In Ventures in Learning Technologies, I created a fictitious venture proposition: Doorpodz. It allowed me the opportunity to complete a market analysis, learn how to pitch an idea and strengthen my presentation and video creation skills. I am a very creative person, always exploring new ideas and implementing ones that work. Because of this, working on a venture proposition was not only a creative challenge for me, but one that broadened my ability to “sell an idea” – an useful skill for facilitating change management.
STEP ONE: was to complete a market analysis. I decided to research LinkedIn as I felt that my venture idea would make a great third party plugin for LinkedIn.
STEP TWO: was to create a one minute elevator pitch geared towards investors.
STEP THREE: was to create a longer pitch providing more details on the venture.
STEP FOUR: was to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of my proposal.
Strengths:
- Doorpodz is a unique type of venture as there is no well known community existing specifically for career development and informational interviewing with a live chat function.
- Typical career sites are static with one main source of information. Doorpodz utilizes a popular medium for learning – connectivity with others.
- It is an ideal time to launch the Doorpodz venture as the online community is becoming quite comfortable with having an online profile (1 billion Facebook members) and talking over live chat (240 million monthly Skype users).
- Doorpodz builds upon the successful LinkedIn model.
Weaknesses:
- Because of the nature of this highly ambitious venture, I would have to be very successful in pitching this idea to be able to solicit any sort of assistance in pursuing my venture.
- The venture requires a tremendous level of technology and marketing knowledge to be successful and a team of individuals that are well connected in social media and networking would need to be enlisted to help get the venture off the ground.
- The energy and money required to create the platform may result in the venture not being cash flow positive for a very long time.
- Getting individuals to pay for products (such as a chat), subscriptions, etc. is a tough market. It is often more lucrative to tap into the business market, as seen in the rise in revenue from LinkedIn Talent Solutions. Doorpodz, as currently conceptualized, is reliant on industry advisors wanting to be part of the community and then career movers willing to pay for services. Pitching the concept effectively to industry advisors may prove to be a challenge.
- As with any social media site, Doorpodz must be well conceived and super easy to login and navigate in order for any user to be interested in being part of the community. The model at present may be too complex and need to be simplified to help attract and sustain members.
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