Business Ideas
My business idea is very simple, to build an entertainment app company that focuses primarily on mobile games. As a child I spent the majority of my time living in the middle of nowhere in Iowa with 2 of my brothers (out of 7 siblings total) and a father that worked from the time we got home from school to the time we were leaving for it. We had to find ways to entertain ourselves, and the way we did that most was by coming up with games to play. I was fortunate enough to have an older brother that was a talented artist and naturally creative person in general. We would hand draw our own cards, make up our own rules, and play the games we had created ourselves. These memories shaped who I am in an important way, and became a catalyst for business aspirations I have to this day.
My intentions are initially to develop a sort of flagship game using the skills I've learned in developing alongside my older brothers talents for design. Some of the things I consider important for this first stage would be to create a game style that is simple enough for children, but entertaining enough to tap into the nostalgia of my own generation as well. The story line needs to be complex and interesting enough to establish a world worthy of sculpting into a brand of it's own. The beauty of developing a brand, as opposed to a one-off game, is the potential to launch that brand into a myriad of other venues such as cartoons, toys, movies, card games, etc. It's entirely possible, and even probable, that this sort of fire isn't going to catch on with just the first spark; but the goal will remain the same throughout.
Some of the strategies I've come up with in regards to molding this brand, assuming of course that any initial game doesn't catch on, would be to create a number of smaller one-off mobile games and entertaining applications to build the reputation and portfolio of the company as well as increase traffic to the priority app. Continuing to evolve and extrapolate on the brands world in different ways would create a thread connecting them all to a larger system, increasing the exposure to the entire system as a whole. It's important to target multiple playing styles and audiences, whether it's a turn-based play style, open world, puzzle games, single player, etc. The more we can tap into the preferences and attentions of niche player bases, the more we can develop our own brand's fan base.
Since we are required to come up with 3 separate ideas, two potential other business's that could be developed would be a dating application or a new form of social media. In regards to dating, given my extensive experience with the applications currently at the top, I've noticed a few holes that could be filled. One of the biggest problems to solve would be finding a way to balance the male/female user base. I think a good way to tackle this issue would be to create an application geared towards the cultural inclinations of women, knowing the mentality of men would lead them to any application with an existing female user base no matter the focus. After years of using these apps, and paying attention to the topics that come up in social circles with women, I think an interesting idea to try would be creating a dating application that uses a combination of astrology and the Briggs Myers personality tests. While i'm not a believer in these systems necessarily, I think the stereotype is strong enough to gain attention.
If I were to create a new form of social media right now, I wouldn't have any innovative ideas for disrupting and entering the market. What I would have, is clear examples of what can work and what changes garner the most support. The big companies today have made some mistakes in regards to the way they treat their users that I believe should be avoided. Controlling content, rather than allowing it to be controlled by the user themselves. Abusing ads, and using them in a way that negatively affects the users experience. I would get back to a system like Facebook had early on, where the content a user sees is the content directly posted by all of their friends in chronological order. Any algorithms used to organize or prioritize posts would have to be separate from the approach, as optional alternative states of viewing the content. It's important for the user to feel invested in the account, to have easy direct access to the accounts of their friends. A new form of blogging using this approach in tandem with the sharing of small posts and media, for example, could potentially reignite the interest in long-form writing as opposed to just the meme culture we have now.
My intentions are initially to develop a sort of flagship game using the skills I've learned in developing alongside my older brothers talents for design. Some of the things I consider important for this first stage would be to create a game style that is simple enough for children, but entertaining enough to tap into the nostalgia of my own generation as well. The story line needs to be complex and interesting enough to establish a world worthy of sculpting into a brand of it's own. The beauty of developing a brand, as opposed to a one-off game, is the potential to launch that brand into a myriad of other venues such as cartoons, toys, movies, card games, etc. It's entirely possible, and even probable, that this sort of fire isn't going to catch on with just the first spark; but the goal will remain the same throughout.
Some of the strategies I've come up with in regards to molding this brand, assuming of course that any initial game doesn't catch on, would be to create a number of smaller one-off mobile games and entertaining applications to build the reputation and portfolio of the company as well as increase traffic to the priority app. Continuing to evolve and extrapolate on the brands world in different ways would create a thread connecting them all to a larger system, increasing the exposure to the entire system as a whole. It's important to target multiple playing styles and audiences, whether it's a turn-based play style, open world, puzzle games, single player, etc. The more we can tap into the preferences and attentions of niche player bases, the more we can develop our own brand's fan base.
Since we are required to come up with 3 separate ideas, two potential other business's that could be developed would be a dating application or a new form of social media. In regards to dating, given my extensive experience with the applications currently at the top, I've noticed a few holes that could be filled. One of the biggest problems to solve would be finding a way to balance the male/female user base. I think a good way to tackle this issue would be to create an application geared towards the cultural inclinations of women, knowing the mentality of men would lead them to any application with an existing female user base no matter the focus. After years of using these apps, and paying attention to the topics that come up in social circles with women, I think an interesting idea to try would be creating a dating application that uses a combination of astrology and the Briggs Myers personality tests. While i'm not a believer in these systems necessarily, I think the stereotype is strong enough to gain attention.
If I were to create a new form of social media right now, I wouldn't have any innovative ideas for disrupting and entering the market. What I would have, is clear examples of what can work and what changes garner the most support. The big companies today have made some mistakes in regards to the way they treat their users that I believe should be avoided. Controlling content, rather than allowing it to be controlled by the user themselves. Abusing ads, and using them in a way that negatively affects the users experience. I would get back to a system like Facebook had early on, where the content a user sees is the content directly posted by all of their friends in chronological order. Any algorithms used to organize or prioritize posts would have to be separate from the approach, as optional alternative states of viewing the content. It's important for the user to feel invested in the account, to have easy direct access to the accounts of their friends. A new form of blogging using this approach in tandem with the sharing of small posts and media, for example, could potentially reignite the interest in long-form writing as opposed to just the meme culture we have now.
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