Welcome to the course where you learn to launch a new business in the energy, finance, real estate, design, engineering, or environmental sectors, while also helping you create positive environmental and human health impacts around the world. We will integrate tools, trends, and tips from the field of entrepreneurship as a career path for making a difference and generating wealth in the renewable energy and green building sectors. This is not a course about theory. Instead, we focus on real world application, step-by-step advice, and case studies. After completing this course, students will be able to: - Define key business opportunities, challenges, and potential solutions in the renewable energy and green building sectors. - Analyze a successful business in renewable energy or green building. - Identify 2 to 3 problems you might solve with either renewable energy or green building products or services. - Plan for engaging with investors who might finance a new business. - Take real world first steps towards launching a new business or corporate initiative, by applying the 1-page business idea summary template and the Business Model Canvas to generating and refining your own new business ideas.
Generating Ideas for a Startup
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Из курса от партнера Duke University
Renewable Energy and Green Building Entrepreneurship
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Blast Off — Moving from Ideas to Business Implementation
In this module, the instructor provides tangible steps for generating, refining, and launching new business ideas, including tips for website, logo, advisory boards, and using helpful tools, such as the popular and dynamic planning and strategy tool called the Business Model Canvas. We also discuss how to think about building a team, because without one, your startup is just another job, not an enterprise.
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Chris WeddingFaculty
Nicholas School of the Environment. Founder and Managing Partner, IronOak Energy
Hello and welcome back to class.
Our focus for this video is generating ideas for a startup.
It seems like a strange place to start,
but a good question to ask is,
what do you complain about?
I mean complaining is normally seen as a bad thing.
In this case, it's a great way to identify
problems where you are the target market, right?
Which means you should know something about your options and how painful it is
and what you'd be willing to pay perhaps to solve that pain.
So part of the key here in you being
a representative of the target market is
you don't want to solve a problem that no one really has, right?
You don't want to imagine or project a problem out in the market.
You want to feel it ideally firsthand and or through
candid conversations with a number of prospective customers.
Next ask yourself, have others already designed solutions?
So if the answer is no,
it's really kind of a binary and extremes here.
If there is no competition,
it could be that your idea is great or more likely that it's terrible.
Now yes, there's the break out Apple I,
fill in the blank,
that does not exist yet.
And so not much competition,
but the reality is that there's always competition,
even if competition is business as usual.
It's not changing anything, it's inertia.
So said differently or the flip side of the coin rather,
if there is someone who's already designed a solution to
that problem if there is competition. That can be good.
That can be validation, right?
Validation, it's a problem worth solving.
But importantly, how will you stand out?
Different customers, different parts of the market, a different geography,
different product features, a different level of customer service et cetera.
Great analogy here.
One that I have answered incorrectly in past startups, startup let's say.
Are you creating or will you create a vitamin,
so to speak, or a painkiller?
The other way to think about it is,
is what you're creating a nice to have,
or is it a need to have?
Is a top priority pain point or is it,
yeah, it's a pain but it's somewhere,
you know, number 27 let's say.
So it's not that pressing,
therefore someone may not pay attention to you and or pay you for it.
So, a great product to be clear does not equal a great company.
You could solve a problem but the problem is not important enough,
top tier enough, that it will not be a great company.
Think about it like a headache where you have got to get rid of your headache.
But for a vitamin,
you know it's something you don't really notice. It's long term.
It's incremental. That's a harder sell versus a pain pill.
Are you super excited about it?
So if your answer is basically, wow,
I can't wait to get started,
like I could spend years working on this.
Then look, clearly your idea passes the test.
You'll need this kind of passion,
drive to stay focused on something for an extended period of time.
If in contrast, the answer is more like,
yeah I think so,
I probably could make some money with that.
Then I and others would say,
go back to the drawing board.
This separation of answers to this question really kind of a hell yes or no,
comes from Derek Sivers,
who is a great author speaker entrepreneur.
He's given multiple TED talks,
great great books to read on entrepreneurship.
This is the source for this question and these two answers, so please,
ask yourself right now or as your idea develops,
ask yourself again about your level of enthusiasm.
Do I pursue quality or quantity?
