CUBETOWN -- a business proposal

The Industry Overview

While it's difficult to quantify the total number of people who work in cubicles worldwide, the number is surely large, and growing every year. The economy and adaptability of cubicles has made them an attractive choice for corporate accommodations, especially in the high-tech industries of Silicon Valley. Indeed, one of the most popular humorists of recent years is Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip Dilbert, who has made millions lampooning cubicles and the culture that they have spawned.

Cubetown Description

While hundreds of companies cater to selling business supplies and products, there is not yet a company that caters to the latest industry standard: the cubicle. Cubetown will be the first business aimed at not only making the "cube" a more functional place, but a more fanciful one as well. Cubetown will operate entirely off of a web site in order to save on both start-up costs and to ensure maximum flexibility in the marketplace.

Cubetown Products

Cubetown's product line will include everything from specialized products to hang off cubicle walls to fantasy creations designed to enliven them. The products sold would break into the following categories:

Space Savers/Maximizers: While the cube is smaller than a traditional office, it does have certain advantages not yet exploited by traditional office products. A simple desk lamp, for example, could easily be hung off a low cubicle wall instead of taking up scarce desk space. A computer monitor could do the same thing.
Ergonomic Devices: While some stores have already moved into the burgeoning ergonomic market, Cubetown will also sell these products. This is in order to have some of Cubetown's line be in an established market. Customers apt to purchase ergonomic office products online might also be inclined to purchase Cubetown's more revolutionary and profitable products, described above and below this section.
Fantasy Products: The true heart of Cubetown, and what will win it a good deal of free publicity, is the fantasy products designed to make cubicles a more fun place in which to work. What about
- a trellis for ivy, designed to be attached to the top of a cubicle wall and stretch straight to the ceiling?
- Or whole suites of goodies designed to give a cubicle a antique makeover?
- Or make it into the bridge of the S.S. Enterprise?
- Or, more likely, all the phony accouterments of a medieval dungeon?
- Or, ceiling tiles making up the Mona Lisa? or whatever?

Positioning

The niche positioning of Cubetown is ideal. As witnessed by Dilbert, Cubetown's proposed customers yearn for a more personable workspace, and in this flush economy have the money to afford them. The explosive growth of the web gives Cubetown a perfect environment in which to grow, and its competitors are virtually non-existent. If cubes are the future of humanity, who will bring humanity to cubes?

Jos was very protective of his cubetown idea, and required his friends to sign a "nondisclosure" agreement before he would explain it to them. He almost got a few people interested in pursuing it, but none really came through. Here is a letter to someone named Matt.

In frustration, he decided he needed to go to business school himself.

Jos home