Summary of the Case Study
Irrational Design is a new technology company that was founded with the aim of carrying out business on a free to take risk basis. The founders did not seek finance from investors during the start-up since they intended to try out their products freely and the projected indirect costs were low. The involvement of investors would limit them to the already established approaches yet they aimed at building and developing their own company from personal funding (Gardella, 2011). The company has remained on this course by introducing trial products intended to generate income that can be drawn back to the business. It has taken off prematurely with some trial products to earn customers’ corroboration and gain reputation. This limits the company’s marketing prospects, and it uses personal income to fund bills. It has formulated three commercial products and introduced them on the e-business platform since its inception.
The matching game was the first product to be used as a dating website aimed at generating revenue through advertising. Insightster was the second one that is characterized by simplicity and meant to serve as an online suggestion box for businesses. It will earn the company revenue from storing attachments and security charges. Secret Goals is the third product, a message board, which is to earn the company revenue through advertisements (Gardella, 2011). The founders plan to stay with the few products in their logical establishment before embarking on several others that they have in the pipeline. They understand that if several products succeed at the same time, they may not attend to them sufficiently due to the shortage of resources. They may not benefit from the investor follow-up, but their free-to-experiment basis of operation will earn them trust from clients while their outstanding skills will be profitable to the company.
Three Technologies
New technological ventures are met with several challenges of risk, survival, and success since they endeavor to introduce new products in an already existing market. There many of such products that exist in the market for less than 5 years. They can, however, be supported by the application of several technologies to survive for more than five years and realize their value. Successful technologies include entrepreneurial marketing, knowledge management, and business model management.
Entrepreneurial marketing technology merges entrepreneur and marketing aspects while involving the use of new promotion practices that, if utilized, enable new ventures to earn space in the already stuffed market. This has, for instance, been widely utilized in India’s rapidly growing technology sector (Ahmadi & O’Cass, 2016). Introduction of different products is the platform for the competitiveness of new technological ventures where they bring more valuable products than those in existence or new commodities. This technology aids a firm in countering the prospects in the market by strategically introducing products that are in line with the current trend. This is possible since the founders of new ventures are free to experiment, which is an advantage over the competitors already in the market since they are flexible. Entrepreneurial marketing requires the use of aggressive ways of promotion to create an enduring link between the client and the product.
Knowledge management is what drives innovativeness in new technological ventures which is a sure way of existence, increase, and distinction from other established companies as observed in new technology firms in China (Yu, Chen, & Nguyen, 2014). Through knowledge management, a firm can raise its performance, which is a key component of acquiring and retaining market. Formulation of new technological products is based on awareness of the need in the market and is enhanced by both existing and new ideas together with the skills and experiences of founders. A firm incorporates new ideas when formulating its products, and in case of the failure of a product in the market, this knowledge is crucial and should be exploited sufficiently to assist the company to retain competitiveness. New product development failure is not a rare occurrence in novel technology ventures, and founders should gather relevant information and learn from the mistakes.
Business model management is applied at the start-up stages of a venture where the founders design the value they intend to realize from their business. It stipulates the rationale of undertaking a given venture so that the business is well mapped out, implemented, and reviewed with the aim of attaining the anticipated value and success. Business model management should be done distinctively to render it difficult for duplication, but it should be persuasive to consumers and at the same time grasp substantial value as products are delivered to the market. It outlines the business value of an organization with respect to discerning chances and making use of them while creating a layout of determining what can be relied on and what can be compromised. The model is unique and accustomed to the undertakings of the particular firm thus non-duplicable by another. Business model management may be adopted continually (Malmström & Johansson, 2017).
New technological ventures that are funded by personal income can survive when suitable technologies are applied. The technologies assist the ventures to attain a competitive edge in the existing market. At the same time, they make a company remain successful by introducing valuable and more superior products than other firms in the market.
References
Ahmadi, H., & O’Cass, A. (2016). The role of entrepreneurial marketing in new technology ventures first product commercialization. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 24(1), 47-60.
Gardella, A. (2011). Irrational Design, a San Francisco start-up, tries to fly solo. The New York Times. Web.
Malmström, M., & Johansson, J. (2017). Practicing business model management in new ventures. Journal of Business Models, 5(1), 1-13.
Yu, X., Chen, Y., & Nguyen, B. (2014). Knowledge management, learning behavior from failure and new product development in new technology ventures. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 31(3), 405-423.