29A - Venture Concept No. 2
***This post is largely a re-post of 24A - Venture Concept No. 1***
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Opportunity
There is an opportunity to help the chronically ill subset of the population. This portion of the population has expensive medical bills to pay in order to survive. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the prescription drug market, prescriptions can be very expensive. Insurance providers aren’t doing enough to cover the cost of healthcare for people who depend on medications to improve their quality of life.
The forces in the economy that are creating this opportunity are inflation and the general higher cost of living year over year. Geographically, the market exists in major metropolitan areas, where internet is easily accessible and affordable. Opportunity exists amongst all races and adults in the American population. However, we would like to target the technologically inclined subset of the population with chronic illnesses. Potential customers are currently satisfying this need by applying for grants, creating Go Fund Me campaigns, and pursuing other different crowdfunding endeavors. They also may be cutting costs in other areas of their spending. Potential customers may be very dependant on crowdfunding, etc. to pay for medical bills.
The opportunity here is pretty big and has revolutionary implications for the pharmaceutical industry, if successful. Some may question how long this opportunity will be around. Unless medication prices drop drastically overnight, there is ample time for this opportunity to be exploited. However, time is of the essence. More time will provide more opportunity for competition to exploit the need with similar or competitive products and services.
Innovation
Prescription Place is an online database that collects real-time data reflecting price, preparation, and compensation information of pharmacies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and their products sold in the United States. We have developed proprietary software that compares medications to enable consumers to request the lowest-cost prescriptions available from prescribers.
Prescription Place is available to subscribers at a low fee of 10 dollars a month. If users want an ad-free experience (which will bring in revenue at least in the beginning), they can become a premier member for 15 dollars a month. Our monthly subscription plans affords members the flexibility to cancel at anytime for any reason. A basic membership with Prescription Place is projected to save a consumer spending $200 a month an average of $60 a month. That equates to $600 in cost-savings a year on prescription medication alone, accounting for annual membership expense.
Venture Concept
Prescription Place will enable people dependant on expensive prescription medications to find low-cost opportunities to receive the same treatments for their conditions. Our software will compile data from pharmaceutical manufacturers and pharmacies to find opportunities for savings. Users can run a search based on a specific medication or treatment plan, and find instant answers on where and how to acquire affordable medicine for their needs. We essentially empower patients with knowledge. It is the customer’s responsibility to then take this information to a doctor to acquire a prescription for the lowest cost medication, or to request pick-up of a medication at a pharmacy that provides the lowest cost in accordance with an insurance provider, etc.
Customers will go to Prescription Place because it is revolutionary for the pharma-tech industry because it vouches for buyers’ sake. How many companies exist today in the pharmaceutical industry that exist to save consumers money? It may be difficult to acquire subscribers in the beginning since nothing else like us exists in the market. Consumers may not fully understand our service and the value our proprietary software adds to their treatment plans. Once we do have subscribers, they will be loyal once they experience the significant cost-savings we promised.
Prescription Place does not have any direct competitors due to its revolutionary concept. There is no packaging involved in our service. Price points are designed to be affordable. Pay a little to save a lot. Since our service is delivered via the internet, there are virtually no distribution hurdles to climb. Customer support would be an important part of maintaining our customer base and improving upon customer loyalty. Especially with older folks, customer support would exist to help subscribers register, navigate their portal within Prescription Place, and to answer any and all questions related to our services and how our software arrived at the cost-savings presented on the other side of a search.
Prescription Place would have small beginnings due to limited start-up capital. I would make plans to hire one marketing professional, one finance professional, one operations professional, two customer support associates, one web developer, and one software engineer in the span of 3 months. This would supply every need in the beginning of operating. As we gain revenue and subscribers, we will grow to fulfill the needs where necessary. Data collection would be a large part of the workload in the beginning, so hiring several highly-talented data scientists in the pharmaceutical space would be a top priority.
3 Minor Elements
I. Prescription Place will utilize the founder’s time management skills to get off the ground running. Competitors will have a tough time competing with an exceptionally organized and prioritized company. There is an opportunity to help the chronically ill subset of the population. This portion of the population has expensive medical bills to pay in order to survive. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the prescription drug market, prescriptions can be very expensive. Insurance providers aren’t doing enough to cover the cost of healthcare for people who depend on medications to improve their quality of life.
The forces in the economy that are creating this opportunity are inflation and the general higher cost of living year over year. Geographically, the market exists in major metropolitan areas, where internet is easily accessible and affordable. Opportunity exists amongst all races and adults in the American population. However, we would like to target the technologically inclined subset of the population with chronic illnesses. Potential customers are currently satisfying this need by applying for grants, creating Go Fund Me campaigns, and pursuing other different crowdfunding endeavors. They also may be cutting costs in other areas of their spending. Potential customers may be very dependant on crowdfunding, etc. to pay for medical bills.
