29A - Venture Concept No. 2

SO CIAL

Opportunity

• Newly college students come to college and realize that it is difficult to make friends due to the fact that they moved from their region to a more diversified region filled with many other students. They would be able to get to know each other through social media, but it is really hard if they do not have the foundation
• The main forces consist of
• Clubs are not recruiting hard enough for the students, especially when their social media is outdated.
• People are hesitant with adding strangers on social media because they are not sure if they can interact with them properly. 
• Applications are not only for the college student located on campus, it is more of a mixture for everyone
• Market Defined As
• A segment where students want to get to know each other, but are not sure how to get involved.
• University of Florida college students and the Alumni (so far only one college)
• Customers Currently Satisfying Need
• They are trying to join social media applications to get to know the organization and people. They are flyered through certain areas on campus which is how they get involved.
• Opportunity
• Opportunity is really huge in the sense that college students are really trying to get to know each other and get involved. They want the connection and college experience.
• Window of Opportunity
• This Window will always be opened until an application comes out where college students are able to interact with each other safely.
• Innovation
• Students would sign in and authenticate themselves with their Gator ID. This application would organize their life in terms of social, academic, and professional life. This application would allow students to go to organization chats and pages and see the updates. It would also allow them to interact with other students.
• We would be making money through the students. I think a form of advertisement fee would be needed unless the college can give the money to keep the application running. It would be a huge dependent on our interact with the college.
• It could be based on a subscription for students like how Zoom has for the colleges.
• Venture Concept
• The innovation would connect people together. It would bring them together in a more dated fashion due to the fact that technology is coming into the trend of interaction. It would prevent awkward interaction and allow us to grow stronger as a university nation.
• People would switch to this new product  when social media are not able to satisfy their needs. Due to the fact that people have multiple social medias, they tend to ignore certain ones which causes some pages to be outdated and not reach the target audience that they would like.
• The competitors are nothing too big except for the big ones established. However, it is not that much since they do not reach the college audience as much and focus on a huger demographic. 
• Geographic location and customer support are the two key essential part of our business concept. If we did not have that, we would not have a business at all. Our business wants to grow with the college students and help them discover themselves as well as grow.
• I would organize the business by getting students at the college to help out as they would know what is best for it compared to other people. We would establish a sponsorship with the university, and the employees would be a small group of people. 
• Most Important Resource: We are catering towards the college students that we go to school for. We have previous experience compared to an application that draws forth from other colleges. Not all colleges are the same, and if we are able to change how we view the application in terms of the university it supports, it would tremendously do well!
• What's Next for Vneture: I would like to expand the application to more than just the school that we are targeting. I think it would also be cool if we tackle some businesses and see how we can customize our application to business culture. 
• What's Next for Me?: I would like to grow this business for a few years, and then pass it down due to the ever changing culture of technology and social media. I would like to use that money to further create another experience and grow out my business independently. 

strongerfamilies.com - Noel Meador

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1. I did not receive any feedback from the assignment except for What's Next. The person who responded to it liked the idea, as it involves social capital and communication. 
2. Since I did not receive any feedback, I adjusted my whole experience by rereading my previous post and explaining certain points again. I feel like I was able to connect more with my entrepreneurship by self-reflection, and I was able to reassure myself that certain points are correct. 

30A - Final Reflection

success.com - Colin Darretta

1. The most formative experience that I had was when we were discussing about failure to be honest. I think it was throughout the course that I saw what a huge impact it had on my life. I always thought of failure to be something to be disappointed in, but it is something that you should take pride in and learn from it. Do not let it own you, but own it and do better. I think a joyous experience was when I was able to do my assignments while participating in a cultural show. Doing a cultural show takes so much of your time, especially being an officer for another organization. I am very proud of it because it shows that I could handle multiple tasks and I can succeed while managing my academic career. 
2. I think I see myself more of an entrepreneur. I never imagine myself to be able to create a whole idea from scratch and try to implement it. I feel like I have the tools needed to create a business opportunity. I would love to implement some business aspects and use it for my hobby in order to create a future entrepreneurship opportunity.
3. One recommendation I would make to the students is to take this course seriously. This course is one of the gateways in order to explore who they are as a person and see where they can take their ideas and expand it to a product that everyone can use. Sure, we might not have the materials needed to make this idea a reality, but it is a great way to see how you can progress without having any entrepreneurship experience at all.  Do not procrastinate at all because it will bite you from behind if you do not do the assignments! You will be lost and not understand your full potential, so do your best!
    

