NYX Resistance

Date: November 25, 2011

Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 PM

Location: EB 2110

Attending:

Advisory Board Members:

- Erik

- Jonathon

Team Members:

- Ian (Facilitator)

- Colby

- Matt

- Christa

- Casey (Administration)

Agenda:

1. Introduction

2. Supply Chain

3. Cash Flows

4. Address previous action items

a. Fabric swatches displayed

b. Final Prototype development explained

5. Address the parking lot

a. Flat lock sewing machines

b. Prototype update – how we are getting our 10% bonus

6. Explanation of the next two weeks

a. Business Plan

b. Prototype Development

c. Final Pitches

7. Final Conclusion, exchange of contact information and Thank you to Advisors

Action Items:

1. Final Prototype Development

2. Business Plan

3. Pitch Development for Finals

Summary:

After introductions, Ian opened up with an explanation of the supply chain assignment. As a group we discussed realistic assumptions around timing as well as manufacturing. The availability of suppliers and their shipping schedules was discussed at length. Matt documented the group decisions to help to finish the assignment during our next NYX team meeting.

Along with the basic inputs and outputs of our supply chain we discussed Key Value Events as well as Key Performance Indicators for NYX and the distribution of the final product. The final decisions are below:

The Key Value Events are:

- Market validation – having the first working prototype validated by the market

- Empirical results – having a finished prototype that provides actual results from studies in the human performance lab

The Key Performance Indicators are:

- Perfect order rate

- Average days on hand

- Backorder rate

- Forecast accuracy and seasonality

- Number of loading time per vehicle

- Labour Productivity

- Cash Flow

- Efficiency of Assets

The next item on the agenda was cash flows. A brief description of this assignment was provided to the board. Upon discussing the requirements we decided that a connection with Jim and Barb may provide more insight towards this project. If we require assistance with this assignment we will email them with specific questions to help finish the project.

Casey took time to explain the final prototype and its properties. She outlined the email sent out explaining how NYX intends to get a full 10% bonus grade on the prototype development. She then outlined the final prototype; the inputs and expected expenses for NYX to incur. A flat lock sewing machine will be used to create the last prototypes. The final prototype will be created during the week of December, 01 2011.

Ian concluded the meeting by outlining the next two weeks of the Model the Start class and what NYX’s requirements are.

I was so inspired and excited about our class with Stephen Kenny today that I decided to immediately blog about it. First of all, lectures conducted by Stephen are always interesting. Stephen has a real way of capturing the attention of the room as well as presenting concepts in a way that is simplistic and interesting.

The FCF (Free Cash Flow) spread sheet is a tool that I know will get lots of use well beyond this class. Being able to tinker with our companies evaluation and to see the potential reward down the road is something that motivates us all to work a little bit harder.

Additionally, the concept of risk and putting some of your own skin in the game was an interesting discussion. I found the story Stephen told about the young individual who drove his $80,000 BMW to a pitch and he only had put up $15,000 of his own money into the venture was a very interesting story. It really showed me the importance of showing your level of commitment to your potential investors. I think it was really valuable to hear from an experienced VC as to what they look for in a business and how to go about presenting your business in a way that is attractive to such an individual. 

Finally, I found today's class helped me get a more clear picture of how we could go about funding this particular venture and how we can manage our cash flow through each of these various stages.

Soccer has been the fastest growing in Canada for many years now, and has even surpassed hockey in the number of participants. Even though soccer doesn't have as many professional teams in Canada in comparison to hockey or football, there is a definite upbringing of professional soccer teams in the NASL league or MSL league. This is a trend that nyx will have to follow closely and possibly tailor their product to in the future.

Healing taping- Kinesio Taping is a company and international organization that focuses on sports recovery through specific taping techniques.

Sports Academies- Investing in a child's education and their sports development is a recent international trend with specialized schools.