The opportunity here is pretty big and has revolutionary implications for the pharmaceutical industry, if successful. Some may question how long this opportunity will be around. Unless medication prices drop drastically overnight, there is ample time for this opportunity to be exploited. However, time is of the essence. More time will provide more opportunity for competition to exploit the need with similar or competitive products and services.
Innovation
Prescription Place is an online database that collects real-time data reflecting price, preparation, and compensation information of pharmacies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and their products sold in the United States. We have developed proprietary software that compares medications to enable consumers to request the lowest-cost prescriptions available from prescribers.
Prescription Place is available to subscribers at a low fee of 10 dollars a month. If users want an ad-free experience (which will bring in revenue at least in the beginning), they can become a premier member for 15 dollars a month. Our monthly subscription plans affords members the flexibility to cancel at anytime for any reason. A basic membership with Prescription Place is projected to save a consumer spending $200 a month an average of $60 a month. That equates to $600 in cost-savings a year on prescription medication alone, accounting for annual membership expense.
Venture Concept
Prescription Place will enable people dependant on expensive prescription medications to find low-cost opportunities to receive the same treatments for their conditions. Our software will compile data from pharmaceutical manufacturers and pharmacies to find opportunities for savings. Users can run a search based on a specific medication or treatment plan, and find instant answers on where and how to acquire affordable medicine for their needs. We essentially empower patients with knowledge. It is the customer’s responsibility to then take this information to a doctor to acquire a prescription for the lowest cost medication, or to request pick-up of a medication at a pharmacy that provides the lowest cost in accordance with an insurance provider, etc.
Customers will go to Prescription Place because it is revolutionary for the pharma-tech industry because it vouches for buyers’ sake. How many companies exist today in the pharmaceutical industry that exist to save consumers money? It may be difficult to acquire subscribers in the beginning since nothing else like us exists in the market. Consumers may not fully understand our service and the value our proprietary software adds to their treatment plans. Once we do have subscribers, they will be loyal once they experience the significant cost-savings we promised.
Prescription Place does not have any direct competitors due to its revolutionary concept. There is no packaging involved in our service. Price points are designed to be affordable. Pay a little to save a lot. Since our service is delivered via the internet, there are virtually no distribution hurdles to climb. Customer support would be an important part of maintaining our customer base and improving upon customer loyalty. Especially with older folks, customer support would exist to help subscribers register, navigate their portal within Prescription Place, and to answer any and all questions related to our services and how our software arrived at the cost-savings presented on the other side of a search.
Prescription Place would have small beginnings due to limited start-up capital. I would make plans to hire one marketing professional, one finance professional, one operations professional, two customer support associates, one web developer, and one software engineer in the span of 3 months. This would supply every need in the beginning of operating. As we gain revenue and subscribers, we will grow to fulfill the needs where necessary. Data collection would be a large part of the workload in the beginning, so hiring several highly-talented data scientists in the pharmaceutical space would be a top priority.
3 Minor Elements
II. The next opportunity Prescription Place would like to tackle is finding low-cost homeopathic remedies to chronic illnesses, as opposed to prescription medication. It will be a twist on the original service. Kind of like how Whole Foods is a “healthier” grocer than Publix.
III. In five years, if this company gets off the ground running, I would like to have taken it far enough to be valued over 100 million dollars and acquired by a bigger company. In a decade, I would like to have started and sold several businesses that have positively changed the industries they’ve entered, for the benefit of the consumer, and perhaps society at large.
Reflection
The feedback I received on the original venture concept was wonderful! Everybody had such positives things to say. I actually didn't come across any desires or suggestions to change any part of the write-up. Raymond did ask a question about how I would acquire prescription data and where it would come from. I would acquire this data from medicaid.gov. The data is available to the public but it is unorganized and presents acquisition cost on a per-unit basis. This isn't entirely transparent. Our software would tabulate data on units-per-order and perform calculations to closely approximate cost to pharmacies. Another option would be to reach out to prescription medication manufacturers directly and request data for WAC. Data collection would be the core function of the company in the beginning. Sophisticated software and human relations would make this possible for Prescription Place.
Since the last concept was thorough and received so well by readers, I decided to keep most of the original venture concept. I did add verbiage related to the importance of data collection for the company, and that is highlighted for easy review.
Thank you so much for all of the positive feedback! I highly encourage any input from readers, and welcome the opportunity to revise and innovate as necessary.
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