28A - My Exit Strategy

My Exit Strategy

1. I would like to sell my business within the next decade for a large return. I think it is better than other exit strategy particularly for my business, as social media is extending further and further due to technological growth.
2. I selected this particular exit strategy because I believe that there is a limit of what I can do with this in my current business form. I could expand the concept of social media aspect, but I think I could get a large return from other businesses by selling it. We have seen it countless of times where social media places die down from users due to other applications opening up. I feel that there will be a limit of where me and my business partners will not be able to see eye to eye with the younger generation, and it would be more profitable to sell it to another company who can expand upon it. I could be a stockholder rather than leading the business with my team. By allowing other people to take over my businesses, it will be able to expand and grow which is something that I would love to see, and I would not be at a financial risk.
3. I don't think it really influenced the other decisions I had in my mind. When picking an opportunity, I was not thinking about the ending strategy. I was thinking about how to approach and begin it. I think now it has opened my eyes and see that there could be a limit of what I can do with my business by working with a smaller niche group. However, I think it would be nice to have some stocks in the company and be able to be one of the company heads and provide guidance. 

27A - Reading Reflection NO. 3

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams

1. The general theme of the book is that it is alright to fail, as failure does not define who you are. You can eventually succeed which is why I found this book really interesting because I am afraid of failing. However, I was able to see my past experiences of how I mingle with failure and how I thought it was the end of the world. I thought my world shattered in front of me, but I was able to keep on going no matter what. 
2. This book was very insightful to me. I realized that my way of thinking can hinder the way that I view society, and that it is beneficial to change your mindset. I always believe that there is a morally right decision. However, I failed to take note that many decisions have many different perspective rather than one set linear path. Humans are complex, and you are always going to be disappointed if you have high expectations of people. People are not going to act the way that you want them to act. I think that is the biggest take away I took from the book as it correlates to what I learned in ENT3003 and extends onto my life.
3. If I had to design an exercise, I would probably make people write their top ten goals, and then write a systematic approach of how they would achieve those goals by setting deadlines for themselves. This would allow the students to look inward and see what they want to accomplish and by getting a head start, they are able to accomplish more and more by defining those goals in approaches rather than saying, just accomplish it.
4. I think my biggest surprise was making a system to achieve your goals. I always set long and short term goals, but sometimes I do not reach them. However, if I make weekly or daily approaches rather than relying on the end goal, I can accomplish so much more and take more risk rather than be afraid! 

26A - Celebrating Failure

Celebrating My Failure

1. A time that I failed was when I was taking an exam, and I procrastinated while doing other social activities rather than making studying a priority. I was too busy focusing on my social life rather than keeping an eye out for my academic life. I was also involved with too many organizations, 
2. I learned that I should not lose sight of what I am trying to achieve in college. I am here to get a degree and eventually find a job in order to become more independent. I should not hate that I get a bad grade, but I should take it as a learning experience of what I should not do in order to prepare for the next test in order to raise my grade.
3. Failure is something disappointing if you make it into a disappointment. However, if you make it into a learning opportunity in order to do better next time, it actually helps build character rather than detriment a person's mental attributes. I think I am more willing to take risk compared to before because of this class. I learned that I should accept who I am and build further onto in order to create a more complete set of myse

25A - What's Next

What's Next

1. I think my products and service could cater much than just the University of Florida. I would like to expand it to other universities and maybe start expanding it to businesses as a way for them to connect with their employees.
2. Three potential people would probably say that they would like to see it expand to other universities. They would want it to be connected with the businesses that they are heading. They would also want the activities to be more interactive on the application and create new ways of connecting with their targeted audience.
3. Based on my expectations and feedback from my customers, I would still want to expand it to other universities as soon as I get done with localizing it for one company. It will be a struggle, however, because that would be more connections to handle on a server. I would need to upgrade the data capability of a server and create more ways to decrease vulnerability

          Not only that, I would have to see how other colleges would see it. However, colleges would have the ability to purchase the license for the application and create an inclusive nature within their campus. I would like this idea to come into reality one of these days, but baby steps would be needed for the first college.

