Final Thoughts

The final blog entry. For this last entry I would like to just spend the time to look back. Over the past 15 weeks I have taken my idea from just a thought and a couple notes written down, to an almost full-fledged business plan complte with a Gnatt chart and financial models.

We as a class went through developing an idea, finding our strengths through test such as the Meyers Briggs, building a pitch to attract partners and investors, writing a business plan to more fully spell out our ventures, finding a strategy to defeat the competition, user acquisition through marketing and sales, getting the right team for the right job, measuring and determining our social impact, and creating a finical picture of our ventures operations; A lot to cover in 15 weeks. I have to say the time has been fun. This is one of my better classes at Heinz in large part due to the fellow students taking it with me. I really appreciated everyone’s attitude and desire to learn from each other. It is exciting to see everyone’s ventures grow.

At this point for my venture, I have applied to 4 incubator/accelerator programs. I am still waiting to hear back from 3, and I just completed the final round interview for the 4^th. In addition, this past week I spent at the global real estate crowd funding conference where I learned more then I could hope for. The whole event was invigorating as I saw how much of a fledgling industry real estate crowd funding was.  I was able to make some great contacts and I highly encourage people to attend a conference of any sort in an area of their interest. The overall experience was very positive and I have heard similar thoughts from other friends attending different conferences.

Looking forward I think I will continue to work on this venture after graduation. While it would be ideal to get some seed money to do this, I feel that there is enough momentum around the idea for me to feel confident proceding forward despite a lack of funding or a job. Why be unemployed, when you can self-employed? Am I right?

In conclusion I’d like to thank everyone is the class and Prof Z. I wish everyone the best of luck in  their next steps.