19A-idea napkin 2

1)    My name is Ben Katz, and I believe that one of my talents is that when it comes to sales, I am naturally adept at convincing people that they need a service or product in their life when the reality is that they do not. Although, I have not spent enough time in business related endeavors to really know what my talents are in this specific area. I am curious to find out as I proceed in this course. However, one thing I do know is that my aspirations are to build a business from scratch that is highly successful and benefits the lives of people in some way shape or form. The first idea I had, and the one I have been writing about in this course, is smart light technology for traffic light. I see it as something that is able to let you get to your destination faster, leaving you one less thing to worry about.

2)    What I am offering to customers is new technology that decreases waiting time at red lights and improves the overall flow of traffic on busy roads where multiple traffic lights are present. Often times, cars sit waiting at red lights when there are no cars coming in the other direction. The smart light uses sensors to detect that, and as a result changes your light to green and the one to red where no cars are coming. This is different than conventional traffic lights, which run on timers.

3)    I am offering this product/service to anyone who drives a motor vehicle and is looking to reduce the time it takes to get to their destination, as well as avoid sitting at red lights. I would focus first on big cities and college towns where areas are heavily populated with more cars than average and more lights.

4)    Customers would care about my product because it would save them time on a daily basis, whether they were conscious of it or not. No person I have ever met enjoys sitting in traffic, and if there was a way to reduce the amount of time(s) you sit in traffic, people would jump all over it.

5)    In terms of a company, we would install the lights the fastest and in the most strategic locations to improve traffic flow. I can’t comment too much on the technology because it already exists. That company would have to license it to me.

I believe all of these elements fit together. I think this is a great product that would be very helpful to many people. The only thing I would have to work out is how my company would be profitable. I see a few various routes that It could go in, but I would have to hash out the details with the companies with the existing technology.

From the feedback, one main point I took away was that it might be a little complicated on how I would make money as I mentioned previously. I continue to think about this, but one idea I have is that the government/technology companies could pay my company to install their lights and essentially “advertise” the technology so more cities want it. Another point I took out of the feedback was how the customers would pay for it. While I am also still thinking about this, I believe that a slight tax increase would be required since something like city improvements usually come from tax dollars, but I think most people would be willing to pay it.