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[gilbs]

Blog 5 | Not Goodbye, Until We Meet Again

Ola! I am now on the last blog. I can't believe how time flies so fast. The first semester is ending; hence, my subject, Entrepreneurial Mind, will also finish soon. One insight that came up to my mind real quick was the team's startup's growth and involvement. The group had continued interviewing clients, significantly that we leveled up to more giant enterprises such as grocery staffs, market baggers, and store cashiers. Unlike the last blog, we only interviewed ordinary citizens. Surprisingly, they liked our idea/product, and they would buy it if there comes a time it is available in the market. Overall, the feedback was positive and blessed. At first, I expected most of them to dislike it, but luckily, it turned out the opposite. I had a good time having my grocery with my mother because I aim to interview random crews despite the pandemic.

Enough with the startup updates, I have reflectively grasped lessons from our teacher's last two topics on the Facebook page. I am enlightened that interacting with real customers and learn about their needs is essential, especially in the business world. The businesses need to identify and discover the customers' real problems, their actual point of pain, customer needs and frustrations by having the Doing Things That Don't Scale. Otherwise, the team won't provide the perfect match of products or services they are looking for. If the group is not doing their purpose, they waste their time, money, and effort. I also realized that it is crucial to test the hypothesis to know if we identify the problem. Then launch fast because there are a lot of competitors out there. Last, to do things that don't scale as this tells the team to do even the most simple things to evaluate our ideas to scale up and determine the demand.

I captured impressive knowledge about how a startup works. Before a business succeeded, it started as an idea. But it won't be a successful business if that idea remains an idea. Likewise, the process is continuous. After learning, I have reflected that there are features that are necessary for our product. We will build again, measure, and learn as this recommends the combination of informed experimentation, iterative product releases, and validated learning. The first step in creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is to identify the problem we want to solve for our future customers. Then develop a MVP to test our assumptions as this would then be our solution, and this solution is our product. A minimum viable product is the smallest feature set that gives the most learning, feedback, failures, and orders. It is an incremental and iterative way. It is not a prototype, not a deployable version with the fewest features, and it is what enables a test of hypothesis.

MVP purposes interest me the most. It is to enter the market with a small budget, minimize errors, balance company offerings, customer needs, find the right audience, and collect the maximum quality feedback. Through MVP, customers will help me realize those loopholes in the business, the product, and what areas we need to improve. Hence, it is essential to ask for customer feedback since they are the user; they know what features I should include on my product to satisfy them. By then, I am going to discover what are the things that make customers satisfied. MVP is a stripped-down version of a product quickly created to deliver customer value. The smallest solution that delivers customer value prevents me from wasting time and money to solve the wrong customer's wrong problem with the wrong answer. That is why MVP is vital in validating data and is a big part of my startup journey.

An MVP gives me a chance to test whether or not customers want my product. Don't scale initially; the methods I used to recruit new customers will not be scalable. A great deal of time and energy will be required to identify the right group of people and then convince them to give my product a chance. However, the goal of an MVP is to acquire as much validated learning as possible. No one is better suited for helping me with this than a group of visionary customers and early adopters. Finding the core people whose lives will be bettered by my product is essential in building my MVP as this will help me arrive at the right customers, and it will help me improve my product along the way. Unfortunately, these people won't come to me; I must go out, find them, and recruit them.

In raising money, this is to purchase equipment, rent offices, hire staff, and grow fast. Investor pitching can be of 3 kinds. These are elevator pitch (a one minute pitch), short-form pitch (a 3-10 minutes pitch), and long-form pitch (a formal pitch with a time duration of 20 minutes long). In creating a perfect pitch, he or she must be qualified to tell a story. He should convey the problem, the solution, why this, and why he is part of the team to venture this idea because the best stories travel from the mouth. He also needs to keep his specific audience perspective in mind, be exciting, and make sure his message is understood. With this in mind, it also essential to follow the 10/20/30 rule. Ten slides or fewer to explain the business, only twenty words per slide will make presentations better because it requires him to find the most salient points and know how to explain them well. Last, a thirty-point font. The reason people use a small font is twofold: first, they don't know their material well enough; second, they think that more text is more convincing. The storyline should start by identifying the problem by beginning with a "hook" and give them facts about something the audience doesn't know about. It is vital to convince them of the problem; he needs to open their minds that there is a problem. Followed by the solution, show how it works, and educate them with the minimal steps or activities to how the product works. Next, prove how huge the opportunity is, such as the potential market size. Another is to show timing is right and give them confidence he is on the right team. Last, to close with the exciting next steps.

