Monday, April 15, 2019
Final Reflection
After looking back at the countless posts that I did this semester, I am happy to say that I have learned a lot through my experiences. Out of all o the posts that resonated with me, I think that the pitch practices had the most positive impact on my venture and my mindset as an entrepreneur. Just getting in front of a camera and practicing my pitch helped to reinforce all of the main points that made my concept so effective. I think that I had a good entrepreneur mindset at the beginning of the year but after my experiences, I think it reminded me why I am so passionate about this way of life. It is mainly unchartered territory and it is riveting for me to chart the course for the journey. The main thing that this class showed me was the amount of work that goes into doing a venture and making it actually work. I think that this class moved me from being a want-trepreneur into being an actual entrepreneur. One of the things that I would recommend to people is put in more work than is required I you actually want a venture to work. Most people don't actually try and maybe if they did then they would make more money than anticipated
Venture Concept No 2
1) Opportunity: The people that have a problem are travelers who leave the country for extended periods of time. In addition, people who leave their cars at their houses for long periods of time aren't utilizing their assets to their advantage. Specifically, the need is to make money when they aren't using their assets that cost thousands of dollars. One of the main things that are causing this opportunity is the attractiveness towards people sharing their property in order to make a residual income. This market is first defined within my immediate location of people who are leaving Tampa. More specifically my demographic would be single white males who are in their 30s. I believe that this demographic would be willing to take the risk at first and act on a lucrative idea like this. People are currently satisfying their need by taking an Uber to the airport. Other than that, they currently have no solution. I think that this opportunity will only be open for another year until the car ride takes over the entire US market.
Innovation: This type of business is incredibly innovative because there is absolutely nothing like it on the market. Essentially, I will allow travelers to park their car for free at the airport in exchange, they will have the availability of having their cars rented out by people who will be coming into the city. This is incredibly innovative because most car rental places have their own vehicles and it leads to a lot of decreased liability on their side. It also creates an opportunity for people to make money in their own way. Through a special payment plan, tourists can actually be making money while they are away on a family trip! I plan on making money by collecting a portion of the car rental and retain it. I will also make money on different insurance plans that people will buy since they might want the best type of protection.
This type of solution will provide my clients with a solution for paying for parking and even putting money in their pockets so they can spend on their vacations. I also think that an incentive program that gives clients air travel miles would be beneficial in order to directly tie in with more vacation or business people. It will, however, be fairly difficult for people to switch to this product that they don't even know they need. It will require a very talented marketing team in order to inform people about the solution we wish to offer.
2) It looks like no one had posted any comments about my Venture concept, however, I did receive criticism from my business partner Isaac. He told me that I needed to work on the product more and that I didn't deeply describe the pain point that I am solving. In addition to that, he didn't really understand the whole solution of the problem which made it difficult for him to stand behind.
3) I slightly changed my venture by emphasizing the pros that my company offers. For example, I think that a big selling point of my business would be the increased revenue that my users could make. After all, that was such a big selling point for the founders of Airbnb. I think that the increased use of the people on AIr bnb is related to the communal giving that is driving a new era of this economy. And this company is completely towards that
Innovation: This type of business is incredibly innovative because there is absolutely nothing like it on the market. Essentially, I will allow travelers to park their car for free at the airport in exchange, they will have the availability of having their cars rented out by people who will be coming into the city. This is incredibly innovative because most car rental places have their own vehicles and it leads to a lot of decreased liability on their side. It also creates an opportunity for people to make money in their own way. Through a special payment plan, tourists can actually be making money while they are away on a family trip! I plan on making money by collecting a portion of the car rental and retain it. I will also make money on different insurance plans that people will buy since they might want the best type of protection.
This type of solution will provide my clients with a solution for paying for parking and even putting money in their pockets so they can spend on their vacations. I also think that an incentive program that gives clients air travel miles would be beneficial in order to directly tie in with more vacation or business people. It will, however, be fairly difficult for people to switch to this product that they don't even know they need. It will require a very talented marketing team in order to inform people about the solution we wish to offer.
2) It looks like no one had posted any comments about my Venture concept, however, I did receive criticism from my business partner Isaac. He told me that I needed to work on the product more and that I didn't deeply describe the pain point that I am solving. In addition to that, he didn't really understand the whole solution of the problem which made it difficult for him to stand behind.