New Market

1. I think a radically different market would be businesses. As I have been only focused on targeting colleges, businesses would also work the best because of the culture founded within businesses.
2. They would be able to connect with themselves and their partnerships and allow their workers to get to know each other. This would build stronger strategical alliances between companies and create friendly relationships rather than making it awkward. 
3. Asking two potential people would probably think that they like this idea because they do not really know their partners that well besides only in business aspects. If they can combine both of their professional lives together, it could really create great projects with each other.

I think what surprised me the most would be that businesses would really like to connect with other businesses. I only have been focusing on projects that affects a school internally. However, businesses would like to be more social with their partnerships in order to create a great alliance between everyone involved. I would hope for this to come into a reality.

Maybe it would be as attractive as my current market. However, some companies could find this not useful as they build their products inwards. This project would target those who have extensive alliances and need to be on the same page. 

24A - Venture Concept No. 1

SO CIAL


Opportunity

• College students are not sure about how to mingle with each other. There are applications that are currently used to connect them, but students find it hard to actually get to know each other before doing so. 
• The main forces consist of 
• Clubs and organizations prove to not be as active on social media
• Students are lonely and shy when they first come to college
• People usually get to know each other first
• Social media current app does not have a way to mingle college students together if they do not know each other well
• Market Defined as
• Students want to get to know each other
• Specific Colleges (Only 1 College per portal)
• Customers currently Satisfying Need
• Trying to go out to clubs and organization while managing their professional and academic career
• They are pretty loyal because they need to do it in order to expand their resume and such
• Opportunity
• I think the opportunity is very huge because connecting college students would create a unified gator nation
• Window of Opportunity
• It will be open until college students get to find their friend groups and groups, but I think it will always be open.

Innovation

• An application that connects students together through a portal. There, it would organize their life socially, academically, and professionally. Students would use their ID to verify who they are in order to connect with other students. People can enter chat room for classrooms, get to know each other, and message each other through encryption. It would be safe and not have a lot of security risk.
• Students would enter their credentials and see what they have to accomplish for the days. Organizations would be able to virtually table to people and etc and post their updates without having to update all of their social media.
• I am not quite sure how much it would be making because I think this would be more of a non-profit of such. Advertisement could be a key, but I would not want that for the application.
• I think it could be charged by how much the school would want it such as a subscription-based model like for Zoom and other applications that UF purchases.

Venture Concepts

• The innovation would solve the problem by allowing people to connect with each other through the application. It would try to void the awkward moment by allowing people to talk with others online. It could allow messaging to people and create a greater inclusive nature within UF.
• I think people would switch to the product especially when some social media usages are dying. College students would not have to struggle with finding out about the clubs and organization.
• There isn't really any competitors for now except for the usual social media. Their weakness is that they do not cater as much to the college students, as they are more of a universal application.
• Customer support and customer experience is really important as the application is designated to their geographic location, the school.

Three Minor Elements

• Most Important Research: Catered towards the college students. As it is catered, we are able to use our personal experience to reflect the application and provide great personal support
• What's Next: Expand the application to more than just one school.
• What's Next For Me: Expand my ideas towards another field and create a company that encapsulates everything together

