2. Vikram Patel - Co-Founder
Responsibility in the Company:
● Researched & Developed a dental
chewing gum that kills bacteria,
prevents plaque, whitens teeth
● Performed a significant role in
market research and data analysis
● Ran company operations (Inventory,
Packaging, Distribution, etc.)
● Conducted business negotiations as
a Salesperson
● Built and enhanced financial models
for the company
● Travelled and represented company
in tradeshows and connections
events
3. Timeline of Important Events
Stumberg Semifinal
Prize Competition
Entrepreneurship Class:
Ideation
August
2014
May-July
2015
March
-April
2016
April
2015
Nov.
2015
Summer Market
Research
Under Armour
Cupid’s Cup
Competition
Stumberg Final Prize
Competition
October 20, 2014 freegoogleslidestemplates.com 3
4. Entrepreneurship Class: Brainstorm/Ideation
THE PROBLEM
• Idea founded in class
• Market Problem
• Maintaining oral hygiene while on-the-go
• No current oral care product used effectively between brushing
cycles
5. • Together, team brainstormed and found chewing gum as the selective medium that would be capable of
solving the problem
• Primary Research occurred from August 2014 to April 2015 in order to formulate the idea, and pitch it in
the Stumberg Prize Semifinal Prize Competition for $5000
• Primary Research that was Involved
• Researching Competition and understanding their brand, who manufactures for them, the markets
they are in, market share, their target customer, price, presence of social media
• Researching beginning of Product Development - Gum base, Sugar Additive, “Secret Sauce” =
Differentiation Factor, Flavor, Shape and Total Dimensions
• Creating a Business Model/Lean Canvas that began to strategically figure out how company will
bring product to market
• Topics addressed in Business Model/Lean Canvas: Problem, Customer Segments, Unique
Value Proposition, Solution, Channels, Revenue Streams, Cost Structure, Key
Metrics/Performance Indicators, Unfair Advantage
Entrepreneurship Class: Brainstorm/Ideation
6. Stumberg Semifinal Prize Competition
● Among 17 startup teams, our company
had the privilege of becoming one of the
5 finalists for the Stumberg Final Prize
Competition ($25,000).
● After pitching and winning a place for
the finals, the 5 teams were given $5000
in seed money to begin the transition
from an idea into a business.
● Plova’s main focus with the $5000 for
the summer was to use it for continued
R&D and Market Research.
7. Summer Market Research
• For Research & Development:
• Contacted manufacturer in Maryland and began going through several prototyping
phases
• Attracted Investor that helped finance part of product development (later became
part of Board of Advisors), along with Team personal investments
• After every iteration, gave test samples out to target market for feedback
• 7th iteration became final validated product (chewing tablet form)
• For Market Research:
• Brainstormed a list of Possible Outlets for product
• Chose the hotel industry as our first market to test for validation
• Went to popular places in San Antonio like the Riverwalk, La Cantera, North Star Mall
and gathered survey data from random people
• Aggregated Data and found that customers of hotels would appreciate a pack of
chewing gum with oral benefits during stay
8. • Established that
• Economic Buyer would be the hotels that we would directly sell to
• End User would be the guests at the hotels
• Part of capturing Target Market attention = Person on the Go
(18-45)
• Executed a call log and set up informational meetings with Hotel Gm’s
to
• Determine how product could meet standards of hotel
• Understand how product could be implemented strategically
• Create relationships with hotel market (would later help in sales
meetings)
• Attended Cafe Commerce (Million Cups) consistently = A place to
receive feedback from practice pitches and insight from other
entrepreneurs in San Antonio for one’s business
Summer Market Research
9. Stumberg Final Prize Competition
● In November of 2015, company competed in
Trinity’s business plan competition and won
the grand prize of $25,000, beating several
MBA and undergraduate teams from the
Business School.
● Upon completion of Trinity’s pitch
competition, Plova agreed to another
partnership deal out of Denver, Colorado. The
gentleman agreed to take active advisory
management roles in helping with day to day
activities to ensure Plova’s success in the
marketplace.
● Plova’s main focus with the $25,000 was to use
it for establishment of holding and selling
inventory from first production run, filing for
LLC, website/design development, packaging
development, patent protection, and working
capital
10. Construction of Business Operations
● Along with normal Team Collaboration, individualized roles
in Company to hold individual responsibility
○ Cole Evans - Marketing
○ Vikram Patel - Business Transactions
○ Thayer Selleck - Management
● Team Responsibility
○ Working together on day-to-day operations
including
■ Website design/development with designer
■ Development of product packaging
■ Sales Meetings individually assigned
■ Attend TradeShows to market product
■ Contacting external partners to maintain
efficiency within business- manufacturing,
packaging, etc
● Determining pricing and what channels
will be used to reach customer
● Individual Responsibility
○ Continued management of bank account
○ Systematically ensuring integrity of business
transactions, creating purchase
orders/invoices/packing slips via Quickbooks
○ Reconciliation reports and anything tax-related
○ Create rough financial models for Board of Advisors
to look at and improve
11. Under Armour Cupid’s Cup Competition
● Over 350 teams applied to the Cupid’s Cup
competition hosted by CEO of Under Armour, Kevin
Plank. Only 12 teams were accepted for the semifinal
competition. Plova was a team selected from the
semifinal competition, and with our pitch, we were
able to make our way to the finalists competition,
where it would be aired on CNBC.
● After presenting our pitch to the judges (Kevin Plank,
Arianna Huffington, Dan Gilbert, and Wes Moore) six
weeks later, Plova received 3rd place, winning $5000
for the business.
● Plova intended to use the $5000 for paying off
liabilities and finishing website design for ease of
online sales.
● Plova intended to use connections made to assist in
entering other markets for creation of revenue
streams (military, dentist offices, outdoors, airlines,
etc.)
