30A - Final Reflection

2. The first exercise was probably the most difficult assignment and was really what catalyzed forming an entrepreneurial mindset for me. We were asked to create a "bug list" of 20 opportunities / problems that we could find. I remember at first thinking to myself how in the world I was going to do that, because 20 seemed like a lot. Overall, after completing this exercise, I could not help but notice that weeks and even months afterwards leading up today, I was constantly looking around for opportunities that presented themselves to me in everyday life. It is definitely an exciting experience to change the way that you think about the world in general, and I have become far more open minded and logical about the way I see things since. I think it was this experience that will stick with me for years to come. I cannot shake the way I view the world now. My most joyous and proudest moment was creating the third elevator pitch. I generally love giving presentations and talking in front of people, so to be able to do that for an exercise three times was just enthralling. However, at the end of it all, looking back at the progress I have made is a feeling I cannot put into words. Generally, looking back at things that I have written in the past brings back feelings that I had during the time, whatever I was dealing with. And to be able to see the changes I have made all along the journey brings me both pride and joy.

3. I definitely have developed a more acute entrepreneurial mindset towards the end of the semester. The exercises that we had to complete were very challenging and demanding at some times, but I do not regret a single minute that I put into it. As mentioned above, I have been constantly been looking for problems that need solutions, not only for the general world, but for myself as well. I have never made such drastic changes in my life then after starting this class. I am incredibly glad that I signed up for this class and followed through till the end.

4. The biggest, most important recommendation that I could give to any student who is planning on taking this course is to not approach this class is to not view the work as any other class. Do  not look at the assignments as every other class they are taking. Look at each assignment as an opportunity, and opportunity to expand your entrepreneurial mindset and to develop a skill set. This class was by far the best class I have ever taken, and I am thankful for the opportunity. I would also, of course, recommend to never procrastinate, because sometimes the assignments, if not looked at before, can require you to go out and do interviews or can just be straight up demanding in the amount of work that  is needed to complete them.

29A - Venture Concept No. 2

Part 1

Gator Parking        

            The main opportunity that is associated with my venture concept is to meet the unmet needs of UF students around campus. The unmet need that my service is targeted towards is finding available parking spots around campus. The problem is that UF students who have vehicles at campus have trouble finding available parking spaces, and often leads to a lot of stress and a lot of wasted time when they do go out to find a spot, if there are any available. The problem also reaches out to students who currently use scooters to get around campus, because they were forced to purchase one in order to get around campus, and hopefully my service will make it so that they will be able to avoid another major purchase just so that they can find parking efficiently. Changes in environment that create this opportunity are increases in population. With increases in population, parking doesn’t and therefore it becomes harder to find spots. Geographically and demographically, this need extends mainly to UF students who are currently living on campus, since they will be the main group facing the problem. Currently these students are satisfying their needs through two options: either by utilizing bus services or by purchasing a scooter. Through this, they are loyal either to the RTS bus system or companies that sell scooters respectively. This opportunity is not as big as it could be, maybe extending to possibly 30,000 – 40,000 potential customers at the current time. This window of opportunity should be available for as long as the University of Florida remains open.

            The main innovation that would be incorporated would be consisted of two parts. The first part would be creating new parking room around campus. There are many spots that are underutilized that could be better used if parking spaces were created. An example would be the Broward Parking garage, which is relatively close to where I live. Currently, it is only available to certain people, such as teachers or staff during the day. Because of this, at many times during the day the garage is relatively empty when many students could be using that parking space. This part would generate no profits whatsoever and would merely be the first step into creating a successful business opportunity. For the second part, the part that would make me profit, I would mark certain parking places for “premium members”. Basically, my service would allow students to pay an up charge of $75 a semester to have access to these parking spaces. Approximately 50% of these spaces would be marked for premium students. On top of this, I would have an app that my customers can utilize to figure out which parking spots around campus are open. I would offer other options, such as premium for a week for $10, and premium for a month for $25. Overall, I would want to force students to purchase the $75 package because it is the best deal and would generate the highest profit at no extra cost. This would be how I would make my main source of revenues and profits. I believe that this is a fair price point because the cost of a full semester of parking is relatively cheap compared to tuition costs and housing. It also costs less than the average textbook, so I think that students will be willing to spend money on my services.