I am grateful for my Entrepreneurial Mind journey. Before knowing the concepts and essential points in this subject, I am always interested in doing business. It won't matter what age I would start my business for as long as it's at the right time. Engaging in a team meeting, proposing ideas, collaborating, and brainstorming with them is what I enjoyed because an idea will stay as an idea if no process is made. This is why it is essential to update the interview results from time to time to evaluate if their problems are addressed and know if our products and services work. As I conclude my final blog, the teachings, reflections, and blog updates will be useful in the coming chapters of my life. Even if the semester is ending, I will continue to apply my learnings from this subject because I never know what will happen next. I can always look back to this blog whenever I need some guidance and direction. Therefore, as usual, I will end this blog with a quote. This is from Paul Graham, "It's not enough just to do something extraordinary initially. You have to make an extraordinary effort initially.”

[gilbs]

Blog 4 | Progression not Perfection

Bonjour, my loves! It has been a marathon of 5 weeks until I uploaded a new blog.  It was a shock for me to wait this long because everyone in the online class had been busy with modules, online requirements, live counseling, and more. In such, the first in line was dealing with Midterm Examination, to be followed by the AACCUP week, coming right up is the Business Model Canvas, lastly a GEE 16 rest week-where no assignments to be working on, hence, an advantage for me to focus on other school activities. Today, it is now on the 5th week, and I am glad to be sharing my insights from the two lecture series. Before everything else, the most highlighted update that arises from the team during the 4th week are the changes of strategies from “patenting and licensing to the company that, we, as a group coordinates with our intellectual property towards the ideas, decisions, and opinions made by the manufacturing establishments” to “direct sales towards citizens that we, as a team continues to gather client’s thoughts, impressions, and decision impacts about a bioplastic product specifically bio-cellophane.” The group settles for this adjustment because we have difficulty contacting or reaching manufacturers via email, telephone call, or messenger chat. The companies won’t easily entertain us, especially that we are just students with a proposed product and not dealing with concerns about their goods or services. Instead, an interview with ordinary people is reachable, and this is why we incorporated this kind of revenue stream.

I captured significant learnings from the two sessions. I think about nice things about what a startup is, but they are not that lucky in reality. Startups are very uncertain; you're introducing something very new concepts to a whole lot of different people trying to find out if it works or not. Even the small business administration defines a startup that as succeeding years go by, the chances of startup failing are very high, and these are bad insights of startups. Sometimes we start with our curiosity; we consider our initial idea. However, there are a lot of challenges that we can relate to. Starting a business should teach a person to be patient as well as handling people. Any business and any industry you will go to will have to deal with many people, with different types of personalities, investors, customers, partners, and employees. You need to expand your network and "pabagaay ug dagway" in terms of dealing with people. Whether you like it or not, you will always deal with people. Hence, keep an open mind and open heart when dealing with them.  The more you're open, the more you will gain trust in them. This is why we learn; even if we fail, we can also learn. Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.

CDO Bites focuses on groceries and various stores like meat, vegetables, fish, and pharmacy. They also committed to other stores like fruit-stand. All of these stores were asking for help from the app. Technically,  due to COVID and fewer staff and programmers working, they decided to focus on only one store. It means closing others; otherwise, their service will be jeopardized and won't improve their process. They started their rate very cheap and garnered them a lot of customers. In the first month, they reach 45 deliveries a day from 1 store. In the next months, their sales decrease because COVID was less at that time. They realized they don't need to rely on the pandemic alone; otherwise, the business will go bankrupt.

Two months ago, they discovered a brilliant team to sustain excellence in their service; it takes a lot of work. They needed extra man-power for their marketing. They had to brainstorm, and with the help of CDO Bites, their mentors were able to polish the mission and vision and target markets.

 They have ambition, but at a certain point, they have reached a pain-point wherein their services and income were compromised. With that, they had to decide to let go of some things and focus on other things. They have partnered with so many stores, too much that they took a bite more than they could swallow. Hence, they have to make hard decisions to get some focus on what they wanted.

