Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Business Creation Competition

Last Friday I participated in the Business Creation Competition which consisted of 17 different business models including 7 from the Technology Ventures class.  I was extremely nervous to present but thought that overall I did reasonably well.  I was able to explain my product, give my pitch, and ask for investment in my product from the three judges present.  I was mostly nervous for the Q&A portion because I was not sure what they would ask, but I think I answered most of the questions sufficiently.  I was also calmed slightly to have some familiar faces in the audience, which made presenting less nerve-wracking!  If I had to go back and participate in the BCC all over again, I think I would go into further details about the financials of the BurntPi and would have done some more communicating with my customer segments to have evidence that this product is wanted/necessary.  Although presenting in situations like this are way out of my comfort zone, the BCC was a great learning experience!

From this point on, I would like to see the BurntPi become a working prototype that can then be tested in the correct environement.  Also, I would like to actually speak with some of my customer segments to see where and how this product would thrive.  Whether it will actually be pursued after this course or not is most likely a negative, but it would be nice to say I have a finished business model and product at the end of the semester.  I will be working on completing these goals in the next week or so!  

Graduation = 18 days away!

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Python Project

  • For the Python programming project, I wanted to trigger my webcam with my temperature sensor when it reached above a certain degree. Unfortunately, I struggled enough to even get the sensor functioning (due to hardware issues) that I moved on to plan B. My final project was actually pretty simple. It was a program that gave the output of the temperature from the sensor and then provided the ability to convert the output to Celsius or Fahrenheit. This will be entered into my final project code as well, but hopefully with a functioning webcam. Fingers crossed! 
  • Although I hate programming in general and have very little experience, I think that Python was an easier language to program in than others I have used, such as C#. Python is easy to read because of the uncluttered visual layout and I thought it flowed relatively smoothly based on the necessary organizational structure. I think the biggest opportunity for using Python would be to educate programming beginners due to the fact that the obviousness in syntax makes the language more understandable than some other languages. 
  • Given more time to develop my Python skills, I would like to explore what other capabilities of my specific project I can get to work and how. I found Python to be much less frustrating than I find other languages, so I am excited to move forward in developing more aspects of the BurntPi! Overall, programming is just not my thing. It never has been and never will be, but thanks to Python, I got through the project without pulling all of my hair out. ☺

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Status Update

Customer Personas 
Financial Model (tweaks will be made)

Currently:
  •          Working on temperature sensor
  •      Continuing to develop business model
  •      Working on my code for our python project 

Overall, my main task right now is to get my temperature sensor working and then I can move on to having the motion sensing work WITH the temperature sensing.  Then, I will have a more finished, functional product.  Besides the technical issues I am facing, I am still working on my business model and trying to get rid of the “I don’t knows” by making specific decisions.  Creating the financial model helped a lot with setting specifics, but that still needs some tweaking as well.  The BurntPi is moving right along and fingers crossed that we have a working product in the near, near future!

Saturday, March 29, 2014

The BurntPi Pitch


As far as any type of public speaking goes, saying that I hate doing it is an understatement, but for my BurntPi elevator pitch I didn’t have a choice.  On Wednesday, our class had two to three minutes to pitch our ventures to a panel of three judges who then graded us and also provided some feedback.  I was pleasantly surprised that doing my pitch was much less nerve-racking than I thought it would be.  I can probably attribute this to practicing it to multiple audiences prior to the final pitch and being so passionate about my product because I believe it can sell!  Overall, I think my pitch went well and most importantly, I am glad to have it over with.  I also appreciate the panel of judges because they offered new insight into my venture with aspects I had not thought about before.  It is always good to have “fresh eyes” for new ideas to sprout and I’m excited to look into the different things that they brought to my attention.  If you’d like to get the gist of my pitch, you can find it below or if you see me in public, I can sell you my idea right then and there!
“Bubble” – (intro and anchor) - Here you are sitting listening to me talk, but when was the last time you cooked on your stove?  Was it for breakfast this morning or lunch this afternoon?  Are you 100% positive you turned it off?  If the answer to that is possibly no I have the BurntPi to introduce to you today!
 “Heart” – (a genuine, personal, intuition for why it must happen) - The idea for my venture came from my life in a sorority house, living with 40 other women.  We often have the issue of people leaving the stove on, even overnight sometimes.  This obviously is an extreme hazard for the safety of our house and the ladies living in it.  This pertains to my daily life, but after further thinking it applies to many other people as well especially the elderly!  As we grow older we get more forgetful and sometimes even suffer from Alzheimer’s or dementia and what’s worse than your parents or grandparents potentially being in danger because they have become more forgetful in their older age?  THAT is why my product is necessary in the life of many people.
“Mind” – (food for their intellectual, logical, and judgmental sides) - So at this point you may be wondering exactly what my product is… the BurntPi is a heat sensing, motion sensing piece of technology that will alert a person if they leave their stove on.  It actually has multiple purposes, for the sorority house, it will capture who is in the area when the stove is left on which allows the culprit to be identified to be more careful in the future.  For the elderly, when the temperature reaches a certain degree, a notification will be sent to remind the person that the stove is on and it needs to be turned off.  Most importantly though, the BurntPi is designed to keep all users safe!
“Imagination” – (the power to see themselves on your mission) – Statistically, if you look at Figure 1 (on handout) you can see that residential building fires are increasing every year and in Figure 2 (on handout) you can see that the highest cause for these fires is cooking equipment, such as a stove.  Further in Figure 2, you can also see how detrimental these fires caused by cooking equipment were by looking at the percentages of death and injury.  These statistics can be decreased and potentially even eliminated with the usage of the BurntPi because the user would be identified BEFORE it got to the point of a fire!  This product was created to keep users safe.  It could save a life and that’s why it is necessity in your home today!

