Venture Concept No. 2

 Dylan McClure

ENT3003

Quantem Web Browser – Business Venture

Web browsers have come a very long way, but they could be even better with a little bit of innovation. By utilizing the already flourishing protocol, HTTP, and trying to streamline the process and make things more efficient, the current process of modern day web browsers could become even better and faster. As the project would be open source, anyone from all over the world would be able to work on it, but it would be up to the creators of websites to add these little snippets that would then be interpreted by the Quantem Web Browser so that they could do things that no other website has been able to do before. JavaScript, the programming language for HTML (a language that represents web content for webpages), allows website creators and maintainers to create a lot of fancy effects and even provide a lot of nice functionality from menus to performing actions based on mouse clicks among other higher-level tasks that are either useful or nice effects.

Innovation:

The Quantem Web Browser will, among other things, provide very easy and secure way to write code that will interact with users (via the mouse and keyboard). Of course, the web browser will still have a JavaScript engine that will be able to parse JavaScript and be able to interpret HTML and CSS and render websites correctly, but the Quantem Web Browser will also be able to interpret special code snippets, called Quantem Code, that can be inserted via comments in the HTML. The main features (at least in the beginning) will be clean, interactive menus, diagrams and charts, . It's also important to note that a particular variable would be set to notify JavaScript if Quantem Code is being used (this is quite useful since Quantem Code might actually replace certain functionality implemented by JavaScript). Note that these features would only be usable in web browsers that use the Quantem Parser (the parser that is the entire reason the Quantem Web Browser is being used). Since the web browser will be open source, money cannot be made off of the software itself. Therefore, the money will come from advertisements on the website. Also, as the creator(s) of the software, the initial developer(s) may gain recognition in the software community, which is – undoubtedly – important. Quantem Code will very much resemble JavaScript as it will be very easy to code in while performing a lot of functionality, however the main difference is how Quantem Code will go about modifying things on the screen. If we can have 3-dimensional graphics that can render things almost flawlessly in real time, then we can have

Opportunity:

The Quantem Web Browser would almost certainly be able to enter the market because not only is it building off of the success of modern websites and not trying to veer too far from the course, it would provide a lot of benefits and power that websites simply don't have today. The website would be extremely secure (especially in the beginning) because, not only would all security breaches be looked at as soon as possible, but the protocol wouldn't really be “hackable” because the protocol used by the Quantem Web Browser would not be known – for example, Microsoft Windows and JavaScript are common sources of hacks because the protocol for both are very well known and used a lot. Of course, as the software became more used, the security risks would dramatically increase, but hopefully by then there will be a community that will be maintaining the software and continuing the advancement of the security of the software. If not, then the creator(s) and/or maintainers of the web browser would continue the security updates.

The biggest flaw with JavaScript is the security issues with which many are familiar. Even though there are often restrictions imposed on JavaScript that is executed, malicious code can still often be executed complying with the restrictions. The most common forms of malicious JavaScript code utilize obfuscation, “drive-by download” attacks using iframe attacks and other commonplace tricks that try to get the the user to permit the malware to do what it wants to do (like download things or get information). JavaScript malware attacks have grown significantly in the past five years, and although security updates try to counterbalance this, it seems like there will always be attacks on JavaScript because it is particularly lucrative according to various sources and there is a lot of room to be creative.

Because of the security problems with JavaScript, there is room for the Quantem Web Browser to take a hold of this place in the market, but the biggest problem, it seems, is getting the developers of websites to start to use this. JavaScript faced a similar problem initially; at first there was just HTML (a markup language which represents web content like text and images and has a limited ability to make things look pretty or place things properly) and CSS (which is a style sheet language that describes the appearance and presentation of the document markup). Then JavaScript came along and provided website developers to make their websites more responsive. The website creators/maintainers, however, had to write code that used JavaScript and then import that in their HTML. So, JavaScript had to start somewhere, and people had to start to put the code in their websites. Similarly, the Quantem Web Browser would provide, as explained briefly in the Product section, a new, efficient and easily producible way to interact with the user. Since the code to do this would be hidden in the comments of the HTML, people would be able to write code specifically for the Quantem Web Browser. As the Quantem Code – as the code that is specific to the Quantem Web Browser is called – would overwrite certain aspects of the original web content (like JavaScript), websites written in HTML, CSS and JavaScript would still work exactly the same as they did before, but the Quantem Code would allow websites viewed in the Quantem Web Browser to be particularly useful, fast and clean-looking.

