Halfway Reflection

What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course?
Well, this course has made me have to come up with an opportunity belief and develop on it in a fun manner, yet, uncomfortable at times in a positive way. 

Talk about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you through? Do you feel like you've developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to this?
The elevator pitch, that one was tough. Standing in front of the camera and having to memorize it, looking at index cards or having a chart to refer too would have made it much easier. I had to tough it up and get it done, in the end it was very fun.

What are three tips you would offer next semester's student about (1) fostering the skills that support tenacity and (2) developing the 'tenacious mindset' ?
Don’t be shy, go to class, the professor has great charisma and energy (puts you on the spot). Come up with a opportunity belief in advance and reply to your group members! Work hard! Watch every video. Roll with the pouches!

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Evaluating How Your Customers Evaluate Stuff 

      Back at it again, out to town we go in the name of science. Regarding dating and the dating apps experience, we came up with a few related topics and questions for our subjects. Most of the people I asked used Tinder in the past and currently don’t use anything as far as a dating app. Now they just live their lives and hope they come across somebody, or! They are in a relationship, or! They have regulars in rotation, when the hot line bling itch happens. Some others have “a friend” they “hangout with.” 

      From those folks using Tinder it was hit or miss depending on their gender. The male I asked said he had all types of fun with college girls on Tinder, however, the female I spoke with says she swipes and swipes, even replies but doesn’t ever really consider meeting up. So, the male had a positive experience and keeps hoping it happens again, the girl misuses the app for when she’s bored.  Her behavior is causing negatives experiences for the bros in the other side.  

      The app is for usage nationwide, yet this small sample of the Gainesville 18-25 year-old population has showed me that it boils down to the individual and his or hers experience in the past regarding weather they would even consider trying out my services. We’re pushing forward, this is unique, folks will enjoy it, their feedback will be crucial for my R&D as we go along.  

Reading Reflection No. 1

1) You read about an entrepreneur: Elon Musk

• What surprised you the most? Elon is a risk taker, and had a rough childhood growing up, then, this man almost went broke trying to save his companies.


• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? Elon’s drive to the impossible and making it possible. His persistence with human kind becoming an interplanetary species, which I don’t think we deserve.

• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? I least admired how he put the car in space rather than giving that money to buy food for the hungry. But that is how innovation works, and it’s not my money.

• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? Elon encountered many failures and after he recovered and kept going, persistence is key.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? He has a skill for science, and is very disciplined, also knows how to allocate his resources.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you? How he was dismissed from his pay pal CEO position.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why? Elon! Why aren’t you making electric motorcycles? I would ask because I ride motorcycles and a Tesla bike would probably be nice, though not affordable.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? Hard work, ok, I think he would say to pick a path, follow it, and do whatever possible to achieve it, while enjoying your way there.

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

        Buyer Behavior No.1 

        The segment of my market we are going after today are young adults who are single from the ages 18-25 here in Gainesville, that’s most of our student body including grad students and locals.
Here we go, back out to Mid-town and Downtown to find Gainesville’s finest.  In order to arrange this properly, without looking corny out there, we brought out everyone and approached these interviews as casual as possible, like the questions just came up in the conversation, but really it was all a set up. It was my girlfriend, my neighbors who are a local couple none-UF students, their 8-month baby in a baby basket and myself. 
The first subject was a girl sitting by herself at the bar waiting for her drinks before going back to her friends. She told us that usually for her the need presented itself if she saw a guy she liked, then she would wonder if he was alone and if he would like her back. Depending on the circumstance, she would either walk up to him casually or hope that they made eye contact long enough for him to get it and him walk up to her, her major deterrence would be if he was with another female.
The second subject was our waiter at Harry’s, he happened to be into guys and told us his need awareness would be if he found a guy cute but wasn’t sure if that guy also liked guys, body language was rough for him. Our waiter said maybe if the guy carried himself in a specific way those could give him clues, or flirt with him first.
Finally, my third interviewee was a random local sitting next to us while we played pool. This young man told us his need would arise after reading the room, he would look around him and if he was interested he would go and test the waters in a casual way, then with the flow of interacting he would decide what to do next.   
In conclusion my market segment is restricted as far as the where and who, but not too restricted. Everywhere humans mingle in a none awkward situation and have the ability and capabilities of socializing, there lies a potential customer. From the bus stop, bus ride, auditorium class, Starbucks line, you name it. Folks are going to be looking down at their phone anyways, I want them looking for their next favorite person, then going to speak to them. 

  

Idea Napkin No. 1

1) You.  Well, I feel I’m practical and good at allocating my resources for anything that I want to accomplish. I can be analytical and conceptual about opportunities and situations. I usually base my decision making with the least amount of bias and emotion in mind. My skills and experiences, I was in the military for a while, did my time and then soon after started school. From the USMC I gained some people skills that aid me at public speaking and diving into uncomfortable situations. Being a business major has broadened my thoughts on the world around me always looking at what’s behind the scenes at restaurants and different businesses, or why things are how they are and what from my eyes can be done to make it better. The application I had in mind wouldn’t necessarily play a role in my life, but in my single friend’s life. I would get it, start it, control it and keep moving along with other ideas. I have used dating apps before and experienced the good, bad, and ugly from a couple popular ones.       

