30A Final Reflection

The most formative experience from this class was probably the second or third time I had to interview people for an assignment. The first interviews were the easiest, because I interviewed people that I knew a little bit. It wasn’t until I had to find people that I did not know at all to interview that I really started to stress about it. This kind of assignment is not one that I enjoy, and when I was first reading that I had to do it, I definitely was not excited. Contrarily, I am also most proud of myself for accomplishing these. The assignments in this class that did not require me getting out of my comfort zone were still helpful, but they are just like all of my other assignments. The interview assignments and the elevator pitches were assignments I had not had to do anything like before. I don’t know if I would say that I see myself as an entrepreneur, but I do think I am closer to having an entrepreneurial mindset. I have read through so many peoples opportunities and evaluated their solutions, and this has helped me develop some skills that entrepreneurs have such as seeing the weaknesses of a potential solution. For students that are going to take this class I think the professor should try to stress that whatever concept they choose, they are going to have to go very in depth with it. Interviewing a lot of people, writing venture concepts, making elevator pitches, exploring markets and more is a very in depth look at one concept so they should spend some time thinking about their opportunity before they choose it.

29A Venture Concept No. 2

This opportunity is based on the under-met needs of University of Florida students. At UF there is no ideal solution for the campus parking issues. This poses a serious problem for student who need to arrive to campus for time sensitive classes, exams, or meetings. Last week, when I drove to the parking lot near Little Hall, I had to drive around for over 30 minutes to find a spot so I could go to the library. Thankfully, I was not in a situation where I was going to be late, but it would have been an issue if I was. One thing related to this need that I noticed is that the parking issues become worse when it becomes colder outside. This is one way that changes in the environment affect this opportunity. My friend and I drove separately to the library, and instead of using our scooters like we normally would, we drove our cars because it was cold. This market consists of college age students mostly, but can include faculty and visitors to the University of Florida campus as well. The geographic location of this segment is Gainesville, Florida. There are many ways that the customers are currently satisfying this need, but none of them are as ideal. Students get around the campus parking issue by walking, bicycling, skateboarding, and taking the bus. Most of these options continue to not be ideal when considering the cold weather. I believe that the market segment would not be loyal to these methods if there was something better. For example, my brother travels via an electronic skateboard, but he still has to drive to campus and park on the outskirts. If he could drive to campus and park closer to his destination, he would not have had to invest in the electronic skateboard at all. Because the University of Florida has so many people visiting each day between students and staff, the opportunity is pretty significant. Currently, there are not major innovations being created to satisfy this problem. While students express concerns frequently and therefore you would think changes would be made, I do not think the window of opportunity is a big issue. As I explained in my Whats Next assignment, the opportunity is also present outside of Gainesville. Other universities also experience parking shortages, and if this was successful in Gainesville it could be implemented elsewhere. Also, any place that has parking shortages could implement this to some degree even if it was not as widespread as it would be at UF.

The innovation comes in two steps. The first is to build more and taller parking garages on campus to accommodate more people, as opposed to parking lots that take up space and do not accommodate very many people. The innovation that accompanies this is an app that updates in real time that shows people traveling to campus which garages have open spots, where the spots are, and even how many people are in route to campus / specific garages. The payment would be a subscription, such as $3 a month. Because it is a subscription, students who are not in Gainesville full time, such as leaving over the summer or leaving for a semester to study abroad, would not have to pay for it while they cannot benefit from it. It is able to be inexpensive because the segment group is so large. As it is, I park in the Reitz garage occasionally, I would say approximately once a month, and have to pay $4 just to park for 2 hours. Because people are willing to do this, I believe they would be willing to have a subscription that allows them to take the risk out of driving to campus in a time sensitive situation.