3) I slightly changed my venture by emphasizing the pros that my company offers. For example, I think that a big selling point of my business would be the increased revenue that my users could make. After all, that was such a big selling point for the founders of Airbnb. I think that the increased use of the people on AIr bnb is related to the communal giving that is driving a new era of this economy. And this company is completely towards that
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Reading Reflection 3
The book that I decided to read for this 3rd reading reflection was Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ashlee Vance. One of the things that surprised me the most was how much he read about other people's lives. It seems as though he was obsessed with reading biographies on other people's lives. I thought that he has always been very independent and not heavily influenced by people. but it seems like he was. One of the things that I most admired was his work ethic, while one of the things that I least admired was his lack of sociability with people since I see this as a big detractor. One of the things that he failed at was Solar city and he took it as an advantage by simply making it part of projects with Tesla. His competencies included coding and general computer knowledge that put him ahead of almost anyone in his life. One of the things that confused was how quickly he adopted an American mentality without paying respects to his previous country. If I were to ask him a question I would ask more about nueralink and AI and his Tesla projects. I think that he sees hardwork as one of the most important things since he talks about increasing your workload by 10% and it leading to a 40% increase. I completely share this opinion with him
The Exit Strategy
I plan to keep this business for the next 2 years and eventually be bought out the rights to travel car or a larger competitor with more experience. Basically, I just want this business to be a project and show the competitors that there is a market for this on the east coast. However, if I am able to build a strong enough brand where I become larger than Travel Car then I could see the business buying out travel car and at that point, I would appoint a CEO and I would take a more passive role within the company. I think this type of Exit strategy shows that I am more interested in the opportunity as a good way to make money and less of a passion of mine. It is for that reason that in both of my exit strategies, I step back from the company and take a passive role, while still keeping equity or money from the endeavor.
Celebrating Failure
One time that I failed this semester was when I was playing basketball in southwest recreation center. I was at court two and I thought that I stood a chance against all of the tall athletic guys on the court. My team and I fought hard but we eventually lost the game so we had to sit out. On the second time around we lost again, And at that point, no one wanted to play because they were all too tired.
I felt so defeated not only cause we lost but that I couldn't try again to win since everyone stopped playing.
I think this instance shows that it isn't the failure that discourages me, but instead the absence of another chance. I think that this can be applied to my life as an entrepreneur since I can constantly get another chance at the game. However, I think that sometimes I should also learn to move on and perhaps see if I'm playing in the wrong court or maybe even playing the wrong sport.
I think this class has taught me that failure should always be an indicator of where you are right now but certainly not the predictor of where you're going to be.
I felt so defeated not only cause we lost but that I couldn't try again to win since everyone stopped playing.
I think this instance shows that it isn't the failure that discourages me, but instead the absence of another chance. I think that this can be applied to my life as an entrepreneur since I can constantly get another chance at the game. However, I think that sometimes I should also learn to move on and perhaps see if I'm playing in the wrong court or maybe even playing the wrong sport.
I think this class has taught me that failure should always be an indicator of where you are right now but certainly not the predictor of where you're going to be.
Friday, April 5, 2019
Whats Nextt
Existing Market:
One of the main things that I think we should be doing is to create an R&D focused part of the company. By doing this, I think that I will learn more about the legalities before I start touching other people's property like their cars. The first person that I interviewed was Pablo Casilimas. When I told him about what we plan about doing next, his eyes glowed and I could tell that he wanted to hear more numbers and research behind something like this. He told me that he wanted to know everything important that one needs to know before he would give his car keys to someone. The next person that I interviewed told me that I needed to focus on getting a co-founder for the company so I didn't do this completely by myself. By doing this, I will focus on the things that I am good at and he will focus on things that I am weaker in.
Future Market:
My future market would be to target large airlines so that I can sign deals and get more traffic going to my stores. By having them as my clients I think that they will have more business because their individual airline will look more advanced and innovative to be working with a company like mine. The first person that I interviewed was my friend's dad who currently flies a plane for the southwest. Whenever I told him that I wanted to target big airplanes he told me that it was a bad idea. This is mainly because they would want too much profit from my cut. Considering that I would barely break even with this business, this seems like a difficult idea. The second person that I interviewed was a customer service rep for the southwest airline. During my time interviewing the young lady, I asked her about the business and she thought of it very positively. However, Wasn't sure if she was being sincere since she seemed distracted. From what I heard though, she gave me the phone number of a higher up person in the company. This perodn still hasnt answered my emails.