            The innovation of premium parking spaces via using an app available to students would be the venture that would solve the problem and work together with my opportunity. Basically, it would solve the needs of the students listed above at a relatively low cost. Customers will purchase my innovation simply for the fact that it will reduce stress and will make them feel more comfortable using their car around campus. Students who have purchased a car already or are currently paying for their own gasoline or insurance should really have no extra problem buying premium parking memberships simply because the price point that I am offering is marginally below the cost of owning and maintaining a car. Personally, I would be willing to cash out $75 for a semester of hassle-free parking, and many of the people that I interviewed agree with me throughout the process. A reason that people would be willing to switch to my service is because it is cheaper to pay $75 a semester or $600 for their extended time at UF than to go out of their way to purchase a scooter for $1000+. Because of this, I believe that it may be easy to get new customers to switch to my service, especially if they are new incoming students who were previously thinking about purchasing a scooter. The main competitors would be the RTS bus system and companies that sell scooters. The weakness of the RTS system is that waiting for the correct bus and then actually getting to the destination that you are trying to go is often a hassle and not worth the time or effort. The weakness of scooter companies is that their products that they are offering are almost at double the price point of what I am offering. On top of this, many students already own their own cars. Business location, customer experience, and price point play the biggest role in my service, because these are the main areas that I am targeting to satisfy the needs of my customers. I would have relatively few employees: I would need people for customer support via the app, people to handle accounting, and people to paint and maintain the parking spaces for my company.

            My most important resource and secret sauce would be our incredible customer support. I want to offer my customers the best possible experience so that they will be more willing to maintain their loyalty and support. The next step of the venture would be to extend to other university campuses around the nation, because I am sure there are many other places that have similar issues to UF. I want to be able to expand this beyond just University Campuses as well. I want to be able to reach other facilities that face this problem. For instance, theme parks in general face parking issues as well as any other places that have big events. If I were able to reach out beyond my original scope, I will be able to reach more people who have more money to spend, therefore, giving me increased profit potential. Finally, in 5 years all my customers should be satisfied with their results and we should expand and be nationwide. I will take my experiences and skill sets to other technological based businesses that can help people all around the world.

Part 2

A lot of the feedback that I received was incredibly helpful. The main thing that intrigued me was how can I take my business further than I already have. The answer that I have come to is to expand my opportunity to other university campuses. Right now, my idea is primarily focused on students at UF. However, I can expand this to other places, not just campuses as well. This will allow me to target people who have more money and are more willing to spend on parking spaces. Another piece of feedback that I received was to maybe change the name "premium" to something else, as this can drive some potential customers away. My goal is not to separate students from each other based on wealth, rather to make parking more convenient for everybody, which is why it will be cheap as it is: less than the cost of a single textbook.

Part 3

I changed the last part of my venture concept based on the feedback that I received. I want to expand my opportunity to more places than just the University of Florida. I want to reach other potential markets who are filled with customers with a very similar need. The more people I am able to reach, the more money I will be able to make and the more people I will be able to solve a problem for. I can use this to build up a higher valuation for my company, and in the long run, if it comes to selling it, I will be able to ask for a higher price for my business because it will be worth more.

Part 4

28A - Your Exit Strategy

1. The best course of action for me is after my business proves to be a success, I will probably continue to expand my business to other campuses around the nation. This would probably only be viable for a limited amount of time, because there are always competitors. After competitors enter the market and I see that my business is no longer as successful as it once was, I would sell my business to a bigger competitor, turn over a profit, and retire.

2. I selected this particular strategy because I really think it is the smartest thing to do. If I sell my business to another company, I will probably be able to make a lot more money than if I were to remain and the market and continue to operate. I would rather get out, get my money, and retire, than continue to deal with stress and potentially see my business go downhill.

3. I think that the beginning part of my exit strategy would allow me to expand my company to other areas to gain more profits. This has influenced the way in which I see my plans and how I ultimately want to expand and not just focus on one niche: The University of Florida. For this, I will have to have a more open mind and grasp at larger opportunities then to just remain in one spot. I do not want to just create a business and have no future plans for it. I definitely plan to grow and acquire more resources so that I will be able to establish my business in other places around the nation, which will require a lot more resources than just for one campus.

27A - Reading Reflection No. 3

1. The general theme and argument of the book is that we are entering into a new revolution of manufacturing. The idea is that this new manufacturing will not be done in factories, rather in households of the general population. This is going to be the driving force of the future economy. He argues that physical manufacturing behaves exactly like the digital world, and how 3D printers are incremental to success in the future.

