Assignment 23A - Your Venture's Unfair Adventure

1. Fishing Experience/Knowledge.
• Valuable: Very valuable, as this knowledge helps understanding the needs of anglers and what they look for in a product.
• Rare: Not very rare, many people have it. 
• Inimitable: Not that hard to copy. Nearly anyone can get fishing knowledge.
• Non-Substitutable: I could get someone else with experience/knowledge for the product.  
2. Ability to talk with anglers about the product and their needs.
• Valuable: Very valuable, because the more knowledge you have about your audience the better.
• Rare: Not vary rare, but still nice to have.
• Inimitable: Not that hard to copy. There are anglers all over that anyone could talk to.
• Non-Substitutable: I could have someone do a survey or talk to anglers. So it's sort of substitutable. 
3.   Having friends and family who fish in tournaments and fish casually around the south.
• Valuable: Kind of valuable as they can help spread the word in this area to anglers, or advertise the product on their boats.
• Rare: Not that rare, but not super common either.
• Inimitable: If you have people you know that could help advertise then you could copy this. 
• Non-Substitutable: I'm sure you could substitute the advertising somehow by finding a similar audience.
4.   Having the energy to help the product grow.
• Valuable: Very valuable. I am young and have the energy and drive to get things done.
• Rare: Not that rare, but still useful.
• Inimitable: Anyone could copy it if they are healthy and willing to do so.
• Non-Substitutable: Hard to substitute being young, but anyone at any age could have the same energy or drive if they pushed hard enough.
5.  Connections within the FFA (Future Farmers of America).
• Valuable: Can be valuable, as many people within agriculture partake in fishing, and it could be a good market to advertise to.
• Rare: Not that common, but not super rare either due to the organization being so large. 
• Inimitable: If someone has connections within the organization they could copy it.
• Non-Substitutable: There are other organizations which are similar that could be marketed to.
6.  The product is fairly niche.
• Valuable: Very valuable because it leaves the market pretty open.
• Rare: Very rare. There's many ideas/products like it. 
• Inimitable: If someone had to technology they could potentially take the idea.
• Non-Substitutable: I don't think there is a great substitution that is portable. Other products have some flaws/limitations. 
7.  Access to communicate with companies and important individuals through the internet. 
• Valuable: Can be valuable if they respond positively and are willing to help.
• Rare: Not rare at all.
• Inimitable: Can be copied easily by others.
• Non-Substitutable: I could communicate with them through other ways.
8.  Good financial standing which can allow for loans.
• Valuable: Can be valuable for a starting company or business. 
• Rare: Not very rare.
• Inimitable: It can be copied, but it's hard if you're in bad financial standing currently.
• Non-Substitutable: Not really another substitute unless I just get a lot of capital from a different source. 
9.  I am a very social person.
• Valuable: Can be valuable when trying to market the business and talking with potential investors.
• Rare: Not very rare, there are a lot of social people.
• Inimitable: Can be copied by people, it's not that hard.
• Non-Substitutable: Not sure if you can replace being social. It's one of those traits where either you have it or you do not.
10.  I am a very patient person.
• Valuable: Can be valuable when dealing with a product or business. Not everything happens in a day.
• Rare: Not that rare at all.
• Inimitable: Someone could copy how much patience I have, or how I handle certain situations.
• Non-Substitutable: I don't know if you can substitute patience. Either you have it or you do not.  

After conducting the VRIN analysis, I believe my top resource is the uniqueness of my product. I feel that it's more important than my other resources because it is very valuable. Having a unique product can open up a new market and can end up being very lucrative if it is successful. Being a unique product speaks for itself on the rarity. I feel that the product could be copied by others if the technology isn't patented, but we hope to create a product that's so great that it will outshine any imitators. There also isn't a great substitute on the market that has the mobility and the ease of this product which makes it so unique and great.