Opportunity
1. People who have the need for my
product are people who keep a firearm in their car and have no good way to
secure it.
2. The nature of the need is to keep
people’s firearms from getting stolen. So many of the guns that are stolen are
stolen from vehicles. Many innocent people are then negatively impacted by
those stolen guns.
The changes in the environment is that more people are keeping
guns in their car to protect themselves. Therefore, more guns are getting
stolen from vehicles since they are such an easy target. The geographic areas
would be any of the states that have a high rate of firearm ownership. That
would be the southeast part of the country and rustbelt. The demographic that
this would be targeted for would be older white men. They have the highest rate
of firearm ownership. Customers are currently satisfying there need by storing
their firearm in their glove box or center console. From the people that I have
talked to in law enforcement, people never lock either of the two. That is not
working to keep their gun from getting stolen. There is a lockbox that you can
buy that locks to your seat by a cable, but thieves could cut that cable with
bolt cutters and run off with the gun in the lockbox. So, they aren’t very
loyal to using that method. This opportunity is very big. Studies have shown
that 3 in 10 adults own a firearm. If you say 1 out of those 3 keep a gun in
their car, that is over 25 million people that have a gun in their vehicle.
That is a huge opportunity with no real solution. This opportunity will be
around for a very long time. Guns aren’t going anywhere in our country. There
are already over an estimated 400 million guns in our country and around 13
million new ones are sold each year.
Innovation
The product that I have decided will solve some of the issues of
stolen guns from vehicles is a lock that directly locks the vehicle. The lock
is bolted to the car. There are 2 pieces to the lock. There is 1 piece of metal
that has 3 sides. It would be a U shape or the shape of a field goal. One of
those sides will lay flat on the floor of the vehicle and be bolted directly to
the floor. The gun will slide right into the U shape. There will be another
piece of metal that locks the gun in by going through the trigger guard. There
are no cables to cut. The grip of the handgun would be exposed, but there would
be no way to rip the gun out without destroying the gun. The lock would sell
for around $150. It would be a little more expensive than the lock boxes currently
on the market, but this would protect the gun better. I would like to explore
the idea of adding a tracker to the lock so you could track your vehicle if
that were stolen. I think that could also be something that helps people if their
car is stolen. I would also like to add a lockbox to my line of products that I
offer for the people who don’t own a gun but want to lock up other valuables
that they may keep in their car.
Venture Concept
My innovation will solve some of the problems of handguns being
stolen from vehicles. It will stop most handguns from getting stolen out of
vehicles. I believe that customers would buy my product because they will want
to have something to protect their firearm. My competitors are the lock boxes
that are currently for sale. Their weaknesses are that they are really big and
bulky, so a lot of people don’t have them. I think it will be relatively easy
to get the people that do own them to switch because my lock will take up a lot
less space than those do. They also have the weakness of just being attached by
a cable lock to the seat and can be cut by bolt-cutters. I do not believe that
the location of the business impacts much because the lock could be shipped to
the customer. I would organize the business by trying to get more people that
are handy to make the product. Realistically, I wouldn’t be able to afford to
have a machine or factory make them yet. I would need 2 or 3 more people to
help me manufacture them. I would need people who could weld and cut metal. I
would be the salesperson, selling them to customers and stores. I would also
like to make some lockbox for other valuables that people may keep in their
cars. This would be aimed at the segment of non-gun owning people.
I think my venture’s secret sauce or unfair advantage is my
social capital. I know a lot of people in law enforcement and have a lot of
connections in other places.
I think the next opportunity that I would want to be able to
tackle is how to track stolen guns. This one would be a lot more complicated
but could be a real game changer. This is something that I would definitely
like to pursue. I think this would open up a bigger door than the one I am
trying to get into now.
In five years, I would like to have made this product better and
established my product in this industry. In the next 10 years, I would like to
have started another business. I always like new things so I feel like I would
have expanded to something else. This product would have helped me to learn
what it means to be an entrepreneur and start a business.
Summary of feedback from previous venture concept and What’s
Next
The main point that I took away from the feedback that I
received was that the idea of trying to track stolen guns is a very good idea.
I think I could try to incorporate a tracker into the lock. I think I would
also like to pursue the opportunity of trying to solve the issue of stolen
guns because that was well received in my feedback. People also really liked the idea of a lock box that they could lock
other valuables (laptops etc.) that they may have to keep in their car.
How Venture Concept Changed
My venture concept changed by adding a lock box for people that
don’t own a gun. This would be for other valuables that people keep in their
car like a laptop. People really liked this idea from the feedback that I received. This would open up my market a lot to be able to market to
the majority of the population that does not own a gun. The target market for
my entire line of products would now be anyone who keeps valuables in their
car.
I included a picture of a lock because it is symbolic of my
products that will lock up and secure valuable items.
