Matching Items (28)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Entrepreneurship
- All Subjects: Food
- Creators: Sebold, Brent
Description
Entrepreneurship is an incredibly difficult endeavor. Along with the potentially high risk-to-return-ratio, starting an entrepreneurial venture, in nearly any capacity, necessitates a significant summation of work, time, creativity, and adaptability.1 In my opinion, many of the token hyper-productive individuals that have produced enormous amounts of value for the world were entrepreneurs who started their own companies and organizations. However, for every successful founder, there are thousands of failed entrepreneurs. In 2015, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that roughly 50% of businesses fail in the first four years.2 Founders, over time, must become professionals in their respective industries in order to succeed. With limited financial capital to hire employees, founders must learn skills in a variety of focus areas which could include finance, strategy, technology, management, marketing, sales, and many more, until they can generate enough capital to hire employees to fulfill these roles. Although the learnings and experiences from starting a company can more effectively be understood through experiencing it first-hand, in this document, I intend to start a startup from scratch, learn a multitude of skills involved with starting a startup and describe my experience. My hope is that potential founders can read this document and get a better understanding of what it’s like to start a startup. This thesis will be less focused on quantitative data capturing and more focused on my first-hand experience.
ContributorsNaluz, Ethan Gabriel (Author) / Sebold, Brent (Thesis director) / Mian, Sami (Committee member) / Ravichandran, Anirudh (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Fermentation and humanity have a very long intertwined history, neither would exist without the other. Fermenting food preserves it so it can survive long beyond its normal shelf life by maintaining an environment that promotes the survival of healthy bacteria and not dangerous ones. Recently, largely thanks to the dawn of social media and the internet, the notion that eating healthily is important has once again come around. Kombucha has taken advantage of this revolution by promoting good tasting probiotics that are easily consumed and incorporated into day to day life. Sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables have not caught on because they are not presented in an easy to use format, there is no variety of flavoring, and consumers have no idea how to start eating it in their daily diet. This is the whole in the market that Fermentation Station is filling.
Normally, sauerkraut is only sold in very large containers that are intimidating to the average consumer. Fermentation Station will solve this issue by selling sauerkraut in small serving size containers or slightly bigger containers for a week long supply. Additionally, Fermentation Station will sell multiple different flavors of sauerkraut. This is necessary to intrigue a younger audience who desires variety and choice
The other place where sauerkraut falls short is that people are unaware of how to incorporate into their day to day meals. To solve this the company social media team has been growing its following on several platforms. By providing easy recipes through these platforms, consumers can see how they too can easily start eating more sauerkraut without actually altering their diet much. To augment the creator, Ryan Conley’s talents, two additional team members were brought on to help with branding and marketing, mostly on social media.
Normally, sauerkraut is only sold in very large containers that are intimidating to the average consumer. Fermentation Station will solve this issue by selling sauerkraut in small serving size containers or slightly bigger containers for a week long supply. Additionally, Fermentation Station will sell multiple different flavors of sauerkraut. This is necessary to intrigue a younger audience who desires variety and choice
The other place where sauerkraut falls short is that people are unaware of how to incorporate into their day to day meals. To solve this the company social media team has been growing its following on several platforms. By providing easy recipes through these platforms, consumers can see how they too can easily start eating more sauerkraut without actually altering their diet much. To augment the creator, Ryan Conley’s talents, two additional team members were brought on to help with branding and marketing, mostly on social media.
ContributorsConley, Ryan Christopher (Author) / Sebold, Brent (Thesis director) / Schoepf, Jared (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Throughout the two semesters of the Founder’s Lab program, we developed and practiced our entrepreneurship skills by working to solve the issue of diversity and polarization. In the first semester, our task was to help a corporate entrepreneurial venture create and execute a marketing plan to diversify their target audience. We worked with the lead professors developing the World War II Studies Master’s Program for ASU’s School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies. During our collaboration with the World War II program, we realized that their issue with finding diverse students stemmed from an institutional problem with cultural diversity and polarization.
While working with the World War II Studies program, we primarily conducted market research, which eventually led us to pivot into starting our own venture. The data from the surveys we created indicated that the target market for a World War II Master’s Program was too narrow, and only appealed to people with specific cultural backgrounds. We concluded that a simple marketing plan would not be able to solve the lack of diversity, and decided to start up our own business to combat the issue. In the spring semester we created Platter Chatter, a social venture dedicated to promoting diversity and cultural awareness through food.
We believe that Platter Chatter has future potential as a social venture due to its unique position in the market, as well as the diverse perspectives and social capital that we bring as founders of the company. Some unexpected events have disrupted our original plans for testing and launching our venture, but with future work we are sure that our company and product will be able to succeed.
