cindy0326-blog

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FINAL PITCH

Everything that has a beginning has its ending. Indeed, we had our final pitch last March 13, 2019. Care to know what happened? Well, from the prototype to the final product including our presentation, all of these were finalized amidst the challenges we encountered.

March 9, 2019, we already had our prototype. However, we still have to fix it since we have difficulty on pulling and pushing it. Also, on the same day, we consulted our technopreneurship instructor and performed a rehearsal regarding the upcoming final pitch. So far, she pointed on our need to add on our powerpoint presentation the traction slide. In line with that, she added that our prototype should be well-developed.

In addition, due to the hectic schedule we had, we found it difficult to work on our final pitch preparation. Thus, a day before the final pitch, March 12, 2019, we were still fixing our prototype and multitask with the finalization of our powerpoint presentation. And since we have to introduce our product so that we will be able to add a traction slide, we selected only 10 people at Zone 8, Bulua, Cagayan de Oro City near the residence of Kilat family where we were working on our prototype. Fortunately, 8 out of 10 travellers/campers, are willing to use our product. Some of them even suggested that it would be better to provide a handle on our product and make sure that it would be thinner in size.

On the day of our presentation, March 13, 2019, we went to school earlier than our schedule. In fact, being a 22nd presentor, we were already in school even though the final pitching haven’t started yet. We kept on practicing our presentation since I and Wenna were assigned for it. And, in God’s grace, we presented our Final Pitch well. However, the panel suggested to improve our product design, make it foldable into much little size, and make sure that we had innovated something.

To wrap it all, it’s still a job well done to all of us ‘cause we know that we did our best. Now, we just have to finish the other requirements in this subject aside from this final pitch. Then, I can say that it was all finished; finished in terms of the requirements but the memories and the lessons we gained will always be within our minds and hearts.

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FINAL OUTPUT

Our startup journey is about to end! We had already validated the problem we’ve found and the possible users of our product. However, there are still a lot of things that need to be prepared and must be done. Our team is struggling on the prototype we have to develop in the final pitching. In line with that, we are focusing on the materials, final design and the manpower. Furthermore, we are currently finalizing/updating our Business Model Canvas.

February 25, 2019, our team conducted additional interview at Limketkai Mall. The age range of our interviewees is 15-25 years old. The answers we’ve got are almost similar or in other words, related to the previous interviewees we’ve talked to. Thus, we stopped conducting interviews already and closed the required number of interviewees that were expected to us which is 100.

February 28, 2019 we found a possible maker of our product. Also, in that day, we kept on canvassing on our materials and the prototype we will develop. Going on, March 2, 2019, we go out again and went to different hardware stores. Why? We were looking for alternatives of our first choice of materials for the prototype because the prizes were too expensive for us as a student. Fortunately, we’ve found the alternatives we were looking for. Also, the maker of our product has been replaced as well since the first one is too busy in his work. However, for the final output, we will be the one to assemble our own product.  

As a conclusion, this startup journey leads us to ups and downs. Also, we are now waiting for the initial output of our product for us to assemble it. Tomorrow, March 4, 2019, is our expected date for the finalization of our output and our pitch deck. Thank you!

[cindy0326-blog]

Validated Consumers

Hey! It's the end of the week blog for February! So, here's another update for you all. As times goes by, our startup journey is going through different things. For this week, we continued searching or validating consumers. Ofcourse, in addition to that, we are also paying attention for our working prototype to be submitted next week if possible.

February 19, 2019, we conducted further interview at the LimKetKai Mall. Our interviewees are mostly students whose ages range from 13 to 23. We decided to approach them because there has been an event there in the said Mall and it's kinda great opportunity for us to get our target number of interviewees (consumers). Don't you worry because we asked them first if they love to travel or camping so that we would be able to conduct or begin the interview. We were like having trial and error to find our ideal consumers.

As expected, there were some students who love to travel with their family/friends and others are fun of going to camping specifically youth camping. When being asked for the duration of their stay in a place, their answers vary from 3 days to 1 week. Some were going to a relatives'/friend's house, some were staying in a hotel, others are at the pool overnight in a place, while othes are using a tent for camping. Also, they responded that most of the time, they find it annoying because their things aren't organize on the duration of their camping or staying in a specific place (e.g. friend's place where there's no cabinet for visitors). However, there were still other students who are organized. In lined with my blog last week, we also found male interviewees who wanted to see their things organized.

