Location
Savannah, Georgia
Team Members
Jie Ren ( China )
Andrew Marco ( United States )
Claire Partlow (United States )
Vy Ngo ( Vietnam )
Seth Ross (United States)
A case study of planning a startup
Spring 2015
Pursuit is a digital plaform that
prepares creatives to launch
successful start-ups through
expert guidance and offers
unique opportunities for
investors and makers to bid on
business concepts.
The Sharing economy
The creative brief
Applied from Terry Stone, Managing the Design
Process; Concept Development, 2010
The Problem Statement
Pursuit: the entrepreneurial network
There is an abundance of crowdfunding
and information networks designed for
entrepreneurs, however, there is not a
platform that holistically supports.
There is no shortage of platorms that
encourage crowdfunding and donations.
This network would allow users to pitch
their idea to potential partners such as
engineers, manufacturers, designers,
advertisers, and suppliers. This allows
the entrepreneur to network and better
prepare their idea before asking for
funding online.
Opportunity statement
There is an opportunity to create a
platform for entrepreneurs that not only
offers advice and/or funding but a holistic
system including a business development
framework, an advisor network, and
bidding system that forges partnerships
with investors, manufacturers, suppliers,
and other professionals needed to
actualize ideas.
Value proposition for creatives
Before
Join
After
A platform for creative individuals who
want to launch their innovative ideas
andare seeking assistance in making
their dreams reality. Our service provides
a legally protected information sharing
network between creatives, advisors,
investors, and manufacturers that
allows for the exchange of information,
expertise, and financing. This is
accomplished by guidelines, checklists,
expert screenings, trends research,
and cyber pitching. We differ from our
competitors by providing an holistic
service that brings innovative design to
life.
Value proposition for makers
What is a social network?
If this question was posed to a random
stranger, a likely answer might be
Facebook, or Twitter, or more
importantly something that connects
people on the internet.
According to the Oxford Dictionary,
a social network is a network of
social interactions and personal
relationships. Nowhere in the
definition does it mention the internet.
As humans, our definition of a social
network has become increasingly
dependant on the internet. However,
isnt a school chess club considered
asocial network?
More importantly, as a group of
designers, we believe that a social
network is dependant on utility and
an inherent human need for a sense of
community.
For investors, manufacturers, suppliers,
and the people necessary to making
ideas a reality who are seeking their next
project or business venture and desire
a vast network of innovative ideas and
creative people to choose from. We do
this by providing an online platform that
facilitates competitive bidding on idea
listings, easy communication, exchange
of data and money transfer while
also offering expert advice, and legal
protection for all users. Unlike other social
networks geared only toward funding or
advising entrepreneurs, we offer a holistic
approach for the purpose of bringing
innovative design to life.
Good & Different Matrix
Marty Neumeier, Zag, 2007
Bad & Same
Good & Different
Quirky
founder dating
maven
Cofoundr
linkedin
Sharktank
Behance
Makers row
Partner-up
biznik
Background summary
A platform for creatives who want to
launch their innovative ideas and are
seeking assistance in making their dreams
reality. Our service provides a legally
protected information sharing network
between creatives, manufacturers, and
investors that allows for the exchange
of information, expertise, and financing
through the use of a unique bidding
process.
Overview
This service is needed to help make the
actualization process for entrepreneurial
ideas as seamless as possible. This service
will help bring great ideas to life.
This is accomplished by providing
an online platform that facilitates
competitive bidding on idea listings, easy
communication, exchange of data and
money transfer while also offering expert
advice forums, and legal protection for
all users. Unlike other social networks
geared only toward funding or advising
entrepreneurs, we offer a holistic
approach for the purpose of bringing
innovative design to life.
Audience
Our audience is a combination of
creatives, These segments use our service
to connect with one another to create
a system that supports an idea from
conception to realization and takes the
stress and guesswork out of the equation.
suppliers, manufacturers and investors.
startup nation
common
invent help
Bad & Different
Bad & Different
Drivers
What is our goal? To make the connection
among creatives, manufacturers, suppliers,
advisors and investors.
What are we trying to achieve? To support
innovative ideas and help them become
actualized.
What is the purpose? To integrate
information, financing options, and
expertise exchange that creates new
business opportunities and ventures for
entrepreneurs.
The competitors
Our service has many main competitors
which are listed in the picture that
offer creatives a way to connect with
manufacturers, suppliers, and investors as
well as network.
Message
What do we want audiences to take away?
We want our users to feel that we are an
essential part of their team, an ally, a friend
and a supporter of their personal and
entrepreneurial goals. We want our users
to grow more confident about their ideas,
skills and goals as they interact with our
service.
Research Plan
Applied from LeCompte & Schensul, Designing &
Conducting Ethnographic Research
To organize our thoughts and better
understand the guiding questions that
needed to be answered, our group
created a research plan, considering all
areas that would need to be explored
and analyzed. Broad questions were
initially formulated to later generate more
descriptive, specific questions to guide
the research.
