Assignment 28- Your Exit Strategy

1. The exit strategy for my “Hot Spot” app is for me to continue running my business for several years, while I go through law school and begin my law career, and eventually sell the software to someone in the tech industry to hopefully expand upon the product that I created.




2. I chose this strategy because although law school is going to be strenuous and time consuming, I believe that if my business is up and running before law school begins, I will be able to continually work on it as I am going through school and have members on my team that will be able to help me as well. Once I begin my other ventures several years from now as a lawyer, I feel it will be best for the business to have someone who can dedicate their full time to improving it, so selling the app will be the best option.




3. I think my exit strategy has made me plan more carefully, since I know I will be attending law school in a year and a half, it seemed smarter to sell the app directly to students instead of through the university because I didn’t want to spend months waiting for it to go through an approval process at the University. Knowing that I will be in charge of the business for a long period of time has also made my more meticulous when it came to choosing who I would want to work with and how exactly I would want the app to look.

Assignment 27- Reading Reflection 3

I chose to t do this report on Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck. I found that this book was extremely interesting and filled with a lot of information about the mind and behavior, that being a business major, I was never taught before.




1. The general theme of this book is to discuss the importance of beliefs in shaping our wants and success. Dweck attempts to explain the importance of an individual’s mindset and how to properly “make use of it in their lives.” There is a lot of discussion on how individuals deal with failures why individuals mindsets differ. Dweck dives deeper into the two types of mindsets- fixed and growth, to further explain these differences. The main point of Mindset- How You Can Fill Your Potential is to explain how labels affect mindsets as well as the mindset that goes into success and failure. There is a lot of discussion about relationships and business mindsets, as well as explaining the origin and changes that have to do with specific mindsets.

2. This book fit perfectly with assignment 26 from this week, dealing with failures that we have experienced over the semester. After reading the book, I learned a little bit more about why we think of failure the way that we do and what exactly failure is. Dweck gives several examples about how failure has motivated many legends in today’s society such as John McEnroe and Sergio Garcia. These examples, although much larger scale than the failure that I have experienced when having to revamp my business in ENT, were able to kind of relate me back to what I have gone through in the course and to reinforce the fact that failure is almost inevitable and everyone experiences it, even when creating a business.

3. If I had to design an exercise for my class to participate in based on the book, I would have everyone participate in the “Grow Your Mindset” questions to determine which mindset they are, either fixed, growth, or a mixture. I think this would be good for students to participate in because it is a quick exercise with only 4 questions, yet tells a lot of information to the students.

4. What was most interesting to me when reading this book, or my aha moment, was how much the two different mindsets varied in opinions on certain topics. When Dweck discussion negotiators being born or trained, as well as managers, it was interesting for me to see how different the two groups thoughts were. For example, those with the growth mindset believe that talent is just the starting point for managers to develop whereas one can infer from the book that fixed mindset managers believe that where they are is where they will stay in terms of talent and improvement.

Assignment 26- Celebrating Failure

1. This past semester I applied for a golden key study abroad scholarship so that I would be able to participate in the study abroad program to Italy next summer with the UF business school. I ended up not being the recipient of the scholarship, which I’m not sure if this would count as “failing”, but to me it was a huge disappointment. Luckily, there are many other scholarships that I am able to apply for to have this opportunity, but after spending a long time on my application it was a big letdown.



2. I learned that sometimes it is okay to not win EVERYTHING that you apply for. I need to not be so hard on myself if something doesn’t go the way that I wanted or that I planned. I learned to let go of things that didn’t end up working in my favor and stay positive as I work towards accomplishing my main goal through alternative routes.



3. I think failure is one of the hardest things to deal with especially if you’re a perfectionist like me. I do think it is a part of life that no one can avoid and it often leads to the most unexpected and good outcomes. I handle failure in various different ways depending on what it is that I failed at. I usually get very upset and angered at first but then realize that there is nothing I can do and need to move on from the failure and try my best to pick myself up. I think it is best to just realize that there is nothing you can do besides pick yourself up and do your best next time. This class has changed my perspective on failure by looking at failure as a way to adapt and change my original plan. I definitely think I am more likely to take risks now than I was a month ago from taking ENT.