Moreover, we asked them if it will be useful for them if we will offer our product to them ( PnP shelves). We explained how it will work and how handy it is intended to be made. In other words, we tried to validate if our product would somehow solve their experienced problem during camping or short vacation (through land travelling). Others are saying yes while others are undecided unless they will be able to see our finished product.

Overall, we interviewed 50 people including last week. For the statistics, we will finalize it not later than next week after being able to complete our target number of 100 interviewees. Also, we started canvassing the cost of our materials already. And, due to limited resources considering our capabilities as students, we decided to use wood for our prototype even though the actual product is a plastic one to make it handy and long lasting. Stay tuned for our product development!

[cindy0326-blog]

BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS

Here’s an updated update for our startup journey!!!

A startup doesn’t have any identified consumers yet in which a business plan is not yet applicable. In that manner, how company creates value for itself while delivering products or services for customers is termed as a “Business Model Canvas (BMC)”. Also, a BMC requires being repeatable and scalable. It contains 5 empty blocks for customers and 4 empty blocks for the business itself for a total of 9 empty blocks to be filled in.

February 13, 2019, we had our first output of Business Model Canvas wherein everything was just an assumption. The first five blocks intended for customers contained the following: value propositions, customer segments, channels, customer relationships, and revenue model, respectively. The last four blocks contained the key resources, key partnerships, key activities, and cost structure, respectively. All nine blocks were filled in by our team using sticky notes with matching brilliant idea.

Since our product is a Push and Pull Shelves (PnP Shelves), our value propositions are to organize things, handy, and easy to use, for both the campers and car owners (travelers) as our customer segments. And, in order to reach them, our assumed channel is through online advertisement and physical store for both customer segments as well. Furthermore, our team decided two ways to keep both of our customer segments – the free product customization and freebies. Lastly, considering the customers in a BMC, our revenue streams are all payment revenues.

Moreover, for the business itself, our team chose manpower as our key resources with the hardwares as our key partners; for our product deals with materials. In lined with that, our key activities involve product development and material testing. Lastly, for the cost structure of our business, we projected the production cost and the marketing and sales.

For the above output of our team, it is expected of us to have changes of our BMC at the end of this semester. If there will be no changes, it is either we did nothing in our journey or we had a very good assumption. We had a schedule of presentation next week for another update. Stay tuned!

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Validated Problem

Hey there! Waiting for an update, right? Well, here it goes. After pitching day, we had our first meeting with our instructor last February 6, 2019. As what I have told you on my previous blog, we asked our instructor if we are going to continue or pursue our product. Well, I’m happy to share that she apologized on how the panel used words in giving criticism. Also, she encouraged us to continue since in real world, not all people will always say nice feedbacks. On the same day, we were given another task for this week. Care to know it?

Our instructor challenged us to present a validated problem. In another words, we have to interview more people in order to make sure that we are really solving a validated problem and not just an assumption. So, our group decided to schedule an interview for this week so that we could defend our product to the investors. Aside from that, our instructor is expecting us to present a working prototype at the end of this semester. In that manner, we have to start looking for our materials. Well, that will be another challenge for us. But for this week, we’ll just focus on validating the problem we found.

February 10, 2019, is our scheduled interview. At first, we don’t know how to start. By the way, we chose to interview people at the Limketkai Mall, Cagayan de Oro City. But, as the time goes longer, we found the guts to start interviewing. So far, we had interviewed a total of eight (8) people. Fortunately, one woman said that she really needs an organizer where she could put her stuffs while staying most specially in a budget hotel; for she stays there for not less than a week most of the time. Same goes for some women. However, not all of our interviewees affirmed the problem we found and not all of them are fond of travelling even though they were car owners. One man also said that he agreed on the problem we’ve found considering a lady’s point of view but in his part, he can manage since he is a man.

So far, we discovered that our product is helpful more particularly to female travelers; for our female interviewers claimed that ladies are usually organized especially if they will be staying for more than a week in a place related to travelers. We just have to design and make sure that our product will fit on female users so that they will really choose to buy on our product instead of choosing the hard way. 

[cindy0326-blog]

Intellectual Property Rights Lecture

February 2, 2019, Saturday. A seminar at the Performing Arts Theater (PAT) conducted by Engr. Clark Gozon – Head of the Innovation and Technology Support Office (ITSO).s

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Pitching Day

Update! Update! Update! It’s pitching day!

After the midterm week, we haven’t time to relax yet. Why? January 30, 2019, Wednesday at 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm in the Undergrad Library Discussion room, is our scheduled pitching day. We were so nervous of what will happen, what will be the panels’ feedbacks to us, and how are we going to deal with their questions. In fact, we kept on asking our batch mates from different sections who had finished pitching. We wanted to be prepared. In fact, we met a day before that (January 29, 2019 at 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm).

