1. +
Commercial Feasibility
Adding coherence to your business proposition
Leo Castellanos

2. +
The Journey of an Idea

3. Journey of an Idea
Enterprise office Commercialisation Service Delivery Model
Milestone 1 Milestone 2 Milestone 3 Milestone 4
Innovation Feasibility/PoC Implementation Incubation
Spin-out
Finance
R&D Panel Feasibility Panel Commercial
Roadshow Implement’n Panel
Process Study
Plan
Licensing
Support
No No
CREU
Spinout
No: IP reverts to academic
INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME
DOCUMENTS: DOCUMENTS:
DOCUMENTS: DOCUMENTS:
• Memorandum of Agreement • Feasibility Study Report & PoC • Business plan: licensing or spin-out • External heads of terms
• IP Assignment to City • Impact Form • Internal heads of terms • Investment strategy
• Innovation Form • IP Protection Plan • Legal agreements • Investment-readiness docs
• Brief & Commercial Scope
• Service Level Agreement

4. +
AGENDA
n Technology Attributes
n Features Vs Benefits
n Technology Profiling
n Market Analysis
n Market Segmentation
n Customers
n Project Development
n Competitive Environment and Risks
n Route to Market
n The Pitch
n Business Models
n Partnerships and Bandwagons
n Conclusion

5. +
Features Vs Benefits
n A feature is a characteristic, A benefit doesn’t deal with
but not just any characteristic – characteristics or details – it
it’s one that stands out more deals with advantages. A
than the others. It’s benefit takes a feature and turns
prominent, special or it into something relating to your
important. customer. It explains why a
feature is good. It’s what sells
your customers on your
products.

6. +
Features Vs Benefits
Features Benefits
n All wheel drive. n - You are less likely to get
stuck in the snow.
n Gets more miles per gallon
than competitors. n You'll save money on gas.
n Side-impact airbags. n Your family will be safe in an
accident.

7. +
Technology Profiling
What do you need to know?

8. +
Technology Profiling
n clip papers with it - clip your nose and make your kids smile -twist it around several cables to keep them together -twist it
and open use it to open locks -unroll it to make holes in bland surfaces unroll it and make it circular and you will have a ring
if it’s a big paperclip unroll it and make it again circular and you will have a bracelet unroll it and then bend it around the
opening of a bag to keep the contents inside unroll it and stick several pieces of food with it to have a “pincho moruno” heat
it enough so that it melts and use it to stick small metallic things together cd/dvd tray opener unroll it, make it circular and
use it for fleas to jump through in a flea circus if you have too many papers make a hole through them with a puncher, unroll
the paper clip and make it pass through the hole to keep the pages together use it to keep old furniture doors that have small
hooks together you can use it as a puncturing weapon hit it with your nails and if you have a sensitive ear you will have a
percussion instrument it serves as a projectile a cheap belt for your pants if you don’t have a belt or if your pants’ buttons
are off as a hook for those fishing days if it’s hollow and big you can use it to drive water to your plants unroll it, stick it into
the sand on the beach and use it measure tides you can twist it and make letters or numbers to teach the alphabet (you can
break it in parts with your hands to make some letters like A) unroll it and twist it and with adequate medical precautions you
can use it as piercing or earring unroll it, put it in a small container and fill half of the container with, put it in the fridge and a
few hours laters you will have a transparent pendant that you can hang from your ear unroll it and direct an orchestra with it
(requires good eye sight) use it to clean small spaces like the spaces between the keys of your keyboard use it to drive
current from one place to another if it’s tall enough unroll it, go to the Moon, attach a flag of your preferred country to it and
stick it into the Moon surface if it’s made of bamboo and it’s big enough break it apart in straight pieces and you now have
kung fu staffs unroll it and use it to clean obstructed and small openings unroll it, bend it on two sides with square angles and
you now have a miniature football goal do the same but make the central area shorter and you now have a door for your flea
circus twist like a “w” or a “m” and you will have a psychodelic earring you can twist it to draw a triangles, rectangles,
squares, pentagons, hexagons… you can unroll it stick it in your table in front of you so that when you’re studying and your
head is falling on top of the table you will wake up and continue studying you can break it into smaller straight parts, stick
them all in a bland surface and have a miniature fakir bed you can make jokes about Clippy from Microsoft’s Office with it
you can unroll it, bend it alternatively one way and then another at some points and curve the unrolled part between them to
make a tunnel you can unroll it, stick a piece of paper with your wish written on it and hang it on a Japanese temple use it to
strengthen the structure of a paper plane you can use it to draw anything on the sand if it’s made of diamond you can use it
to draw on almost anything unroll it and use it to stir your martini if it’s big enough stick it on the roof of your house to attract
lightnings if it’s big and wide enough unroll it, curve it and you have a water chute use it to signal places in the ground like
the place where you buried your secret treasure in the Solomon Islands unroll it, make it semi circumpherence, wire it, place
the wires underground, plant it on your secret islands near your base and connect it to an intrusion detection system so that
when the enemy approaches and inadvertently triggers it you will know where he is unroll it, stick it into the top of a candle,
incline the candle, light it up so that the part where you stack the paperclip in is lower, light up the candle and put the bare
skin of a prisoner on the other side to torture him sell it to someone who hasn’t seen a paperclip before and make a fortune
say that it was the paperclip the Office team used to create Clippy, sell it on eBay and make a fortune if big enough bend it so
that it looks like an “L” and use it to sweep the sand out of your tropical bungalow’s entrance unroll it bend it and attach it to
your dinner table to hold the table cloth in place if it’s made of the right material you can use it as part of antenna bend it
carefully, put it inside the credit card slot of an ATM of the competition so that cards don’t completely fit and make their
customers angry bend it and use it to scratch the part of your back that you don’t normally reach while in the original form
bend one of the corners in a straight angle and use it to support books in a shelf