25- What's Next?

Existing Market

1. I believe the next step in my business is to incorporate this app into other schools and maybe into other libraries or areas on UF’s campus so that students can save time looking for a study spot anywhere on campus. I think expanding the business will allow for a bigger market as well as an increase of word of mouth, especially if it is successful at other major universities.

2. Interview 1: Meredith (3rdyear biology major)

a. “What should we be doing that we aren’t planning to do?”

I think you could use this app for places not even related to education, like maybe restaurants or certain types of stores. That is something I would look into if I were you.

b. “What do you think about my ideas of what customers might want next?”

I think that you have a good idea to expand your business into other areas and it seems like that would go over well if your first attempt is successful.



Interview 2: Garrett (4thyear finance major)

a. “What should we be doing that we aren’t planning to do?”

I think you need to somehow implement a system like a sensor or something so that when students sit down it is automatically logged into the app because one issues I feel like you will have will be people who don’t log where they are sitting, throwing the whole app off.

b. “What do you think about my ideas of what customers might want next?”

I think reaching out to similar audiences in the country, like other college students, is going to be a smart thing to do so that your business doesn’t just level off from only using it at the one library here at UF with the app.



Interview 3: Erica (2ndyear journalism major)

a. “What should we be doing that we aren’t planning to do?”

It would be a nice feature to add something like saving seats to the app. Because when I go to the library I usually am saving a seat or two next to me for my friends after class. So maybe a way where someone could put “Saving this seat for 4:00 pm”.

b. “What do you think about my ideas of what customers might want next?”

I think your ideas is good and will open you up to a more diverse audience which could result in feedback that you may not have thought of on your own or have gotten from your original market.



3. I am really thankful for the feedback that I was able to get from interviewing people in my target market. I believe they all made really good points that I will be able to build upon for my business. My path towards the future will first begin with evaluating how well the app does in Library West at the University of Florida. I am interested in seeing how accurate/inaccurate the logging of taken seats on the app is (a point made by Garrett) in order to further improve the accuracy if I were to implement the app elsewhere or if there seems to be an issue with it at the library. I believe making the app the most accurate that it can be will allow for tremendous growth within my existing market. If the app is doing its job correctly, more students will continue to use it and want to use it.

In addition, I believe in the future, depending on the success of the app at UF, I will be able to bring the system to other schools or even types of non-educational related establishments, like restaurants (a point made by Meredith). I think I should first focus on implementing it at other buildings at UF or other schools in order to keep a similar target audience until I am ready to expand my audience even more. Overall, to grow my market I will need to take in and adapt to feedback from users and formulate some sort of way for the app to function effectively and smoothly so that it makes those who use it lives easier.



New Market

1. I decided to go the B2B approach, and target the University directly, meaning they would purchase my software instead of individual students.

2. I believe my venture concept will create value for people in that market by allowing more students to use the university’s facilities, ultimately increasing potential business at vending machines and eateries on campus because of the increased number of students on campus.

3. Interview 1: Jill (UF employee)

a. “How would this business help to meet customers like you?”

This business would help with a lot of chaos that goes on during busy times on campus and really organize how things run especially in library west. It seems smart to sell directly to the source, in this case the University, to ensure equal advertising and marketing to all students.

b. “What kinds of adaptations to the product/service mix do you think we should make to be successful in this new market?”

I think you will need to change your marketing strategy to sell it to the university as more of a software and not like and individual who is just buying an app. Other than that, I don’t really think there is much that you would need to change.

Interview 2: Evan (UF employee)

a. “How would this business help to meet customers like you?”

We are always looking for new innovative ways to make campus better and this business would be a great way for us to meet those needs. It would give us a way to beer connect to students on campus as well by introducing a tech savvy app that meets their needs.

b.“What kinds of adaptations to the product/service mix do you think we should make to be successful in this new market?”

