Smartix Evaluation
Liz Carten
February 20, 2012
Smartix: Dancing with the Elephants
1. How would you evaluate Vivek Khuller's initial development of Smartix in terms of developing the product/concept and testing/proving it out at the Harvard Ball?
I believe Vivek’s use of the Harvard Ball as a testing venue was an effective, intelligent choice. He was able to illustrate many of the system’s features including its ability to capture demographic information, and the arrival and departure times of attendees. Site traffic dramatically increased before the event, and students were able to buy and sell tickets amongst one another, ultimately providing a greater overall turnout rate.
2. Subsequent to the Harvard Ball, what do you think of Vivek's efforts to further prove out the concept with additional trial venues/customers? What effect did this have on mitigating risks, moving the company forward and obtaining venture capital funding?
Subsequent to the Harvard Ball, Vivek chose not to test the prototype in any other venues. Instead, he began focusing on further developing the business plan. He met with the operations manager at Robert Keebler’s stadium who bombarded him with questions about how the system would work specifically at a sports arena. Vivek admitted that because he had extremely limited exposure to sporting events—he attended the FleetCenter just once—he hadn’t really thought through much of the logistics that would be involved in setting up the system at a sporting event. Of the conversation, Vivek admitted, “This guy was much more concerned about how much more operational risk he would have to undertake by adopting this new technology. We did not address that, at all. We had done very little research on that. We had very few answers to his questions.” Surprisingly, the conversation did not prompt Vivek to test out his concept at an actual sporting event/arena before seeking funding and strategic partnerships. This would prove a stumbling block later
February 20, 2012
Smartix: Dancing with the Elephants
1. How would you evaluate Vivek Khuller's initial development of Smartix in terms of developing the product/concept and testing/proving it out at the Harvard Ball?
I believe Vivek’s use of the Harvard Ball as a testing venue was an effective, intelligent choice. He was able to illustrate many of the system’s features including its ability to capture demographic information, and the arrival and departure times of attendees. Site traffic dramatically increased before the event, and students were able to buy and sell tickets amongst one another, ultimately providing a greater overall turnout rate.
2. Subsequent to the Harvard Ball, what do you think of Vivek's efforts to further prove out the concept with additional trial venues/customers? What effect did this have on mitigating risks, moving the company forward and obtaining venture capital funding?
Subsequent to the Harvard Ball, Vivek chose not to test the prototype in any other venues. Instead, he began focusing on further developing the business plan. He met with the operations manager at Robert Keebler’s stadium who bombarded him with questions about how the system would work specifically at a sports arena. Vivek admitted that because he had extremely limited exposure to sporting events—he attended the FleetCenter just once—he hadn’t really thought through much of the logistics that would be involved in setting up the system at a sporting event. Of the conversation, Vivek admitted, “This guy was much more concerned about how much more operational risk he would have to undertake by adopting this new technology. We did not address that, at all. We had done very little research on that. We had very few answers to his questions.” Surprisingly, the conversation did not prompt Vivek to test out his concept at an actual sporting event/arena before seeking funding and strategic partnerships. This would prove a stumbling block later