24A – Venture Concept No. 1

Project Canis 

This is one example of homemade toys: the plushie. 

Opportunity:

Project Canis is a non-profit organization. ​Project Canis' mission is to help shelter animals by giving them toys made out of recycled materials. We provide the instructions and other organizations or families help by making homemade toys from old material like t-shirts and plastic bottles. The toys are donated to Project Canis, and then our organization sends them to shelters in need across Florida. The people who have the need are animal shelters. The specific nature of the urgency stems from the constant replenishing of toys and new animals coming in. Toys are costly to keep up with and typically don't last long. Most of the donations received go directly into vet care, food, water, and shelter. However, toys are essential for animals' wellbeing, especially in shelters.

I would say the forces of the environment right now that make the need more profound than usual is kitten season. Every year around this time, shelter's intake of kittens' skyrocket. More kittens mean that more resources must be spent on critical things like vet care, especially for stray kittens. However, once the season is over, shelters will continue to need toys for their animals. This market is defined geographically. Each county has at least one animals shelter typically.

Shelter's specifically are fulfilling their need by purchasing toys themselves or are waiting for toy donations. They will always stay loyal to getting toys, but there is no brand of toys that they prefer or only stick too. I think this opportunity is significant and ever-growing. I believe this opportunity will last; shelters will always need extra toys, which are easy to make and reuse.

Innovation:

The products are dog toys made up of old materials that most people have to lie around their houses. Three types of toys can be made:

• The Braid
• The Crunch
• The Plushie

Organizations or families can find the instructions of the toys and make them on the Project Canis website or Instagram. Typically, a person can use old t-shirts or blankets that they are no longer using to make the toys.

We are a non-profit; the way we make money is purely based on donations. We get the toys from organizations or families, and we would not charge the shelters for the toys because they will be donations from us. We are planning on using PayPal to get donations.

Venture Concept:

We solve the issue of not having enough toys for animal shelters by providing homemade toys that can easily be reused and disposed of once they are damaged. We would donate the toys, so the shelters would not pay for it. However, we still need to motivate organizations and other volunteers to make these toys so we can donate them to the shelters. I think people will be willing to make the toys because they want to help animal shelters; however, due to COVID-19 shelters and other rescues have been minimizing their number of volunteers. Making toys is an easy and cheap way to help organizations in need, and that is why I think people will want to participate.

 

Animal shelters would not have to switch to anything since they always take donations whenever they can get it. Since we are a non-profit, any other organizations making donations to shelters would not be seen as competition. If I were to make an assumption, other non-profits in our area are technically our competitors. We are competing for donations and volunteers.  I do not know what their possible weaknesses are. Since the toys are homemade, the packaging does not matter. However, we need to ensure that delivery is timely and comes when it is promised. Customer experience is essential. We want our volunteers to have a stress free and fun time so that they continue donating. We also need a good relationship with shelters because they can spread awareness of our cause. The business location does not matter at the moment.

Our organization right now is set up through seven directors. The positions are executive director, finance director, operations director, outreach director, fundraising director, marketing director, and program director.  Each director has a specific job that they have to do within the company.

The Three minor elements:

1. I think what will make it hard for competitors to copy our success are the directors. Combined, I believe we have extreme social capital and knowledge about animal welfare that would be hard to copy from us. Some have years' worth of relationships with other humane societies and organizations willing to help.
2. The next step would be to figure out another toy that is a little more chew resistant than the three we have now. That way, the toys can last the shelters extra-long as opposed to a couple of weeks.
3. In the next five years, I would love for the non-profit to be a little more established in Gainesville and other shelters around Florida. Hopefully, we don't have any trouble finding people to volunteer for us so we can continue to provide toys to animals in need.