Lesson 1
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND MARKETING
● Marketing is important because a product will not sell itself; it
must be visible to customers.
● Entrepreneurs need to understand the relationship between
price and quality.
Entrepreneur
● People who develop the opportunity into a business by
creating a new product or service for a group of customers
not served well by existing alternatives in the market.
Techpreneurs (Technology Entrepreneurs)
● Includes tech enthusiasts and data analysts.
● Marketing Challenge: Since they create innovative
products, they must educate (the benefits derived)
people to ensure customer adoption.
Types of New Products
(1) New Versions of Existing Products.
● i.e., me-too products, line extensions
● Modestly new products that have been around for
some time, but with a different marketing approach
or minor change.
● Updates, variations, minor changes on EP.
● Not changing the nature of the product.
● Marketers do not need to change the customer's
perception.
● Providing something, but not radically, new.
● e.g., new flavors of toothpaste.
(2) Incremental Innovation.
● Extensions of existing products.
● These products fit current knowledge and market
structures, but bring something new to the
equation offering extra value to the customer.
● e.g., new iPhone = new value
(3) Radical Innovation.
● These draw on technology to produce products
people have not seen before.
● These new products can often change markets,
alter existing product categories, or even make
them obsolete.
● Essentially changing the nature of the product.
● Customers need to relearn.
● Marketing Challenge: As new levels of product
increase, marketing investments also increase.
With this, marketers need to ensure that customer
adoption also increases.
● Disrupts market; changes market structures.
● If it changes everything, it is a Radical Innovation.
● e.g., new iPhone release; altered the way we live.
Business Model
● A clear, concise way of picturing how a business operates.
● Describes how a business will earn or generate value.
Types of Business Models (Traditional)
(1) Integrated Business Model.
● Firm designs, develops, manufactures and sells its
goods and services.
● Firm is responsible from production to distribution.
● e.g., bakeshops, automobiles (cars)
(2) Asset-Light Business Model.
● Firm focuses on a particular role, for instance,
brand and CRM.
● e.g., clothing industries (H&M)
● H&M focuses mainly on marketing, the rest of the
operational function (manufacturing) is outsourced.
● No need to invest in capital.
● Firm transfers cost-savings to the price of
products.
(3) Razor Blade Business Model.
● Substantial amounts of income are earned on a
particular derivative facet of a product system.
● Earns mostly from the secondary/supplementary
product.
● e.g.,
○ Gillette technically sells handles for free,
but mainly sells blades.
○ EPSON technically sells printers for
free, but mainly sells ink cartridges.
(4) Subscription and Advertising Model.
● These rely on periodic (e.g., monthly) fees, or paid
advertis­ing to users to make money.
● Firm earns thru ads in free subscriptions, and thru
payment in paid subscriptions.
● e.g., Spotify, YouTube
The Internet and The New Business Model
(1) Airbnb.
● A community-based online platform for listing and
renting local homes. It connects hosts and
travelers and facilitates the process of renting
without owning any rooms itself. Moreover, it
cultivates a sharing-economy by allowing property
owners to rent out private flats.
● Airbnb sets infrastructures to bring together
consumers.
(2) Uber.
● Uses a “multi sided-platform BM”, as it connects
drivers (offer) and passengers (demand), in order
to offer cheaper transportation and an additional
source of income.
● Uber does not own cars, they facilitate cars who
want to provide transportation by providing the
drivers on its platform with a robust supply of ride
requests to accept, fulfill, and make income.
● Important for entrepreneurs to not just earn money, but be
sustainable in doing so.
Lesson 2
IDENTIFYING AN APPLICATION AND MARKET
Entrepreneurship as Opportunity Seeking
● Entrepreneurship. - The discovery, evaluation, and
exploitation of a market opportunity, and turning it into a
business opportunity.
● Market Opportunity. - Matching unmet needs in the market
with new ideas or technologies to create a product
application (or service), to meet those needs.
● Identify market opportunity (what is the problem/need to be
solved), then create product application (solution; gauge MO
and customers).
Contrasting the Evaluation Criteria of NOVICES and
EXPERIENCED Entrepreneurs (based on Gruber et al., 2008).
(1) NOVICE Entrepreneurs focus on:
● How novel the idea is.
● The extent to which the idea is based on new
technology.
 ● The superiority of product or service.
● The potential to change the industry.
● Their intuition or gut feeling.

(2) EXPERIENCED Entrepreneurs focus on:

● Whether a customer problem is solved.
● The ability to generate positive cash flow.
● The speed of revenue generation.
● The manageable risk.
● Availability of partners with whom to develop the
venture.

The Bowling Alley Model

S = Customer Segment
A = Product Application

● Moore suggests using the concept of a bowling alley to

illustrate the entre­preneur’s challenge to select the first and
best product application.
● He argues that to gain market momentum, entrepreneurs
should target a niche that can help open up a larger market.

● Jollibee has the same product application, but different

market development (CS).
● Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook started with the same CS
(same university; market entry), then became open to
different CS (different universities; general public).
● GCash started with the same product application (cashless
payments), then became open to different product
applications (GLoans, GInvest).

● Most start-ups fail, around:

○ 40% in the 1st year, and
○ 90% after 10 years.

Product vs. Customer Orientation

Product Orientation Customer Orientation

Begins with: Technology. Customer.

Sees product as: Focal point, As a means to a goal.

Emphasizes in Features and Attributes that deliver

discussion with specifications. benefits.
customer:

● Creative Destruction. - Company aims to innovate, but

destroys previously introduced products and turns obsolete
in the market.