Last month, they decided to focus on the goose that lays golden eggs; these are the sari-sari stores. They have been engaging with them ever since. However, they didn't lose their vision to help those in the families, but they have to choose to make money; otherwise, they will go flat broke. Thus, they had to pause on everything else and focus on what made them more income and stability.

Furthermore, three weeks ago, they had to meet CDO bites investors and talked about the pricing model. The investor asked, "Why do you  have to go so low?" reality struck them; they wanted to claim the title that they are the ones who help them, and it came from their heart to give them their best service at the lowest price. They had to develop better pricing when they implemented the 5% cheaper than their major competitors.

Long story short: here they are still consolidating, refocusing their efforts towards gaining a stable market such as sari-sari stores. They ignore many things; "The essence of wisdom, is knowing what to neglect".  They have already been gaining contractions to sari-sari stores and loving their service despite increasing it to 5%; they have been transparent to their partners to improve their service and app. The sari-sari stores understand and still insist that they are still the cheapest among all they experienced. Hence, they are lucky to have these kinds of customers. These insights helped me to look at the reality of what a startup is.

As I conclude my blog, the team’s progress, journey, and project proposal doesn’t need to be perfect because there are such things as failures and breakdowns along the way. Hence, everyone should be flexible and emotionally stable enough to deal with these. To end, allow me to be sharing with you guys a quote from Syed Badiuzzaman for enlightenment, “Nothing will ever be perfected as perfection is a continuous process.”

[gilbs]

Blog 3 | Team Progression

Welcome to another blog! Another 14 days have passed, and we are now on the 3rd blog. Proud I am to say that our group has been doing great, everyone was actively participating and cooperating to certain team meetings for updates, modify strategies, and shared ideas in such, we had successfully generated our empathy map. With this, such questions were composed to establish the team to focus on desired goals. The group extensively appreciates the smart empathy mapping because, honestly, it serves as a guide for us to become empathetic for our customers. Most especially, we wanted to produce better products/services from their own desired wants. An example in connection with our product, a client is bothered with the environment surrounded by plastics. Generally, the earth is struggling with plastic pollution. The team empathized the client’s problem through the proposed solution, selling our intellectual property, because we get a feel for our customer and try to be helpful. Hence, we show empathy. Then, with the empathy map as a standard guide, it allows us to explore more on the customer’s perspective with regards to getting a sense of the feelings of others. A way to reveal people’s thoughts and experience; specifically on how he or she sees, say, do, hear, think, and feel.

So much with the empathy map, we started interviewing ten ordinary citizens last week. The questions were generally based on the team’s plan/goal to sell our intellectual property. Likewise, the queries were, “We have a proven research entitled, Starch-based Bioplastic from Canistel (Pouteria Campechiana) Seed, and we are planning to sell our intellectual property. For you, what could be our first step? And where can you possibly refer us?” and “(Name), did you know that commercial plastics takes very long to degrade? Wherein the bioplastics holds only 1 month and then decomposes itself. If there comes a circumstance where bioplastic resources are available and you were to choose between the commercial plastics and bioplastics products, which would you select and why?” From the first question, 3 of the clients responded to refer our intellectual property to the recycling, manufacturing, and large-market establishments; most especially to the corporations that are in dire need of using eco-friendly products. Moreover, they elaborated that our job is to persuade the facilities to go for eco-friendly stocks. Hence, the customer stated her opinion if not for selling; the team may give it to the government then encourage the officials to implement the product to all corporations that produce plastic-wrapped productions with the team’s proven research asset. Finally, to proceed with the second question, I am delighted that all clients opt to settle for bioplastic products simply because it is good for the environment to resolve the plastic pollution problem. Attached below are the screenshot conversations made between the entrepreneur and the client.

It’s been a joy to be updating our progression here in the blog because it had me reflect on the team’s effort, either we gain a build-up on the marketed product or the other way around. I’ll see you guys on the next blog, keep posted! To end this, I would like to share a quote from Henry Ford, bringing out the beauty of teamwork, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

[gilbs]

Blog 2 | Start of Team Proposal

Greetings everyone! Three weeks have passed, and I am going to upload this new episode of the blog. New things have started the previous days, and I am excited to share this in here. First things first, I have joined a team; we are five members in total, and then we created a group chat in messenger right away. Our instructor approved our line-up. A few days later, the team arranged a video conference for us to work out on our desired proposed solutions on a particular problem. We have brainstormed four ideas in total. However, we are entrusted to push one proposal.