This is beneficial for the university as well, because more people will be inclined to buy a parking pass if they have a reliable parking system. I have a friend who recently brought her car back home because having it here is more of a hassle than a benefit. She is not buying a campus decal anymore because she gets parking tickets when she cannot find anywhere to park, and that makes it a bad solution for her. I do not think it would be that hard to get students to switch, because the price of the app is small compared to the price people already pay for a decal that is not that beneficial to them. Also, if they buy the app, they would not have to invest in alternate modes of transportation. I think the reliability of the product is its greatest resource. The product is reliable for campus parking because it can tell people when and where parking pots are open, and this eliminates the risk associated with not finding a parking spot when you have to be somewhere on time. This is the main selling point, because the bus is not reliable as far as time goes, and that is the most widely used alternative to campus parking. As far as what is next, this product could be used at other college campuses. A lot of universities have campus parking issues, and this app could be used anywhere without the software being modified that greatly. In five years, this venture would be fully off the ground and able to be implemented into other campuses. Five years would provide enough time to figure out what works and what does not, in order to deliver the best product possible.

Most of the feedback I received was good, saying I am on the right track and am identifying the opportunity correctly. From the Whats Next assignment, my parents gave me a lot of helpful feedback. As far as expanding the product into different markets besides universities, they pointed out that the market segment would no longer be university students like myself. This would require that I put myself in someone else’s shoes that may be totally different than me, in order to see what their needs are and understand how the solution is different than the solution for college students. I changed my initial venture concept by including these other markets, with the recognition that the concept would have to be tweaked a little bit for each new market it enters.

28A Your Exit Strategy

As far as my exit strategy goes, I think it will be longer in the future than five years. I think in five years I would still have the business, because I would still be very young and still be relatable with my market segment which gives me a competitive advantage. In five years, I will be 25, and I will be recently out of graduate school assuming I do not change my plans. The business will still have a lot of growing to do, and I think that would be something I should be responsible for as opposed to selling it quite yet. However, in the long term I do think it is something I would sell, probably in more like 10 years. This is because when I am 30 years old, I will likely be in a different career altogether, and may not live in Gainesville anymore. Unless I was planning to follow this business venture around, I probably would not be able to execute it to its fullest potential. This is when I would sell it to someone who could, such as a larger company that could use the technology and ideas in their own ventures. As far as growth intentions, when I was considering growth in previous exercises, I did not really consider my exit strategy at all. I was writing under the assumption that I would be with the business venture forever, which is obviously not practical. Considering the exit strategy I just claimed, my growth strategy would be a little revised. I do not think I would personally be able to grow the business outside of Gainesville because I would not be following the business around so to speak, since my main career would be something different.

27A Reading Reflection No. 3

For the third reading reflection I am writing about The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users by Guy Kawasaki. I chose this book because in this generation, almost everyone has social media. For the most part, everyone I meet uses Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. There are applications like LinkedIn are growing for social media users that are no longer high school age. That is a lot of time spent on social media, so you might as well make it worth something. There are people out there who have created brands and whole careers through social media, so it is clearly a powerful source. The general theme of the book is to teach people the ins and outs of social media use, and basically how to market themselves or whatever they are posting about on their social media accounts. The “aha” moment that I had when reading was for one of the specific tips in the book. Kawasaki says “the biggest daily challenge of social media is finding enough content to share. We call this ‘feeding the content monster.’” I found this interesting because as a ‘normal’ social media user, as in I do not promote a brand or really market myself so to speak, I don’t even think of trying to find things to post. I post when I have something I want to share, not because I feel like I need to entertain an audience. This connects with what we are learning in ENT3003 because the goal of this class is to think like an entrepreneur. For an entrepreneur, social media would be very different. They would have to go and seek content for the ‘content monster,’ as opposed to letting content come to them. If I had to create an exercise for this class based on this book it would be to create a LinkedIn page where you really market yourself and try to follow Kawasaki’s tips. Or it would be something like creating a few Instagram posts that you would share if you were in charge of social media for a company.

