CHAPTER 3 FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS

GROUP WORK/ ASSIGNMENT: Submit the answers per group (make sure the group members
participated in answering and write the names of group members) on or before April 8, 2020.

A. Read: You be the VC 3.1 COMPANY: InstyMeds (Page 99) and answer the following.
Q&A: Based on the material covered in this chapter, what questions would you ask the firm’s
founders before making your funding decision? What answers would satisfy you?
Decision: If you had to make your decision on just the information provided in the pitch and on
the company’s Web site, would you fund this company? Why or why not?
B. Read: You be the VC 3.1 COMPANY: InstyMeds (Page 99-100) and answer the following.
Q&A: Based on the material covered in this chapter, what questions would you ask the firm’s
founders before making your funding decision? What answers would satisfy you?
Decision: If you had to make your decision on just the information provided in the pitch and on
the company’s Web site, would you fund this company? Why or why not?
C. READ Case 3.1 Tommy John: The Role of Product and Industry Feasibility Analysis in Launching
a Consumer Products Company and answer the questions.
Discussion Questions
1. Write a concept statement for Tommy John. If Tommy John was still in the start-up stage
and Tom Patterson asked you to whom he should distribute the concept statement, what
would you have told him?
2. What type of gumshoe research did Tom Patterson benefit from when he was developing
Tommy John, and what additional gumshoe research could he have conducted while
he was investigating the feasibility of his business?
3. Make a list of the people whom Tom Patterson talked to about his product during the
design phase. What insight(s) does this list provide you about the nature of the feasibility
analysis process? Were there any tactics that Tom Patterson used to get feedback about
his product that you think were particularly clever?
4. Complete a First Screen analysis for Tommy John. What did you learn from the analysis?
Application Questions
1. What types of insights did Tom Patterson pick up by spending hours in stores watching
people buy men’s undershirts? What role did these insights play in the final design of the
product? In what ways do you think Tommy John products might be different today if
Tom Patterson hadn’t spent the time watching people buy men’s undershirts that he did?
D. READ Case 3.2 What Segway Learned About the Value of Feasibility Analysis the Hard Way and
answer the questions.
Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think Dean Kamen and his team didn’t do a better job of anticipating the
problems that beset the Segway?
2. Describe what you believe would have been an appropriate product/service
feasibility analysis and an appropriate market/industry feasibility analysis for Segway
during its development stage?
3. It what ways did Segway fail to build an ecosystem around its product? What could
Segway have done, if anything, to ensure that its product would do a better job of
fitting into its users’ environments and lives?
4. What niche market or markets do you think Segway should have targeted initially and
been successful in?
Application Questions
1. Describe a scenario in which Segway could have launched successfully, built its
business, and be a large and thriving business today.
2. Think of a product you use that fits ideally into your day-to-day life. What makes the
product so special? What design elements do you see in the product that makes it fit
so nicely into your life. Spend a few minutes either looking at or thinking about the
product. What can you learn from the product you’re thinking about that could
potentially make you a better entrepreneur?