18A – Create a Customer Avatar

"Retired Ladies Who Do Yoga in the Morning"

I think not!!!

My customer avatar:

I have a lot in common with this customer as I love business in the same way that he does. He spends most of his waking life reading, teaching, and practicing business. Above all else his family is the most important thing to him. The fact that accurately reporting ROI is one of his main challenges validates the direction I need to go in solving this problem.

17A – Elevator Pitch No. 2

I received some great feedback from Elevator Pitch 1. The most valuable being that I had to extrapolate on the solution. I decided to do this by pitching for the follow up call based on a $400 million dollar market potential.

My video for Elevator Pitch 2 is located at:

16A – What’s your secret sauce?

Know Thyself

Five things that make up my human capital, in no order:

1. Creativity – Although I am creative to some degree when it comes to the arts, in this context I am creative at solving problems. I can look at large problems and break them down to smaller digestible tasks along the way.

2. Knowledge – I have been in business & technology for 20yrs. I joined a start up that grew from 70 employees to over 3000. A private company that went public. I have worked with every major US technology company to develop products throughout my career.

3. Training – I have attended courses through my job and on my own in Computer Science, Business, Product Management, Project Management, and Executive leadership. Each contributing to a well-rounded professional that understands the complexities of running a business.

4. Patience – This did not come naturally, and I credit maturity for the most part. I can pause in extreme stressful situations, listen to people, and bring things back to a level of normalcy. I can explain my expectations concisely to communicate the end goal.

5. Loyalty – I am extremely loyal to my friends, family, and others that are part of my life. I am also devoted to any cause that I pursue and give it 110% when I decide it is something I need to fight for. I never give up and never give in.

{I am still waiting for a couple of interviews to come in so I can add a summary}

15A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Evaluating How Your Customers Evaluate Stuff

The individuals in my segment are B2B. When it comes to alternatives they are at the mercy of what agreement their company has with a vendor that supplies the business cards. Knowing this I was very limited in the general questions to ask since they all follow a similar, if not the same, purchase experience. The experience as follows: Order is sent to a secretary or purchasing agent, style is already selected based on company style guide, and paid for by the corporate account. Not very exciting. Therefore, I had to approach my interviews with an “if you could” statement to break them out of the normal mold and provide insightful information.

One out of three of my interviews preferred to stay with the status quo on ordering business cards. The process to him seemed easy. He would send an email and a box of business cards showed up on his desk a week later. The other two, one from sales and one from marketing went along for the ride with me to define alternatives. Both admitted that what they do today, albeit easy to achieve, is a waste of money. The reason being is that they do not see any return. They have tried QR codes and alternative ways to pass along their information, but nothing seems to stick on a large scale. The Marketing VP indicated the best performance she saw was when she hand wrote her information down with an inspiring quote. All three indicated the post purchase experience was nothing to get excited about. In my own words, not much more above getting your electric bill each month.

As non-productive as this exercise seemed at the beginning it was the exact opposite and probably the most learned of all. The opportunity in front of me is more difficult to solve that I originally imagined. Based on the interviews the two key takeaways I gathered was to solve:

1. Determine when to pass contact information to a potential lead

2. Determine how to define the success of passing the information along to a potential lead

As trivial as they may seem, these are complicated problems to solve. As the class progresses, these are the two questions I hope to answer.

14A – Halfway Reflection

1) Tenaciousness is a competency. What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course?

a. If you are taking ENT 3003 you are going to learn real world skills. You will develop time management, organization, public speaking, interviewing, and idea development skills to name a few. Don’t be intimidated by some of these competencies if you are not good at them or haven’t practiced them in the past. The course guides you through learning these important life skills.



2) Tenaciousness is also about attitude. Talk about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you through? Do you feel like you've developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to this?

a. I have never felt like giving up in this course. Putting aside the requirement to complete this course for my degree I started the journey with 100% confidence I would get to the end. However, relative to not giving up could be not starting. Before signing up for the course I groaned a little after reading what was required. I talked to myself about all the negative aspects I was comfortable with or didn’t really want to do. In hindsight, I am glad I took this class. It has really kicked my motivation level for education and business up a notch and the open style of teaching that promotes students to think is really refreshing.



3) Three tips. What are three tips you would offer next semester's student about (1) fostering the skills that support tenacity and (2) developing the 'tenacious mindset' ?

a. At the very beginning of the course read through the assignment descriptions and highlight the ones you are less comfortable with. Those are the ones you want to practice ahead of time. Items such as your first pitch and developing a hypothesis.

b. Pick your reading assignments ahead of time and start reading a little early with a few chapters per week. By the time you get to the reading assignment it should take you no time at all to complete it.

c. Pick a problem to solve that you are passionate about. You will be challenged by others that don’t necessarily think it’s worth pursuing but if you do then don’t let anyone persuade you otherwise.

13A – Reading Reflection

I read Twenty Seven Dollars and a Dream by Katharine Etsy.

