As the CEO of one
of the most controversial, yet innovative tech companies in the cable broadcast
industry, Mr. Kanojia had an incredibly intriguing
guest lecture appearance about his Brooklyn based company called Aero. The most
surprising piece of information Mr. Kanojia touched upon was that he did not
make a business plan for Aero when he presented his invention to venture
capital firms and private investors. He believes that start up companies do not
need a business plan because a start up is breaking barriers and something as
innovative as Aero cannot be explained in a traditional business plan.
One
topic I wished Mr Kanojia spoke about was how he advertises Aero. He touched
upon the fact that he will have internet and outdoor advertising spots, but
what about television? How does Mr. Kanojia target his largest target market of
individuals who watch cable TV if he cannot efficiently target these consumers
on cable TV. Cable companies despise him and are suing him for copyright
infringement from stealing their content over the airwaves, so how will Mr. Kanojia
get around and through to these consumers?
The
most valuable piece of information that Mr. Kanojia provided was the fact that
as technology improves the wholesale cost for technology products have
decreased. As a cloud based company, Aero needs to continuously expand its
cloud storage capacity and only five years ago Mr. Kanojia would not be able to
do so with one terabyte worth of storage costing $1.1 million. Today, he can
obtain a terabyte of storage for $150, which allows Aero and other tech
start-ups alike to expand their business past the seeding or start up stage.