The first idea was a biodegradable plastic that turns into drinking water by melting it. Another is wrapping the popcorn package nicely to make it look attractive. The third solution proposal is the innovative bioprocessing technologies that unravel the burden of bread molds by hydrolysis of these nutrient compounds with proteolytic and amylolytic enzymes and the supplementation with nitrogen and carbon sources. Although, this idea was a complicated one, and the team decided to disregard it. Finally, the thought most of us agreed on the conceptualization, "Bioplastic made out of Canistel Seeds." The problem is about plastic, which pollutes the earth and leads to air pollution and water pollution due to the toxic chemicals and their non-biodegradable substances. With our proposed solution, the questions that are focused on the problem are addressed to the agricultural workers, engineers, teachers, or even ordinary citizens. The team is required to interview four people per week. Likewise, it will be open-ended, meaning the participants are allowed to state their own opinions, assessments, and recommendations with regards to the question, "We have a proven research entitled, Starch-based Bioplastic from Canistel (Pouteria Campechiana) Seed, and we are planning to sell our intellectual property. For you, what could be our first step? Where can you possibly refer us?"

It took us a long time to finally settle this idea generated because after pondering the different solutions, we had distinct reflection and judgement on which of these ideas are more attainable and manageable. The motive that intrigues the team to work with bioplastic is that one of us has approved research about this. With this intention, it would be an advantage to let us have a supporting document that may help through the process of our project. Initially, it was simpler if we have to enforce, "An Eco-friendly Home Decorations Assembled from Plastic Waste." Yet, we realized it was too ordinary and a well-adopted discovery known globally. Hence, after we sorted out the conclusive project, we produced a formal team presentation to be submitted to our teacher. Through this, it summarizes a scoop of opening details, awareness, and teaching points in regards to our proposed solution.

I find the arrangement, communication, and structuring of ideas exciting and fun to work over because we had shared different impressions and viewpoints that had the team to collaborate. Indeed, these interactions and connections are essential given that it is a group work, meaning cooperating and helping one another is a necessity.

That would be all for the updates, stay tuned with the next blog coming soon! May everyone has a blessed day ahead. To end my second blog, I would like to share a quote that may inspire you guys, "Take the first step in faith, you don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." -Martin Luther King Jr.

[gilbs]

Blog 1 | I’ll Give Something a Try

Hello World! Here's a short introduction about myself: the name is Hannah Hilary S. Ababon, 19 years old, and living at Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental. You can call me Hannah for short. I am currently a Level II nursing student at Central Mindanao University. One fact about me is that I completed my secondary education at Xavier University Senior High School - Ateneo de Cagayan. Choosing a nursing course is my chosen path because I want to help out people in need of care, lend a hand to patients who call out for nutrition guidance, and support the needy who wishes for a self-independent care education. I am honestly struggling emotionally, mentally, and physically because of this "new normal" online education platform. Deep down in my heart, my only wish is for this pandemic distress that we all endure may come to an end.

So much with that, this is my first time to blog. When Entrepreneurial Mind was added in my units, today's school year 2020-2021, I thought this is just like my subject, "Entrepreneurship in Philippine Setting," when I was in senior high school. I was wrong; I realized they are different, but with similar ideation. Learning the social, economic value entrepreneurship and essential life skills are new to me. I decided to give it a shot, for me to develop the core capabilities in idea generation, as well as to explore and appreciate the creativity and innovation of an entrepreneurial mind.

The previous week, I grasp an essential concept about the fundamental entrepreneurial mind intellection. These are simply the positive solutions created by entrepreneurs to improve the standards of living to people. Their ideas may build an impact on the government and businesses as it would help their market and administration to grow and remain to shine. For me, an excellent entrepreneurial mind is never to give up. A positive mindset is a key to rising from failures because nothing in life is always perfect. I would be likely to trust the process, trust in myself, my team, and above all, to God. Whatever challenges and struggles I faced, I am not alone.

This subject requires to upload a blog during the entire first-semester "Entrepreneurial Mind" journey. I will update important status and notice until next time. Ciao! To wrap up my first blog, I would like to end it with a quote, "Every decision starts with the decision to try." - John F. Kennedy.