Assignment # 2 Entrepreneurship Justin’s: the importance of a strong new-venture team in a Food start-up’s success Name: Ghazi Hussain Roll num: 03-134171-043 Discussion questions and their answers: 1. How did the “liability of newness” affect Justin Gold as he attempted to formally launch his entrepreneurial venture? Ans: When Justin completed his business plan and started to go towards manufacturing process, it was hard to find a facility which would help him to achieve his manufacturing goal. He started to manufacture it by himself by buying an industrial sized food processor. As the product was new, it had no public name. So, the distribution of the product was also a serious matter. His goal was to get into whole sale market. For which he had to he needed work through Whole food's distributer. The distributer was reluctant because of the newness of product, but Justin persisted and finally his product came in whole food stores in the Rocky mountain region. Justin decided to make squeeze packs of his product. He contacted everyone in his knowledge who would pack his product in squeeze packs, but everyone refuses to help him at that point he decided to rewrite his business plan to add additional cost of squeeze packs machine. They were originally positioned on shelves with protein bars and other energy boosting gel packs. Justin eventually asked that his squeeze packs be positioned next to his larger jars of Justin’s Nut Butter and Peanut Butter. The idea was that consumers, who may be reluctant to try an entire jar of premium-priced peanut butter, might try a 99-cent squeeze pack. The switch did the trick, and Justin’s Nut Butter and Peanut Butter squeeze packs starting selling. 2. What key employees did Gold recruit to be members of his new-venture team? Ans: He needed to hire an experienced executive. For which he hired lance Gentry. Who helped Izzy, a local beverage company to grow up. He needed his all employees to be experienced like this. 3. What criteria did Gold establish and use when forming a board of advisors? Ans: Justin had two criteria in selecting members of board of advisory. 1. They had to have grey hairs, which means they all had to be experienced. 2. They had to have time to give Justin for the advisory process. Justin’s only goal was not to just impress the investor’s, he knew that if he wants his business to grow more, he had to depend on his board of advisory. 4. What characteristics describe the new-venture team that Justin Gold has established? Ans: He had established a team in which he had, 1. an experienced manager on board, who had grown a successful company. 2. a strong and experienced board of advisory. 3. Professional manufacturers who had ability to produce his products. These characteristics describes his team which he established.