These are our 5 top picks:

According to a recent survey by statistics Canada, sport participation is declining among children. From the mid 1990's to about 2005, sport participation of boys between the ages of 5-14 has decreased from 66% to 56% in Canada. While girls participation has decreased from 49% to about 45%. This could have a major impact on the overall athletic industry, and obesity in Canada. There is currently an obesity epidemic in the U.S. and if Canada does not change the habits of children, we could be looking at the same future as the U.S.

Youtube link is found here.

This week we had an advisory meeting. In this meeting we wanted to cover electronic design of the prototype as well as webpage development. Jonathan has expertise in both categories so we decided that it would make sense to include his expertise in the advisory meeting and focus hard on technology content. For these reasons Jonathan was our only advisor at the advisory meeting this week.

As the class continues our roles as members of the NYX team become more specialized. Personally I will be responsible for an upgraded prototype design in the coming weeks. I will be addressing issues like weight, cost, fabrics and the function ability of these changes. Additionally I will be creating a written document arguing the grading structure of the NYX prototype overall.

This week Barb and I worked on the prototype together. It was a lot of work and I could not have done it without her.

Our ghetto mash up strategy was a good decision for our prototype development. I learned a lot about the design and requirements of the shirt by building it. There is a lot of redesign to do for the next and final prototype.

One of the first issues of the shirt is its weight. We needed several layers of fabric to ensure the tension would be enough to create strong resistance. We did create resistance but also a heavy shirt. The layers will also deter from any moisture wicking properties that we need to stay competitive in the athletic clothing market. We need to find a material or design that will create resistance while still staying breathable and light. Ian and I have not had a chance to meet up with Freddie’s connection but hopefully this connection will have feedback and suggestions for the fabric we need.

In our next meeting NYX will decide on how much time and money we are going to invest into our last prototype in order to help lay guidelines for Barb and I to create the final prototype around.

Upon completion of our companies SWOT analysis I was curious to see how external factors (economy etc.) were impacting some of our competitors growth this past year. According to The New York Times, Nike's revenues have increased by 15% this quarter and analysts are projecting steady growth over the next year.

According the article, demand for Nike products have remained strong around most of the globe. For which have helped make up for the higher prices they paid for raw materials and for selling more items at a discount, both of which impacted Nike's profit margins during the period.

This article I found interesting in a number of ways. The first being that despite a recession, athletic apparel is seeing significant growth. This is positive for our company and would suggest that the market isn't too saturated as of yet. Secondly, this article also pointed out that raw material costs have gone up and as a result margins have been decreased. This provides a number of interesting implications for our business for which we may have to revisit our cost structure to determine if premium pricing is our best option given that much of Nike's apparel was sold at a discount. 

See the link here.

This week Thursday we had our third Board of Advisors meeting. At this particular meeting we really focused on discussing future possibilities regarding the website and Casey presented the latest update on the prototype. To concluded the meeting, as a team we took a fairly in depth internal and external look at NYX by conducting a SWOT analysis.

Conducting our SWOT analysis really allowed our team to step back and get a picture of where our business model excels and where we could potentially make changes to limit our weaknesses and threats. Sometime in the near future (likely this coming Friday) as a team we will revisit out BMC and make some new adjustments based on a lot of the information we've been working on in the last month. Probably one of the areas that we may need to address is how we can figure out ways to access multiple revenue streams.

Additionally we've begun working on the financials for our company with some of the assumptions. This upcoming week will be sure to be a busy one with all that's going on. Nonetheless, we are all excited to keep things rolling and keep up the momentum gained over the past two weeks.

This week was a huge learning curve. Our team got ambitious and registered our very own domain @ www.nyxresistance.com. Given that none of our team members are well versed in coding, we had a bit of an interesting time figuring things out. Fortunately one of our Board of Advisors (Jonathan) who has a history in coding, webdesign, and graphic design was kind enough to work with us on getting some of the basics put together. We still have a long way to go to get our website up to where we would like it to be; however, at the moment we have other pressing issues that require our time and attention as well. For example, I would really like to add a video to our landing page and get our social media channels connected to get consumers engaged. After reviewing some of our competitors websites we definitely made notes on what they've done well and areas we feel their site is lacking. We look to build upon what our competitors are doing well and make adjustments accordingly.  

