Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity

I believe there’s an opportunity to provide a product that would help with containment and disposal of the waste with minimal contact. Most people dread cleaning the litter, but there really isn’t an alternative when you have an indoor cat. Currently, most people use litter boxes that have to be cleaned by hand. There are some products that attempt to offer a solution such as sifting bags or automatic “self-cleaning” litter boxes, but these solutions are often no better than the standard litter box in the long run.

The market for this opportunity is international, but I would like to focus on the United States, specifically because that’s where I see the biggest opportunity for market share and revenue. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, 25.4% of American households own a cat. I believe that a large percentage of those households would be willing to try a different litter box solution for the right price and under the assumption that it will outperform their current solution.

The window of opportunity for this product will remain open for the foreseeable future. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of innovation going on at the moment, and the providers in the space seem to be the same as always. I think this is due to the fact that customers have low expectations for the products, which leads to a sense of complacency in the market.

Innovation

The general idea for the product is to provide a space in the customer’s home where their cat can use the bathroom with minimal cleanup and maintenance required from the customer. Also, it is important to make sure that the litter box contains the odor as much as possible. To be honest, the design for this vision has been quite challenging, but I was able to come up with a prototype. I will be the first to admit that this design will need a lot more work, but it is a good place to start. The goal would be to price it between $150 and $200 with expected monthly maintenance of between $15 - $30. This is in line with most of the products that are out there at the moment. In fact, it’s probably cheaper than some of the “higher-end” self-cleaning litter boxes on the market.

Venture Concept

This innovation will solve the issue of dirty litter boxes that expose the owners to cat waste regularly and are extremely difficult to clean. The product will provide:

•  Litter box solution that doesn’t require maintenance as often as the other products that are out there
• The maintenance will be easier to perform and keep up with. It will also minimize the contact with cat waste
• The litter box will provide superior odor containment to make sure that your house doesn’t smell like cat waste
• The price point will be competitive in the market

The customers for this product will be excited to try something else that offers what is listed above. I believe the complacency in this industry creates a great opportunity for a new product to be developed.

Three Minor Elements

• Venture’s Secret Sauce? I think this would have to be the experience that I personally have with litter boxes and how much I honestly loath the idea of dealing with it. This gives me great insight into what a customer in the same situation would appreciate and allows me to feel the empathy required to work on a solution for them.

• What’s next? The next step would be to finish the development of the product and really solidify the concept. This would include the steps to build this all the way out and also what tools/additional resources would be required for the general maintenance.

• What’s next for me? I think I would want to really finish the product before I can see the next steps or have a plan set for the next 5 years. Once I complete this step, I would like to see myself pursuing this venture to grow it into a competitive general pet supply company.

Feedback:

The feedback that I received was from sharing the idea with family and friends. What I heard this most is regarding the blueprint for the design of the product. At this moment, I have gone back and forth with different designs, but I have not been able to come up with something that I’m really happy with or would solve the problem in my opinion. I plan on continuing to work on this until I have something that works (I know it’s possible). I did do more research on products that are in the industry now. I found the commercial below, which I thought was very interesting and creative. I reviewed their product, and I still believe there is much room for improvement. This gives me the assurance that this problem is real and the motivation to keep working on finding a better solution.