9. +
Technology Profiling
n Metaphors
n Senses
n Superpowers
n What does it Eliminate,
Reduce, Increase, Introduce
So What?
Don’t assume you have the right
n When, Where, How, How
Much? answer!
n Training, Regulation
n Compatibility, Installation
n Size, Mobility
n Input, Output

10. +
Market Analysis
Identify the Market Need
n Secondary
n Primary
n Observe
n Talk to Main Customers
n Focus Groups
n ‘Personas’

11. +
Market Analysis
Identify the Market Need
But…
n Do customers always know what they want?

12. +
Project Development
Competitive Environment CSF and Risks
n Rivalry Among Existing n Technology or Product
Competitors
n Financial
n Suppliers
n Market
n Customers
n Execution
n New Entrants
Mitigate!!!
n Substitutions

13. +
Route To Market
Licensing Spin Outs
n Fixed Fee n Business Proposition
n Royalty n Business Model
n Location
n Use

14. +
Building the Pitch
n Convinces the audience to give you more time
n Enables them to interest others in your technology or
product
n Communicates value, empathy, urgency

15. +
Building the Pitch
Template Example
n The product name n The Ipod
n Is a product category n Is a portable music player
n For users n For music lovers
n Who statement of desire n Who want to listen to their
tunes
n That…compelling reason to
use n All of them, anywhere, anytime
n Unlike the best alternative n Unlike portable CD, MP3s
n Allows main difference n lets them carry their whole
collection and organise it to
match music to mood and
context

16. +
CREATING AND CAPTURING
VALUE
Founded in 2005 In 2007 Microsoft
sold out to Google First sold in 2000, bought 1.6%
for $1.65 billions Over 100 million copies $240m with valuation
in 2006 In 60 countries at $15billion

17. +
BUSINESS MODELS – WHAT ARE
THEY
n The organisational architecture of a business that creates
delivers and captures Value
n It turns no advantage into competitive advantage
n Identifies Value Capture and Potential Exit

18. +
BUSINESS MODELS VS REVENUE
MODELS

19. +
BUSINESS MODELS – THE
PRINCIPLES
n Establish Customer Value – Value Proposition
n To whom?
n Outline the process involved – How?
n Manage knowledge and Intellectual Property
n Build reputation and Band Wagon Effects
n Utilise Networks and Alliances for delivery and scaling
n Unlock value from a potentially scalable business model as
valuable business

20. +
BUSINESS MODELS – BUILDING
ONE

21. +
BUSINESS MODELS – SCALABILITY
n Is the business scalable ?
n Fast Scaling is essential when competitive threats are great
n It requires different skills from knowledge integration
n Note to Consultants:
Professional service firms or independent consultants that
only sell latent skills are difficult to conceive as a business
model
Whereas if a professional writes a book, website toolkits, and
a PSF or consultancy has universal systems, then there is a
business model

22. +
BUSINESS MODELS – SCALABILITY
DRIVERS
n Partnerships and Alliances
n Supply Side:
n Tecnological locking
n Complementary Assets
n Often observed in new technologies
n Demand Side:
n Customer Bandwagons
n Often in Creative or other knowledge based industries

23. +
PARTNERSHIPS AND ALLIANCES
n Great source of Revenue
n There must be value in the alliance
n Milestones are common
n Partner must be able to pay
n Knowledge Exchange

24. +
COMPLEMENTARY ASSETS

25. +
BUSINESS MODELS –
BANDWAGON EFFECTS
n Some markets have bandwagon effects
n Many such markets have complementors who help and
contribute make it happen: they often get rewarded
handsomely
Conduct or beliefs spread among people, as fads and trends
clearly do, with "the probability of any individual adopting it
increasing with the proportion who have already done so"

26. +
IN CONCLUSION
n Know Thy Tech
n Observe, Talk, Do then Talk some more (to Customers)
n Bus Model Maps Value Creation and Capture
n Value Proposition and Scalability
n Partnerships and Bandwagons are crucial

27. +
A THOUGHT
“Great spirits have always
encountered violent opposition
from mediocre minds”
Albert Einstein

28. + LONDON CITY INCUBATOR
Connecting Innovation, Markets and Investment
Leo Castellanos
www.city.ac.uk/business/incubator/lci.html
Incubator.interns@city.ac.uk

29. +
Thank You!
http://mobro.co/leocastellanos