Venture Concept No.2

Opportunity:

The opportunity that my venture seeks to take advantage of is a result of unmet need of two groups of people. The first being the group of people between the age group of 18 to 21. This consists mostly of undergraduate students. Many undergraduate students, especially out-of-state and international students, do not own a car or do not have access to it due to certain reasons. As a result, they need to rely on other sources for traveling. A majority of car rental companies currently have a minimum age requirement of 21. Due to this, this particular segment of market is left out and cannot access this service as easily.

Furthermore, most car rental companies require the customers to return the back to its original position. Due to this, people who are searching for a mode of transport for one-way trips are also left out. Most common example for such scenario is for a person who travels to airports frequently. Taking a cab every time can become expensive very easily. Another example of such a scenario is when a person needs a vehicle only to reach a place and get back, but would be spending a week or more at the location but won’t be using the vehicle. Under the current terms for car rentals they would still have to pay the rent for the entire duration of their stay.

Both these segments are currently relying on cab services as a solution to the problem. The people in focus over here are currently partly satisfied with their solution in the form of cabs but are very much interested in finding a cheaper and more convenient alternative solution to this problem.

Innovation:

The idea is to create such a car rental service that would combine the current traditional car rental service features with these two new features to create a service that would be able to reach out to a way larger number of people. The proposed car rental service would allow anyone over the age of 18 and with a valid driver’s license to rent a car and would also allow customers to return the car at a different location than the original pick up location along with all the other features offered currently. In order to make one way trips possible through car rentals, the venture would set up stations across all place, from where a car can be picked or dropped. Along with the required cost, to maintain competitive prices, the venture would also earn money from sponsors by advertising on the cars. A good app with a very easy to understand interface would be a major part for interacting with the customers. The cars would be rented based on either per hour or per day cost, with a cap of 180 miles per day after which the user will be charged extra based on the number of miles travelled. There would also be an option to rent the vehicle for a longer duration of time such as weeks or months.

Venture Concept:

The customers aren’t currently quite content with their current solution. They are eagerly looking for a cheaper and more convenient alternative solution to the problem. Rental cars provide far more convenience to travelers than cabs and are also way more cheaper than cabs. Due to this, customers wouldn’t have to face much difficulty in switching to the alternative solution provided by my venture. Even though it might look as if cabs are the competitor that the venture would be facing, other car rental companies would, in my opinion, be the real competitors to face. Pricing would play a very important role in the success of the venture. Since students are a big part of the plan for the venture, maintaining competitive prices would be extremely crucial. If pricing would help in customer decision at face value, good customer experience and good customer support system would form the backbone of the venture. Starting the service from availability in a particular county and then expanding to a state, various states and then finally the entire country would help manage the number of employees required.

The minor three elements:

         1.      Venture’s Unfair Advantage:

I think that the resource that would be the most helpful for me in this venture would be that I am a part of the venture’s target market myself. This would allow me to understand the potential customers and their needs a lot better, and as a result help in providing a better quality of the service. I think that the social capital that I developed during the course of this class can also play the role of providing an unfair advantage to the venture.

         2.      What’s next for the venture?

Since students are a big part of the plan for the venture, adding scooters to the lineup and allowing customers to rent scooters can be a great step in expanding the venture. Rental scooters are already hugely popular in Bangalore, India.

         3.      What’s next for me?

In the next 5 years, I see myself constantly trying to make the experience even more convenient for the customers with this venture. As an entrepreneur, I would like to treat this venture as my foundation and then move on to trying to implement many other business ideas.

Most of the feedback I received was positive and so I only made a very few slight additions to the venture concept.