Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity:

The opportunity of my venture concept, “Mid-Assist” (aka MA), lies within the under-met needs of my customers. The potential customers for MA are the students currently attending the University of Florida (if this idea were to take place on other campuses, customers would be the attending students of the university in question). Their under-met need? Transportation. In today’s day and age, people want things to be fast, efficient and effective. Our cellphones need LTE data, we need to be able to watch TV with no commercials, and we wonder if our computers are broken when they take longer than 10 seconds to load a document. My point is that people don’t want to wait anymore. They want what they want at the moment they decide they want it. Now of course, transportation is a bit different. It can’t happen immediately, but we do want to know that it’s on its way, or it’ll be here at a certain time. I believe the school’s current offered form of transportation not only doesn’t meet these needs, but also doesn’t fully reach the entire student body.

                I think the “window of opportunity” for my venture is substantial. As long as the University of Florida remains in this area (which is very likely) and the midtown area remains popular (also likely) than MA will have a strong customer base. Customers are currently satisfying their need through taking Ubers, taxis, or simply walking home. I would say their loyalty level is moderate at best. Many students choose to walk, which can potentially be a dangerous situation, and Ubers can only be booked on-demand, so there’s no real guarantee of when they will come. My market is defined geographically as being within 3 miles of the university, and demographically as a UF student (so most likely between the ages of 18-22).

Innovation:

The actual idea. Mid-Assist, or MA, will be a set of school-sponsored vehicles that will transport students from the Midtown area to their off-campus dorm, apartment, or house. I’ve designed this service so that it is primarily for off-campus students, as they currently have no alternative school-sponsored option, while on-campus UF students may use SNAP. MA will operate from 10 pm to 3 am on Wednesday through Saturday nights. Students would be able to book the ride through a mobile app, and it will be prepaid within a student’s tuition. Note: this is technically a luxury service. At the time of registering for classes, students will have the option of pre-paying for the service through their Gatorlink accounts. If students sign up at the beginning of the semester, they will have the reduced fee of $12, while students signing up later in the semester will be charged $15. The mobile app will request their UFID number, ensuring that the student taking MA has already paid for the service. The MA cars can be requested for a certain timeframe if booked at least 3 hours in advance. Otherwise, the cars will help customers in the order the requests are received.

Venture Concept:

                My innovation will help to solve the problem I’ve identified by providing students with an alternative option for getting home safely at night. As a student who has been out late at night before, I have felt uncomfortable getting into a taxi or uber alone . We all hear the horror stories in the media and on TV (I’m a big fan of Law and Order: SVU, which doesn’t help the whole being scared in the taxi situation). Our parents call all the time telling us to be careful, don’t drink anything you didn’t see made, and to be alert when walking anywhere at night. We get the UF alerts saying shots have been fired somewhere, or someone attacked someone walking home. And then, after all those things, the main ways of getting home are by waiting for an uber, getting into a taxi, or waiting for SNAP, which doesn’t even help the 90% of UF students who live off campus. I think by offering a school-sponsored method of transportation to off-campus UF students, the university sends a clear message to its students, faculty, parents, and benefactors that they care about student safety, and will do everything in their power to keep our student body safe.

Three Minor Elements

• I think the most important resource will be the students of UF and UF itself. I think that the venture will be made more credible if UF shows its full support for the venture. The students are important because they would be providing the funds for the venture! As MA would have student drivers, their knowledge of the Gainesville area would also help MA to run more efficiently.
• What's next for MA is still to be determined. I think that the most important thing is to get it off the ground, and start getting students to see that this may be a more convenient and safe option for them when in need of transportation. Afterwards, once the idea has proof of concept, it can be taken to other universities , either in Florida or across the U.S.
• What's next for me is still to be determined as well. Assuming MA became a real thing, I'd probably want to check up on it every once in a while to see the impact it's having on student's lives. As an entrepreneur, I hope to own my own business one day. This venture would help give me good business experience that I could use in the future to start my own company.

Week 11 Reading Reflection

I agreed with the majority of this week's reading. I especially agreed when Gary Pisano, the author, stated that "innovation remains a frustrating pursuit...despite massive investments of manager time and money". This makes absolute sense, because (in my humble opinion) no amount of money is going to make someone or a certain idea become innovative. An idea needs to be thought of and cultivated - paying a lot of money to a manager to sit and think of ideas doesn't guarantee success. I don't think that I agree entirely with Pisano's views. While I think that certain business may foster innovation, I don't think that selecting a certain business strategy guarantees innovation. I would probably ask Pisano which business strategy he believes is the most effective for fostering innovation and if he has had any personal experience in operating a business.

