23a. VRIN VRIn VRin Vrin vrin

In the world of business, the VRIN model is a cool one to implement for the understanding of "staying power" for your venture. And so, with this model of thinking, we shall conduct a VRIN analysis of myself and found out:

Our advantages? Right, Right, our advantages.

1.  Intersectionality

In the case of our product design, the groups of people with interests in what can be offered is wide ranging and agnostic to other market factors. Privacy is a major selling point for everyone from protestors to journalists to technology works to marginalized and targeted communities. Every individual demographic involved has crosscutting cleavages, which means there can be multiple incentives for customers who may have been on the fence to not only purchase but spread awareness of our product. If marginalized or targeted journalists need to avoid surveillance, or tech workers who are protesting at work need to shield their identity from office cameras, these people can use The Guard. It Is valuable for us as a venture to have values that align on multiple levels with our demographics, and I would personally argue that it is rare to have an attention to the nuances different demographics have between needs and goals. Intersectionality as an idea is highly imitable, but as a process or tool in a company's design process it is probably on the rare to near nonexistent side of rarity scale. With the case of ideas and ethics, there is no imitability or substitution because as more consumers become conscious of their consumption, company values will play a larger role in determining if they are worth a customers business. 

2 3 and 4. Prototype financing, design and production

The ability to finance this product, at least for testing and design phases, will be relatively inexpensive as long as there are some parameters to keep in mind. The use of 3D printing in design thinking is still relatively young, but with my access to learning and producing 3D models on campus I have a rare advantage in having the resources at my disposal to speak with professors and in house specialists who constantly work on 3D modeling and printing, having university costs compared to market costs when it comes to financing the next advantage which is being able to produce models. When looking at the intersection of location and access to these things, that is definitely a rarity.

For finance, the imitation of reduced prices is difficult as other production or 3D printing houses also come with normal market prices for profit and include shipping unlike on-site printing at UF. Pricing and finance also are not immediately a valuable advantage until there is scale involved, so in the case of no scale market product having low prices for design and prototyping is definitely valuable. We can substitute financing with loans and dealing with debt or payments in a multitude of other ways.

For design, it normally isn't rare to get access to courses or material for 3D printing, but as previously addressed in the first paragraph, the rarity of these materials being already accessible to me through school on top of having immediate feedback from instructors and specialists is definitely rare. designing can be substituted through online freelance programs that have people experienced in the process, but doing it myself can help with costs and allows me more knowledge of the product. Substitution falls in the same category as imitation in that you can find design houses who can not only create but consult you on the actual design process but having professors and specialists can take that position. And with design it is definitely valuable to have at least a minor control of how things are done to keep with the vision of the product.

for production, there is no cost to access for 3D printers and I have people well versed in maintenance and printing processes, which are valuable skills and areas of expertise. While substitutable and inimitable with any 3D printing house, already having that in proximity and not needing to deal with delays and risk with printing is itself valuable. 

5 and 6. Industry knowledge and network

These are both human capital that we can further break down. In the case of industry knowledge, I would venture to say that understanding the methods and tools that people in journalism isn't necessarily rare to learn, and it also may not be rare to speak with other journalists to know who is in the field, but definitely valuable to making good design and marketing choices and figure out what actual journalists want and need. Subject knowledge and networks are inimitable and substitutable since any other journalist could understand the industry and already have those connections, but can be mitigated with specialization and with personal connections making it easier to get to more elusive voices or opinions.

7 and 8 and 9. Product reach, capacity, and manufacturing. 

These coincide with our capabilities for the venture. For product reach, there is minor overlap with having a network but this is a more holistic view of actually getting our product marketed. in capacity, this will deal with more structural things like website and with the third capability, manufacturing when it comes to a real product. 

Overall, There is almost no rarity, non-substitutability or lack of imitation at all with opening up a business that is likely to be entirely online. The value is what comes when we combine these three things with our values and prototyping advantages. 

More specifically, theres no rarity due to the ease of creating online shops through programs like Shopify or Wordpress. There are multitudes of services that can create these websites, making it both substitutable and inimitable when it comes to labor. The value that comes from the ease of creation is that I have almost no barriers to entry myself in creating and learning about these services and products myself and can use that to my advantage in maintaining costs and accelerating my vision with this venture. Product reach can be done for free or near fractions of normal advertising thanks to social media, and capacity has no issues because being an online store means there is no need for physical supply chains except for the strictly manufacturing of product. 

With that in mind, manufacturing is a non-substitutable and variably inimitable as there is no other methods or super competitive means of creating product on scale than with manufacturers in China unless there are strategic advantages with smaller or more diverse manufacturers that can be arranged. It wouldn't be a rare opportunity as a severe amount of the market competes for low manufacturing costs, but not having to start up my own production unless absolutely necessary is highly valuable to startup costs and investment needs.

10. Business and life mentor.

My own father is an entrepreneur of the most down to the ground practical thinkers. He has done almost everything that a beginning entrepreneur can think of doing for this class, having learned to work with Chinese manufacturers, build websites and finance all of his projects on his own. Having someone so close and willing to teach me, especially as bluntly as he would, is a valuable and rare asset, and while substitutable and inimitable in some ways in the aspect of learning business, he is priceless in the motivation and support he would offer.

So what's the best resource? 

I would say overall, there is a tie between my business mentor and the intersectionality/values my venture has. Like I've stated before in both breakdowns, it is not only valuable to have values that align with varied and crosscutting consumers, its rare for that attention in a company with that in mind for design, and impossible to substitute or imitate values after one starts their venture. And with that mentor who is willing to not hold back the punches and work alongside and with me to achieve, and also be a source of support when necessary and be so close to me, is priceless on all measures.