November 2012 – Andrew Huang's blog

Classmate BLOG COMMENT- ‘Heading into the Shark Tank’

Constructed of high quality, food-grade silicone and plastic, the 9.5 inch PlateTopper keeps food hot, cold, and fresh. Introduced by entrepreneur and founder, Michael Tseng, PlateTopper is a revolutionizing product for all home-owners and was named “potentially the best product we’ve ever seen” by a Shark/investor (Egan, 2012). In addition, Michael had a vision to expand his product and requested for funding that would help him along his journey.

As quoted from Hans’ blog, Mr. Tseng requested an initial investment of $90000 in return for 5%, but then raised his offer when he realized that the Sharks were becoming very interested to a $750,000 investment for 5% equity. This immediate and blunt adjustment of his offer infuriated the Sharks and ultimately resulted in the opting out of all offers made. From Hans’ analysis on his blog, I strongly agree with his opinion on the specific roles and actions entrepreneurs should adopt when dealing with risk and funding for their company. Entrepreneurs are denoted as and possess a reputation of extreme risk-takers, but, as Hans mentions, entrepreneurs should take risks but they also need to understand the correct and good time to halt and be satisfied with their earnings until it all goes downhill.

Sources: http://www.examiner.com/article/san-francisco-inventor-of-platetop

https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=shark%20tank&bpcl=38625945&biw=1920&bih=941&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=7zKkUNCHNeiaiQLSkYHYBA

http://platetopper.com/faqs/

https://blogs.ubc.ca/hanschoi/

http://www.examiner.com/article/san-francisco-inventor-of-platetopper-scoops-up-shark-tank-funding

Vancouver’s Bike Sharing Program may require a bailout

Shrinking ice caps, increasing sea levels, and irregular weather patterns are all causes of global warming and green house gas emissions from human activity. Studies have shown that the main contributor to ozone depletion is the burning of gasoline from transportation. An environmentally friendly solution proposed by Vancouver’s council is a bike sharing program, which will decrease the use of cars and carbon dioxide emitting vehicles. Although this green approach will reduce our city’s contribution to global warming, the bike sharing program will require a large amount of funding and investments. To add on to this obstacle, the citizens of Vancouver are faced with a daunting concern because the same company, Bixi, required a substantial $108 million bailout to support their project in Montreal.

This number has carried onto worried commuters and potential users of the bike sharing program. Through research and analysis, the City of Vancouver transportation director Jerry Dobrovolny said he is aware of the financial and legal difficulties of Bixi, but in Montreal its challenges are difficult because the city is the company’s manufacturing hub. Therefore Vancouver should have no doubts or worries because the city is estimated to only require $1.9 million of support for this project.

Sources: http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/432331/vancouver-bike-share-bailout-worries-unfounded-say-city-bixi/

http://planetsave.com/2009/06/07/global-warming-effects-and-causes-a-top-10-list/

http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/432331/vancouver-bike-share-bailout-worries-unfounded-say-city-bixi/