Based on what has been discussed above, it is clear that the customers are both developers of websites as well as users of websites – which is a market that encompasses nearly everyone in the world that owns a computer. If this does, in fact, gain a hold, then this product has the potential to get as big as JavaScript has become. The main source of revenue would be a website for the web browser (which would have advertisements), since the project would be open source (people can view and modify the source code without restriction – to an extent depending on the license it uses. The window of opportunity for the browser will be there perhaps for another few years or at least until another major web browser comes out. Perhaps even JavaScript could be updated to allow for greater functionality that is less expensive (because it is fairly resource intensive as it is now), but this is highly unlikely to happen.

Venture Concept:

The Quantem Web Browser will, undoubtedly, be one one of the best web browsers available for a variety of reasons and – with the proper marketing – should have no problem growing its user base almost exponentially at first. The primary reason everyone should switch upon completion of the project is because it will be one of the fastest web browsers available. Every aspect of the web browser will be geared towards making it extremely fast. In particular the way that the web content gets interpreted and displayed will certainly be faster than it is currently. It is time (finally) for web browsers to catch up to their potential. Security, of course, is a major issue also that will attract users.

It seems biggest obstacle to getting users to switch is that they already have a preferred web browser that they have been using for a while. In order to overcome this, the web browser will be designed to be as intuitive as possible. The layout menu and everything inside the browser will all be designed by hand; everything in the menu and settings will be as easy to configure as possible while allowing the user to only have to click 4 times (maximum) in order to get where he or she needs to. Most things will probably be one or two clicks away, and everything will have a keyboard shortcut. Secondly, there will bee an option to import your bookmarks from Chrome and Firefox. Since these are the two most popular web browsers, it will be very easy for most people to just click a button and get all of their bookmarks from either or both Chrome and Firefox.

Security is also a major concern for many but because JavaScript can be overwritten by Quantem Code, there is a way to provide more functionality (more so than JavaScript) but also eliminate all of the security flaws that come with JavaScript. I expect that if Quantem Code is sufficiently comprehensive and mature enough, then it could be almost as big and maybe even bigger than JavaScript. Additionally, there will be major security measures that attempt to protect the users anonymity more so than any other web browser. Developers of websites shouldn't know your location and name or anything personal about you. Although this is good for certain things, it really just infringes on the rights of the users.

The competition that the Quantem Web Browser and the Quantem Parser are fierce, but with time, a lot of effort and the right marketing, they have the ability to outrun their competitors. Although Chrome and Firefox are already large organizations and they – along with JavaScript – have a large user base, what they don't have is a fresh start. All three of these pieces of software are stuck in a rut; they have no hope of just starting over and making things as efficiently and intelligently as they can. That is why, with a significant amount of effort, the Quantem Web Browser and the parser would enter the market and takeover the web browser industry.

In order to get the first few prototypes out and then continue the development of the Quantem Web Browser and the Quantem Parser, a lot of volunteers are going to have to invest a significant amount of time. In order to do this, a source code management system, git, will be used to maintain all of the source code so that developers can work alongside one another in order to make the browser a success. The source code will be hosted on the popular website github since this is secure and very easy for people to interact as it has a lot of functionality.

Celebrating Failure

I have been working on a mobile application in Android Studio for the Android operating system, and there was a period of about a month that my progress slowed to a near stand still. Android is notoriously difficult to get to work well, but I was having trouble getting it to work whatsoever. I was trying to get tabs on the bottom of the home-screen that switched between fragments. For some reason I could make no progress. I could easily blame it on the fact that Android is very hard to develop in, but really it was my fault for not putting in the research and trying every permutation that might work. It took me a month, but one day - during a "work session" with my friends, I sat down and actually got sort of mad (because I hadn't made any progress). I tried to limit the task to getting simple tabs that switched between fragments, whereas before I was trying to create tabs on the fly within another mobile application that already had a home-screen. It took me all day to figure this out (it actually was fairly hard to create the tab-fragments, but after a lot of perseverance, I finally got it to work.

From this, I learned - yet again - that we are really capable of more than we think. All of us are simply human, and this entails sub par work ethic in many circumstances. I think that the more that we can improve our work ethic and drive (which means each of us needs to find what we are passionate about and put in the hours to improve our skills), the better the world will be and the more we will achieve. I have seen this multiple times ever since I have started programming - I will start a project, and it will become more difficult than I had originally imagined; I want to give up, but the times that I don't throw in the towel have yielded the best results. In this case, I was stuck on a difficult problem (for me at least it was quite frustrating because every single tutorial on google didn't work), and I finally got the tabs to work after I had been working for so long on them without any progress whatsoever.

