20A Growing Your Social Capital

The first person is someone who is engaged in the same type of business activity. For this, I reached out to someone who used to work at my high school who was in charge of priority parking in the VHS parking lot. There was enough spots, its just that the spots in the back of the lot were very far away, if you were a little bit late to park you would be very late to class. Some students got priority parking, like those who left early and IB students. He has a similar job, providing parking when it is limited, which makes him insightful for my endeavors. Including him in my network will allow me to receive suggestions on ideas from someone who has dealt with the industry before.

The second person is someone who knows the market, or in other words has a similar segment. On one hand, my first person has a similar segment, being students. But the person that I found for this is the manager of the valet service outside of a popular spot for young adults in Sarasota. This place has a parking lot, but it is very full and sometimes spots are far from the building, so there is a valet service people can pay for. Although a valet service would not really fit into the solution of UF's problems, having this person in my network will allow me to have insight on the market because the age group of the customers is the same.

The third person is someone who is a supplier in the industry. For my product, one of the aspects is an app, so I chose my brothers friend from high school who is a software designer for Google. He would know the technology behind the actual implementation of this business endeavor, without which the rest of this is rather pointless. Having him in my network would allow me to gain insight on what I would have to create, and how, if this idea were to be put into place.

This experience definitely differed from my networking in the past because it was very specific, based on me seeking feedback for my specific situation. Normally the networking I have done has not been with the intention of me, or anyone, beginning an entrepreneurial endeavor.