23A- Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

Assignment 23A- Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

1. Uniqueness of the venture: There is not a product that is similar to mine on the market.

• Valuable: This is very valuable if I want to gain a good customer base.
• Rare: The product is rare although a lot of other products do not have competitors.
• Inimitable: It is possible that someone could copy the idea for my product.
• Non-substitutable: I could come up with a similar idea and it gains success.

2. Social Capital: Contact with college students

• Valuable: Their input and experience with skin care products could give me insight into what would make my product marketable.
• Rare: It is easy to get into contact with college students to ask them about the products they use.
• Inimitable: These experiences/input cannot be imitated by anyone since they are personal interviews.
• Non-substitutable: This cannot be substituted.

3. Personal Relationships with entrepreneurs: My cousin is an entrepreneur and gives me tips sometimes.

• Valuable: It is valuable that I can speak to someone everyday about business ideas
• Rare: I could find other entrepreneurs to talk with
• Inimitable: My relationship with my cousin cannot be imitated
• Non-substitutable: I cannot substitute a relationship with someone else

4. Social Capital: Engineer: I could use my chemical engineering contact to help me create the product

• Valuable: This helps me figure out how to design my skin care product.
• Rare: It is not hard to find chemical engineers.
• Inimitable: This would be easy to copy, it is just a matter of connecting with engineers.
• Non-substitutable: I could substitute the engineer.

5.  Social Capital: Dermatologist: I could talk to my local dermatologist about this venture

• Valuable: The dermatologist would help me figure out what is missing in the skin care field
• Rare: It is not hard to find dermatologists
• Inimitable: This would be easy to copy.
• Non-substitutable: I could replace the dermatologist, but not his exact knowledge.

6. Social Capital: Marketing student: I could have my marketing friend help me market my product

• Valuable: He will provide me with the tips needed to market my product successfully.
• Rare: This is not too rare.
• Inimitable: I could definitely copy this.
• Non-substitutable: Anyone could find a marketer.

7. Publicity: Skin care has recently become a growing trend amongst young adults

• Valuable: Media is valuable if I want my product to sell itself.
• Rare: It is rare that skin care gets publicity. 
• Inimitable: It is important that I set myself apart from competitors so that I cannot be inimitable.
• Non-substitutable: I could do advertising myself, but there is already buzz about skin care routines.

8. Social Capital: Business Background: Having a business background will give me an advantage over other ventures

• Valuable: I believe it is valuable to have a business background when starting a new business.
• Rare: It is not too rare for someone to have business experience.
• Inimitable: Unless someone also business experience, they cannot copy this.
• Non-substitutable: The contacts I make cannot be substitutable unless they knew the same people as I do.

9. Public Speaking Experience: I have had a lot of experience speaking in public.

• Valuable: I can use these skills to sell my product.
• Rare: This is not rare, anyone can develop this skill.
• Inimitable: This could be imitated, besides from the exact experience I have.
• Non-substitutable: You cannot substitute this.

10. Fundraising Experience: I have worked on projects where I had to raise money for organizations

• Valuable: This is very valuable when starting up a business.
• Rare: This is not rare.
• Inimitable: It depends on the individual’s drive to fundraise.
• Non-substitutable: I could hire someone to fundraise.

After doing the VRIN analysis, I think I would use the Dermatologist and the Chemical engineer. These two people are fundamental in creating my product. I think these two people would be part of my secret sauce. Also, using someone with an expertise in marketing would help my product get out there.