CSE 3316: Professional Practices (Fall 2012)

Assignment II: 10%; Due. October 18, 2012

Topic: Entrepreneurship

This assignment is an exercise in entrepreneurship that is to be completed individually. You are required to select an opportunity area and explore its potential for commercialization as a start-up company. This product or process could be for-profit or non-profit however it should have mass appeal. Another words it should not be just for use by a very small group. To complete this assignment you must follow the steps below:

a)Select an opportunity area

b)Why did you select this opportunity area?

c)What is the primary benefit of this opportunity area?

d)Provide a short study of why this product is feasible! Consider various feasibility issues such as: market appeal, sufficient technical skills, development cost, and Risks.

e)Provide a brief justification for the following 8 areas below:

  1. 2-sentence definition
  2. Define all risks
  3. Describe your customer domain
  4. Define source of income from this product
  5. Provide a development plan
  6. Resource requirement (what type and how many, i.e. developers, equipment, space, etc.)
  7. Funding issues:
  8. how much do you need to start
  9. how do you plan to fund the product
  10. how do you plan to pay the employees or equipment, if any,
  11. Distribution (i.e. how are you going to distribute the product)

f)Internal feedback: discuss your idea with one of your classmates and list his or her opinion about your entrepreneurial idea. Please provide the name of your classmate and date/time/length of when you met.

g)External feedback: discuss your idea with a trusted external source (e.g. a family member, professor, or a professional person especially someone with business experience “preferred”). Please provide the name and affiliation (e.g. friend)

h)Class presentation: Prepare a short PowerPoint presentation (about 7 to 10 minutes) for presentation in class at the end of the semester. Prepare the presentation as you are presenting it to your client or the external source of funding (i.e. convincing them to fund your project).You do NOT have to submit this PowerPoint on Oct. 18th. It is required for your end-of-term presentation. If you choose to submit it at this point, that is fine.

i)Provide a brief answer to the following questions as it relates to your start-up:

  1. What is your overall objective and why? (i.e. sell the idea or develop it)
  2. Are you planning to be the sole owner or are you going to have co-founders? If co-founders, how many and with what kind of specialties?
  3. Why studying an industry is one of the most important things you can do to find an opportunity? List some industries/companies that you reviewed.
  4. What would your plan be for testing this product with customers?
  5. What are the metrics that indicate your idea has succeeded?
  6. What are the metrics that indicate your idea has failed?

j)List one of yourfavorite products or services that has attained a great commercial success lately (e.g. Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.). What do you think is the main reason for its great success?

Please e-mail an electronic copy of this assignment by 11:00 AM on the due date to the class GTA () and ‘cc me on it ().