2) What are you offering to customers? I would be offering a mobile platform, one which could be used as a dating app, the other as a local jobs and services advertisement or wanted aspect. However, the vision started with just the dating app. What the vision is, it enables users to post a picture and a small paragraph or bullets of information they want to disclose for the other user who’s checking them out. The other person, let’s say a boy who likes a girl at a bar or club or even the library, looks for her in the app and see her photo, where she says (to keep dudes away) that she isn’t interested in boys. Then the boy looks for another girl nearby and doesn’t waste his shot with this one. This opportunity would solve the unwanted rejection 9 out of 10 women are going to give guys for whichever reason, before he gets to the one who is single and is interested. The original intent is to see the person first, then look them up in the app, learn more, then walk up to them, this is all in the heat of the moment, inside eye contact distances, which is unique. You’re not going to be looking at 300 profiles from your mom’s couch hoping one swipes left too, or getting cat fished by a photo-shopped image which you knew was too good to be true; you’re going to see the individual first, then decide whether you want to know more or not.     

3) Who are you offering it to? Men and women ages 18-35 who go out to public places and seek having a good time and possibly meeting somebody new, for whatever their intent is, and people who don’t want to be approached, in this case gals and guys too same ages. 

4) Why do they care?  Here is why, guys get tired after a certain amount of rejections and need time to recuperate from their failures to keep going, liquid courage only does so much. Girls, sometimes they think a dude is cute, yet he doesn’t understand her signals, and it is rare for the chick to make a move first. Then there is the girl that is out with her friends and has a man at home and doesn’t want to be approached at all. Guys will pay because it will aid them tremendously on their hit-or-miss ratio. For example; I wouldn’t have even bought a drink if I knew the bartender had a boyfriend, even less tipped her 10 bucks... Girls will pay because it will help them the same way, also promote them making the first move (which they rarely do) if the dude is single and not gay. They also care because we have all had that one time where we decided not to do anything afraid of rejection and will always wonder “what if”, now we can diminish those “what if’s”.   

5) What are your core competencies? Well, I think I can be persistent and driven, and I can use those traits to my advantage in many beneficiary ways. What sets me apart from everybody else is how I can embrace a stressful situation and laugh it out, or, find ways to self-diagnose and deescalate it.


These five elements are great. I need more knowledge in coding and the financial aspect of the current opportunity belief to be better prepared, and getting it going.  Some things out of joint can be how sometimes I become my worst enemy, like being lazy and procrastinating.

Elevator Pitch No. 1

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

Testing the Hypothesis Part.2

Who: So, after interviewing five others about my dating app that I thought had the unmet need, yet for some reason they didn’t, I was able to draw the boundaries of this opportunity belief.
• This first gentleman, college student, thought there was no way that a chick would use this, he immediately shut it down as having no use for it.
• Interviewed a lady, bartender, she mentioned that the idea sounds interesting but that she has no hope in dating apps, she also stated that nothing good would come out of it anyways from her prior experiences.
• This third interview was at the gym, another female, she said that her boyfriend wouldn’t think it is a good idea to have an app like that while dating even if it’s for deterrence of others.
• I interviewed the manager of Arby’s; He said that something like that would be considered a joke, at his age (40’s) if he even considered it, he feels he’d be looked at as a joke.
• Athlete-looking male at the gym, he said it sounds cool, however, he enjoys the moment when walking up to females even if it leads to nothing, he stated he could care less if she has a boyfriend, that she might still be “down” so the app information doesn’t mean anything.
     
What: I believe my opportunity belief dating app is different from anything out there available right now. Yet these folks feel otherwise and have every right to do so, it wasn’t built for them.

Why: These people are outside my boundary right now, that’s not permanent, in the future with growth and popularity, they will be back.

Inside the boundary	Outside the boundary
People who like, use, or have used dating apps in the past or enjoy the idea.	Folks with negative experiences derived from dating applications, people who feel like their age is correlated with the methods they utilize for dating.
The need is more information for those who are interested in someone nearby them who don’t have the guts to go up to them without a little more intel.	They find it creepy, are shy about using it and/or uncomfortable with the situation.
It exists because it’s rare, unique, and humans for the most part let go opportunities because of fear of rejection, this would help diminish that.	Being old school? Doing things their way, stubbornness? A natural rejection to new things. Plain ole disinterest.

The demographic is restricted, however there’s still a market for it, we should go forward with this opportunity.

Solving the Problem

Solving the Problem

I believe there’s an opportunity in the market for an app that gives you added information disclosed by the other app user as well as yourself within eye contact distances. A few assignments ago I used the same vision related towards dating, hence creating a market disrupting dating app. For this one, we’re going to utilize the same system but formatted for business. Think of a digital business card that you don’t have to pay to print or handout, just activate and those around you would see it.

