29A Venture Concept No. 2

1. Opportunity:

As a worship leader, there are a lot of moving parts that I have to be aware of. Making sure the band is on time, keeping the congregation engaged, and most importantly remembering the lyrics for every song. When there are four to six songs in a set, it is hard to remember all those words. There are normally TVs located in the back of the worship center that are used as confidence monitors. They show the current slide that is on the projectors for the congregation to see, as well as the next slide. This works perfectly, but the major problem is that singers are too reliant on it and lose focus on engaging the crowd. They use the monitors to deal with their nerves. I believe there is a better way to have the monitor while still being able to be personal.

Innovation:

The innovative service I will create for this need is software for smart glasses. The lyrics will project onto the lenses so that the singer can be cued while looking at the crowd. It is a way to be personal while getting that boost of confidence. The glasses will connect to a smartphone. So, the software needs to be in the glasses as well as the phone. The phone will be the powerhouse for this service. The phone will connect to the same WiFi network as the computer that is running the lyrics for the congregation. The lyrics will already be loaded on the phone automatically. Whenever the lyrics change, the computer will send a message over the WiFi network to the smartphone telling it what slide to put on the glasses. Since the messages are using a minuscule amount of data, this can happen in real time.

The prototypical customer is a worship leader in his or her 20s, who already own smart glasses or will buy them because of this app. The app will be free but will cost $50 a year to help maintain quality updates to make it easier to read and easier to connect.

Venture:

The customer will want to switch so that their job will be easier, and they can take a more personal approach to worship. The switch will be different because they will not be used to having lyrics in front of them, but the learning curve is small, and it is actually harder to go back to reading lyrics on a confidence monitor.

The competitors would be the computer programs that display the confidence monitors. At the same time, it isn’t, however. The glasses will connect to those computer programs and the two can work in harmony with each other. The weak spots would be another company that tries to copy my idea.

Since my service is purely software, I do not have to worry about packaging, and I can charge a premium since the purchaser would most likely be an organization instead of on an individual.

The company would not have many employees. I would want a team of about 10 engineers in software and IT. I would need a good marketing advisor and accountant. I would grow into something bigger with more upper management positions, but not during the startup stages.

Minor Elements:

            The secret sauce would be the simplicity of the product to connect with the presentation program ProPresenter. It is the industry standard for houses of worship. It will be plug and play because the program will treat the glasses as another display. The next reason would be the custom ability of where the user wants to see the lyrics on their lenses. The final step would be the ease to toggle the lyrics on and off. Sometimes the performer might know a song very well and they do not want lyrics, with a simple tap on the frame they will shut off.

            The next step would be to integrate with musicians. Trying to connect to Ableton Live (a computer program and uses click and backing tracks) so that musicians can stay on time. The glasses would have dots on the lenses to be used as a metronome. I can see how this could be helpful for a conductor would needs to stay at a specific time.

            Assuming that the business is ran, I would like to make sure that the app can be used cross platform, between the major smart glasses brand, between iOS and Android, and between Mac and PC. I want performers to have the edge to stay in the moment while knowing the future.

2. Feedback

The feedback I got was positive. My classmates supported me through this process. When I did change things they gave me their opinion on it. They understood who my product is for too, because the market will thrive in the church environment. 

3. Changes

 I honestly did not change much at all. The biggest switch I needed to do was go from hardware to software. Now that I made it to this point, the only thing I changed to the concept is the amount of engineers I will need. I started out with only 5, but I believe 10 is a more realistic number. These engineers will also be dealing with a lot of feedback in the beginning.