Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

• New Opportunity: Technology is going to continue to grow at rates that are unprecedented and business must adapt. As a result of continued technological globalization, learning on the job will never stop. Therefore, the skill gap in our workforce is actually an information gap. This information gap in the workforce is an opportunity as there is currently a disconnect between education providers and employers.  I want to solve this disconnect and improve the education of people so that they remain relevant in transforming job markets. This will be done through a platform which will help workers across every industry by educating them and preventing information gaps in work forces around the world. 
• Who: After conducting these interviews I gathered that the only people that really fall outside of the boundary for possible consumers are people that do not have a job and are not looking for one. People that I interviewed pointed out that this platform would not only be useful to people looking for work but also useful to current employees who need to remain educated on their job and expectations. People that are not looking for a job and are not currently employed would not have any use of this platform as it is strictly related to job research and education. One person also pointed out that retired people would not have the need for this product. 
• What:  Most of the people I interviewed said that the goal is to educate workers so that their skill-sets are relevant in the modern job environments. Trying to create the perfect worker is not the goal. This venture aims to solve the disconnect between education providers and employers by using a platform to train and educate workers on changing jobs and skill-sets. 
• Why: All of the people I interviewed agreed that the need does exist and will exist even more so in the coming years. This need exists because of the changing societal landscape as a result of technological globalization. People need something that can educate them on current jobs and skill-sets required for future careers. This product would fulfill a need that all of the working population has. The societal landscape is changing and career education and preparation has to change with it. 

	Inside the Boundary	Outside the Boundary
Who?	platform would not only be useful to people looking for work but also useful to current employees who need to remain educated on their job and expectations of their evolving career	the only people that really fall outside of the boundary for possible consumers are people that do not have a job and are not looking for one
What?	To solve the disconnect between education providers and employers by using a platform to train and educate workers on changing jobs and skill-sets.	Trying to create the perfect worker is not the goal. Goal is to educate workers to make sure their skill sets are relevant in the modern work environment.
Why?	This need exists because of the changing societal landscape as a result of technological globalization. People need something that can educate them on current jobs and skill-sets required for future careers.	Some people are not big into technology and resist the inevitable transformation that society is undergoing. Therefore, do not see the need in adapting to the changing world.

Solving the Problem

The issue is that climate change is going to cause global temperatures to continue to increase. Because of this, I saw an opportunity in cooling technology as it will become more and more valuable as the earth continues to warm up.  While researching this topic I ran across an article talking about how researchers at Stanford have begun using a solar material - an optical film 1.8 microns thick, made of quartz and silicon carbide, which not only reflects heat from the sun but also uses radiative cooling - to reflect as much as 97 percent of sunlight while emitting the thermal energy of the building it is placed on. This technology could revolutionize the way we cool houses and investing in it and creating a product based on this technical breakthrough would be extremely profitable in the future as people look for cooling solutions in the future. This product/service would be the installation of this solar material on the outside of people's houses so that heat is reflected off of it and simultaneously cooling the inside. While installation might be expensive, it pales in comparison to air conditioners when you realize that you do not have to pay a monthly fee for it.

My biggest problem with developing this product/service would definitely be the research and development aspect. Refining the material to make it as efficient of a cooler as possible and then developing it to insert on houses is a large task. While the research and development would be intensive, if an effective product could be produced there will be a market waiting to buy. As temperatures continue to rise the world is looking for a new cooling revolution and this could be it.  

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Opportunity: The consequences of climate change are here and rising temperatures provide an opportunity for a revolutionized cooling system known as radiative cooling which can reflect as much as 97% of sunlight.

• Who: People who use air conditioning in their homes/work.
• What: Rising temperatures will make it necessary for them to upgrade their cooling systems.
• Why: People will want this product not only because it is much more efficient but because it will be cheap and require little energy input unlike costly air conditioning units. This product could revolutionize the housing cooling industry in the future. 