26A Celebrating Failure

I have failed in the same way a few times this semester. It is one of the most annoying ways to fail. This failure is when I completely miss an assignment just because I had a lot going on and did not pay attention to the due date close enough. These are so frustrating because they are assignments I had every intention to do, and could’ve done with a good score, just simply missed it. I keep an agenda that I look at all the time, and just last week I missed a quiz in one of my classes because it was around 10 pm and I knew it was due at midnight, but I was working on something else. I was going to be done soon, so I just figured I would do it when I finished because it would be quick, but then it just completely slipped my mind and I didn’t realize until about 12:30. From this I learned to be proactive and get assignments done as early as possible, and to continually check my agenda more than I do. Usually when I fail, I am very proactive about correcting the behavior because I do not like failure. I think this class has helped me because the feedback from my peers is always positive and supportive, so it has shown me that people are not here to make fun or anything negative.

25A Whats Next

There are a few next steps for this venture to be a reality. First, implementing more parking garages would be ideal. In the event that this is not possible, an app could still be created for the existing parking garages, but there would still be very limited parking so it would be far less beneficial. I interviewed three random people who were at Library West for people in my existing market. My existing market includes university students who travel to campus, so I knew people at Library West would fit. When I described the business venture, they agreed that they had the need. One of them had walked here, and noted that it was very cold outside. She said that if there was a better parking system, she would have driven even though the walk was not terribly far.

Being that they were at the library at the same time as me, one of them noted that she faced similar parking problems I did. When I got here, I had to drive around for 30 minutes just to find a spot, and she had a similar problem. One major thing they told me to consider as far as what we should do is how the garages will be differentiated, or if they will be at all. For example, as it is, there are different decals available for different people. However, if there is only one garage for one specific decal, and it is not close to where you are trying to go, then this solution still is not that beneficial. In this case, it would probably be ideal to either do away with the strict parking decal rules and make fewer, more broad decals, or leave the decals as they are and make certain parts of the garage available to certain decals.

A different market than mine that would be foreign to me as an entrepreneur would be implementing the same product at another busy location that has a parking issue. The first place that comes to mind is downtown Sarasota, Florida. People love to go to Sarasota and see the marinas, the downtown area, and the public parks. However, there is not that many places to park, and for local people it can become costly to pay a few dollars for parking several times a month. Two people I interviewed that are in this market are my mom and dad. This is much different than university students, as they are older (60 and 65) and they have a lot of free time to spend in down town Sarasota. One thing they expressed to me is that this situation is very different, where college students have no choice but to go to campus sometimes, older adults in Sarasota are going for leisure. Because of this, they would be less likely to sign up for a subscription service. Additionally, they pointed out that a lot of the people that visit Sarasota are over 60 years old. This group is less inclined to have smart phones, and further less inclined to be fluent with technology. Because of this, the market is much smaller.

I did not think of many of these things regarding the new market. This is likely because I am not in this market personally, whereas I am in my existing market. Because I am in my existing market, I am able to see all of the benefits and possible drawbacks. This market still has potential, but it is not as attractive as my existing market.

24A Venture Concept no. 1

This opportunity is based on the under-met needs of University of Florida students. At UF there is no ideal solution for the campus parking issues. This poses a serious problem for student who need to arrive to campus for time sensitive classes, exams, or meetings. Even today, when I drove to the parking lot near Little Hall, I had to drive around for over 30 minutes to find a spot so I could go to the library. Thankfully, I was not in a situation where I was going to be late, but it would have been an issue if I was. One thing related to this need that I noticed today is that the parking issues become worse when it becomes colder outside. This is one way that changes in the environment affect this opportunity. My friend and I drove separately to the library, and instead of using our scooters like we normally would, we drove our cars because it was cold. This market consists of college age students mostly, but can include faculty and visitors to the University of Florida campus as well. The geographic location of this segment is Gainesville, Florida. There are many ways that the customers are currently satisfying this need, but none of them are as ideal. Students get around the campus parking issue by walking, bicycling, skateboarding, and taking the bus. Most of these options continue to not be ideal when considering the cold weather. I believe that the market segment would not be loyal to these methods if there was something better. For example, my brother travels via an electronic skateboard, but he still has to drive to campus and park on the outskirts. If he could drive to campus and park closer to his destination, he would not have had to invest in the electronic skateboard at all. Because the University of Florida has so many people visiting each day between students and staff, the opportunity is pretty significant. Currently, there are not major innovations being created to satisfy this problem. While students express concerns frequently and therefore you would think changes would be made, I do not think the window of opportunity is a big issue.



