1. List five compelling take-aways from the Art of the Start.

• “The best reason to start a company is to make meaning.” This can be accomplished by increasing quality of life, righting a wrong, or preventing the end of something good. Thinking about our project in this light was reassuring and affirmed that are intentions are good. By attempting to tackle the plastic waste crisis in the Philippines, our team hopes to both increase the quality of life of those affected by the pollution and to right the wrong that is plastic pollution. While this makes some aspects of our project more complicated because our goal is so multi-faceted, the outcome will hopefully be incredibly impactful.
• “Weave a MAT” where MAT stands for Milestones, Assumptions, Tasks. While it is sometimes frustrating to fit a long-term GSIF project into the two-semester box intended for capstone, this type of planning is critical. Our team has found our weeks most productive when we break down our goals (milestones) into actionable items (tasks). We have also had to rely on SWAGs for a lot of our initial guesses, which qualify as assumptions. Hearing this approach reiterated was a helpful reminder that success when addressing such a huge problem will only come with careful planning and communication among the team.
• “Hire infected people.” When speaking to members of our team, it is clear that each of us has a passion for sustainability and addressing plastic pollution. This desire to make an impact allows our team to be successful and persevere even when we face adversity and failure.

2. Articulate your value propositions for your diverse customer segments.

• PlasTech Ventures value proposition: We help Filipino entrepreneurs earn a profit by providing them technology and a business model to be used to transform plastic waste into higher value products that can be sold to the community.

3. Discuss your Total Available Market and Total Addressable Market. List all your assumptions and hypothesis.

• The total available market for PlasTech Venture is the entire Philippine population, 104.9 million people. Currently, only 20% of the plastics produced in Metro Manila (1360 tons) are recycled. This shows that there is a lot of room for improvement in terms of recycling and diverting plastics from the landfill. In addition, it is extremely common for people in the Philippines to have 3 jobs to support their families. These two indications show that there is an extraordinary market for turning recycled plastics into products that can be sold to generate income. In addition, there is a strong labor force since many people are willing to go as far as maintaining three jobs for money to support their families. The total addressable market is the barangay Paradise Village, who have been known to have done a good job in sorting out their plastic waste before recycling or trashing it (in comparison to other barangays). Of the 1360 tons of plastics, the team and I  will increase the recycling rate from 20% to 23% upon implementing the venture in the Philippines. More than 40 tons of plastics will be diverted from landfills per day assuming that people will purchase the building blocks made from recycled plastics for residential construction. In order to maintain production, 5 people will be hired at each manufacturing facility at the standard wage level. The employment of the 5 people will lead to an increase in their well-being and encourage more spending in the market (economic boost)