2. It connected and enhanced my understanding in the new path that entrepreneurship is heading. Entrepreneurship is directly connected in a way in that it begins with the ideas of individuals. Entrepreneurship highly reinforces individual creative capacity, and whenever new technology is released, we should utilize it to turn our dreams into realities, as technology is constantly evolving.

3. If I had to design an exercise for this class, I would split the class into two separate groups. I would give one group only physical objects, and tell them to turn it into whatever creating they would like. For the other group, I would give them computers, and tell them to design whatever they like using a 3D software, and tell them to print it out via a 3D printer. This exercise would show the technology offers a lot more resources that were not accessible before, and it will also show that it paves a new path for entrepreneurs and their success.

4. By biggest aha moment from this book was when I connected what I did with creating an app to the general theme of the book. I was really able to connect with this book because in the past, I was able to utilize a computer and some programs to turn an idea into a sellable product. After seeing success on this side, I realized just how important technology is, and how it enables us as entrepreneurs to achieve many things that we were previously unable to do.

26A - Celebrating Failure

1. A time last semester where I failed was when I attempted to workout and get in shape and started to go the gym but failed and gave up after about 2 weeks. I remember that I wanted to get healthy really badly and break my bad habits, but I eventually got lazy and gave it all up. I felt terrible after failing, but was not in the right mindset nor had realistic goals in mind to be able to succeed.

2. I learned a lot from this experience. I learned firstly that it doesn't matter what your goal is, you have to be doing it for the right reasons. I remember when I started working out, it was because there was a girl in my life. I wanted to get in shape for her, but she was not going to be in my life forever. I learned that I should only set a goal and go for it if I am doing it for myself, and myself alone. Another thing that I learned was that discipline is far more important than passion. Passion comes and goes, but discipline stays consistent and never wavers.

3. Failure is hard to deal with, but is necessary in the path to success. Every person that you hear about that is successful has failed many times. The thing is how they take the failure. Instead of attaching negative emotions to failure, they use it as a learning experience. They learn what to do and what not to do in the future. Failure is definitely an incremental part of success. It's definitely hard, as I learned, but I have recently started working out 3 months ago with a new mindset, and I am still going strong.

25A - What's Next?

Existing Market

1. In terms of products and services that my business offers, I think that my next venture would be to target other Universities around the nation that have the same problem. With this, I would have to expand my resources exponentially, and this would only be possible if my first market at UF is a success and I am able to turn over a lot of revenue as profits to put back into resources.

2. The first student that I interviewed said that instead of simply targeting students at the University, I should also expand and reach out the staff members, teachers, and people that are visiting the campus. They said that I would have more potential customers if I were to do this and make even more money. The second student that I interviewed said that I should potentially try to expand to more than just Universities. They said that my services could also be applied to other places, such as theme parks and movie theaters on days in which they are busy and it can be difficult to find parking. The third student that I interviewed shared a similar opinion with the first, but said that I should also maybe try and target people who already went out of their way to purchase a scooter, and maybe could offer them a similar service, also expanding my market.

3. I think that based on my interviews, all three students shared really good ideas. For me, I think that I would like to stick primarily with students at this moment in time because I do not want my market to get over saturated with too many customers and a limited amount of space. Also, professors and staff already have designated parking spaces, so I think they would not need to utilize my service. i thought that the movie theater and theme park idea was interesting and that could be a potential area of expansion, but it would be harder to break into. The third idea was also interesting, and I could target people who have a scooter, but I would have to figure out whether it is worth the time and money or not.

New Market

1. And interesting concept would be a B2B market, in which instead of targeting customers (the students) I could target the Universities themselves and offer them my service as a way for them to deliver to the students on campus. If this was possible, then they would be in charge of creating new spaces and would greatly cut back on my costs and resources needed to achieve a similar goal.

2. My service would create value because it would be essentially doing the same thing. I would merely have to offer the technology via the University, and they could use my technology to offer the same service but through a more established business. Because of this, I would have lower costs and resources needed, but the University would also get a cut in my business so I would also be making less revenue overall. I would have to figure out the numbers to determine whether this would be beneficial to my success or not.

3. The two potential customers that I interviewed shared very similar opinions. They both said that it would be a really good idea, because through an established business model such as the university, I would have a greater outreach. They said that they are far more likely to purchase my service through the legitimate university website rather than a company that they have never heard of before. This adaptation would make my service more successful merely for the fact that I would have a greater amount of customers than before, therefore earning higher revenue.