Who are the players?
What is a sharing economy?
What do we need to know?
Where is this service located?
When will it be used?
Why is this relevant/necessary?
How do we grow the social network?
I need to be in charge.
Cash is King!
I cant win without the
right team.
I learn by doing.
I couldnt have
done it on my own.
My network is one of the
most valuable assets.
Business Model Canvas
Stage-one: Share ideas
Creatives upload all of designers portfolio
pieces on Pursuit. The user will then choose
to pursue the startup development process
using his or her strongest work.
Stage-two: Zero in
If an idea is pursued by the creative, advisors
are paired with the user to make the idea
pitch ready. This includes making a business
plan, a budget, and performing user and
competitor research.
Stage three - pitch ready
Once an idea is pitch ready investors are
able to review the idea through the platform
and place bids on ideas.
Stage four - pursuit
Once a bid has been accepted and a dollar
amount has been agreed upon, makers
(manufacturers, suppliers, etc...) will have the
opportunity to bid on producing
The pursuit business model
Applied from Osterwalder & Pigneur, Business
Model Generation, 2010
Our business model incorporates a
limited rollout to students of design
and engineering schools first, in order
to generate interest and populate our
portfolio with concepts from trained
but inexperienced- designers and
engineers.
Once a critical mass of users/members
has been reached and operations
require all advisory positions be staffed
by full-time employees, we will expand
our service internationally.
Intellectual property
Market channels
Our marketing channels are specifically
related to the individuals we need to
[Link] primary groups aim to communicatewith are the creatives who
have ideas and the investors who can
help take those ideas to market. In order
to reach these different user groups,
multiple channels will be employed to
communicate our message.
College advisors/university talks
In order to reach the college kid and the
right-outta-school personas, university
lectures will be given on our product,
informing them of the Pursuit platforms
and why they should be using it. Also,
we will use college advisors as change
agents to encourage students to use the
platform for opportunities outside of
school.
Applied from ProperCounsel, Intellectual Property
Fundamentals Quick Reference, 2015
Social media
Direct maketing
In order to reach all of our creative
personas, Pursuit will employ social
media, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, as
communication tools to inform the user
groups.
In order to reach investors, Pursuit will
directly contact angel and venture
capitalist investment groups through
email and presentaions on location.
Conferences/trade shows
In order to reach all personas, Pursuit will
attend and speak at design conferences,
Tedx talks, and trade shows. Conferences
do a great job of bringing like-minded
people together all at once. Attending
conferences that attract our user groups
will allow us to diffuse the platform to
opinion leaders in the field.
Hosting pitch events
In order to convince investors of the
quality of Pursuit, pitches will be hosted
that bring investors and creatives
together and allow for in-person
presentation of ideas. The pitches would
be open to public, bringing in more
potential users.
We understand the need to protect
the IP of our members and will employ
attorneys with expertise in IP to guide
members through the process of attaining
whatever trademarks, copyrights and
patents necessary to ensure the successful
defenseof any challenge to their rights as
creators. Additionally, we will assist with
legal activities required to protect our
members work and the companies we
help launch.
Trademark
To protect the Pursuit name brand
and logo a trademark will be used.
A trademark is used in commerce to
identify and distinguish the goods of
one manufacturer or seller from those of
another and to indicate the source of the
goods.
Copyright
To protect the process used to help
creatives launch successful startups,
Pursuit will copyright said process. A
copyright is protection granted to authors
of original works of authorship that
includes the right to reproduce, distribute,
prepare derivative works, perform, and
display the aforementioned copyrighted
work.
Non-Disclosure Agreement
To protect the intellectual property of our
users/members and Pursuit, we require
all vistitors to our website to read and
sign a any designs. A NDA is a contract by
which a person agrees to not disclose and
information shared by or discovered from
the use of confidential information.
Non-Solicitation Agreement
To protect Pursuit from investors and
manufacturers poaching creatives work
found through the use of Pursuit, and
sidestepping the platform, a nonsolicitation agreement will be enforced. A
non-solicitation agreement is a contract
by which a person agrees to refrain for a
specified time, from enticing employees
or customers away from a company or
employer.
Branding and prototyping
In order to visualize what the Pursuit
platform might look like and how it
might function, four different homepage
mockups were created and feedback was
gathered. creatives, advisors, investors,
and manufacturers. Also, a combination
of high design was a plus, especially for
attracting creative users.
Along with website prototypes, office
space renderings were created as well as
business cards and letterheads.
Pitch for SCAD
SCAD is full of amazing student work and talented artists, but most of the work never goes anywhere or just sits in students
portfolios. After additional research about college incubators, pursuit was modified to fit into SCAD college system.