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?

I’m Giovanna Moraes. I am a third-year finance major, with an entrepreneurship minor. I am good at connecting with other people. I have a passion for new technologies and the environment. I have always tried to be sustainable, and I am now learning how to get more involved with technology. I care for our planet. I know there are sayings and memes of us leaving Earth; go to Mars and whatnot. I believe though, while that is such a novel and modern idea with great technologies to expand us into space, that it is not the solution. We are part of an ecosystem here on Earth, and we should maintain it for the survival of our race even. So we should look to long-term solutions to making our Earth the most habitable we can. 

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

I am offering sustainable architecture, that could easily be implemented in our daily lives, and that could have positive impacts on the planet. The idea with sustainable architecture is to implement innovative technologies that are proven to lower emissions and waste into something we have always needed and will always need, architecture. 

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?

My customers are those who worry for our planet, who know climate change is real and who know the rate we release emissions and pollute the planet will eventually be irreversible. 

My two groups are larger corporations/government and the common person. They all have in common that climate change is something that affects everyone, not just one specific group.

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

The government should be the first to understand the threat of our unsustainable practices. Their goal is to make a successful community, and by the stats and data we have climate change is already affecting the environment. This is something, per se, outside of human control when a natural disaster hits. Their goal should be to diminish outliers natural disasters, which we can see are through our extraordinary release of carbon dioxide. Naturally climate change would move at a slower pace. 

Large corporations are completely revolved over their consumers needs and wants. If society at large shifts their mindset towards climate change, corporations will invariably have to shift their projections as well. They will buy because of social responsibility.

I believe the common person will buy because the mindset, through trends already apparent in millennials vs. baby boomers, is shifting towards people wanting to have more responsibility and impact towards what happens to the planet they live in. There are huge advocates for environmental activism (such as Greta Thunberg who already has 5+ followers on her instagram at age 16). People want to hear about this. They want the businesses they buy from to assume social responsibility because it has a larger impact on the environment. Also, if the prices were lower for sustainable architecture (by making it more popular) a LARGE portion of the population would invest.

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has?
I want to make sustainable architecture more accessible, because it would not only target those with high advocacy for sustainability, but it was also target the market that is somewhat indifferent to sustainability. They would like to help but budget prevents them from doing so.

Summary
I think these five elements work well together, especially because the who and why combine so seamlessly. My product fits a need that is ever growing in our world, and will only become more prevalent within the years. I want to sell this project because I believe heartily in the cause, and want others to think about the issue we have and the impact they could make. I want to offer something that doesn’t limit to many people of the group by making it more price accessible. So the who, why and my core beliefs weave in very smoothly. I think there may be issues of implementation and marketing, because it is a very large investment for the common person, corporations, and the government. This could take years to take root, but since it is a big project with high prospects I believe it could be very successful.