I have always hated failure, even been scared of it, but my mom has taught me - and myself, as well, has learned - that failure is how you mature, but you have to learn from it. The most successful, smartest, most creative minds that have, do and will roamed the Earth have always accepted failure and used it to their advantage as well as persevered in times of severe hardship. People like Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo Galilei fought through wars and imprisonment, but their ideas have lived on to this day because they didn't give up - even when they failted; even when obstacles seemed insurmountable; even when all hope seemed lost for their ideas. Albert Einstein among many other geniuses, as those mentioned above, have been doubted, imprisoned, killed, etc. and if they had simply given in, then their ideas, their knowledge, would have been lost to history, and who knows how far back that would have set us - in fact, we might never have caught up to where we are today. Human ambition and perseverance seems to rival that of the universe itself on many levels. There are many, many obstacles, both man-made and those created by the nature of our planet or the universe, but many of them seem overcome-able. All we have to do is learn from our mistakes and persevere.

My Exit Strategy

(1)
Exit Strategy
I intend to start to develop the software and then have it become and open source project. This would mean that developers that are better and smarter than me can undertake the project and bring the web browser to its fullest potential . Maybe I could still remain head of thee development and maybe make money off of advertisements. At the very least, I plan on maintaining the main website for the home page of the web browser - and this weeb page would run advertisements that would make me money.

(2)
Reasoning
I decided to use this exit strategy because I cannot really make money off of the web browser itself, but I can make money off of the home page. Additionally, the web browser itself would require a lot of work, but I feel as though everyone else in the software community could do a much better job and get it done much more quickly since there are more of them and they are smart.

(3)
Exit Strategy Influence
My exit strategy isn't really spectacular or game-changing, so it hasn't really influenced much of any of my decisions. I will say that it does seem like it makes the project more viable since I could simply start the project myself and then - since it would be open source - rely on everyone else to finish the project for me.

Venture Concept No. 1

Quantem Web Browser

The Qquantem Web Browser would be much like the standard web browsers currently out there, but its primary goal is to be the fastest and most optimized web browser on the market. This means that there won't be quite as many options to users as, perhaps, Mozilla's Firefox of Google's Chrome – the two most popular web browsers today. However, it would include almost all the features that these major browsers have; these would include bookmarks, cookies, HTML/CSS and javascript interpretation (displaying text and images and allowing the user to interact with the web browser), download any file, maintain a history, have various settings that allow one to configure the font, limiting the amount of cache and other web configuration settings. The main difference is that this web browser would allow blobs that developers would be able to put in web sites. The blobs would allow the developer(s) of the web sites to add programming blobs using the programming language C++. There would probably be a security risk that comes along with these blobs, but if this is able to be monitored in some way, then this would allow for an entirely new market. These blobs would effectively allow web site developers to use code snippets to make their website super fast and do things that web browsers had not been able to do before. The web browser would also feature add-ons similar to Firefox, though this would probably not be available in the first release. The Quantem Web Browser would be released as open source software so as to draw from the brightest minds.

 Opportunity:

The opportunity for this web browser stems from its speed and the C++ blobs. While the Quantem browser wouldn't be as configurable as Firefox or Chrome, it would be much faster. This is because it would be designed with optimization and security at the forefront (and no so much user experience – although that will also be a significant driver especially towards the end). Every single interaction will try to happen as quickly as possible. Currently, it is uncertain if add-ons will be available (such as in Firefox), but if so, there would need to be some way to test the speed and security of these add-ons in the Quantem browser. Testing the speed and security would be another aspect that this web browser would offer so that the developers of the add-ons would feel assured that their add-on is secure and fast, and the users would feel the same.

The main reason that there is so much opportunity for this web browser is that web browsers have remained pretty much stagnant for too long. While there have been some minor updates and a lot of bug fixes, there haven't really been that many break through ideas. This was somewhat counterbalanced by the thought of add-ons. The developers seemed to have taken the easy way out. However, if we study economics, we know that businesses should follow the general trend of S-curves, where there is an initial investment phase, a growth phase and finally a decline, whereupon the cycle should restart if the company is innovative. While the window of opportunity won't be very long, the major players in the business don't seem to be following this trend, so it seems like there would be an easy opportunity in the market to come in and capture this new piece of the market with a new and innovative web browser.

