TNVDE: week 3
Week 3
As a means to test the business term knowledge of each student, a pop quiz awaited the students as the third class began. A bit of shock and surprise shone on each face as they realized that the clock was ticking and the questions kept changing. Since the professors were grading the quizzes as soon as the students finished they obtained the results that they expected. There is a disparity in the business term knowledge.
Prof. Jose Vega takes the lead today in the pop quiz/introduction to the actual course material. He talked about the ideal goals for the projects in the course. Using the stories behind local businesses such as: Los Cidrines, Don Frappe, and La Sambuca food truck he contrasted growth and stability. Moving towards Start-Ups and the challenges that accompany it, he said that it is like an organized form of chaos; form which a product or service is the only aspects that provides understanding. Amongst the challenges he mentioned financing, sizing markets and Intellectual Property.
How do you define Innovation? – A question Prof. Vega asked the students to gauge their thinking around the subject. Some of the answers were: “to make something better”, “game-changer”, “change strategies” and so on. As we know many authors define innovation differently but the idea bounces around changing an idea into something of value.
After discussing at length the many different opportunities, association, contests, and centers that are dedicated to Entrepreneurship in both PR and the University of Puerto Rico – Mayagüez, it was time to switch topics and focus on the art of a pitch. Prof. Vega says that pitching begins the moment you are born and that even animals pitch as well. Amongst the different types of pitch he mentioned: Elevator Pitch (ever so short and straight to the point), Rocket Pitch (more on the short and sweet side) and Investor Pitch (typically lengthy and lasts up to 25minutes) and Crowdfunding Pitch (using videos, scripts and such that motivate people to donate money to their project). He also discussed with the students the 10 Pitching Hints from the experts. Moreover, as a means to give an example of an amazing pitch, he showed a video of a Fireman who developed a product and pitched it in Shark Tank. As a result of his pitch he made a 1.25million dollar deal with one of the sharks. The lesson to be learned today is that in the Entrepreneurial environment hard work can only get you so far; integrating business ideas and strategies along with the hard work can, maybe, land you a million dollar deal at some point.
Source: NVDE Jose Luego Blog Posts