Hypothesis

• Testing the who: The great thing about the target market for this product is that it practically includes everyone. Air conditioning units were incorporated all throughout society when they were invented and this product should have the same effect as the world needs a revolutionary way to stay cool as the earth warms. 
• Testing the what: The boundaries of this need are limitless as our society needs a new way to cool our world. A potential boundary however could arise from the technology as it may possibly not be as effective of a cooler as shown by the studies. If this new technology is incapable of cooling a house to the point of AC then customers may turn away from it even if it is more cost effective. 
• Testing the why: Not everyone will see the rising temperatures around the world as a signal to get a new cooling system. Some people may not be able to afford another cooling system while others might not be interested in the idea as people are resistant to change and new technology at first.

Interview #1 - Matthew E.

Matthew was very interested in my opportunity that I presented him with and thought that it met a future need that our society would have. However, he was hesitant about the technology and whether it would affect the outside appearance of homes which is actually a good concern to have. 

Interview #2- Ashley H.

Ashley liked the idea that I had however she did not think that it was viable in the market. She claimed that people had already invested a lot of money in their air conditioning units and that they would not pay for something else even if it did cool more efficiently. I tried to tell her that the product was a worthy investment for people because not only would the starting price be cheaper than an air conditioning unit but it also would reduce utility costs which would attract a lot of people. 

Interview #3 - Jackie A.

Jackie loved my idea and said that it could revolutionize cooling by providing everyone a more efficient and effective system than air conditioning. She said that society has always pushed boundaries and thinks that innovative ideas like this are what is going to save our planet from climate change. 

Interview #4 - Chris W.

Chris liked my opportunity that I came up with but he was concerned with the technical aspects of the radiative cooling and wanted to know how accurate the results of the testing were. I told him that this solar material could reflect 97% of sunlight and emits the thermal energy from the building. He, however, was not convinced and did not see the technology as a viable option.

Interview #5 - Ben O.

Ben was very interested in my opportunity when I asked him about it and he said that he found it very intriguing and wanted to know more. I explained how this product could be a revolution for cooling in the future as people turn away from air conditioning with rising temperatures and he agreed. 

Summary

These interviews shed some light onto my opportunity and it showed some flaws that I previously had not seen. I was surprised to see that many of the people I interviewed were skeptical about the technology and did not think it was a viable option. This, however, is not super surprising as whenever a new technology comes around people always seem to be hesitant towards it at first. My two main concerns with my opportunity after the interviews are that people will not believe the product is an effective cooler and because of this they will not give it a chance. People are reluctant to change so I must somehow show that this technology and product is viable in the future.

Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

1) Source: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/what-the-abqaiq-attack-should-teach-us-about-critical-infrastructure/
Economic trend #1 - Recent drone strikes on oil refinery in Saudi Arabia cause rising gas prices.

These drone strikes could have a large impact on the worldwide oil industry as it points towards increasing tensions in the Middle East where more than half of the world's oil supply is produced. Rising tensions will cause gas prices to increase around the world as overall gas production is slowed.  Consumers will see this as a negative long-term investment and will begin moving from gas-powered to electric powered vehicles. Because of this I see an opportunity for investment in electric powered vehicles as more people turn away from gasoline. The customers of this opportunity are going to be gas-powered drivers who switch to electric vehicles. I saw this opportunity because I believe that the future in travel lies in electric vehicles and increasing gas prices creates an opportunity in the industry.

2) Source: https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/15-07-2019-world-hunger-is-still-not-going-down-after-three-years-and-obesity-is-still-growing-un-report
Economic trend #2 - World hunger continues to be a problem yet obesity is still growing

This trend shows the economic disparity in the world is at a place where some people can afford to feed themselves to the point of obesity while some can't afford enough food to survive. This problem also seems to stem from our societal eating habits. Most humans eat a diet consisting of meat and dairy products  which is extremely resource intensive. We currently produce enough calories to feed 10-11 billion people worldwide, however, the majority of this food goes to feed livestock, not humans. I saw this as an opportunity to offer a solution to the world huger problem. By decreasing the world consumption of meat and dairy products, more land could be used to produce food for us instead of animals. There are already many people who adopt a vegan lifestyle and as more people embrace it hopefully more food is available for human consumption. I saw this opportunity because I have been well aware about the impacts that animal agriculture has on our society and after doing some research I was able to see how the hunger problems around the world could be decreased by becoming less reliant on meat and dairy.