While working with the World War II Studies program, we primarily conducted market research, which eventually led us to pivot into starting our own venture. The data from the surveys we created indicated that the target market for a World War II Master’s Program was too narrow, and only appealed to people with specific cultural backgrounds. We concluded that a simple marketing plan would not be able to solve the lack of diversity, and decided to start up our own business to combat the issue. In the spring semester we created Platter Chatter, a social venture dedicated to promoting diversity and cultural awareness through food.
We believe that Platter Chatter has future potential as a social venture due to its unique position in the market, as well as the diverse perspectives and social capital that we bring as founders of the company. Some unexpected events have disrupted our original plans for testing and launching our venture, but with future work we are sure that our company and product will be able to succeed.
ContributorsChotalla, Maanik (Co-author) / Joe, Jona (Co-author) / Sauma MasÃs, Melania (Co-author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / Sebold, Brent (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
With the rising growth of makerspaces in the United States, many are at the leading edge of innovation but are struggling to adequately keep track of and maintain the supplies required to make those innovations come to fruition. Due to most makerspaces being publically funded by local governments, universities, or designated grant money, approval for purchase and implementation of a proper inventory management system takes time. We have created an application called Introventoria that assists these businesses to manage their materials, tools, customers, etc.
ContributorsMead, Emily (Co-author) / Dupre, Sulivan (Co-author) / Ferguson, Rene (Co-author) / Saitta, Sophia Angela (Co-author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / Sebold, Brent (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
This thesis, written in the first person, documents the chronological events in developing Social Renaissance - a social media marketing agency. The founder of Social Renaissance and author of this senior thesis project is Sara Kahn, a fourth year student at Arizona State University in Barrett, The Honors College. Sara is graduating in May of 2022 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Entrepreneurship from the W. P. Carey School of Business. She is also graduating with a Minor in Special Events Management from the Watts College – School of Community Resources and Development.
Sara has over 10 years of entrepreneurial experience and more than 3 years of marketing experience. This background uniquely positions her to develop Social Renaissance as a venture. This thesis will discuss the successes and failures experienced throughout the development process, key takeaways, and next steps for Social Renaissance. Enjoy!
ContributorsKahn, Sara (Author) / Sebold, Brent (Thesis director) / Mesquita, Luiz (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
This thesis, written in the first person, documents the chronological events in developing Social Renaissance - a social media marketing agency. The founder of Social Renaissance and author of this senior thesis project is Sara Kahn, a fourth year student at Arizona State University in Barrett, The Honors College. Sara is graduating in May of 2022 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Entrepreneurship from the W. P. Carey School of Business. She is also graduating with a Minor in Special Events Management from the Watts College – School of Community Resources and Development. Sara has over 10 years of entrepreneurial experience and more than 3 years of marketing experience. This background uniquely positions her to develop Social Renaissance as a venture. This thesis will discuss the successes and failures experienced throughout the development process, key takeaways, and next steps for Social Renaissance. Enjoy!
ContributorsKahn, Sara (Author) / Sebold, Brent (Thesis director) / Mesquita, Luiz (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
This thesis, written in the first person, documents the chronological events in developing Social Renaissance - a social media marketing agency. The founder of Social Renaissance and author of this senior thesis project is Sara Kahn, a fourth year student at Arizona State University in Barrett, The Honors College. Sara is graduating in May of 2022 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Entrepreneurship from the W. P. Carey School of Business. She is also graduating with a Minor in Special Events Management from the Watts College – School of Community Resources and Development. Sara has over 10 years of entrepreneurial experience and more than 3 years of marketing experience. This background uniquely positions her to develop Social Renaissance as a venture. This thesis will discuss the successes and failures experienced throughout the development process, key takeaways, and next steps for Social Renaissance. Enjoy!
ContributorsKahn, Sara (Author) / Sebold, Brent (Thesis director) / Mesquita, Luiz (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
The honors thesis explores the relationship between academic majors and the entrepreneurial mindset, focusing on whether Computer Science students have a perceived edge. The study involves a survey of 121 diverse Arizona State University students, complemented by in-depth interviews with 12 participants across various majors. Insights reveal the complex interplay of psychological factors influencing major selection, with Computer Science students advocating for more entrepreneurship-related courses. Challenges include time constraints for STEM majors in pursuing extracurricular activities and a call for universities to proactively integrate entrepreneurship education. While acknowledging the study's limitations, the thesis emphasizes the need for universities to adapt to changing student mindsets. Despite hurdles, the collective belief is that internal determination and effort drive students forward.
ContributorsAgarwal, Sarthak (Author) / Meuth, Ryan (Thesis director) / Sebold, Brent (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2023-12