Assignment 23 - Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1. Uniqueness of venture idea: Although there are many apps that cater to health and budgeting, I have not yet found an app that attempts to help users that way that my venture does.
• Valuable: I think that this is valuable as it would the targeting a need that consumers do not have filled yet.
• Rare: It is rare for now.
• Inimitable: I am sure that someone else could think of a similar concept or copy mine in the future.
• Non-substitutable: There are plenty of other unique ideas out there that I'm sure would have similar pros and cons.
2. Social capital: Personal relationship with other people interested in promoting health and wellness.
• Valuable: I think that this is beyond valuable because they would be able to help me market my idea and spread the word of my app.
• Rare: Many people in the world have connections, it's not rare in-and-of itself. 
• Inimitable: Although my personal relationships cannot be copied plenty of people have other connections to friends/acquaintances that could benefit them similarly.
• Non-substitutable: I could get the word out in other ways.
3. Capabilities: I started out school going to culinary school, with a focus in nutrition.
• Valuable: Extremely valuable at coming up with cheap, tasty recipes for my app.
• Rare: Others do go to culinary school, but I think it does give me an edge for my app.
• Inimitable: Could be imitated, but would lack the same passion I have for food.
• Non-substitutable: General knowledge of food cannot substitute formal education.
4. Social capital: Contact with plenty of people that would be in my target market
• Valuable: I need to know what my customers want within the app, and how I can improve - so, very.
• Rare: Not very.
• Inimitable: Nobody can imitate the relationships that I have, but plenty of people have contact with college students and low-income households that would be using my service.
• Non-substitutable: Nothing can be substituted for direct contact with the market. 
5. Social capital: Several of my friends have degrees in nutrition.
• Valuable: For the recipes I post I would easily be able to check with them about nutrition content and overall health, along with calories.
• Rare: Not as rare for a college student, many of my friends are various majors.
• Inimitable: Many people possess degrees in nutrition.
• Non-substitutable: I could check nutrition facts for recipes online, but probably not overall health. Health is more than just calories.
6. Human capital: Experience: In high school I used to be very overweight, so I understand to some extent the struggle to be healthy.
• Valuable: Very. Many fitness/health gurus have never been seriously overweight or lacking funds and therefore many plans do not cater to people with these struggles.
• Rare: Somewhat. We are the most obese country.
• Inimitable: Many people are overweight, but fewer people remain consistent after weight loss.
• Non-substitutable: I think this is probably my most useful and non-substitutable resource.
7. Social capital: Several family member that I have work in app development and with computers. 
• Valuable: Very, they can help me design the app itself.
• Rare: Somewhat, the majority of people have not designed an app before.
• Inimitable: This familial relationship cannot be imitated.
• Non-substitutable: I could hire someone to help me with app design.
8. Social capital: I have been raised around people that created their own businesses and are entrepreneurs.
• Valuable: This made me realize how hard creating a start-up can be, but it also helped me see that it's the long-run that matters more. The results could be worth it for an idea that is well executed!
• Rare: Not extremely.
• Inimitable: Many people have created start-ups, so this is inimitable.
• Non-substitutable: This gives me insight that no other resource could.
9. Human capital: I am generally a pretty creative, visual person which I believe could benefit my app in the long run appearance-wise.
• Valuable: Very, some apps can be very unprofessional/unattractive.
• Rare: Not necessarily.
• Inimitable: Many people are creative and have beautiful apps.
• Non-substitutable: You cannot force or fake having and eye for when something is visually appealing. Some people do not have this quality.
10. Financial capital: In a way, because the app will be so accessible to many people at its low price point.
• Valuable: Many people believe they do not have access to a way to become healthier due to budget/time.
• Rare: Yes.
• Inimitable: It could be imitated in the future.
• Non-substitutable: This is the primary draw that I provide for consumers to use my app, so I do not think it is substitutable. 

I think my human resource of experience is the most valuable resource that I have because it allows me to empathize with my consumers and view things from their perspective as they go down their road towards healthier living.