Stanford University – Venture Capital Symposium
Guglielmo, Eugene 19nn – 20nn
Curiosity. Consumers are frustrated because they cannot find what they want easily and where to go to find it, spending time and cost needlessly. This expenditure can occur using the traditional hopping from store to store or today hopping from web page to web page based on search engine overloads. Consumers get intimidated if they ask questions without a good understanding of what it is they need to know to make a decision, either because of the complexity or the inability to distinguish between the nuances of a product. Retailers are frustrated because of the loss of sales opportunities on existing inventory and loss of future business opportunities due to lack of knowledge, staff, training, floor-space, etc. Then there is the manufacturer who has to recoup the capital investment to create the capacity to satisfy a market demand, but are themselves vulnerable to going out of business without targeted marketing; recent experience working for a semiconductor manufacturer brought this to light.
Creativity. There is a cross-road between face-to-face commerce and on-line e-commerce that creates complexity, but also opportunity. At retail point-of-sale, there is an opportunity to fine-tune order and inventory management using consumer friendly devices such as kiosks, web and mobile applications. But there has to be someone or something that the consumer can trust, like a personal assistant. If such a personal assistant were possible, then the addressable market can be tackled in terms of three phases: (i) small retailers, (ii) mass retailers, and (iii) supply-chain.
Invention. The iNavigator (iButler) environment was a prototype to examine the opportunity presented above, to facilitate interaction between a consumer and the marketplace using a simple trusted personal assistant, like the butler or chauffeur from days past. The assistant provides a level of security and privacy in dealing with the world. No more venturing into dark alleys or into websites that exposed one to adware to spyware and other invasive technologies. The personal assistant takes care of safeguarding who you are and what you want to accomplish.