Question

Product: Modular assembly furniture Product launch: 2016

Established: 2015

Employees: 2

Founders: Emile Arayes and Aline Gemayel

Modeo is a young startup launched in February 2015 which caters to individuals who wish to try their hand at furniture design. Formed by two working architects, Emile Arayes and Aline Gemayel, who were frustrated by the lack of low-budget assembly furniture, Modeo allows users to build custom plastic furniture through a mobile app interface, and uses geometric “interlocking modular parts” to assemble a range of pieces. The design can be viewed in a virtual interface before ordering, with sizing and color options, as either a 2D designed image or a 3D projection. The pieces are then delivered to the user’s door, and assembled in a similar IKEA-style flat-pack method.

Arayes and Gemayel are currently recruiting a business strategy partner who will monitor the manufacturing and distribution of the Modeo system and furniture product. They have guidelines to be environmentally friendly, and are constructing lightweight furniture pieces which can be reused and reassembled post initial construction. Their target is the mid-to-low end range market of furniture users, and they are using low-cost recyclable plastic material through the ‘lean startup model’ – iterating design of the product and improving prototypes through the needs of early customers.

Though their business plan is still going through stages of development, they stress that main sales will come through their app, and do not intend to host their furniture in showrooms, but only in exhibitions as a marketing ploy. Money-back guarantees are also in place in their business strategy, should their furniture not satisfy individuals, which overcomes the initial ‘trust’ barrier. Their target client base are those who would use similar assembled furniture lines, such as IKEA which comes from outside of the region, yet they stress that their advantage over such manufacturers and unique selling point is the ability to both assemble and disassemble pieces easily, enabling users to reuse and repack the furniture when moving. Their projections estimate a sale of 16,000 average-size units in the first year of operations, generating roughly $1 million in revenue.

Questions

1.​ ​Discuss how ​Emile Arayes and Aline Gemayel fit the entrepreneurial profile.

2.​ ​Can they be considered necessity entrepreneurs? Explain your

answer.

3.​ ​How is it possible for these entrepreneurs to protect their brand name and designs from thefts? Discuss.

4.​ ​What do you suggest Emil Arayes and Aline Gemayel should do to enhance their creativity? Defend your ideas.

Answer 1

Answer 1= An entrepreneur is a person who initiates a new venture or business in order to earn some profit and at the same time having the risk of losing the invested money. As ​Emile Arayes and Aline Gemayel have started Modeo that is a new enterprise that provides the opportunity to the young ones who are willing to try their hand at furniture design. This indicates that both individuals have started a new venture. Therefore it is evident that they will be termed as entrepreneurs.

Answer 2= necessity entrepreneurs are the owns who initiated any venture out of necessity. As Emile Arayes and Aline Gemayel were looking for low-budget assembly furniture and they started the new venture that supports the building of custom plastic furniture through a mobile app interface and uses geometric “interlocking modular parts” to assemble a range of pieces thus the venture was developed out of necessity as there was no other platform that provided this kind of service.

Answer 3= In order to protect their brand and design from theft, they must use the laws of Intellectual property. In order to safeguard their brand, they should register their brand under the Trademark laws and the designs of the products can be copyrighted under the copyright acts

Answer 4= Emil Arayes and Aline Gemayel can look for the design of other furniture developers, they can visit their on-line store and the outlets to have a feel of what sort of design the other companies are using. In fact, they have the budget then they should hire a furniture designer who can come up with new concepts and designs.