What We're Doing Here

I love new business ideas. Really love thinking about them, debating them, testing them, and every so often coming up with them.

You would think being an MBA student in New York City would afford you plenty of opportunities to do so. For some people, maybe, but I've had trouble getting my fill of chances to learn about business ventures. I wanted to get some cohesive opinions out there in a place where they can be considered and critiqued. This seemed like a natural (okay, easiest) way to do so.

My sources include some very helpful groups of people and organizations, who I should acknowledge here:

- Columbia's Blue Venture Community (mostly alumni)
- NYU's Entrepreneurs Exchange
- Canaan Partners' StartupAtWork series
- NYU Venture Community (alumni)
- NYC-area entrepreneurs, friends of mine, former clients, etc, too numerous to name. If and when I use one of their ideas I'll try to attribute it, unless some obfuscation is necessary or requested.

When I think about these businesses, I'll mostly be thinking along a couple analytical lines, to help organize my thinking:

1. Porter's Five Forces. Bargaining power of customers and suppliers, threats of new entrants and substitute products, and industry competitors.
2. Resource-Based Analysis. If a firm has a truly valuable "resource", that resource will be difficult to copy, will depreciate slowly, will be controlled by your firm, won't have available substitutes, and most importantly will be superior to that of your competitors.
3. Sustainability Analysis. Look into a future where your firm is established, has clients, revenues, and market awareness. How will competitors respond? Regulators? What defenses do you have to protect your profits?

And probably more, if they support my preconceived notions :) But what these all come down to is evaluating whether something is a good investment - of founder and employee time, venture capital, etc. And that comes down to both the size and sustainability of the profit opportunity. Which equals money, which equals value for employees and consumers. Yay.