Most of us when we start out
thinking about a business opportunity we think about quantity.
We think about scale,
and a larger impact, a larger business.
But ironically it's not the place to start.
So one of the best known angel investors advisors,
Paul Graham has said,
do things that don't scale at first.
Again, counterintuitive, but comes from lots of years of experience.
By the way Paul Graham has a series of dozens of essays on the topic of
entrepreneurship and I would suggest that
you read all of them probably in your free time.
The other way to think about this is to go deep.
He talks about digging a well,
not many shallow holes.
So this could be getting out away from your desk,
away from the office,
or garage or wherever you'd be incubating this new idea,
getting out into the field.
Go into someone's office,
talking one on one,
asking the follow on questions to get the kind of
root desires and then really staying focused,
to learn to say no to shiny objects,
the many other possible businesses you
could pursue that you may come across in your path.
Now look, at some point you could, early on,
you could say that is a better path,
a better business for X_Y_Z reasons but don't zig-zag repeatedly,
especially when you're along the path some distance.
What will the future need?
So this comes up in ice hockey.
The advice is to skate where the puck is going,
not where it is now.
And so for me in
the new energy world that translates to thinking about battery storage.
So lithium ion batteries or some next generation batteries that are already making
an impact ever so slightly on the grid at customers' businesses,
but that's going to change dramatically.
You know, 100x growth between 2013 and 2022 is projected by IHS,
but it's not happened just quite yet.
It will, it will. Over the course of you all watching this video over the years,
that transition will happen.
So how will we and our in our Investor clients and
or developer or company executive clients,
how should they, how should we help them prepare for that future,
where battery storage is more mainstream?
Ditto for electric vehicles.
They are a tiny niche so far but by 2022,
they'll be the same cost across most all types of
vehicles that is as conventional vehicles, as that changes.
How do we prepare ourselves,
our customers, our clients,
our partners for that early,
before that actually happens?
Your passions and your skills when combined are very unique.
So we're not robots,
we're not one trick ponies and we don't just need to think about our work related skills.
Combine your hobbies,
your non-work skills with your work skills and interests and sometimes you
arrive at unique combinations no one else has and that could
be the sweet spot where you bring your whole self to work,
if you will, where it becomes something that no one
else in the world is doing quite in the same way.
A focus on fabric for airplane chairs.
Now this is not really my advice to you as an area of great growth opportunity.
I just happened to be sitting on an airplane while typing this slide.
My point is that you don't need to believe that your business idea
has to have a mobile app to it or some sort of technology component to it.
That is what gets a lot of attention for sure,
but the fact is that most global products and services are suboptimal.
They've been overlooked for decades.
They've lacked innovation for decades and so to drill a deep well,
as Paul Graham would say,
in those sectors could be a great place for
less competition and large markets for hungry entrepreneurs.
What are some key conclusions from this presentation?
Well ideas for business are all around you.
Carry a notebook and a pen and jot down moments of frustration throughout the day.
Then ask, could you or would you want
to build a business around solutions to those problems.
The middle, don't follow everyone else.
As Warren Buffett observed,
it's wise to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.
Don't follow the herd mentality.
That could mean you're late to the game.
There's too much competition let's say,
for you to start that high potential green building or renewable energy startup.
Finally to find a good business idea,
sometimes you need to listen to potential future customers and at
other times you need to ignore them and create something they can't yet imagine.
Granted, that last strategy is a riskier play but could be more,
let's say blue ocean if you will.
That is a place with less competition and greater potential.
And if you haven't read the blue ocean strategy book,
I would encourage that as another helpful read.
Finally, questions for you.
So again, get out your notebook and pen.
First, what are three to five complaints that you experience regularly each week?
Write them down now. They can be professional or personal.
No seriously, write them down.
The middle - if you're looking at a list of potential business ideas,
which ones are you really really excited about?
Doing it just for the money, while that's important,
an important part of it no doubt,
may not be enough.
Finally, once you pick an idea,
how will you stay focused and go deep,
instead of trying to pursue many options at the same time?
Consider finding a business partner again,
or mentor advisory board to hold you accountable.
We all need it.
Thanks and see you on the next video.
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