Innovation:

This web browser wouldn't be that innovative because, although it would be an entirely new and sleek web browser, it would essentially . The only innovations are those listed in the above section. The web browser would very much resemble Firefox but would be much more optimized. From user feedback, I learned that web browsers seem to be fast (as one would expect) but even common users think that they can be even faster. This is the area that I am exploring. I am trying to find ways to optimize browsers (i.e. with C++ blobs and optimizations in every way possible) so that the Quantem browser will be ass fast as it can be. The second innovative measure comes with the C++ blobs. There will be things that website developers can now do that they absolutely would not have been able to do before. There will be an entirely new way to develop websites because of this.

I have thought quite a bit about the C++ blobs. You would include a file inside of the HTML for the website (the part that gets interpreted as the web content and includes the CSS style sheets and javascript files) which would afford much greater control over what the developers can provide to the viewers and also make things much faster. It would really be an innovative feat, but the biggest fear that I have would be the security of these blobs.

Venture Concept:

Since the Quantem Web Browser would be much faster and perform much better than thee major current players, the majority of common desktop users would be willing to switch almost entirely for that. In addition, thee fact that there is a whole entire new world for software developers to make amazing fast C++ blobs would create a pull for the developers. So, not only would the common user want to switch, but the developers also would want to. Since all the websites would look pretty much the same and would load even faster and there is an entirely new world that website developers would be able to take advantage, I don't see how anyone would still be using Firefox or Chrome if this were released and advertised properly. The two main competitors, obviously Firefox and Chrome, I don't think stand a chance if this browser lives up to its name.

Week 10 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

It was very interesting to see and learn about the different types of budgets since I don't know much about this aspect of business.  Over many years, best practices and rules have emerged, and it is interesting to see exactly what those are.


2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I am not sure if there are more technical aspects that the author could have delved into, but I wasn't quite sure exactly how everything works. Perhaps the author could go into more detail regarding the budgets.


3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

(1) How exactly would you go about doing a break-even budget?
(2) How do start-up companies vs well-established firms handle budgeting? Do they do it the same, and how exactly is it implemented within the companies?


4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

 I am not very knowledgeable in this area, and I did have to research a couple of things so that they made more sense. I didn't disagree with anything that he said.

Idea Napkin No. 2

Who am I?
I am a software developer. I have a little experience and simply enjoy doing it. I know quite a few programming languages and love figuring things out. My biggest downfall is not reading the manual, which is a big deal because in the Linux communities, people like to say "RTFM" (you can look that one up if you want). So, if you don't read the manual and you ask for help don't expect many to help you. I usually end up reading the manual after getting pretty frustrated. Nonetheless, I love software, and I feel like sometimes I can just crank out stuff that might otherwise take me a while. I sometimes find my groove, and when I do, there is nothing I can't do (within reasonable terms).

What am I offering to you, the customer?
Simply put, I would be making a Web Browser - similar to the one that you use on a daily basis - that would be faster. The reason for this is how the data is represented. There is a lot of redundancy in web content, and I know it can be made more efficient. I did a little research, and perhaps the best thing to do would be to optimize the HTML (content of webpages) with byte code (sorry if that is a little too complex), but there is still an even better way to represent web content. We have already devised better systems for representing data and sharing it. We just haven't used it much for web content. Why not? Well, the biggest reason is because you can't just start representing web content another way because websites already have certain content. Perhaps the biggest challenge would be maintaining compatibilty with the old way of representing web content.

Another major thing is that the way the we represent a web page is so limited. In order to do anything reasonably interesting, you really need to use JavaScript. However, JavaScript is a scripting language and it really has quite a bit of overhead and resources. Additionally, CSS is too static. You can't really make variables and manipulate the style of a webpage as efficiently as you should be able to. HTML is also pretty static. It's all really just a mess. It's time to update the way we represent web content!

I think that the biggest advantages for website developers would be that it would be easier to make a website from scratch, they would have a faster website, and on top of all of that they would be able to do cooler things because the way in which the content is represented and modified in real time would be more comprehensive and more modern.

