Week 5 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise in this week's reading was how many of the common pitfalls encountered in selecting new ventures seem to be common sense. For example, the book says that two main issues people run into are ignorance of legal issues and lack of venture uniqueness. When starting a business, one would think that making sure their product is unique and, of course, legal, would be of top priority. However, there are so many facets of starting a venture that I suppose some things can fall to the wayside. I was confused when the book talked about growth patterns in the start-up phase of a new venture, since I don't understand how entrepreneurs can predict how many of their product will sell at a certain time. I would ask the author which approach they would recommend for starting a venture: the feasibility criteria approach or the technical feasibility approach. I would also ask why they would choose that specific approach, and I would ask to gain further insight into those two topics. I agreed with what the author said for this week's reading.

Interviewing Customers No. 2

1. This round of interviews went a lot better than the last ones (in my humble opinion)! When I first interviewed potential customers, I asked them whether their parking needs were being met. I have fine tuned this opportunity to transportation in general, specifically when coming home from a late night out. My elevator pitch highlights the idea of Mid-Assist, or "MA", which is a school-sponsored set of vehicles that will take students home from midtown to their dorm/apartment.

2. The "who" of the interviews was pretty general. My questions required students who have been to midtown, which all of the interviewees had been, some of which frequenting the area at least once a week. The people chosen to be interviewed this round worked out better, since every person interviewed could use the potential service.

3. My interview questions asked were very different from the first set of customer interviews. I completely changed my opportunity based on my elevator pitch, allowing me to ask more specific questions. In my first interviews, I talked about how UF does not offer enough parking options for their students/faculty. While this may be true, offering a set of vehicles to take students to where they need to go is a much more plausible feat.

4. Interviews: Video posted above!

5. I think this opportunity will be a lot more plausible to implement, and could potentially help a greater percentage of students than my first opportunity.

6. Interviews are still a challenge! I think it will always be a little uncomfortable asking to interview/record people. However, practice makes perfect, and I hope to improve as time goes on. Three tips I would offer to future students would be to find a group of people to interview rather than one person so they can feed off of each others' responses, try to find someone to film it for you so that it's not just you holding a camera in someone's face, and to try not to be discouraged when someone doesn't agree with your idea.

Elevator Pitch No. 1

The opportunity I am choosing to pursue is transportation. Specifically, the lack of transportation for students in midtown trying to get safely home. My idea is "Mid-Assist", a set of school-sponsored cars that would transport students from the midtown area to their on/off campus dorm or apartment. I think this fulfills an unmet need because the current school-sponsored vehicles, SNAP, only operate on the UF campus. This doesn't benefit the large majority of UF students who live off campus or students at midtown who would be forced to walk home at unsafe times of the night. By adding this type of service to what UF already has, the school would be able to help more students get home safely.