Amazon Whisperer

Since the entrepreneurial venture I created is actually a service, I couldn't really pick a "next product" for this assignment. That being said, in keeping with the spirit of the thing the item I chose was a seat cover with a Gator symbol on it (I figured maybe all of the MA cars will have at least one of these to either show school spirit or identify itself from SNAP vans). I've attached a picture of the product below:

Looking at the picture, the seat cover looks like it fits nicely on the car seat, the gator symbol appears prominent and centered, and the material looks like it would be of a high quality. The customer reviews on this product are pretty mixed. In general, customers thought the gator logo was of a high quality, but the rest of the product had something to be desired. Many customers found the item difficult to install, ripping it in the process of installation. Others found the quality of the cover to be lacking, saying it was uncomfortable to sit on.

To fix the issues this product has, I would make the cover have 2 separate pieces instead of one huge piece; I think this will simplify the installation process. I would also make the cover in different skews with different material to better fit different cars. The Amazon Whisperer article discussed that the more variations of a product there are, the more shelf space that product can command. Therefore, offering different material options provides for higher customer satisfaction and (hopefully) a larger portion of the market.

As far as adding this to my service, I don't think I would be selling this to my customers. Rather, it could be something that comes included with MA cars as an identifying piece.

My Unfair Advantage

1. As with all imaginary yet very possible ventures, the first resource I'd come up with is myself. I feel that I am a hard-working, dedicated individual who would be committed to making sure this venture would be a success, should it become a reality. And best of all, I'm not imitatable, rare, and non-substitutable :)

2. Human capital - aka the students who would be driving the MA cars. No one knows Gainesville student living situations and locations better than actual UF students, so any possible shortcuts or ways of making trips faster and more efficient would be known by our drivers. This is not necessarily a resource that other companies may possess.

3. Social capital - social media. By being an active user on various platforms of social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, I have background experience in using social media to push out my service and put it in the public view. Social media can make or break a company, and I feel that already having prior experience with the technology could be very helpful in starting my business.

4. Human capital - the very large student body of UF! By making MA cars available exclusively to UF students through their Gatorlink accounts, it would be easier than ever for a UF student to be able to arrive home safely. Targeting a relatively wide audience in a college town would allow the word-of-mouth method of marketing to work well.

5. Me again - I'm currently a finance major at UF, and before coming here I completed my AA in Accounting at FAU. This gives me a good background in the financial aspects of running a business, which would be very useful not only in the beginning stages of the venture, but throughout its existence.

6. Social capital - my family. My parents have each owned and operated their fair share of entrepreneurial ventures, so being able to have their support would be an advantage for me. They have valuable insight to offer that could help MA flourish in the market.

7. Capabilities - Owning a car. Because I already own my own form of transportation, I would be able to do some field tests to see how far away certain locations are, as well as the best routes for drivers to take when transporting students.

8. Financial capital - money. I do have some money saved from a previous job, which would allow me to kickstart MA. My parents also help to financially support me, so I'm confident that they would support me in my business venture,

9. Social capital - UF itself! The University of Florida has a long, upstanding history including generations of Gators supporting the school. By either having people donate to MA or just spreading the word about it, MA can be on its way to helping more students get home safely.

10. Capabilities - attitude. I am very friendly and persuasive, which are good traits to have when proposing a business idea. Because of the way I've designed MA, before it can really take off it would need to be approved by the school. I would feel confident in organizing a presentation and making my case to those in charge.

I believe my top resource would be me and my personality. My can-do attitude, support system, and personality would all be assets in making MA a reality. I think I would be more important to my venture than the other things because every good idea needs someone to come up with it and guide it into fruition.

Week 10 Reading Reflection

I enjoyed this week's reading more than the others, as I am already familiar with many of the concepts discussed in this chapter (I spent the first two years of my college career studying accounting). Therefore, there were no huge surprises for me in the reading this week. I would ask the author whether they think it makes more sense to choose a venture with good funding resources, or a venture with a higher possibility of success, but with substantially less funding. I found it interesting how many different aspects there are to consider when it comes to funding a business. Much of the text involved facts and figures that I was previously familiar with, so I agree with what the author says.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

I really enjoyed receiving all the feedback I got from my last elevator pitch. There were a lot of insightful comments, leading me to believe that people watched my idea and truly thought it could become a reality. The main aspect I've changed based on the feedback I received is the pricing model. I originally said that the first 3 rides would be free for students, and all additional ride fees would be determined by distance. Then, someone brought to my attention that Uber rides are a lot cheaper than I had thought, putting MA in direct competition with a pretty large competitor. To avoid this, I've decided that students will be offered a semester fee while paying their tuition (somewhere in between $5-$15 depending on location), and after that fee is paid they can have unlimited rides for that semester. Because of this, MA will remain a UF student-exclusive service and is hopefully more cost-friendly to UF students.

Week 9 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise for me in the reading was how many of the concepts related to the assignments we were doing in class. For example, when we went out and interviewed potential customers, it was like we were gathering primary data for our concept. Two questioning methods for primary data are surveys and experimentation, which I think we used in developing our business ideas. I would want to ask the author whether they think Internet marketing or in-person marketing (ads, flyers, surveys, etc.) is the most effective, and whether they think one is more effective than the other depending on the type of business being advertised. I wasn't confused by this chapter, and I agreed with the majority of what the author said.