Assignment 23 - Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

Resources in venture:

1. Financial – personal savings

2. Financial – potential investments from friends/family

3. Financial – access to crowdfunding platforms

4. Financial – apply for small business loans

5. Capabilities – application development experience

6. Capabilities – worked for a startup before

7. Human Capital – access to people who have started their own businesses

8. Human Capital – access to people knowledgeable in relevant fields

9. Social Capital – connections to people who would fall into my market segment

10. Social Capital – resources provided by university



VRIN analysis

1. Personal savings

· Financial resources are Valuable in the VRIN model

· Not Rare, lots of money in businesses and organizations

· Not Inimitable, other businesses can obtain financial resources as well

· Non-substitutable, money is in some regards non substitutable because your venture will not function without it

2. Potential investments from friends/family

· Financial resources are Valuable in the VRIN model

· Not Rare, lots of money in businesses and organizations

· Not Inimitable, other businesses can obtain financial resources as well

· Non-substitutable, money is in some regards non substitutable because your venture will not function without it

3. Access to crowdfunding platforms

· Financial resources are Valuable in the VRIN model

· Not Rare, lots of money in businesses and organizations

· Not Inimitable, other businesses can obtain financial resources as well

· Non-substitutable, money is in some regards non substitutable because your venture will not function without it

4. Apply for small business loans

· Financial resources are Valuable in the VRIN model

· Not Rare, lots of money in businesses and organizations

· Not Inimitable, other businesses can obtain financial resources as well

· Non-substitutable, money is in some regards non substitutable because your venture will not function without it

5. Application development experience

· Valuable as a skill that can be used to gain competitive advantage

· Somewhat rare, because I can develop it myself, I do not need necessarily need to employ anyone until I have a working demonstration at least.

· Not Inimitable, it is not difficult to hire an application developer

· Substitutable, can be substituted by hiring

6. Worked for a startup before

· Valuable as skills that can be used to gain competitive advantage

· Rare because not a lot of people have been exposed to the startup environment

· Not Inimitable, it is experience that can be obtained through training

· Substitutable, can hire experienced individuals

7. Access to people who have started their own businesses

· Valuable, to have people who know what they are doing and can provide guidance

· Not Rare, if someone is starting a business, it is likely they know someone else who has

· Not Inimitable, you can find people who have started businesses easily, though making connections can be the difficult part

· Substitutable, can hire someone who is experienced or can advise you

8. Access to people knowledgeable in relevant fields

· Valuable, knowledge and experience can be used as competitive advantages

· Not Rare, a competitor would likely have access to similar people

· Not Inimitable, you can find people who have experience easily on social media

· Substitutable, can hire someone who is experienced or can advise you

9. Connections to people who would fall into my market segment

· Valuable, potential customers are potential value

· Not Rare, there should be many potential customers in your market segment, or your product will not be successful

· Not Inimitable, not difficult to obtain

· Substitutable, many potential customers

10. Resources provided by university

· Valuable, provided resources and services can be valuable to getting started

· Rare, resources that would not be accessible to non-students

· Inimitable, would be difficult for existing firms to source these resources

· Substitutable, could be replaces by other external resources



Top Resource:

I think my top resource is my personal development experience. I can develop the initial version of the application myself which lowers the cost and risks of creating a startup. It also means I have more control over the direction my application goes.