we supply. This will allow people the ability to have their favorite DVD's at their house immediately without having to go to the store or wait for them to be delivered through the mail. We also include a program that will print out all the covers to make the DVD look store bought so no one would be able to tell the difference.

The reason we can offer our products for such a cheap price will come through our advertising and money generated through the sale of our program.

competitors

Our competitors would be Netflix and Blockbuster videos. They are not able to match us on our prices or on our convenience.

Once our program is downloaded they are able to download as many movies as they would like without having to worry about costs.

comp adv

convenience and price

Anyone can have their favorite DVD in their hands within minutes and never have to leave their house.

This has made movie rentals worthless because now for the same price you can own that title and never have to worry about returning them on time or mailing them back.


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Matt

BackStageLive.com

Where everyone is VIP

Feel Backstage, never leave your house

description / NAICS

Web site uncut video archives of favorite band, rehearsals, tours, concerts, behind the scenes,  and interviews. Web site and streamed to mobile device.

NAICS 516110 Internet Publishing and Broadcasting

This industry comprises establishments engaged in publishing and/or broadcasting content on the Internet exclusively. These establishments do not provide traditional (non-Internet) versions of the content that they publish or broadcast. Establishments in this industry provide textual, audio, and/or video content of general or specific interest on the Internet.

market / customers

People who enjoy music and like to see exclusive video on their favorite bands and musicians. People of ages 18-35 is the primary demographic because they are most likely the ones to have a small disposable income and enough interest to value my product.

product / services

A website that has information, news, lyrics and merchandise of bands and musicians. There will be a subscription to access exclusive, uncut video of each musicians’ jam sessions, practices, concerts, backstage, etc.

competitors

MTV, Napster, individual musician’s websites, VH1,

Real Magic TV

comp adv

Exclusive video footage that cannot be seen anywhere else. This is the focus of my business.


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Professional Services

Tara | Laura | Don | Katia

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Tara

Marketing Musicians

Big advertising for a small company

description / NAICS

market the rejected artists from the 4 major labels at half the price but the most exposure

Marketing Musicians offer big advertising from a small company to every musician who has the dream of being the next Bruce Springstein, Madonna, U2 or Garth Brooks.

Marketing Musicians knows that large record labels can only select a few musicians a year and throw big advertising dollars their way to market their CD. At Marketing Musicians by signing many smaller musicians we can offer the same level of marketing services the bigger labels do to smaller musicians.

Our Mission is to provide big label marketing services to many smaller musicians. Our vision is to expand the music industry so everyone can benefit from what only a few do today. By signing many musicians, my company can obtain the same advertising rates the larger record labels enjoy.

NAICS 541613 Marketing Consulting Services

This U.S. industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing operating advice and assistance to businesses and other organizations on marketing issues, such as developing marketing objectives and policies, sales forecasting, new product developing and pricing, licensing and franchise planning, and marketing planning and strategy.

market / customers

Any musician that has not been signed by a large record label.

product / services

• Marketing and advertising of the musician’s image and their music

• Distribution through the internet of the musician’s music which cuts down on distribution costs

• Eventually as the company grows we would like to expand into other entertainment industries such as providing music to the movie industry.

competitors

Any marketing service that also offers that same marketing exposure as the large record labels for half the cost.

comp adv

 

 


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Laura

Superproducers

logo/slogan

description / NAICS

Musical production done on a budget.

market / customers

 

product / services

 

competitors


 

comp adv

 

 


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Don

DemoPro

putting you in the spotlight

description / NAICS

Serving the up and coming musicians with demo recording, web production and promotional materials to assist in their marketing effort

NAICS 512220 Integrated Record Production

This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in releasing, promoting, and distributing sound recordings. These establishments manufacture or arrange for the manufacture of recordings, such as audio tapes/cassettes and compact discs, and promote and distribute these products to wholesalers, retailers, or directly to the public. Establishments in this industry produce master recordings themselves, or obtain reproduction and distribution rights to master recordings produced by record production companies or other integrated record companies.

market / customers

Market - Local musicians trying to promote their talents

Customer - The up and coming musician

product / services

Services

demo recording

web design

promotional materials

competitors

full recording studios and independent labels -- name and link to several of each

Dynamic Recording Rochester NY

EastEnd Studios Rochester NY

comp adv

offering web design and promotional materials to the musician along with the demo recording. Package pricing.