I don’t think there is anything that you need to do differently in relation to the app and its set up. It is just important to remember that you would be targeting a business instead of consumers which could alter your whole strategy.



4. I learned that this new market is just as concerned with marketing these services to students at the end of the day which is exactly where I am at with my business right now. I think I was most surprised that both individuals that I interviewed didn’t have too much to critique when it came to adjusting the app to fit their market. I believe this is mostly because, as mentioned before, they are going to end up marketing the app to students as well. I did come into these interviews expecting to hear how I was going to have to change how I marketed the product since the university is a business and not a consumer. I also expected to hear that I may need to completely revise my marketing strategy, since what make a business want to buy a product is not the same as what makes a 20-year-old student want to buy a product.



I originally was planning to target this business as my market at the beginning of my venture. However, I began to have second thoughts when I realized how long it would take to go through the university then to have to university begin getting the app out there before it became successful versus just selling it to students themselves. It seems to be an attractive option. But istill believe marketing to students will prove to be the most successful when it comes to my app. I am thankful for the input I received because it has given me a glimpse at another route that I could go should marketing to students prove to be troublesome.

Assignment 24- Venture Concept No. 1

"Hot Seat" the app's Venture Concept



My venture was created based upon the opportunity to find a solution to the problem that Undergraduate students on campus at the university of Florida are spending long periods of time walking around Library West searching seat. This need is important because every second counts for college students who have assignments due before class or need time to study for exams and no one wants to waste that time looking for a seat. The market of undergraduate students at UF ranges from the average ages of 18-23 and geographically this market is located in Alachua County. To satisfy this current need, students are resorting to studying at home or relying on friends to tell them how busy the library is or even save them a seat. This isn’t the best way to figure out where and when they will be able to find a seat at the library, and from the information I found through interviews, most students are wishy-washy about their current ways of dealing with the problem. This opportunity has been created by the increasing number of students attending UF each year, making the library more crowded and thus harder for students to find a seat; also making this a large opportunity. I believe that this window will be open indefinitely until someone creates a solution to this problemt.

My innovation to absolve this problem is an app called “Hot Seat”. After students log into the app using their gatorlink log in information, they are prompted to select the floor level of Library West that they are interested in looking for seats on. After this, students are brought to an aerial view of the floor where available seats are shown in green and taken seats are shown in read. When a student sits down in the seat they click on it in the app and select “taken”. The seat will show red for 3 hours and after that students are notified to select it again if they are still there using it. I plan to offer a reward for students who log their seating in the library each semester as an incentive for other students to log in the app accurately. The reward is semester long access to a graduate cubicle on the 5thfloor of the library specifically reserved for that student so that they do not need to worry about where they will be sitting that semester. Depending on availability, I may be able to offer this reward to up to 3 students! I will be able to make money from my app by selling it in the app store for 99 cents and offering spaces for advertisements to be purchased on the app so that students can see them when that have logged into Hot Seat.

The Hot Seat app will solve students’ issue of spending time pacing Library West to find a seat by providing a platform that students can log into to instantaneously see where available and taken seats are in the library. Customers will by this app because it is going to save them time and at the end of the day make their lives a little bit easier, all for a low price. No student wants to spend 30 minutes of their hour of study time trying to find a seat, so if it will save them time, then they’re all in.

To add on to my venture concept, some reasons my customer wants to switch/use this new product are:

· To save themselves time

· To know before leaving the house where they will be able to sit at the library

· To more easily plan study sessions with friends

· To maximize study time

I don’t think it will be difficult to get my market to use this app because there is nothing like it implemented at Library West at UF. There is not much competition for this app in the educational sector of the business. However, there are a couple of weakness that I have come across when creating my business idea. For one, I am worried that college students aren’t going to want to spend money to purchase and app because of their small amount of discretionary income. Since I am a member of my target market, I know personally how much every penny counts. In addition, I am fearful that students will neglect to log when they have sat down or re-log the length of time that they are in their seat, throwing off the accuracy of the entire system. Since my product is an app, packaging is not as important of a role as price is. The lower the price the more college students that will be able to and want to buy my product. Since the business is first going to be implemented on UF’s campus, I believe being located in Gainesville will be good to trouble shoot any issues or contact any customers in regard to my business concept. Lastly, to organize my business I would create a small team of employees, around 7-8, to deal with the tactical and sales aspects of the app so that I have some knowledgeable people in the field to assist me.

