Assignment 29: Venture Concept No. 2

OPPORTUNITY

·      Food waste is not a new problem, however there has not been a solution to it. Other than articles written on how to be more conscious about food purchases, nothing has been implemented to truly target and help minimize the issue.

·      The heart of the issue is that people tend to forget food they have bought which then ends up expiring and going bad before they can use it.

·      A study in 2017 by the Natural Resource Defense Council showed that an average of 3.5 pounds of food per person was wasted at home every week across the three most populated cities in the United States.

·      Food waste is a problem that costs the average family of four at least $1,500 per year. And it results in massive amounts of wasted water, landfill use, climate pollution and other environmental damage.

·      The market consists of those who mainly cook/ eat at home, so in reality that can be any person from 18-80 years of age. Although there are households/persons that have a lower food waste percentage than others, none are completely absolved of having no food gone to waste. Thus, the app applies to those who are less and more susceptible to the issue, because at the end of the day, no one has it completely under control.

·      Customers are not using anything other than themselves to solve the issue. They try their best to remember that their food is going bad and to buy less to reduce the chances of more food going bad, but in reality, they are not using any products/services to aid themselves.

·      Because of the very fact that there is nothing in the market to truly target the problem, I believe that the opportunity is big.

INNOVATION

·      My service comes in the form of an app called FoodCtrl. The way it works is simple:

·      Once the app is downloaded it will ask the user to 1) select from a list, the main grocery stores they shop at and 2) select from a group of pictures what kind of food items they buy. After that, it will direct the user to a page titled “My Purchases”, where a camera icon will appear for the user to start taking pictures of their food products. This part is the heart of the app. With the help of artificial intelligence, the pictures taken of the food products will be scanned in order to identify the item. Once the food item is correctly identified, it will then be given a countdown to its expiration date. The app will also provide automatic alerts as the expiration date approaches to remind the customer.

·      As an additional feature, the app will also provide tips and reminders as to how to store and/or prepare the food item. For example, if the item is a meat, it will tell the user to store it in the refrigerator if they plan on using it in the next two days or store it in the freezer if they plan on using it later on. For preparation, it will tell the user to leave the frozen meat to completely thaw in the fridge or if pressed for time to take the meat out of its package, let it run under cool water, and leave it out on a plate until completely thawed.

·      This extra feature is incorporated into the app as a food safety feature.

·      Although the app will be free, it will gain revenue through advertisements.

VENTURE CONCEPT

·      Individuals will use my app if they are interested in saving the environment and their money in an easy and free manner.

·      In my case, since I would be the first in the market with a service to help reduce food waste, there would be no switching costs, nor any switch for the customers to make.

·      Although there are no current competitors, surely there will be new entrants to the market that I may have to compete against in the future. On the other hand, since I would still be the first to come to the public with this new idea and service, I would have an advantage.

·      Employees: I would begin with a small group of 5 people. This group would consist of designers (navigation planner, visual designer and content planner) and a marketing specialist.

·      Unfair Advantage: As I said before, my uncle, who I am close to, has been working in the technology industry creating apps and websites for other companies. Having his expertise, combined with my novel idea will allow me to have a great advantage by not only being the first in the market but by surging with a clear, new, well-developed product.

·      What’s next for the venture? I would like to incorporate a shopping service within the app. I would like to team up with food/grocery delivery service apps so that when the expiration date is approaching for a food item, the user will be given the option to add the product to their “Future Shopping List”. What this will do is then create a shopping list that the user will then be able to order from. However, I would incorporate this service in limited countries, where these types of services are heavily used and have gained popularity. In addition, if I can execute my idea well, I would also consider making my app a subscription service. I would try to already have this as a choice, as a premium version perhaps, once the app is launched.

·      What’s next for me? In the next 5 years I want to see my venture to have started to create a noticeable change in the amount of food waste produced. I hope that I would have been able to perfect the way my app works and aids users and started to gain prominence.

SUMMARY OF FEEDBACK & CHANGE

·      The two main points that I found throughout the feedback that was given to me was that 1) food waste is an issue that has not been thoroughly addressed and 2) that my venture has been well thought out. Although I mainly received positive feedback, making me believe that I am headed in the right direction, I did get an idea from someone that I could incorporate - that is, to make my app a subscription service. Other than adding this possibility as a next step for my venture I kept everything the same.