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

a. What surprised you the most? I was first surprised by his formal education at Vanderbilt and his involvement in political rallies in the US after learning he was a distant and shy young man. The second big surprise to me was his marriage to a Russian lady.

b. What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? I admired his leadership and never give up mentality. Later in life his organizational and management skills were very impressive.

c. What did you least admire? I really couldn’t find anything about Yunus that I did not admire.

d. Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? He encountered adversity throughout his life. At the early age of 10 his mother was mentally ill and not able to take care of the children. Yunus stepped up and became a parental figure for his brothers and sisters. When the war between East & West Pakistan became a blood shed he leaped into action and put himself at the forefront of a possible solution. When he married a foreigner, he was viewed as an outcast. Throughout his life he courted with adversity and failure but never gave up. He was steadfast in his decisions and blazed his own trail.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? Yunus has exhibited many competencies we attribute to entrepreneurs at a very young age. His leadership skills as early as his scout years, his discipline to stick with a plan and a controversial path ahead, his work ethic throughout his life, and management skills are a few of the competencies I noticed Yunos exhibit.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. One part that confused me was why he was not chosen to meet with the leaders of Pakistan and his friend was instead. There wasn’t much detail around that decision which could have been pivotal for the country.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why? I would ask the following two questions:

a. If you could do it all again, what would you do differently?

b. What was the most valuable lesson you have learned on your journey so far?

I would ask these questions because they provide insight into learning I could use on my own journey.

For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? I would have to think that Yunus doesn’t really see things as hard work. His whole life has been what others would consider hard work. For him it’s just another challenge to overcome – another hill to climb. I do share that opinion. I am very optimistic and every challenge that comes before me is an opportunity.

12A - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Choosing a segment

I chose to interview individuals from the B2B category. Within this segment I focused on two groups, Marketing and Sales. The two sales people I interviewed travel frequently for business and the Marketing individual travels approximately once per quarter, however, she does interface with a lot of other business people from other industries.

What I learned

I learned that the distribution of information is not the real problem with this segment. All of them receive business cards on a regular schedule and supplemented by their companies so paying for something that doesn’t really cost that much to begin with is not a big deal for them. The sales individuals have learned over the years what they refer to as the “shotgun” effect. This involves distributing their cards to as many people as possible in hopes that 1 or 2 will result in a sale. Wow! To me that just spells waste waste waste. Waste of paper, time, and money. The Marketing VP that I spoke to is a light distributor of business information and often forgets to bring enough cards on her trips but generally follows up with email. All of them would welcome a solution that provided value from the people they meet and share information with. Too often this is not the case.

The Segment

This segment is going to be hard to sell a solution to unless you can really prove value and ROI. However, once you do it will be a steady stream of income. All three individuals have worked for their companies for 5-12yrs and each continue to order from the same company without really blinking an eye at possibly saving a few dollars here and there.

11A - Idea Napkin No. 1

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

My name is James Lang. I am an older online student and I have been a mini-entrepreneur for as long as I can remember. I say mini because the size of my efforts always focused on a short term need to move forward at the time. I have been fortunate enough to work for a company that sows my entrepreneurial spirit with a safety net. Business and technology are what excites me. Combining both and being successful at it really excites me. I have failed more times than succeeded in my ventures but that’s what drives me. I have created products that have taken off and more that did not. My experience in the field is a key asset that I have, and my business maturity continues to evolve every day. This is an opportunity for me to test my abilities, years of learning, and give back. I am going to fall on my face and that is exciting!

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs).

In my previous posts I outlined that the business card market spends approximately $400 million per year with a waste of $352 million because people throw these business cards away. I am still working on verifying the facts around the environmental impact but so far it seems to be approximately 6 million trees needed to create this volume. The water waste I am still working on confirming. What I am offering is an environmentally friendly way for B2B and B2C to utilize a product that is focused and measured on driving results for a fraction of the cost. A digital communication card that is dynamic to each recipient based on the moment the information was received. A communication channel for these individuals to stay in touch, negotiate, and build a relationship.

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

There will be three markets that my product will target.
• B2B – This market will be comprised of corporations that spend money for their employees to carry around business cards that produce very little in return. This market will spend the most upfront and already see very little in return, so this will be my test market.
• B2C – This will be a tougher market to crack and all in a larger market made up of small businesses. The folks in this market have very tight budgets and more cautious of spending. It only costs $20 for 500 business cards today so the loss is not the problem to solve here. Like B2B the problem to solve is the potential for a high ROI.
• Consumers – This market will be the recipient market that receives the product on a fremium basis. This will be a testing ground for the B2C market.


4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will pay you money to use your product or service.

Given that 88% of traditional business cards are thrown away within the first week I believe there’s a compelling argument for a product that performs better than what they are used to today. If I told you that 88% of your groceries would be thrown in the trash within a week would you buy the same thing again? No, you would look for an alternative. Do you remember the conversation you had with the piano repair guy a year ago (true story) and what he quoted you? No – I have a business card with a phone number and that’s it. Recollection of some sort of price but nothing concrete. My product will create a loose relationship with recall on the conversation that can be used to pick up where parties left off no matter how long ago. It also provides individuals distributing their information a way to analyze the performance of their distribution. Take that one step higher at the corporation level and executives can monitor performance against distribution to see who their top employees are – those that know who their market is!

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has?

I have been in business for 20 years. I have been a Product Manager, IT Manager, Customer Service Rep, Project Manager, Director of UX Design, and currently a VP of Customer Success. I have worked this long in a private company with 400 employees to 70 losing $750k/mth. Rebuilding the company as a senior leader to 3000 employees and going public. Along the way acquiring many companies to sustain growth.
I know what it takes to go from nothing to something and beyond. It is brutal at times and sometimes not a lot of fun. However, it can be magical if you believe. You get the right people together, everyone believes the mountain can be conquered, and you are willing to give it your all – it’s an amazing ride you will never forget!


I believe for the most part that all these elements put me in a position of opportunity for success. However, I really must spend more time working out the value. Providing the same information that one finds on a business card in digital format doesn’t solve the problem. I have focused most of my time on the distributors of these cards but I believe a key to solving this problem is identifying what the recipients find value in.