We finalized the design and the materials of our product including the economics on how we are going to ask money to our supposed-to-be investors – the panels. Also, we had chosen who among the four of us will pitch. And they were in the person of Rene and Regine. However, the day before the pitching day, we found out that it is necessary to provide statistics on car owners since they were our target market. We thought that it would be okay to present an approximate number of customers since based on our interviewees, there were 6 out of 10 car owners. Also, our approximation is based on the actual statistics of the population in Cagayan de Oro City, ages 20 to 59 years old. Thus, on the pitching day, we presented approximate number of our target market.

To summarize what happened on our pitching day, it was an epic fail for me. One panel claimed that he would rather buy a P20 pesos worth similar to our product at the Unitop. It’s so sad because he didn’t even given us time to answer his question on how does our topic relates to our field. Our team knew that our product isn’t what typical people would expect from us. But somehow, we found a problem and that is why we came up with that kind of idea which is related to our subject “Strength of Materials”.

Furthermore, the panel didn’t give us constructive criticism. In the end, we don’t know what to do: whether we will continue our product or find something else. But as our initial discussion after we pitched, we will find ways to have 100 customers, if ever. We are going to send a letter to the Land Transportation Office to have an accurate statistics of our target market – the car owners. Lastly, we are considering to use recycled plastics so that our P1200 worth of product will be somehow affordable to people. However, we still have to consult our instructor of our next steps.

[cindy0326-blog]

MIDTERM WEEK

Hey what’s up? Waiting for an update? I’ll tell you what. We had our midterm week dated from January 21 to 26, 2019. In line with that, it means we will be having our pitching day! I know what’s in your mind right now. When is our schedule day? Are we prepared? What’s our final topic? How was our preparation?

To start with, we are still waiting for the schedule to be posted since in our section, our schedule for midterm exam varies in different subject. Amidst our busy schedule for the midterm, we still managed to talk about our pitch deck. In case you have forgotten, my teammates were just my circle of friends. So, it wasn’t difficult for us to meet before or after our exam. For the specific dates of our exam schedule, we had an exam on the following dates: January 21, 2019 at 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm; January 22, 2019 at 10:30 am – 12:00nn; January 24, 2019 at 9:00 am – 12nn, and January 25, 2019 at 9:00 am – 12nn and 1:00 – 4:00 pm. In other words, we had a rushed meeting after each exam we’ve taken.

Moreover, our final topic is the “Push and Pull Shelves”. Our assignment is to submit our pitch deck before our pitching day. In that manner, our preparation involves a powerpoint presentation. I and my teammates agreed to divide the task equally. And since we had to follow the 10/20/30 rule – 10 slides, 20 words per slide and 30 font size, I am assigned to the first three slides. The next two slides was taken by Wenna, The next two was by Regine and the next two was by Rene. The Summary, which is the last slide, is just an overview.

So far, our preparation is quite challenging since it falls on midterm week. However, the power of team work is effective. Although we had encountered push backs and misunderstanding from each other, in the end, we managed to communicate effectively and decide as a team. And even though we divided the number of slides, we assured you that it contains words or information we have agreed.

The good news is our pitching day was moved a week after the midterm week. In the end of the midterm week, we agreed to stay late next week before our pitching day to finalize everything.

[cindy0326-blog]

Pitching Preparation

Last Tuesday, January 15, 2019, we presented our second idea which is the “Rainwater Harvesting with Water Treatment for Potable Use”. Fortunately, it was approved. However, we have to prove during the pitching day that household owners will be saving money if they will choose our proposed solution. Pitching is a time where we will clearly present our ideas together with the problem we are trying to solve and a clear path of our business where we would really earn money in order to attract investors.

However, during our preparation, something unexpectedly came up. We found at that filtration is just a basic water treatment wherein it won’t assure safe rainwater for drinking. Rainwater should really be disinfected in which it will cost more money. We, ourselves, are the first hesitant of our product. In that manner, January 19, 2019, we decided to think of another common problem and come up with a solution again.

We know we’re really running out of time but our next target consumers are those people who love to travel especially those car owners. What’s the problem we’ve found? It is the traveler’s difficulty to have a mini cabinet where they could organize their personal things especially if it is an outdoor activity such as picnics and camping. Are you now curious of our solution? Well, we do hope to solve the existing problem we’ve found by making and providing a “Foldable Cabinet”.