Assignment 23A: Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

My Venture's Unfair Advantage

• Connection with College Student
• My team is connected with college students which makes gathering of college students a lot easier. Students will feel more secured knowing that their peer is working on an application that could help connect them with other students. 
• Social Media Aspect
• This is not really a rare, as there are many people that can copy it. They can copy the layout and such making it easily replaceable. 
• Verification Aspect
• This is essential because if the application partners up with the school, then verification can work and only give access to those who are alumni and are current students. This is not really imitable, as it would be a partnership with the school.
• Dedicated College Team
• Most of my teammates will be from the college. Thus, we would all be able to pool together and create a great presentation that will give confident to the school and the students in order for our project to work. This is not really imitable unless someone is knowingly trying to be a competitive for our venture.
• Finance Stable with School (if Sponsorship occurs)
• Developing the application with the school by our side will allow us to keep the application going, and not have risks of it being turned out because of security and such. We would be able to follow the protocol that the school gives.
• External Research
• External research has shown that this application is needed in order to create an inclusive nature of the school. It is pretty valuable, but others can imitate the research. You cannot really make a substitution of it.
• Inclusive Nature of the Application
• We do not want this application to turn out to be some type of a mechanism that limits people social ability. Thus, we would want to apply inclusivity throughout the application and allow for user feedback. This cannot easily be subsisted because an application can do well without any type of bias that goes against the user. 
• Testable and updatable
• We would work on the application by releasing beta version of it. We would also allow it to be updated and not stop working on it since technology is always changing and bugs will always occur. This is not rare as many people should be doing it. However, it cannot be substituted
• Connected with People on LinkedIn on Social Media
• This is important, as they can help with the start up.We would be able to connect with them, and they would be able to give us guidance. It can be copied, however it is recommended not to substitute it.
• Accessible to the specific College Students
• This is valuable, as it limits security exploits by outside users. It is rare because not many applications use verification for college students, and this should not be substituted with anything, as it would create chaos and havoc for students.

My biggest resource has to be working for the college students. We have a dedicated team looking for a sponsorship with the university in order to produce a great application that can connect students together and take it to another level. All of these points deal with doing it for college students which is why it is valuable and important! 

22A - Elevator Pitch No. 3

Reflection

I think what stood out to me was my word “like.” I have used it a lot in my elevator pitch, and I was trying to stop saying like, but it was hard, and it created lots of brain farts. I had to think over my words, and I found it hard to stop using that in my vocabulary because it helps me think and flow. Hopefully, when I practice more, I will stop having that and be able to flow my sentences without overthinking what I said. I think what stood out to me personally was how I changed my whole elevator pitch. I tried to accompany the process of how I would do it because I feel like my second elevator pitch basically stated my ideas without the plan of doing it. I found it hard to fit myself within the time limit, as I did not want to do it too much or too little. I think if I ever wanted to do an elevator pitch again, I would introduce myself, state a basic introduction, go through the steps of how it work, talks about the benefit, and then conclude.

Change based on feedback:

I started noticing how my eyes kept on glancing somewhere else. I should have not done that, and I should be more confident and enunciate my words much more. I think I am more comfortable in the camera, and I think the pitch is better, but it is not at its final form. Hopefully I can create better elevator pitch in the future, and I know that practice makes perfect!

21A - Reading Reflection No. 2

The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users by Guy Kawaski

T   The general theme of the book is that social media is a huge influence in our lives. It can dictate how others see us in the professional light. This book gives us a reflection and give us tips on how to advance our social medias rather than keeping it static. We need to be dynamic with our social profiles in order to create a better representation of ourselves.

2.       I think this book connects well with what we learn in ENT3003, as some of the assignments made us reflect on ourselves. We learn that social media is very essential in our lives because it gives employees and employers a further look into our lives. The profiles cannot be basic, and this book gives us the tools to enhance our profiles in order to build networks, attract employers, and become more marketable.

3.       An exercise I would make is have the students take one of their profiles and reflect on how they see their profile. I would have them make the changes that they want to do such as updating their profile pictures, updating their descriptions, and etc in order to attract more followers and become more professional. I think this would give students an opportunity to also critique each other’s profile and see how they can improve it together. It is hard for a person to upgrade themselves if they cannot see what they are missing!

4.       I think an “ahaha” moment would be the fact that you have to plan the social media platform in advance. I would usually just fill out the necessities and keep it basic. Now, I see how it is important to go “pro.” You need to figure out what type of audience you want to attract as your profile is based on that. I did not really cater towards an audience when making my profile, but reading this book has opened my eyes on the importance of social media.