Step 4 / Reflection:

    For the most part, the assumptions that I made were affirmed after conducting interviews with potential customers. I had assumed that if I were to offer the service being the technology and application to the university, they could then redistribute my service to the students. This would lead to greater outreach and overall higher profits. However, I would have to split the revenues with the university, but overall it would be beneficial to me as a entrepreneur.

    I think that this new market is even more attractive than my original proposed business plan. This would not only increase my revenue, but it could potentially change the way that parking is handled around the nation. On top of this, if I were to expand to other campuses around the United States, I would be marginally more successful with this business concept than the one that I proposed previously.

24A - Venture Concept No. 1

Gator Premium Parking

           
          The main opportunity that is associated with my venture concept is to meet the unmet needs of UF students around campus. The unmet need that my service is targeted towards is finding available parking spots around campus. The problem is that UF students who have vehicles at campus have trouble finding available parking spaces, and often leads to a lot of stress and a lot of wasted time when they do go out to find a spot, if there are any available. The problem also reaches out to students who currently use scooters to get around campus, because they were forced to purchase one in order to get around campus, and hopefully my service will make it so that they will be able to avoid another major purchase just so that they can find parking efficiently. Changes in environment that create this opportunity are increases in population. With increases in population, parking doesn’t and therefore it becomes harder to find spots. Geographically and demographically, this need extends mainly to UF students who are currently living on campus, since they will be the main group facing the problem. Currently these students are satisfying their needs through two options: either by utilizing bus services or by purchasing a scooter. Through this, they are loyal either to the RTS bus system or companies that sell scooters respectively. This opportunity is not as big as it could be, maybe extending to possibly 30,000 – 40,000 potential customers at the current time. This window of opportunity should be available for as long as the University of Florida remains open.

            The main innovation that would be incorporated would be consisted of two parts. The first part would be creating new parking room around campus. There are many spots that are underutilized that could be better used if parking spaces were created. An example would be the Broward Parking garage, which is relatively close to where I live. Currently, it is only available to certain people, such as teachers or staff during the day. Because of this, at many times during the day the garage is relatively empty when many students could be using that parking space. This part would generate no profits whatsoever and would merely be the first step into creating a successful business opportunity. For the second part, the part that would make me profit, I would mark certain parking places for “premium members”. Basically, my service would allow students to pay an upcharge of $75 a semester to have access to these parking spaces. Approximately 50% of these spaces would be marked for premium students. On top of this, I would have an app that “premium members” can utilize to figure out which parking spots around campus are open. I would offer other options, such as premium for a week for $10, and premium for a month for $25. Overall, I would want to force students to purchase the $75 package because it is the best deal and would generate the highest profit at no extra cost. This would be how I would make my main source of revenues and profits.

            The innovation of premium parking spaces via using an app available to students would be the venture that would solve the problem and work together with my opportunity. Basically, it would solve the needs of the students listed above at a relatively low cost. Customers will purchase my innovation simply for the fact that it will reduce stress and will make them feel more comfortable using their car around campus. Students who have purchased a car already or are currently paying for their own gasoline or insurance should really have no extra problem buying premium parking memberships simply because the price point that I am offering is marginally below the cost of owning and maintaining a car. Personally, I would be willing to cash out $75 for a semester of hassle-free parking, and many of the people that I interviewed agree with me throughout the process. A reason that people would be willing to switch to my service is because it is cheaper to pay $75 a semester or $600 for their extended time at UF than to go out of their way to purchase a scooter for $1000+. Because of this, I believe that it may be easy to get new customers to switch to my service, especially if they are new incoming students who were previously thinking about purchasing a scooter. The main competitors would be the RTS bus system and companies that sell scooters. The weakness of the RTS system is that waiting for the correct bus and then actually getting to the destination that you are trying to go is often a hassle and not worth the time or effort. The weakness of scooter companies is that their products that they are offering are almost at double the price point of what I am offering. On top of this, many students already own their own cars. Business location, customer experience, and price point play the biggest role in my service, because these are the main areas that I am targeting to satisfy the needs of my customers. I would have relatively few employees: I would need people for customer support via the app, people to handle accounting, and people to paint and maintain the parking spaces for my company.

            My most important resource and secret sauce would be our incredible customer support. I want to offer my customers the best possible experience so that they will be more willing to maintain their loyalty and support. The next step of the venture would be to extend to other university campuses around the nation, because I am sure there are many other places that have similar issues to UF. Finally, in 5 years all my customers should be satisfied with their results and we should expand and be nationwide. I will take my experiences and skill sets to other technological based businesses that can help people all around the world.

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