On the same day, we interviewed ten sets of interviewee (e.g. individual, with a partner, with their family, with friends) at the parking lot of Limketkai Mall to ensure that we are hearing the side of car owners. They all affirmed that they love to travel yet only eight of them affirmed that it is really a problem to organize their things on one place. The remaining two just use their cars as storage. On the other hand, they said that they like our proposed idea and would like to buy depending on the materials to be used and the price. They like it to be durakble and economical. In addition, our interviewees have varied professions in which their income is not less than P50, 000 per month.

Please note that we do not limit our customers to car owners since many people love to travel. Our team would have additional sets of interviewee and further research next week. For a detailed presentation, see you on the Pitching Day!

[cindy0326-blog]

Proposal Week

“If you propose, be open-minded for the feedbacks”.  This is my inward thought in our proposal last Thursday, January 10, 2019. What’s our topic? Well, we proposed about “Underground Water Storage Tunnel”. It is like what’s in Japan but in a smaller scale. This kind of tunnel would become the common outlet of all the drainage in Cagayan de Oro City so that the flood would not directly go to the main river which is the Cagayan River.

In this topic, we are trying to solve flood. However, things aren’t always easy as planned. Our instructors made us realize that we have a large scope in our topic. In that manner, they suggested us to focus only on subdivision. For the location, they suggest that it is uptown (e.g., Green East Village) so that we could prevent the run off of rainwater towards downtown by collecting it in our underground water storage. Furthermore, the collected water will be used by the people in subdivision for their water consumption. Apparently, we find problems in that topic. First, it is difficult to design a water collecting system uptown considering our capacity. We need data for elevation and make sure that water would run towards our storage. Second, if we will make the water ready to use, we have to treat it since the flood water are not clean on the first place. Third, it is difficult to find location for our project since it is a huge water storage underground in which we will disrupt the infrastructures above. We have to make sure that the subdivision yet to be constructed. Lastly, if we are going to distribute water, we’ll do water distribution system which brings another scope. 

Saturday, January 12, 2019, we had a meeting again at USTP cafeteria. Since we want to make our topic more specific, we will use directly rainwater instead of floodwater through rainwater harvesting system. However, there has been an ongoing construction already of this project in our school. In addition, there was a group already who proposed about that project focusing on household. We brainstorm for more than an hour and come up of the idea of “Water Treatment for Rainwater Harvesting System for Potable Use”. Potable means drinkable. The treatment of rainwater will be through filtration and our target consumers are the household owners also.The problem we are going to solve are the insufficient water supply, the low infiltration rate, and the increasing price of water bill. The question is, are the latter really a problem?

Well, we decided to ask household owners. Each of us is assigned to ask at least 2 persons. In my part, I ask people living in flood-prone area, specifically in Agora. Then, we shared what we’ve got from our interviewees. So far, the problem is related to insufficient water supply especially every morning wherein there were lots of busy people getting ready for work. In that way, water supply doesn’t reach the 2nd floor and the next floors users. Also, some people validated the problem in increasing water bill and the low infiltration rate in their area.

For next week, we are going to propose this new topic which is “Water Treatment for Rainwater Harvesting System for Potable Use”. I do hope it will be accepted already since we are really excited to start designing specifically our own project. 

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IDEAS: THREE MINUS ONE

Third week. Yes. It's third week already. Third week means we are moving closer and closer to presentation week. Sounds exciting, right? December 12, 2018, we had our third formal discussion in technopreneurship subject. Wanna know what's new?  We have been told to focus on innovation and just forget for a while the technology and entrepreneurship. Sounds good right? I and my teammates, brain stormed again for our three ideas to be presented next year. Remember our first idea? The website thing? Well, we decided to pursue it. Okay. I know you're wondering what we are innovating. Any idea? Hmn, we're innovating service. Innovating service means we want to build easy connection between people and Engineers/Architects. 

On the other hand, our instructor told us to focus on our field since we have no idea in developing a website. But, we have interviewed people already. Thus, we agreed that two people in our team will study about making a website during Christmas Break. We know it is not easy but we also knew that it is a pain to those people who wanted to contact an Engineer to do their dream house but no one is there.

As I've said earlier, we need to have three ideas. Unfortunately, the backup ideas, in case the first idea will be rejected, are still undecided. We are considering structural ideas and traffic problems. But still, the specific pain we wanna cure is still not specified. We are still doing research. We will have our meeting before we will part ways during Christmas break so that we will have something to be do and be ready for next year's presentation. Stay tuned!