Three minor elements:

1. I have determination and a passion for this business that will make it hard for competitors to copy, making my “secret sauce” effective. I also am a member of my target market which gives me insight that competitors are lacking.

2. Up next for my venture, I would like to expand the app to include other libraries on campus or even to be used at other Universities in the Unites States.



3. In 5 years, for me, I aim to have a successful app operating at all of the 7 undergraduate libraries here at UF. I want to be able to make a difference with the younger generation and my app is the first step to allowing that to happen for me as an entrepreneur in the next decade.

Assignment 23- Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

Resources in my venture:

1. Being a member of the target audience

2. Social capital

3. Low cost for consumers

4. Easy access from target audience

5. Human capital

6. A young upbeat organizational culture (that will be created)

7. A diverse group of people that will be working within my business

8. Coding capabilities

9. Sales skills

10. Having a business with an extremely flexible nature



VRIN (Value, Rare, Inimitable, Non-substitutional) Analysis:

1. Being a member of the target audience

· V: This is valuable because it gives me direct insight as a member of my target audience (undergrad students at UF) into what students want and need implemented on campus.

· R: This is rare because not every business owner is a member of the audience they wish to sell their product to.

· I: It is hard to copy in the respect that you cannot become someone you are not, yet it is easy to copy if you specifically targeted a group to which you are a part of.

· N: I believe this could be substituted by gathering research on a target market even if you are not a part of it yourself, in fact that is what many businesses must do.



2. Social Capital

· V: This is valuable because it gives me a network of people who possess skills that I don’t necessarily have that will be able to help and assist me when needed.

· R: Social capital is not very rare because most, if not all, businesses have formed a network to get where they are.

· I: It is not hard to copy social capital by gaining a network and forming more contacts by meeting people within on in fields that have to do with yours.

· N: I think social capital would be hard to substitute unless you possess every skill possibly necessary to run your business, which is very unlikely.

3. Low cost for consumers

· V: This is valuable because it entices consumers to purchase the project and allows for a larger customer base since mostly everyone can afford an app for 99 cents.

· R: This is not rare, there are some apps that are free and other products that are also inexpensive for consumers to buy.

· I: Low cost could be copied by companies cutting certain costs in other departments in order to cut the cost of the product that they are selling.

· N: This can be substituted for maybe a product of higher quality that costs a little more.

4. Easy access from target audience

· V: This is valuable because customers are more willing to purchase if the purchase is convenient, and purchasing an app from the app store on one’s phone is as convenient as it gets.

· R: It is not rare for a product to have easy access in the technology industry, but in other industries it can be rare.

· I: Easy access cannot be imitated, it is dependent on the product that is being offered, how it is being offered, and where it is being offered.

· N: This can be substituted for maybe a product that is more prestigious to get and also harder to access, like Yeezy shoes.

5. Human Capital

· V: This is valuable because it gives me knowledge into my business and experience that others may not have, giving me an advantage.

· R: Human capital is not very rare when it comes to owners of business ventures.

· I: This can be imitated possibly, if one acquires knowledge in order to build their own human capital.

· N: You can’t really substitute another skill in place of human capital because it plays such an imperative role in the business.

6. A young upbeat organizational culture (that will be created)

· V: This is valuable because it attracts my target audience and also makes my company an enjoyable one to work at.

· R: It is rare because not every company has this culture. However, there are some that do, so it is not extremely rare.

· I: It can be easily imitated by someone who wants to create such a culture in their business.