The innovation comes in two steps. The first is to build more and taller parking garages on campus to accommodate more people, as opposed to parking lots that take up space and do not accommodate very many people. The innovation that accompanies this is an app that updates in real time that shows people traveling to campus which garages have open spots, where the spots are, and even how many people are in route to campus / specific garages. The payment would be a subscription, such as $3 a month. Because it is a subscription, students who are not in Gainesville full time, such as leaving over the summer or leaving for a semester to study abroad, would not have to pay for it while they cannot benefit from it. It is able to be inexpensive because the segment group is so large. As it is, I park in the Reitz garage occasionally, I would say approximately once a month, and have to pay $4 just to park for 2 hours. Because people are willing to do this, I believe they would be willing to have a subscription that allows them to take the risk out of driving to campus in a time sensitive situation.



This is beneficial for the university as well, because more people will be inclined to buy a parking pass if they have a reliable parking system. I have a friend who recently brought her car back home because having it here is more of a hassle than a benefit. She is not buying a campus decal anymore because she gets parking tickets when she cannot find anywhere to park, and that makes it a bad solution for her. I do not think it would be that hard to get students to switch, because the price of the app is small compared to the price people already pay for a decal that is not that beneficial to them. Also, if they buy the app, they would not have to invest in alternate modes of transportation. I think the reliability of the product is its greatest resource. The product is reliable for campus parking because it can tell people when and where parking pots are open, and this eliminates the risk associated with not finding a parking spot when you have to be somewhere on time. This is the main selling point, because the bus is not reliable as far as time goes, and that is the most widely used alternative to campus parking. As far as what is next, this product could be used at other college campuses. A lot of universities have campus parking issues, and this app could be used anywhere without the software being modified that greatly. In five years, this venture would be fully off the ground and able to be implemented into other campuses. Five years would provide enough time to figure out what works and what does not, in order to deliver the best product possible.

23A Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1. The product is reliable

V: currently going to campus and looking for a spot is not reliable.

R: reliability can be common if the products are good.

I: if it is patented it could not be copied exactly but different versions could be made.

N: other substitutes like walking and bicycling are reliable, but some are not like scooters and sometimes bussing.



2. The product updates in real-time

V: this is extremely valuable because it takes away all uncertainty of finding a parking spot.

R: many parking solutions do not tell you when or where spots are open in real time

I: with technology it probably is not that hard to implement a live update system but it is just not common

N: none of the substitutes show anything in real time





3. The product can be specific to the user

V: this is very valuable because the user feels like the product is made for them.

R: most good or high end products are specific to the user.

I: products can be made to be specific to the user but it is not always practical.

N: most alternatives like walking, biking, or bussing are not specific to the user.



4. There is a large target market

V: this is very valuable because something like this needs a large target audience to be implemented.

R: a lot of products have a large market, a lot do not as well.

I: a large target market is not really something you can create, it is just either there or not depending on what the product is.

N: there is a large target market for all of the alternatives.



5. I have the need, and therefore understand it.

V: this is valuable because I will be able to identify how something will affect the opportunity because it will affect me.

R: This is rare for a market that is college students because most people are older when they start a business so they are not in that market.

I: This is not something you can copy, you are either in the market of your product or you are not.

N: I am technically in the market for the alternatives as well, and therefore can see their drawbacks.



6. I know people who handle the need with other methods so I understand the challenges

V: this is valuable because I can compare my solution to alternatives.

R: this may be rare, but many business people probably make an effort to understand the alternatives well.