  

Product description: 

This app platform will allow the users to display their related job or service posting. For example, we’re at the library and I happen to be a tutor for statistics, I make sure to put that on my profile and display it. Joel is doing horrible in stats and is looking for a tutor, he uses the app, goes down the list and finds the tutor who’s is nearby clicks on him and this notifies me, the advertiser, of a potential costumer. The rest of the interaction we can do face to face since we’re already within eye contact distance. This app would not necessarily be a main source of consumers; however, it would rake up more costumers, and allow for a set and forget system to work for you all the time. Another use consists of “wanted services:” I would post on my profile how I’m looking for a dog sitter and make sure to activate it while I’m out in public places, then let it work for me.

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

There’s no food trucks in the University of Florida

• The who: The unavailability of local small business food trucks on campus.  
• The what: The school seems to have contracts with the big businesses and this forces the students to spend only on the options the campus gives them.
• The why: Big businesses want to make maximum profit and have a monopoly on who gets to sell on campus. This benefits the campus but leaves students with the option of double deep-fried chicken nuggets and $4 cups of coffee. 

I’m from Miami, right in the middle we have FIU (Florida International University)
There’s a few main stream restaurants on campus and a few food trucks, we have options, and everybody would go line up at the food truck, which was ran by students, and was a local small business.

Interviews

• First subject- 
• How do you feel about our food availability on campus? I really enjoy the diversity of restaurants. 
• When was the last time you had chick-fill-a? Mmmmmm, a month ago? I don’t like fried food. 
• What food options if any would you add to the campus? More pizzaaaa! I love pizza. 
• Anything else? I don’t know, I’m not very hungry right now. 

• Second subject-
• How do you feel about our food availability on campus? I wish there was more, everything is so boring and tasteless, all fat. 
• When was the last time you had food on campus? I don’t remember, I usually prep my own meals at home.
• What food options if any would you add to the campus? More handmade stuff, I don't know, a healthier yet affordable local option, with more flavor and less corporate taste behind every bite. 

• Third subject- 
• How do you feel about our food availability on campus? I like it, where I come from there is no food on campus except for a bakery, so this is a huge upgrade. 
• When was the last time you had food on campus? Earlier, had Dunkin Donuts.
• What food options if any would you add to the campus? Mmmmm, kebabs? Or a type of coffee other than Starbucks and Dunkin.

• Fourth subject-
• How do you feel about our food availability on campus? There’s definitely a variety but the lines are crazy and it’s too expensive.
• When was the last time you had food on campus? So far, I have not eaten on campus, I prefer to starve.. and I probably never will hehehe, the lines are ridiculous.
• What food options if any would you add to the campus? Colombian fast food, I was going to say a pizza truck but nah, also, Quiznos doesn’t get enough recognition but that’s never going to happen.

• Fifth subject-  
• How do you feel about our food availability on campus? Its okay.
• When was the last time you had food on campus? I had a tea at Starbucks a few days ago. 
• What food options if any would you add to the campus? Any place with coupons and a Panera Bread.  

Summarizing 
There’s room on campus for food trucks, I understand college kids don’t have money but the line at Starbucks is never short. Their money is going somewhere, and the desire is there, if we had them and the food was good, there’s money to be made. 

Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

• Globalism
• Looking through Google, I found an article about globalism and its effects on businesses worldwide. The opportunity I saw here relates to firearm purchases and globalism. If my young sister can buy a Lego figurine from France and have it a much competitive price than her local Walmart, I can only imagine how much better access to foreign small arms we can have if the rules of importation were lifted, and the elimination of importers occurred regarding guns. The costumers would be folks who like Russian AK’s and old military surplus small arms. The ability of getting them directly from the folks over there and having them shipped to a FFL dealer here in one step for a much competitive price would create a lot of sales.    
• Entertainment
• YouTube, the trend of funny alluring advertisements. Those funny ad’s are capturing the viewers’ attention and getting them to watch the whole ad, making the content creator increased ad revenue. The opportunity here would lay of those thinking of becoming YouTube content creators and planning on obtaining ad revenue, because as the ads adjust to catch our attention it makes them more money.    
• Fidel’s Castro’s son commits suicide 
• They Castro dynasty is fading away, the old man died without justice and his son committed suicide February 1st. Raul is on his last leg and will not be in charge for much longer. The power vacuum is coming, bringing change and Cuba has a vacancy of all types of businesses. The opportunity here would be to franchise restaurants and other business there once things change, the costumers would be the Cuban people.  
• Incomplete background check? 
• Reading through the Miami Herald I came across   this story, according to a senator for our rights not to be infringed there shouldn’t be a delay on ccw permit renewals, during our conceal carry license renewal a administrative delay of the process can be preserved as infringing the rights of the ccw holder. The opportunity here lays on the benefit to gun stores in Florida, mom and pop businesses, when somebody comes in with a ccw permit to purchase a firearm they can take it home right away, unlike the folks who don’t have one, They need to wait 5 business days. That very obstacle can deter them from buying it at a business, and instead can lead them to doing so at through a private sale like from the website armslist, which is like a craigslist for firearms.