Startup.com Documentary

Here is a plot summary I found by a user (jhailey@hotmail.com) on IMDb.com:

Friends since high school, 20-somethings Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman have an idea: a Web site for people to conduct business with municipal governments. This documentary tracks the rise and fall of govWorks.com from May of 1999 to December of 2000, and the trials the business brings to the relationship of these best friends. Kaleil raises the money, Tom's the technical chief. A third partner wants a buy out; girlfriends come and go; Tom's daughter needs attention. And always the need for cash and for improving the site. Venture capital comes in by the millions. Kaleil is on C-SPAN, CNN, and magazine covers. Will the business or the friendship crash first?

After watching this documentary, I was asked this question: Does it make me want or don't want to start a business? Well, as my entrepreneurship professor Andrew Fry has said, starting a business is like a roller coaster, it has it's highs and lows. So with that in mind, it's difficult for me to answer that question fully. But if I were to start a business along the lines of a software game development company such as the one in my previous post, I'd say definitely 'yes' as I've had this idea of a more in-depth bowling game for quite some time (four years to be exact).

Three Business Ideas

Here are three possible business ideas of mine:

Starting a software company who's first project would be a bowling video game similar to Wii Bowling. The game would be based on real PBA (Professional Bowlers Association) players like Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Pete Weber. You would go through a career that would take you against other players 1v1 like on T.V. The career mode would involve you going through all tournament qualifying until you eventually made it to the final match. You would go against three other PBA players (Amateur or Professional) in a Tournament and you would play it as if you were playing as they would on T.V. - based format. After all that game-based bowling you would eventually win a Tournament and become a popular player on tour. You should also have each bowling company such as Storm, Track, and Brunswick and all of their bowling balls with different stats on each to make each ball unique, which would make the game as realistic as the game itself. The added options could be Online play on Xbox Live with 1v1 and 2v2 team competitions. There would be online scoreboards to track your statistics on what you are ranked with average and what your high game is. You should also be able to create your own player and the player could choose from a variety of different shirts, shoes, and other types of bowling equipment. The player should be able to choose if he is right-handed or left-handed. The player would start with a certain amount of money depending on the price of the bowling equipment itself. The player would also have statistics on his bowling average, favorite bowling ball, and favorite opponent on Tour. Anyways, back to the added options, there should be a practice session option that would enable you to practice your skills before going on career mode or online on Xbox Live. The lanes you choose should be the ones that are visited by the PBA Tour such as Lava Lanes in Medford, Oregon. Also, there should be an option that lets you choose the lanes conditions/patterns such as the Cheetah Pattern, Shark Pattern, or Chameleon Pattern, just like the PBA Tour does.

Another one of my ideas would be to start a bowling ball company. It would focus on making bowling balls, bowling accessories, and bowling shoes.

Lastly, a hardware company that would focus on making a video game system similar to the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

How Technology Creates Opportunities For Entrepreneurs and Business

In my TINST 475 Entrepreneurship class, this topic was brought up and discussed. A technology my classmate Keith mentioned in class, that I also believe is a good, is video games. In today's society, video games are a major activity among adolescents and young adults especially in the First-Person Shooter (FPS) and Third-Person Shooter (TPS) genres. Games like Halo, Call of Duty, Rainbow Six, and Gears of War offer features such as online multiplayer that really enhance the gameplay of a game tremendously, not to mention it makes you want to get better at playing the game than your opponents.

This gets into the business side of the video game industry. If you have all of these elite players playing these elite games, you can begin to realize all of the possibilities an entrepreneur has in this industry. Hosting tournaments and providing sponsorship to these elite players are the two main activities an entrepreneur could provide. Not to mention the fact that you could get these tournaments shown on National television to further enhance your money-making business. Much is to be had in the video game industry!!