I: with some effort many people could likely become familiar with the alternatives to their product.

N: yes, people who use the alternative methods also know other students who have their own way of tackling the problem and can get insight on the pros and cons.



7. students deserve to have an efficient parking system

V: this is valuable because if the students feel they deserve this then they will support it.

R: this is not rare, at every university where students pay tuition they deserve an efficient parking system.

I: this does not need copying because all school parking systems have this.

N: this is non-substitutable because right now there are not many efficient solutions.



8. there is not a solution like this right now

V: this is valuable because it is what created the opportunity.

R: this may be rare if other schools do not have a system like this.

I: this does not need copying, if the school does not have a system like this then they share this resource.

N: this is non-substitutable because this is the ideal solution and only one solution can be ideal compared to the others.



9. it can be offered campus-wide, to students, faculty, visitors etc.

V: this is valuable because it makes the market larger

R: this is rare for some products who do not have a large market.

I: this could be imitable with a good product but it would be rather difficult to serve every groups needs.

N: all of these people have a need to go to campus and if it is not met then it is non-substitutable



10. as a student I can personally promote it around campus

V: this is valuable because students trust what their peers say.

R: this is rare because most business people are not college students

I: others could copy this if they created a product that they were also in the target market for.

N: this is non-substitutable because I would not be promoting any of the alternatives to my product.



I think the reliability of the product is its greatest resource. The product is reliable for campus parking because it can tell people when and where parking spots are open, and this eliminates the risk associated with not finding a parking spot when you have somewhere time-sensitive to be.

21A Reading Reflection 2

I wrote about Scott Adams’ memoir, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big.

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The main argument of the book is pretty much explained in the title, that you can fail over and over again but still end up winning in the long run, even if it takes a lot of time. This is listed in three main steps. The first is to focus on systems instead of goals, because if you do not achieve a goal you end up disappointed and disheartened. The second is that in order to find the best job for you, you have to be willing to take risks in the job application process. The third is vaguer, being a general guideline to use your energy to further yourself in anything, it doesn’t have to be something you are inherently good at or passionate about as long as you are driven to excel in it.



2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

I think that Adams’ tips are helpful in the business world, which directly relates to what we are learning in this class. For example, he speaks about the importance of taking risks in your career in order to find the best job for yourself. Although a slightly different circumstance, we have learned in this class that most entrepreneurs are taking risks. They do not have a set plan that is certain to be successful, they have an idea and a lot of hope and dedication. This explains why, like Adams, many entrepreneurs fail before they find their niche. The guest we had in class is a perfect example of this, a Dr. Pryor has mentioned over and over again in lecture that Ronnie Patel from BleuBird did not even know how to cook chicken wings when he decided to pursue a chicken wing restaurant.



3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

If I had to design an exercise for this class, it would probably revolve around failure and subsequent success. It would be for students to evaluate a failure in their life, such as what happened and why it happened. The ‘why’ is important, because during reflection on failures, young people need to be able to first identify if it was their own fault, and then own up to this truth in order to prevent it. Blaming yourself for your failures is sometimes difficult, and finding other people or circumstances to blame is common. After, the student would reflect on all of the successes, big and small, they have had since then. The point of the assignment would be to understand how failures can help you move forward, and what they can teach you about future circumstances to ensure that they do not happen again.

Since we are all pretty young, an alternative or addition to this idea would be to look up ‘famous failures,’ people who have failed and ultimately ended up becoming wildly successful. While students will not have the personal insight into the failure, it would still be helpful to see how successful people bounced back from failure.



4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

I found Adams’ advice about utilizing systems instead of goals very insightful. I consider goal setting to be very helpful, as it outlines what you need to achieve and by when. However, I now see the alternative that Adams pointed out. Although goals tell you what you need to achieve, if you do not maintain your predetermined schedule, you are now “behind” and disappointed. If there was no time frame in the first place, there would be no way to fall behind or feel as though you have not reached your goal.

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.