Venture Concept No. 1 24A The Walking Buddy

Opportunity

·      Potential customers are likely young women and possibly their parents or siblings. The young women feel worried when they are out alone and they want more protection. Therefore, the nature of the need is fear.

·      This opportunity exists because there are a multitude of crimes against women every day so, women want to feel protected. I strongly believe that girls are taught to be cautious and fearful, whereas, boys are not. I have discussed this with my husband and he confirmed that when he went out alone, his parents didn’t warn him of dangers, kidnap, or rape. My parents were always reminding my sisters and I that there are people out there that we should be scared of and that you never know if that person is a stranger or your neighbor. Also, they discussed kidnapping with us, we were told not to get in cars with anyone, always watch our surroundings, what to do if someone grabbed us, etc.

·      Geographically, women in the United States, parts of Europe, China, and Japan will be most likely to buy this based on the development of those countries. The countries will have to be developed enough to have location services connected with emergency services. Although, I am unsure if women in other countries have the unmet need based on their social beliefs.

·      Demographically, my market is young women that are probably between the ages of 16-25. Although, there will be some men that purchase, as well as, older women.

·      There are various ways that customers are currently satisfying their need, including, concealed carry permit, tasers, pepper spray, and hoping for the best. Those that are simply hoping for the best are unsatisfied and want something more. They have conducted research on self-defense and protection, but still haven’t made the purchase.

·      I believe this opportunity is somewhat big. It seems a lot of women ponder protection, but they don’t make that initial purchase and buy products for protection. I think one of the biggest challenges will be convincing women that they need this product and making it low cost so they will be interested.

·      With technology growing at an exponential rate, the window of opportunity may not be open long. In the next five years, there could be a completely new and better way of protection and contacting emergency services.

Innovation

·      The product I am selling is a personal alarm that is equipped with emergency service calling and location services.

·      The device is black and about the size of a key fob. It has a clip that allows the individual to clip it to their pants pocket for easy access.

·      If the individual feels the need to use it, she will hold down a button for approximately three seconds which will (1) sound an alarm, (2) call emergency services, and (3) allow police to locate her exact location.

·      When the call is made, the 911 operator will know that is has come from this device and that the person needs help immediately. There is a microphone, so the individual can actually communicate with 911; however, if she is unable to, they will still be able to find her exact location.

·      I’m selling this device for $55. I’m hoping to be able to work with emergency services to make the GPS feature free of charge.

Venture Concept

·      My innovation will not eliminate crimes against women, but it will give women peace of mind and help them if they are being attacked. I think that it could help lower the number of victims of rape, kidnap, and assault.

·      I believe that customers will want this product because it is so easily accessible and combines features that make it the best. Although there are products that offer a personal alarm, they do not have location or emergency services. Therefore, if the personal alarm does not startle the attacker enough that they flee, the individual would still be attacked or harmed. Women that have protection, such as, pepper spray or tasers will probably be easier to convince to buy the device since they have already invested in other self-defense items. The more difficult customers will be those that have thought about buying self-defense items, but never have.  

·      Competitors are those selling any self-defense product, such as, personal alarms, pepper spray, and stun guns. Weaknesses of the personal alarms are that they only have an alarm and do not offer other features. When it comes to pepper spray, I think that many people are worried to use it because they may accidentally spray themselves, which would make them even more vulnerable. Also, each state has different regulations about stun guns. Some states do not allow tasers at all. Therefore, if someone is traveling across states with a stun gun, it could be illegal to use in some of those states.
·   Our goal is to make the device affordable for young women and eliminate monthly fees. I will start out by selling the device near self-defense classes and colleges. I think the product would sell on Amazon, at Walmart, and Target.
·      The packaging should remind customers of the dangers and statistics of crimes against women. It should include the features of the device and include that there is NO monthly fee.
·      I would have a Facebook page promoting the business. Eventually, we would need a warehouse to keep production growing. I would need a couple of engineers to create the device. I think I could start out with 10 employees.

My secret sauce is my passion about the product. I will use this passion to build my social network, which will allow me to gain customers, advocates, and possible distributers. My next venture would be working with self-defense classes to allow me to promote my product during their sessions. If I launched this business, I would like to be selling 1,500 devices by the third year. By the fifth year I would hope to continue this, but there may be new opportunities to innovate the device as technology grows.