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.