In 600 minutes, two teams at GoKart Labs dreamed, researched, pivoted, sketched, designed, wrote and presented the following two very different business ideas around the same problem.

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2. WE’RE GOKART LABS.
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3. WE GROW BUSINESSES.
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4. USING DATA TO INFORM OUR IDEAS,
WE WORK WITH YOU TO INVENT,
DESIGN AND BUILD DIGITAL SOLUTIONS
TO HUMAN PROBLEMS.
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5. ON SEPTEMBER 27, 2013,
WE INVENTED
TWO BUSINESSES IN 600 MINUTES.
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6. 6
HOW?

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9. 9
FOR THE GOKART 600, WE USED
OUR PROCESS FOR INVENTION
CALLED ITERATION ZERO.

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TYPICALLY ITERATION ZERO
TAKES CLIENTS FROM IDEA TO
BUSINESS PLAN IN ONE MONTH.

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AS AN EXPERIMENT,
WE CONDENSED ITERATION ZERO
DOWN TO ONE DAY.

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THAT MEANT EVERY 1.3 HOURS EQUALLED TWO DAYS.
“SO... IF YOU USE THE BATHROOM,
IT'S LIKE MISSING AN AFTERNOON.”
- DON SMITHMIER, CEO

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AT 8 AM, THE BASIC IDEA WAS ANNOUNCED.

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SOME PEOPLE NEED HELP TO
ORGANIZE THEIR THINGS.
OTHERS COULD BORROW
INSTEAD OF BUY THOSE THINGS.

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WE SPLIT INTO TWO TEAMS.
EACH HAD CREATIVES, TECHNOLOGISTS,
STRATEGISTS, AND ANALYSTS.

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THERE WAS NO SHARING BETWEEN
TEAMS UNTIL FINAL PRESENTATIONS
AT THE END OF THE DAY.

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WE ALSO HAD TWO OF OUR OWN
ACTING AS CLIENTS TO KEEP
EACH TEAM CUSTOMER-FOCUSED.
Josh Rob

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IN 600 MINUTES, WE DREAMED,
RESEARCHED, PIVOTED, SKETCHED,
DESIGNED, WROTE, AND PRESENTED.

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AT 5 PM, EACH TEAM PRESENTED
VERY DIFFERENT SOLUTIONS
TO THE SAME PROBLEM.

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TWO NEW BUSINESS PLANS, ONE DAY.

21. IDEA ONE

22. try.it
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A safe, social, lending and borrowing network that
connects people who want to try things, with the
people who have the gear that enable them to.

23. Problem(s)
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People want to try new things, and sometimes the gear
costs are prohibitive.
People have stuff sitting around that they want to utilize
or monetize.
Businesses have things they want consumers to buy, and
are recognizing the value of try before you buy.

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Collaborative Consumption

25. Collaborative Consumption
One of the ‘10 Ideas That Will Change The World’ - Time Magazine
The key reason Collaborative Consumption is taking off is because every new
advancement of technology increases the efficiency and the social glue of trust
to make sharing easier and easier.’
- Rachel Botsman, Ted.com - The currency of the new collaborative economy is trust.
Currently a wave of startups (connectme, legit) figuring out how to quantify your
online reputation from one system to the next, creating a Trust Score that
leading thinkers in this space believe will be more powerful in the 21st century
than a credit score was in the 20th Century.
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Try Before
You Buy
Meet Like
People
Monetize
Your Gear
Be Green
Learn New
Things
Be Healthy

27. Market Validation
FORBES estimates the revenue flowing through the share
economy directly into people’s wallets will surpass $3.5
billion this year, with growth exceeding 25%.
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- FORBES, Jan ’13

28. Market Validation
Major companies are announcing their presence in the ‘try
before you buy’ world. It is a great way to build trust for
both new and long standing companies. GM did it for two
months in late 2009 and sold some 220-thousand cars with
just 200 or so (less than one percent) returned.
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- Bill Shrink, April ’13

29. So What.
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People are willing to try new things. They want to, but
there is a need for a platform to facilitate that.
Trying new things is proven to be beneficial to people’s
overall well being - research shows there are mental and
physical health benefits.
Businesses are beginning to recognize that consumers
want to try things before they buy them.

30. Core Hypothesis
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There is an opportunity for businesses to become more
empathetic to consumer needs and desire to try new
things, which will benefit the business by increasing brand
loyalty, and benefit the consumer by making them more
healthy.

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Try.it Anywhere

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The Product
•The entire conversation in one place.
•Family calendar of events.
•Know where your family is, always.
•Emergency info when you need it.
Try Something New

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The Product
•The entire conversation in one place.
•Family calendar of events.
•Know where your family is, always.
•Emergency info when you need it.