· N: You can substitute another company culture in place of this type, as for many customers it may not be a deal breaker.

7. A diverse group of people that will be working within my business

· V: This is valuable because it gives me a group of people to work with who may identify with individuals within my target market that I personally may not be able to identify with. It also gives way to a range of different ideas and opinions.

· R: This is something that many companies have within their internal makeup these days so it is not very rare.

· I: it can easily be imitated by hiring a diverse work force.

· N: This isn’t a resource that can be easily substituted but there are some ways to get around it be participating in diversity training if your workforce isn’t extremely diverse so that way you are familiar with all types of customers.

8. Coding capabilities

· V: This is valuable because it allows me to work first hand on a lot of my app instead of spending money to hire someone to do so.

· R: It is rare because coding skills are not a resource that everyone has.

· I: These skills cannot be easily imitated, they need to be learned and practiced and that can’t be done in a few minutes.

· N: These skills cannot be substituted with something else because no matter what in the app business you will still need someone to code.

9. Sales skills

· V: This is valuable because it will allow me to successfully talk to customers and persuade them that the app will help make their lives easier, ultimately leading my business to more success.

· R: Having sales skills is not extremely rare, although not everyone can do it.

· I: Sales skills can be learned, but it is a process that doesn’t happen right away.

· N: You can substitute other ways to sell products such as ads but you cannot directly substitute the skills.

10. Having a business with an extremely flexible nature

· V: This is valuable because it will allow my business to withstand changes and turbulence within the industry because of its’ flexible nature.

· R: This is rare because not all businesses are flexible.

· I: It cannot be imitated unless a company’s structure and strategy are rebuilt to allow for flexibility.

· N: Flexibility is not easily substituted by another resource of a business.





My Top resource is being a member of the target market that I am selling my app to. I believe this resource outweighs all of the others because it provides me a significant advantage in the industry. It allows me to get into my consumers mind and to know THAT much more about the target audience. Doing so will result in increased success for my business that is rare and is not easily imitated.

Assignment 22- Elevator Pitch No. 3

1. My link for the final pitch is: https://youtu.be/hdxRqGa7Kr0

2. Feedback reflection: The feedback from my last elevator pitch was all positive, which was awesome but it made it difficult for me to find many areas to change in my pitch this time around. A similar issue to what I had last time. Some of my favorite aspects of the feedback were when Ashitka said that my second elevator pitch was much improved because of how much more confident I was. I was really glad this came through because I tried especially hard the second time around to have my pitch well memorized since I changed it a lot from the original. I also really enjoyed Pimchanok’s comment about how good she though my hook was!

3. Changes made based on feedback: As I mentioned, because of the lack of constructive criticism there wasn’t much I could change based on the feedback I received. However, there was one minor change that I decided to implement in which I changed the incentive from one student to have graduate cubicle access to three students so that more people would download and use the Hotspot app.

Assignment 21- Reading Reflection No. 2

I chose to do this reading reflection on Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. I really enjoyed this book and felt that I learned a lot of relevant information about how to be successful in today's business climate.




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

The purpose of this book is to explain how to fill the gap between helping one’s company grow and the way that customers are marketed to. Halligan and Shah  explain that “Inbound marketing” refers to the new way in which customers shop and buy, it is about pulling customers in by using increased information and knowledge about the business/product. The overall argument of this book, however, was that due to the transformation in the way people live their day to day lives by shopping and increased use of the internet' outbound marketing is out and inbound marketing is in. The book aims to explain the importance of various aspects of inbound marketing, ranging from web design all the way to the company’s strategy. Overall, the authors attempt to explain and devises way to navigate this new push for inbound marketing.



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

The book had a lot to do with what I am currently learning in ENT3003 because it had to deal with ways to improve the overall success of your business, one area at a time. In ENT we are learning how to create a business and will eventually need to know how to continue to make the business grow and successful. Without certain marketing tools in today’s society that growth is nearly impossible. Halligan and Shah even talked about how making a blog could be one aspect of how the business can connect more with customers, which I found interesting because now after taking ENT I will have my own personal experience with creating and running a blog. Lastly, the book helped me to grow my knowledge on the topic of making decisions. I learned about the steps necessary to make smarter marketing choices, for example, using a “funnel” comprised of specific steps in the process.



