Venture Concept No. 2

by Josh Korthuis

Opportunity:

I believe my product of custom toilet seats has a great opportunity to reach a target market never reached before with a product of this kind of innovation. The customers of the target market have an unmet need of a better bathroom experience because it is something people use every day and my product could greatly improve it. My main potential customers are people who enjoy living the high life and have money to spend on improving their homes with a product like mine. They also have a want for a more comfortable and innovative toilet seat that has limitless features and have the creativity to think of new things to add to its features. Geographically I think this market is mostly located in the United States but If I were to find great success I would consider expanding internationally. This is because internationally some countries use the Bidet which means they are more open to innovation in the bathroom making it a better marekt for a product like mine. Demographically I think this market fits all varieties of people but would probably range from 20+ old range because they have to have their own money to buy this product. This product has a big opportunity to become a normal household product and believe this window will only close if we move away from toilets to a new product in our bathrooms which I can’t see happening in the near future. I believe this product could be seen as a luxury brand like Rolex which would make the buyers interested for its high class. This product could truly change the typical American bathroom for the better if it were to become successful and could positively affect people across the nation for decades to come!

Innovation:

The product I am pitching is a custom toilet seat that has endless innovational opportunities but has a few feature’s that come standard on it. The toilet would seat would come standard with a fast acting heating and cooling system installed in the seat, an aux cord/phone charger installed conveniently to the side of the seat, and the ability to put a custom image on the lid and seat such as the Batman symbol of your favorite football team. These seats could be ordered online or at a brick and mortar location we are selling them at and we would be available for calls during business hours to talk about any customization you would like to install in the seat itself. Lol I don’t know why I’m actually typing this all out like no one is going to read this they are just going to ready my last paragraph and make up a comment about what my product could use, but anyways back to the topic of toilet seats. The custom ideas for the toilet seats will be researched and experimented by our engineers to see if it is possible to install on the seat. Depending on cost we will probably outsource the engineering department because of how expensive it would be to have a team of engineers on staff just for the seats. Maybe my company could even collaborate with a University such as the University of Florida Engineering department and I could offer students incentives to come up with new toilet technologies and give them internships over the summer to work with our research teams to bring the toilets of tomorrow to real life. I have no idea how to price the toilet seats because I have no real number for manufacturing costs. I would probably try to outsource the manufacturing of the seats to save money for the company and present a more competitive price to consumers because if it’s too expensive no one is going to take a chance on it. Though if I could keep the manufacturing in the United States that would be ideal to create jobs for the American people and support our nation’s economy in a positive way. Hopefully as the product increased in sales I could use the skimming process and slowly decrease my price as I can buy in more bulk and expand my market to more consumers.

Venture:

The innovation of my custom toilet seats will truly wow consumers in my opinion especially if I can price it at an affordable price. Knowing this is think consumers will switch to my product because once they see it they will realize how much time they spend in the bathroom and how much a product like mine could benefit their everyday lifestyle. They will also look at what they have now and realize their toilet seat at home is just molded plastic with no creativity put into and a think of how much they are missing out on life. It will not be hard for these people to switch products because our toilet seats have a guaranteed easy installation and all they would have to worry about is buying the product and installing it at home. For competitors, I am not aware of any other known company’s selling custom toilet seats to the level of innovation I am offering. The only vulnerability I could see to this is if my company were to expand that there could be others that try and enter the market of custom toilets seats who have find a way to make a more innovative product for a cheaper price. I would try to patent my custom ideas to fight against this from happening which could be a great solution. For a business I would try to have someone to run a website and also try and enter some store fronts but try to keep employee numbers to a minimum and just worry about manufacturing.

My most important resource would have to be the engineering team because they could help design the product to work properly and safely while experimenting with new product features that consumers are looking for. What’s next for the venture is to make a prototype to test and run some test marketing to see how consumers react to the product. What is next for me is to try and run the business smoothly and effectively so we can survive through the tough road of opening a new business to find success in the future!

2) Provide a summary of the feedback you received from your previous venture concept description

In the comments, people agreed that my product my be volunerable to bigger companies copying my ideas so I would defend against this by getting a patent of my products custom ideas. I was also informed that I could advertise this product as something high class like a Rolex watch that would catch the consumers eye that way which I added to my opportunities to exploit. The last info I received was not to count out foreign countries as an option because they might even be more inclined to by this product then people in the USA because they have more experience with more innovation in the bathroom like the Bidet. 

3) Describe how you changed your venture concept

I changed my venture concept by adding the options above which could be very effective in helping the company grow. Most of the original venture concept is still intact but the option of international expansion makes the whole process more success. i would also advertise this product as a luxury item in a few test markets and see how it goes, and get patents so no larger companies could try and copy my ideas.