Who am I offering this to?
Obviously anyone that uses a web browser would be a customer. I wouldn't make anyone pay for it. Then it would never take off. The official website for the project would have advertisements as a source of income, however. The other major customer would be software developers. I would make the project open source (meaning you can download, modify and redistribute the source code), and this would be a major benefit because if the software started to take off, then people that are even more experienced than me could write code to optimize it or make it even better. I would probably put all of the code on github. This could also win me some footing in terms of getting a job at a software industry.

Why do the customers care?
The customers using the web browser would care because downloading a page would be so much faster. We are already spoiled because hardware and technology has grown so quickly that the interchange of data is so small. Also, the consumer would have more dynamic web pages that could be more useful, more user friendly and more customized. Who doesn't want that? But sometimes when you don't have a good connection or when you need to download a page that has a lot of information and a lot of styling and javascript, it can really take a while to load.

It can be a litte hard to explain the more technical aspect of web browser, but here is why the software community might care. If you have a better way to represent content and you can do more with it because it is more dynamic, then why would you not use that? Web browsers now-a-days simply don't live up to their potential. They are good, but they are just not there yet. It's not only a mess to create a website from scratch, but it's not even as efficient or dynamic as it could be.

What are my core competencies?
As aforementioned, I am a software developer, and I love doing it. I think the main thing that sets me apart (as I said in my other "Idea Napkin" post) is my tenacity. I am not the best software developer. I don't know how to do things as well as someone, for example, who is working at google and developing google chrome, but I would definitely keep working on it until it is complete. Additionally, another competency, perhaps, is my willingness to let the project take a life of its own. I don't feel like I need to write all of the source code myself. I would certainly try if needed, but if I simply plant the seed of the idea and perhaps start it and then people pick it up and bring it to its full potential, that would be fine with me. After all, that is what the open source community is all about - distribution of knowledge and source code, not monopolizing it and making it proprietary. It seems to defy the "entrepreneurial way," but in reality, it is what will drive innovation in the software industry.

Evaluation
Do I think that the above five elements fit together? I do, in fact. The only way that anything has been created - from 3-dimensional printers to web browsers and other highly-used software - is by trial and error and a lot of perseverance. You are never going to write a program right the first time ... well maybe you will ... but you certainl won't right a really big piece of software and have it be perfect. First of all, hardware will become more optimized, unleashing more potential. But on top of that, there will be human error or simple fallacies in logic that make the software not optimal. However, by simple grit and error, people have developed what would have seemed impossible not but twenty years ago. That is why the pieces here fit together. If I simply am tenacious enough, then I can make this web browser. Telecommunications is a perfect example - that industry has advanced so quickly and both the technology and software for that area has simply been inredible.

Feedback
The only contructive feedback I received is that some of the points were hard to understand. I can understand because if you're not interested in software, then reading something from a software developer could be hard to follow. I tried my best to describe what I would do from a non-technical aspect. From any angle, I simply tried to make the ideas as clear as possible, so that you can understand exactly where I am coming from. I hope it all made sense and you have a very vivide image of what I am trying to achieve. In the feedback people also wished me luck, and during my break I will probably be at an internship on the side, but I think I am actually going to pursue this. Maybe I can simply create the base and the seed of the idea, but if I could pull it off even on a small scale, I would be very proud of myself. Thanks to all who wished me luck! Good luck with your endeavors as well!

Week 8 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

I was slightly surprise that you have to answer a bunch of questions if you just want to start a business. I suppose it does help regulate things a bit, though. However, the biggest shock is how poorly the banks are doing. According to estimates, very few commercial banks will survive over the next ten years. I just hope the economy does well and there is room for innovation in the market.


2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

The only thing that really confused me was why venture capitalists are so eager to put money into a an investment. Shouldn't there be a more formal process? It seems like this would be a great way to introduce a lot of risk (since there is no formal process), and that isn't a good idea.


3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

(1) If you needed capital would you prefer debt or equity?

(2) As a follow up to my confusion - how could this process be better or have less risk (and if not and you think it is viable, then why?).


4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

I didn't disagree with anything, but I don't think that venture capitalists have as little information about business before they invest in it. There might be some sort of reflex where after investing so many times you just figure out which are going to fail or succeed and which will fail based on only a few guidelines, but it doesn't seem like companies fail or succeed in predictable ways all the time, so how is an venture capitalist to know if something is going to succeed. It's just not viable, and that's why I think there should be a more formal method of doing this or maybe even slightly stricter regulations. It's almost like if some guy in a suit likes you (well, you better be his best friend) then you get funded and if not, then you're out of luck. Not only do human biases come into play here, but it's just not solid.