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Katia

At Your Service

Be Memorable

Let's put style and fun back into business networking.

description / NAICS

Networking Forum. Complete consulting service for all types of events. It caters to all types of business. We help you network with your industry's leaders.

market / customers

Businesses and Individuals

product / services

event consultations
budget planning
decor coordination
referrals to florist, contractors, entertainers, musicians, etc.

competitors

Party Planners and Public Relations Specialist

comp adv

 

 


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Retail

Natasha | LeMar | Kara | Lavon | Colleen L

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Natasha

BluTone

slogan

description / NAICS

Ipod and phone integrated with wireless Bluetooth headset. Listen to music and accept incoming calls. Calls would interrupt the music and resume when the call was finished.

NAICS 517212 Wireless Telecommunications Carriers (except Satellite)

This industry group comprises establishments primarily engaged in operating, maintaining or providing access to facilities for the transmission of voice, data, text, sound, and video using wireless telecommunications networks.

Transmission facilities may be based on a single technology or a combination of technologies

market / customers

Tweens, pre-teens, college students and active on-the-go adults.

product / services

I-Pod
Bluetooth
Music Download
Telephone

competitors

Manufacturing technology companies

Cell phone companies

comp adv

helping people multitask

 


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LeMar

LSaT

logo/slogan

description / NAICS

Satellite service that broadcasts video to a wireless mobile device.

market / customers

Individuals who enjoy watching TV and who travel constantly and are in need of entertainment.

product / services

Mobile device satellite subscriptions

competitors


No direct competitors. Similar products exist for example cell phone that you can download ESPN clips to, but none has the ability to receive a satellite signal.

comp adv

No mobile device on this planet has the ability to receive a satellite signal. My company is in a class of its own.


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Kara

Smart Jewelry

Music & Jewelry. Smart.

Don't just WATCH your day go by,
Listen to it too.

description / NAICS

MP3 player and headset embedded in stylish jewelry

Jewelry, such as watches, necklaces, earring, and bracelets, which have an MP3 Player built into it. This product will have Bluetooth capabilities with an ear piece that is so small that people can barely see you have it in.

The NAICS code for this product is 443112 Radio, Television, and Other Electronics Stores and 541490 Jewelry Design Services.

market / customers

My target market is early teens to mid twenties. This is the segment that is listening to MP3 Players. Even though a lot of teens have a MP3 player, no one has a MP3 Player that is built into jewelry and that barely no one can see that your listening to.

product / services

The products that will be offered will be watches, necklaces, earring, and bracelets that have a MP3 Player built in.

competitors

There are some competitors out there and it will only be a matter of time before they start making these same products.

* Sony has new ideas with shoes and MP3 players
* Nokia
* South Korea has the "smart clothes" ideas
* Fossil has a "smart watch" ( which has news, weather reports, stock quotes, movie times, and messages via Microsoft's MSN Direct service, which uses FM radio signals to transmit data.)
* Microsoft has a "smart watch"

comp adv

The competitive advantage would be that this is a new innovated product that has never been seen before. This idea takes two products that are well know and combines them into one.


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Lavon

BitStream Lounge

logo

Music doesn't download, people do...

description / NAICS

Kiosks at coffee shops for downloading favorite or unknown MP3s (few restrictions) and movies. May replace regular record stores. Money from downloads, memberships, advertising and sales of accessories, snacks, etc.

Bands are also able to upload their albums to the database.

market / customers

 

product / services

 

competitors


 

comp adv

 

 


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Colleen L

I-Trade

Trade What You Have For What You Want

description / NAICS

NAICS: Retail Trade Code 44

IPODs & Mp3 players (new and used), accessories, repair in-house, and trade ins for upgrade.

market / customers

Computer Literate - Various Ages

MSN Advertising says MSN Tech & Gadgets (MSN and partner content) is "the place to reach technology users":

Demographics

Gender: 70% male, 30% female
Age: 69% are 25-54
Income: 61% have household income $50K+, 41% have household income $75K+
Education: 50% college graduates or higher
Occupation: 42% are professional/managerial

Federated Media says its sites "cater to cultural influencers, technology decision makers, early adopters…":

Demographics

Gender: 79% male
Average Age: 32.7
Income: Average household income range $50,000-$74,999
Occupation: 50% management, 20% Director or above

product / services

MP3 - All ranges and types
MP3 Accessories
MP3 Repair

competitors


 

comp adv

MP3 repair is the niche for this
 


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Roundtable

last update: August 26 | L=late
Note the due dates in parentheses. The links below will take you to the Roundtable on this course web, not to the Bistro.

Name

Whip Stats Models PEST SWOT Force Mid-Course
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               

Bullwhip Effect - due August 31
Government Stats - due September 7
Business Models - due September 7
PEST analysis - due September 28
SWOT analysis - due September 28
Force-Field analysis - due September 28
Mid-Course Review - due ASAP after September 28

Roundtable | Bistro

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modified: September 30, 2006
by Douglas Anderson
http://RicciStreet.net/dwares/lane/mba600/reports.htm