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

The exercise I would create for the class based on Inbound Marketing would be for students to create a prototype website for their business. By prototype, I mean one that has everything on the screen but doesn’t necessarily have everything hyperlinked so that if you click on one item it would bring you to another page. Those bells and whistles can be described in a summary of what the student aims for the page to eventually become. I feel this goes well with the book because Halligan and Shah talk about the importance of using one’s company website as a marketing hub.



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?

My biggest Aha moment while reading Inbound Marketingwas when I read the chapter on social media and got into the section about how Facebook ads work. I obviously knew these were a huge way the Facebook profited from their website but I wasn’t sure how the businesses on the other end used them. I had no idea businesses are able to choose the demographic that their ad is shown to! It makes sense now how this could be extremely valuable to a business.

Assignment 20- Growing your Social Capital

A. 1. The first person I made a connection with for this assignment is Jordan M.. He is a senior computer science major at UC Berkley. He is originally from Tampa and has worked with several startup companies to develop software and help in the making of apps to be put on the market.



2. Jordan is the domain expert in my industry since he is a technical expert in the field of creating apps and online software, he has knowledge that I don’t on the mechanical aspect of how to create this project.



3. I actually knew Jordan from high school and thought he would be a great person to contact about this project. I texted him asking if we could talk on the phone about the project and about an hour later he called me and told me a lot of what he has done to become the technical expert that he is and what he thought of my idea.



4. The nature of this exchange was friendly. Jordan gave me feedback and knows if he ever needs help from me he can call me anytime.



5. Including Jordan in my network allows me to have a contact who can assist me in the production problem and possibly know others who could help me when developing my app.



B. 1. I contacted Kristina A. to aid me with this portion of the assignment. She is a graduate student here at UF who works in the Starbucks at Library West.



2. Kristina is the market expert in my industry. She is an expert on this market because majority of the customers that she serves are students at UF who go into Library West (for Starbucks at least), this gives her insight into this market every day that she works.



3. As an avid coffee drinker I’ve become a regular at the Library West Starbucks so I simply asked Kristina if I could have her number to ask her some questions about the market.



4. The exchange was very friendly and also over the phone (just like Jordan’s was). There were no favors explicitly stated but I think from Kristina’s point of view she was upholding the Starbucks brand and by helping me she knew I would remain a loyal customer.



5. Kristina will be someone who I can contact when I have questions regarding the market and what she knows about the students who visit the library. I’m sure she would have a good estimate as to when the library experiences the busiest/emptiest times.



C. 1. For this portion of the assignment Alex W. who works with the well-known company- Apple. He is 28 and has worked with the company for several years. He is a tech associate for the company and has extensive knowledge on the supply chain of the company.



2. Alex fills the supplier contact in my industry because Apple supplies the Reitz Union bookstore with tech equipment like Apple and ipads which fall into my industry of technology so I thought Apple would be a good company to contact for this role.



3. I just called the Apple customer service line and spoke to Alex who was the first representative that I got on the phone.



4. I don’t think there is any return expectation from Alex. He was just able to tell me some information about the companies that Apple supplies for including most book stores on college campuses. He seemed the like the idea of my app!



5. Including Alex in my contacts won’t really increase my ability to exploit my opportunity per say. But it might give me some help later down the line if my app becomes a huge success.





REFLECTION



This experience has showed me not to be afraid to reach out to people and that most of the time if you approach them in a kind manner they will be more than happy to help without expecting much in return. It will help me to be more outgoing and confident when networking in the future. It differed from my other networking experiences in that it forced me to find much more specific people dealing with certain industries that I haven’t networked with before, being a pre law student. It forced me to really go out of my comfort zone and for that I am glad!