BBC #2: 7/10/12

Presentation and Presenter: The Railaway Business Model, Mike Kirby

I based this presentation off a book that recently came out, Business Model Generation.  The book offers a unique perspective to look at various types of businesses, through a 1 page business model.  Modeling your business this way doesn’t guarantee success, but it does give a great overview of how a business runs and can really indicate where strengths and weaknesses lie.

For this presentation, I briefly explained the 9 building blocks of the business model.  Then we brainstormed a few ideas we wanted to model out, and chose Chris Diller’s band, Railaway.  The group then came up with all the pieces that illustrate Railaway’s business model.  Below is a blank copy of the Business Model Canvas with the 9 key building blocks.

And here is the whiteboard model we brainstormed for Railaway.

Presentation and Presenter: Doomsday Jesters, Seth Franz

This was the first active business that was presented at the BBC, doomsdayjesters.com.  Seth works in commercial real estate, but began building a satirical online retail store in January 2012 to compliment the reality show “Doomsday Preppers” by offering products to fans relating to the oncoming Apocalypse.  Seth brought all his products and the presentation turned into an enjoyable question and answer session about how he started the business, some of the challenges he faced, and what his goals are between now and December 2012.

Topics included:

Costs, building a website with limited money and no tech skills, dealing with foreign and domestic suppliers, product development, prospects beyond 2012, idea creation, implementation steps, launching the website, marketing, and landing office space on the cheap, to name a few.

Below is a picture of Seth holding two of his products (and wearing a third), a Doomsday insurance policy certificate and insurance card.