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

BurningPi Scratch Pitch

            Scratch is an educational programming language used by students, teachers, parents, and anyone interested in learning an easy way of programming.   It was created at MIT and is a project of their Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab and is provided free of charge.  As stated on the Scratch site, “Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively – essential skills for life in the 21st century.”  Scratch is designed especially for ages of 8 to 16, but is used by people of all ages (even myself at age 22!) 
Overall, I think Scratch is an awesome program to make it easy for people to WANT to program.  I believe programming is a special talent and in my opinion, not a very fun activity, but with this interactive program, it sparks much more interest.  Because you can program interactive stories, games, and animations using “sprites” and preexisting “blocks,” it definitely creates a programming environment that is more visual than technical, which is helpful for beginners.
For our class, we had to create a Scratch pitch to promote our specific products.  Mine, the BurningPi Pitch, can be found below.  Turn up your volume, hit the green flag, and check it out.  As always, feel free to leave feedback! To create your own Scratch project visit scratch.mit.edu

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Business Model Canvas Reflection

            As I work to get a complete grasp on my RPi venture, I have been working on my Business Model Canvas.  I have the basics but sometimes it is hard to think deeper in some of the categories.  Luckily we brainstormed some in class but I am still sort of stuck in the box.  I have my idea, I have parts of it working, but as far as the business side of it goes I cannot fully encompass where it is going.  So at this point, that’s where I am!
            Where do I need to be, you may ask.  I need to start solidifying my thoughts.  No more maybe this would work or maybe I would like to do this.  I also need to take a look into my competitors because at this point I have price as a value I am offering, but I am not 100% sure that I would be lower than what others are offering (although I am 99% sure). 
            I fully believe that my model is truly feasible!  As they say:
·      “Every day is safety day. Safety has no holiday!”
·      “Life is rare, live with care!”
·      “Safety is the key, it is up to you and me!”
·      “Stay alert! Don’t get hurt!”
These overused phrases are the reason WHY my product is feasible.  Safety sells and for most, it has no price, especially when it becomes about the safety of a loved one.  Production is feasible, partnerships are feasible, and selling this product is feasible.  I am 100% positive that my product fits a very relevant need and it will sell because of that.


Take a look at my Business Model Canvas below (you will most likely need to download and/or zoom) to get further details of the business of my venture! PLEASE feel free to offer feedback through comments to help me think outside of the box! Your perspective and opinion is welcome with open arms.


Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Webcam Working

GREAT news followers

After some extreme frustration in the process of trying to get my webcam to stream from the RPi to my Mac, I finally got it to work!  For starters, my old Logitech webcam was not compatible with the RPi, so I purchased a Logitech C170 webcam.  Then, when searching for streaming options I came across the M-JPG Streamer (article I used is located in the link below) which allowed me to stream with no issues!  Yay, Snaps, Woohoos for further progress into my venture.  Stay tuned for more development in the upcoming weeks!

(Streaming in the IS lab)


http://www.howtoembed.com/projects/raspberry-pi/78-pieye-webcam-streaming-in-m-jpg-format-with-raspberry-pi#rpi-mjpg-streamer