Additionally this week while some of us were busy working on the website, Casey and Barb were making some great progress on our prototype. The initial mockup that Casey and Barb came up with was surprisingly good and from what we can tell looks to be fairly functional. The real test will be in the up coming weeks when Ian will begin doing our initial testing under his hockey equipment.

Overall week seven was another step in the right direction. Our team has really started to gel and we've managed to utilize our advisors in various roles to keep them engaged and push us to make things happen.

SWOT Analysis

This week we had our third adviser meeting. We really wanted to focus on the development of the website, and our SWOT analysis. We tackled this really well together and spent a couple hours thoroughly going over each question. This is a great team and certainly gets into action when the time calls for it.

Been working on our individual pitches the past few days. It will be interested to see what each person comes up with on the Nyx team, what route they take, and how they present it. From what I have seen so far through all our group meetings, I can see that everyone sees Nyx a little differently. With the combination of all our pitches, I can see this as a great final pitch, taking bits and pieces from each pitch.

Date: November 10th
Time: 1 pm
Location: Starbucks 37th street

Agenda:

- Website design and functionality
- Prototype design
- SWOT analysis

Attending:

- Ian
- Casey
- Colby
- Matt
- Johnathan (advisory board member)

Some issues we had since our last group meeting was our website. This is the reason why we only invited Johnathan to our meeting as he knows and understands website design and functionality. Johnathan helped us out with our website theme, layout, and future ideas to add to the website.

We also went over our prototype, and how we could provide better functioning images through some sort of graphic design in order to demonstrate our prototype better. We are still currently working on this and hope to have this completed in the next couple weeks. As for the actual working prototype Casey mentioned that her step-mom has the ability to mimic a flat seam without having to use a flat seam sewing machine.

Johnathan also helped us out a lot with our swot analysis. We (the team) tried to not be as bias as possible and Johnathan certainly helped us out in this aspect.

A British company has developed a new way to liquify fibers. This new liquified fabric comes straight out of an aerosol can and clings to anything it is sprayed on. These fibers once sprayed, dry, and form a snug fitting garment. The first spray on clothing fashion show took place this year. This is a very interesting twist on clothing, but I definitely dont see nyx going in this direction at all.

A lady by the name of Suzanne Lee has invented a new fabric made from bacteria. According to the report this fabric is almost skin like with a combination of silk. This fabric can easily be custom molded or sewn into existing fabric. Fabric technology is going to be probably the largest factor with the development of the nyx prototype. It is important for us to stay on top of new fabrics and technologies that come out in order to develop a product that far exceeds any competitor.

This week will have to be very productive. Our advisory board meetings are a week behind, because we had some communication issues, so this means we are having a meeting this Thursday, November 8. This is our reading day so we are having it off campus, and with only 2 of our advisors as I mentioned in my last post.

This week we had the opportunity to see the prototype that Barb and Casey developed. They did an amazing job! It looks really good and feels like it has a lot of resistance. Ian is going to play a game of hockey in it, and report back on how it felt, if there was increased resistance or more sore then normal.

We also moved forward with the development of our website by purchasing the IP address www.nyxresistance.com from GoDaddy.com for a year. This was an inexpensive purchase that we thought would help increase both our personal investment in the venture as well as showing dedication to the class. Matt is the most apt at developing websites and most computer things. We have also been able to rely on Jon (advisory board member) to help us with any issues that arise. He has experience developing website, blogs and marketing campaigns.

We have also decided to have a very specific board meeting this coming week. We have had little development within the last two weeks, and we need to focus website and marketing development. So we are going to work specifically with Jon and Erik to develop various aspects of Nyx.

Paraplegics are now able to walk with this new assisted exoskeleton system for their legs. This new invention contains artificial intelligence that is able to read the users gestures such as arm movements. It was originally taken from the military designs that allowed soldiers to strap on heavier back packs. This system should be available to physio therapy clinics and rehabilitation centers in the near future. Through better understanding how the body works, this can directly be related back to developing a better prototype for nyx.