Rapid analysis of the addressable market, unique value proposition (“UVP”), key success drivers, competitive positioning, required resources, and distribution/sales channels occurs over a four- to eight-week period leading to a “fast fail” or plan for launch. Insights are enhanced through the proprietary, real-world data and experience available through the 80amps network.
Every venture requires a strong team to maximize the likelihood of success. Whether a new business comes with a pre-existing team, or arrives alone with only a concept, 80amps provides a full range of assistance with human resources—from consulting and coaching to providing leadership from our extensive network of recent alum and seasoned professionals.
From legal advice to a PR plan—from setting up financials to building a brand—80amps team members and mentors have the experience and resources to help get a business off the ground. And, if the time comes to raise additional funding, 80amps’ network of over 500 capital sources gets the process started quickly.
80amps is a world-class team of successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, creatives, and subject-matter experts dedicated to growing brands, products, and the technologies that support them. Our interests leverage 80amps’ contacts in the retail, media, manufacturing, and technology industries. Here are some of the spaces in which we have particular interest:
> Content and platforms beyond traditional media
> Contemporary consumer goods, often enabled by or enhanced with modern technologies
> B2C technologies and communications that can be reapplied to B2B
> Under-exploited opportunities within university primary research
> Identified consumer needs left unfulfilled by existing advertising and technology models
The 80amps team was instrumental from the beginning in helping us determine our new project’s viability and guiding us to a more powerful business model.
- Dusty Rhodes, Founder of PodSpot
The Martin Agency is a leading full-service advertising firm with offices in Richmond, Virginia, and in New York. Part of global advertising conglomerate Interpublic Group, the agency offers unified advertising, strategic planning, media, direct response, interactive, data analytics, design, branded content and local lead generation. Clients include BFGoodrich, Discover, GEICO, Hanes, Kraft, Manpower, Mondelez International, Morgan Stanley, PING, Pizza Hut, the American Cancer Society and Walmart.
Out of the 10,000 advertising agencies in America, The Martin Agency has consistently been ranked among the top five by national publications and industry leaders alike. In 2010, Adweek Magazine named The Martin Agency “U.S. Agency of the Year,” and Forbes recently named Martin one of the “Ten Great Ad Agencies of 2012.”
“Our investment in 80amps is part of our overall growth strategy,” according to Neil Patel, The Martin Agency’s Senior Vice President of Content Strategy and Development. “We have experimented with internal efforts and studied external models for developing new products, services and revenue streams. We’ve chosen to work with 80amps for two main reasons: first, it provides a path to innovation that allows us to continue to focus on our core business of creating world-class advertising; second, 80amps’ focus on consumer products and services is in perfect alignment with our core competency.”
80amps’ concepts are generated by The Martin Agency, by 80amps staff and mentors, and, selectively, by students, professors, and entrepreneurs in our network.
For-profit ideas must have the potential for national or global sales as well as a path to profitability. Not-for-profit concepts should have the ability to serve at least the local community at large. As importantly, 80amps backs people — people who are persistent, intelligent, passionate, flexible, and who get along well with others. Only a handful of concepts are in development by 80amps at any given time.
Concepts that are approved begin a venture viability assessment leading to a “fast fail” or first-stage execution plan. This process, which may take up to eight weeks, involves:
The first stage of execution is customized based on the concept under development. This stage may involve anything from rapid prototyping of a minimum viable product and market testing, to substantial fund-raising and team-building for more advanced efforts.
Regardless of the execution approach, the emphasis is always weighted toward gaining rapid marketplace feedback. Even concepts requiring substantial build-out can be structured to gain customer insight throughout the process. With one exception, 80amps does not undertake efforts for which big, sticky, clumpy investments are required in advance of an ability to judge market acceptance. That exception is 80amps’ willingness to execute the commercialization of research developed by university professors under technology transfer licenses from universities in selective cases.
Many of the concepts that 80amps reviews are generated from our network. If you haven’t met someone from 80amps with whom you can share your idea, you may choose to submit a brief of your concept below. Please do not share information that you consider to be confidential or proprietary. 80amps evaluates ideas on a rolling basis year round.
We at 80amps are proud to congratulate the team from Coffitivity, which was named one of Time Magazine’s 50 Best Websites of 2013.
Ace, Justin, Nicole, and Tommy, you guys have changed the way hundreds of thousands of creators all over the world work. You’ve shown the beauty of a simple idea well-executed. We’re proud to know you.
Keep up the good work!
There’s not really a nine-to-five day when you’re starting a company. From projects that take years of nights and weekends to teams racing against their funding clocks, things just have to get done. From the outside, it is insane that anyone would live this way, but the feeling when you get your first visitor, user, or customer quickly counteracts exhaustion.
Just ask the team from Coffitivity. Little did they expect their site, built after the founders read a scholarly article suggesting that people are more creative in environments with some ambient noise, would become an international sensation. Since it went viral globally, they’ve spent most of their odd hours working on how to up the experience for their users.
This Saturday is no different.
What we believe:
80amps is an optimistic place.
Where others see challenges, we see opportunities. When others are frustrated, we are motivated. Presented with problems, we seek answers.
In the last 20 years, a new age of entrepreneurial activity emerged. Fueled by technological advances in consumer electronics and the internet, everything digital has exploded with endless possibility.
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Eric Martin and Brendan Richardson, co-directors of the Galant Center for Entrepreneurship, spearhead new efforts at UVA’s McIntire School of Commerce.
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Eric Martin discusses the rise in European entrepreneurship in a recent Forbes Magazine article.
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