3) Source: https://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/global-warming/science-and-impacts/global-warming-impacts
Regulatory trend #1: The consequences of climate change are here and one of the most pronounced effects will be more frequent and intense heat.

As someone who lives in Florida I can vouch that summers over the past few years have seemed to consistently get hotter. As the Earth continues to warm, it is bringing unprecedented health risks for people and communities across the country. Over the next 50 years cooling technology will become more and more valuable as cooling will be a necessity in most areas during the summer to prevent massive human losses to heat waves. Because of this I saw an opportunity in cooling technology as the next big cooling revolution will be essential as the earth continues to warm. While researching this topic I ran across an article talking about how researchers at Stanford have begun using a solar material - an optical film 1.8 microns thick, made of quartz and silicon carbide, which not only reflects heat from the sun but also uses radiative cooling - to reflect as much as 97 percent of sunlight while emitting the thermal energy of the building it is placed on. This technology could revolutionize the way we cool houses and investing in it and creating a product based on this technical breakthrough would be extremely profitable in the future as people look for cooling solutions in the future. The rising temperatures of our planet is inevitable and using radiative cooling to cool houses could be a future multi-billion dollar industry as the world begins to boil. I saw this opportunity because I have always been aware of climate change and rising temperatures. By identifying this as a regulatory trend occurring in our world, I identified an unmet need of much of the population as our current cooling systems will not be viable options for cooling everyone affordably which must be done in the near future. 

4) Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/04/michigan-bans-sales-of-flavored-e-cigarettes-restricts-vaping-marketing.html
Regulatory trend #2: The US government has begun banning sale of flavored e-cigarettes

The US government has become concerned with vaping and feel that the flavors are mainly marketed to young adults/children and cause them to become addicted to nicotine. As a result of this ban the e-cigarette industry is going to take a hit as a whole. An opportunity that arises from this is a buyback program of e-cigarettes for consumers who are worried about their health. These e-cigarettes could be bought back and stripped for their parts/battery. These e-cigarettes could be bought for close to nothing as it could be marketed as an environmentally friendly way to dispose of the batteries so people will be fine with handing them over for a small price. The profit margins on these buy-backs could be huge as batteries are extremely valuable and people will sell their e-cigarettes for a small amount of money. I saw this opportunity because of the recent ban on e-cigarette flavors and thought this was an unmet need in society. People need a way to dispose of them properly and why not profit off of disposing of them. 

My Entrepreneurship Story

The most exposure that I have had to entrepreneurship has been through my parents. Neither one of them is an entrepreneur but they both taught me about the business world and about working hard to get to where you want to be. My dad has taught me a lot about investing over the past few years which can be equated to being an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is a person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money. In other words, entrepreneur's invest money into businesses risking loss for profit. Being an entrepreneur, therefore, is not so different from investing in the stock market as both risk loss in exchange for increased profits. My dad has always taught me that meeting a market demand can lead to economic gains and entrepreneurs are great examples of how this can be done. Entrepreneurs will identify a problem in a society and then create a product/service which solves the problem. They then develop and manage a business venture in hopes of making a profit due to meeting a market demand. 

The reason why I enrolled in ENT3000 is because I believe that entrepreneurship is very similar to problem-solving. By learning more about the principles of entrepreneurship I can hope to improve my problem-solving (and problem finding) process and develop long lasting skills that I can take into the business world. Taking this class will be interesting and provide me with the know how to start my own business venture in the future. Solving problems is something society is constantly striving to do and the entrepreneurial process represents that as it is always at the forefront of innovation and progress.

Photo of my dad and I on our family's boat back home