[cindy0326-blog]

Second Week: First Eight

Good day! It's December 7, 2018, Friday. I, together with my teammates are discussing each of our ideas about the problems we've noticed in our society and the possible solution we could create in lined with technology and entrepreneurship.  

It's very difficult to sort out ideas. But, do you know what's more difficult? It's when you have nothing to sort out. Yeah. Sounds funny but our first meeting started with a moment of silence. Well, fortunately, a suggestion came up. Then, additional ideas follow. Each one of us gave a suggestion. How are we going to start? What's the problem? Who are we going to interview? Who would interview them? What will be our solution?

"We are civil engineering student: Future Engineers". That's the phrase we kept on saying to find a problem and solution related to our course. Then, after a thorough discussion was made between me and my teammates, we focused on a problem related to structures specifically residential houses. Residential houses were commonly built by foreman or what we call "panday". We assumed that people find difficulty in contacting Engineers. That is why, our idea is to make a website as our startup. In that website, there will be a list of Engineers and Architects available for projects. Each of them will have its identity and background check. The user will just then post what they were looking for with an amount of their budget. Our website will serve as a broker.

However, the problem we've found was just an assumption. In that matter, we started getting feedbacks. How? by doing interviews to random people. From 1pm to 4pm, we go around Limketkai mall. We look for people who are just sitting and then politely ask for their time. It's very awkward at first but the more people I've talked to, the less shy I become. Since we are all four in the team, each of us was tasked to interview at least two people. In this week, we had our First Eight of interviewees. So far, all eight have agreed to be interviewed.

To summarize the results we've got, most of them lived in a house made by a panday. Others also were made by engineers. According to one of our interviewees, their 10-year house made by a “panday” contains crack due to earthquake and termites on the ceiling. Most of them wanted the idea to have a website to easily connect to Engineers ‘cause even though they have Engineer friends, they lived so far. Others also said that they don’t have an Engineer friends or relatives. However, the price also matters to them. Also, some interviewee prefers to personally know the Engineer to make sure that he/she can be trusted.

As of now, our group wants to pursue about that website idea considering the suggestions of those we’ve interviewed but we will make sure to get the side of Engineers as well.

[cindy0326-blog]

A Diverse Team of Four

Time flies so fast. Second semester is for real. Well, as expected, there will be new instructors requiring new projects. Indeed, new challenges to deal with. You know what, in this semester, one of our subjects is about technology and entrepreneurship. It is expected of us to find a real world problem to solve and build a working prototype solution by proposing a science and technology based, scalable, and impactful startups. What is a startup? It can be defined as an act of rebellion since it disrupts the order of things and rejects the current way of insufficiency. 

However, it will be impossible for me to solve problems alone. I ain’t a superwoman you know. As the saying goes, “No man is an island”. I need companion or shall I say companions. I need at least three different people who would not only give me additional ideas but also lend me a hand and be present along our second sem. journey. Why three? It is because it’s an effective number of people in a team to achieve a task. We’ll then be a team of Four. It has been believed that four is a stronger number than three but more effective than five to ensure that all members were given a task.

Our instructor specified that our team should be composed of a hacker, a hustler, and a hipster. A hacker will be the technical person in our group. A hustler is the speech guy while a hipster is the designer. Together, we’ll create brilliant ideas.

So, who would be my 3 groupmates? I believe that a team is composed of unique people who fill each other’s needs. As I’ve known myself, I am a shy type person who is not good in speaking in front of a crowd or starting a conversation.  But, I can work as an insider. I know I could contribute ideas. In short, I am an introvert. Thus, I need at least one extrovert person in a team. He/she will be my voice to build connections on the outside world. Don’t get me wrong, I can force myself to speak up. But to make it easier, I just want someone who could speak up easily without hesitation. The remaining 2 people could be either introvert or extrovert as long as we understand each other. As a general consideration, I want responsible people in a team who are willing to accomplish our goal and not just playing safe.

Going on, in my almost 4 years of journey in college, I’ve met special friends. I believe that my circle of friends is my comfort zone wherein I can freely express myself. I believe that my circle of friends is composed of unique individuals who are capable of handling stress. Some are expressive while some are secretive. Some have creative minds while others are just simple. Some have a sense of humor while others are just the source of humor. And I believe that all of my friends are responsible, intelligent, and are willing to sacrifice sleep for learning.

Thus, my groupmates came from my circle of friends. Why would I trade golds for stones? There are reasons why we met people in our lives. And I believe that one of these reasons is for us to form a diverse team of 4. November 18, 2018 - 12:00 nn