Venture Project Two – Winter Quarter 2020
Team: Tori Corkum, Evarosa Perry, Zosia Sherwood, Drew Vidano.
Our team worked with a company called Thrifty as business consultants. Thrifty hopes to bring a sense of freedom for all body sizes and all ethnicities. This company also hopes to stay updated in fashion in order to hold fun events for the local Bellingham community.
In the beginning, we ideated and thought we should help Levi (the owner of Thrifty) create a spring fashion show. After we met with Levi we realized that we needed to pivot out thinking and should focus more on the basics such as a BMC. The reason for this was that Thrifty was a brand new company and really needed help getting the groundwork established.
From there we found two main ideas that needed to be addressed: the relationships between Levi and the models and Levi and the artists. We began by developing contracts for Levi as examples for what he should expect from the volunteers and what the volunteers expect from him as the company owner. After doing all the research and development we had the biggest pivot of this project. It happened the day before we did our practice pitch but it was best for the team’s true end goal (simply to consult). We had been very focused on providing Levi with a product and forgot that our purpose was only to consult with him. In the end, our team’s pitch won the first round and did a great final pitch with the whole class!
This project taught me how to use a SWOT analysis, a PESTLE analysis, BMC, BIC, and a storyboard. These are important features in the entrepreneurship world. I personally also learned how to establish our team strengths and weaknesses; this was helpful when we needed to go through the process of storming and norming.
Goals: Our main goal for this VP2 project was to help Levi set up the groundwork in his professional relationships. We had a very big emphasis on professionalism and even suggested he take a class on the subject. We developed contracts that we sent directly to Levi and asked him to please work with a lawyer to ensure the contracts are legal and just.