Putting It All Together

Opportunity

            The opportunity I identified was born through my own personal experiences and a significant change in our community. Gainesville began to ban the use of plastic straws, and this change in my environment created an opportunity for a new straw alternative. I was being given more and more paper straws as Gainesville banned the use of plastic straws, and I was noticing more and more how much they didn’t work. Time after time I was left with a ruined experience and useless, soggy straw that was falling over. I began to see a significantly large group of customers with the same need as me—an environmentally friendly straw that actually works. People on social media making memes and tweets complaining about paper straws made me realize that there was opportunity beyond just me and my friends (who hated paper straws just as much as me). The potential customers here are anyone in the world who is looking for an eco-friendly plastic straw alternative that works better than the paper straw. Customers are currently satisfying this need at the most by buying reusable metal straws, but they may not be 100% loyal to the metal straws they have now. If they lost their metal straws, I’m sure they would be open to buying new ones. The nature of this need isn’t desperate, but it is a problem that people encounter repeatedly every day so it is a reoccurring problem that won’t go away without better solutions. Ultimately, the opportunity here is big. Until a similar or better idea comes along, the “window of opportunity” will exist as long as there are paper straws being served.

Innovation

This product is a solid, sturdy straw that can either be sold with a slight bend at the tip (like common plastic straws) or entirely straight. It is made out of seaweed harvested from the ocean; a specific type of seaweed is able to be processed into this kind of material with the help of science! It will not affect the taste of your drink or melt in any way while you are drinking with it. The straw will hold its form for hours after you are done with your drink, and can ultimately be composted or dissolved in water (like rivers, lakes, oceans). The materials it’s made of are completely safe and eco-friendly. I will make money through people either buying packs of these straws online themselves or businesses investing in these straws and distributing them to customers (like a restaurant or basically anywhere that has straws for consumers). The straws will be fairly inexpensive, depending on how much is bought. A 10-pack online would probably cost around $18.

Venture Concept

The SeaStraw will solve the initial problem by providing customers with a straw that will not hurt the environment or animals in their natural habitats, but still functions as a normal straw. This straw will not fall limp in the middle of a drink or start melting into paper in your mouth. Customers will want this product because they are desperate for a straw alternative, and customers who already have metal straws may switch to this product because they are curious, want to help feed animals in water ecosystems with it, or are served a drink with it at a restaurant. Anyone else on the market with a plastic straw alternative is my competition, but I will work against them with advertising and spreading the word/idea of SeaStraw (like making it go viral among younger audiences). Depending on how successful this straw becomes, it could become a much larger business with employees working in manufacturing, advertising, sales, distributing, etc. However, it all depends on the success and demand for the straw. Distribution would lie with the restaurants who choose to carry the straw; there won’t be much distribution coming from people at home who choose to buy a 10 pack of straws.

Overall, my most important resource will be the advertising and presentation of the SeaStraw to different audiences. I have the advantage of being on a college campus where I can spread the idea of something very quickly through advertising on campus (like spending afternoons tabling in Turlington). I am going to present the straw as more interesting, new, and eco-friendly than the other straw alternatives out there.

The next opportunity I want to tackle lies in advertising. This is an exciting, interesting concept that is weird to hear about first and could catch the eye of a lot of people. I need to get the word out and boost awareness that this product exists to keep growing it globally. Restaurants and other businesses that could become potential distributors also need to specially targeted! 

Assuming I already launched this, in five years I want to have restaurants distributing my straws with all of their beverages just like normal. This may have become extremely popular among restaurants by the sea or on the beach, and they can explain more about the product to customers who are interested. As an entrepreneur, I definitely don’t want this to the be the only thing I do! I hope I keep thinking of more ideas and identifying more opportunities for things that need to be invented.