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Try By Interest

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40. Business Model
A healthy balance of B-C, and C-C.
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Items Revenue
Sponsors
End Users

41. Business Model (B-C)
B to C marketing is crucial to wider adoption (leveraging their distribution channels) and getting the word
out to consumers.
Brands and Retailers will use the Try-It platform to create Try-It events for their products. The Try-It
platform gives brands tools for creating a landing page experience for users who want to try their products
(including ‘finder’ functionality) and generates a short URL for inclusion in Social Media conversations.
• 300 retailers and brands at tier 1, single event / single market x $150 = $45,000
• 100 retailers and brands at tier 2, single event / multiple markets x $1500 = $150,000
• 50 retailers and brands at tier 3, multiple events / single market x $300/month = $180,000
• 25 retailers and brands at tier 4, multiple events / multiple markets x $3k/month = $900,000
Total B to C revenue = $1,275,000
Cost to acquire 475 brand / retail customers = $300K,
Salaries for 2-person sales staff + $150,000 marketing budget
Net B to C Revenue, Year 1 = $825,000
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42. Business Model (C-C)
Try-It will charge a percentage of each transaction and will begin offering Insurance/Protection for ‘stuff’
as value for the fee in addition to data/dashboards as appropriate.
EXAMPLE: start ONLY with Outdoor Sports (Camping, Kayaking, Biking, etc…)
Cost to acquire users = $14/user
5 transactions per year x $50/transaction = $250/user - at a 10% fee structure our revenue per user is $25
Year 1, we anticipate 16,000 outdoor enthusiasts.
Net C to C Revenue, Year 1 = $176,000
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43. Technical Architecture
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44. Competition
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C2C
Uber
PassitOn
RelayRides
B2C
Need
Want
SwapBaby Goods
Renterval
Skillshare
Riparide
AirBNB
Universe
Coursera
RentStuff
Officio

45. Financing Details
Would Like To Raise $1.65m A-Round
• Provides 12 months of operating capital to get to minimum viable product and
market launch
• Use of proceeds
• Hire GoKart Labs to build and release product Version 1
• Key hires: Sales lead, Opps mgr, Marketing mgr
• Customer acquisition marketing test(s)
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47. IDEA TWO

48. Problem
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Every production at every theater group
across the country requires a similar but
different set of props, costumes, sets and
scripts, but most lack the budgets to buy or
create everything then need to put on a
great show.

49. And the problem’s getting worse.
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"When adjusted for inflation, total government funding for the arts
has contracted by 31 percent since 1992; congressional
appropriations to the NEA declined by an inflation-adjusted 49
percent between 1992 and 2012. State funding declined by 25
percent and local funding declined by 28 percent during that same
period."
Source: Ryan Stubbs, Research Director, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA).

50. Even though the arts make us better.
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Children who engage in the arts demonstrate:
Better academic outcomes
Higher career goals
More civically engaged
Source: National Endowment for the Arts, 2012

51. Solution
A lending platform that allows theater companies and
schools to track and share their entire inventory of
costumes, sets and props.
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Browse
Find the things you need for your
production.
Share
Lend and borrow from
inventories near and far.
Track
Keep track of what you have
in stock and what’s on loan

52. Market Validation
This intersection of sharing and technology has
contributed to an “own less, use more” mindset,
backed by environmentalists and economists alike.
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—FAST COMPANY, 2013
The revenue flowing through the share economy
directly into people’s wallets will surpass $3.5 billion
this year, with growth exceeding 25%.
—FORBES, 2013

53. It’s already happening.
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54. It’s already happening.
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55. Market Opportunity
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138k
Schools
http://www.census.gov/population/projections/nation/hh-fam/table1n.txt, http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/03/smartphones-spread-out-pew-says-46-percent-of-us-adults-now-own/
5,000
Theaters
Audience
143k

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An Addressable Audience

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63. Ecosystem: Business Model
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Set My Stage
Developers, Designers
(Partially crowdsourced workforce)
Membership Fees
$50/year
Volunteer Leadership
Corporate and Foundation
Donors
Funders
Supporters

64. The Financials
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65. Financing Details
Status
• To date, GoKart Labs has invested $36k and has completed:
concept design, identity, business planning, competitive research
Would Like To Raise $150k
• Provides 2 months of operating capital to get to minimum viable product and market launch
• Use of proceeds
• Hire GoKart Labs to build and release product Version 1
• The team: Product Owner + Designer + Developer
• Customer acquisition marketing test(s)
• Timing: would like to close by 10/31/13
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67. IF WE DID ALL THAT IN ONE DAY, IMAGINE
WHAT WE COULD DO FOR YOU.
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68. TOGETHER, LET’S MAKE SOMETHING GREAT.
AJ@GOKARTLABS.COM | 612.454.4012
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69. THANK YOU.
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70. WE GROW BUSINESSES
Dream big. Implement Small. Invent now.
Bet the garden, not the farm.