One of the main things that I think we should be doing is to create an R&D focused part of the company. By doing this, I think that I will learn more about the legalities before I start touching other people's property like their cars. The first person that I interviewed was Pablo Casilimas. When I told him about what we plan about doing next, his eyes glowed and I could tell that he wanted to hear more numbers and research behind something like this. He told me that he wanted to know everything important that one needs to know before he would give his car keys to someone. The next person that I interviewed told me that I needed to focus on getting a co-founder for the company so I didn't do this completely by myself. By doing this, I will focus on the things that I am good at and he will focus on things that I am weaker in.
Future Market:
My future market would be to target large airlines so that I can sign deals and get more traffic going to my stores. By having them as my clients I think that they will have more business because their individual airline will look more advanced and innovative to be working with a company like mine. The first person that I interviewed was my friend's dad who currently flies a plane for the southwest. Whenever I told him that I wanted to target big airplanes he told me that it was a bad idea. This is mainly because they would want too much profit from my cut. Considering that I would barely break even with this business, this seems like a difficult idea. The second person that I interviewed was a customer service rep for the southwest airline. During my time interviewing the young lady, I asked her about the business and she thought of it very positively. However, Wasn't sure if she was being sincere since she seemed distracted. From what I heard though, she gave me the phone number of a higher up person in the company. This perodn still hasnt answered my emails.
Putting it All Together
Venture Concept 1
Opportunity: The people that have a problem are travelers who leave the country for extended periods of time. In addition, people who leave their cars at their houses for long periods of time aren't utilizing their assets to their advantage. Specifically, the need is to make money when they aren't using their assets that cost thousands of dollars. One of the main things that are causing this opportunity is the attractiveness towards people sharing their property in order to make a residual income. This market is first defined within my immediate location of people who are leaving Tampa. More specifically my demographic would be single white males who are in their 30s. I believe that this demographic would be willing to take the risk at first and act on a lucrative idea like this. People are currently satisfying their need by taking an Uber to the airport. Other than that, they currently have no solution. I think that this opportunity will only be open for another year until the car ride takes over the entire US market.
Innovation: This type of business is incredibly innovative because there is absolutely nothing like it on the market. Essentially, I will allow travelers to park their car for free at the airport in exchange, they will have the availability of having their cars rented out by people who will be coming into the city. This is incredibly innovative because most car rental places have their own vehicles and it leads to a lot of increased liability on their side. It also creates an opportunity for people to make money in their own way. I plan on making money by collecting a portion of the car rental and retain it. I will also make money on different insurance plans that people will buy since they might want the best type of protection.
This type of solution will provide my clients with a solution for paying for parking and even putting money in their pockets so they can spend on their vacations. I also think that an incentive program that gives clients air travel miles would be beneficial in order to directly tie in with more vacation or business people. It will, however, be fairly difficult for people to switch to this product that they don't even know they need. It will require a very talented marketing team in order to inform people about the solution we wish to offer.
Opportunity: The people that have a problem are travelers who leave the country for extended periods of time. In addition, people who leave their cars at their houses for long periods of time aren't utilizing their assets to their advantage. Specifically, the need is to make money when they aren't using their assets that cost thousands of dollars. One of the main things that are causing this opportunity is the attractiveness towards people sharing their property in order to make a residual income. This market is first defined within my immediate location of people who are leaving Tampa. More specifically my demographic would be single white males who are in their 30s. I believe that this demographic would be willing to take the risk at first and act on a lucrative idea like this. People are currently satisfying their need by taking an Uber to the airport. Other than that, they currently have no solution. I think that this opportunity will only be open for another year until the car ride takes over the entire US market.
Innovation: This type of business is incredibly innovative because there is absolutely nothing like it on the market. Essentially, I will allow travelers to park their car for free at the airport in exchange, they will have the availability of having their cars rented out by people who will be coming into the city. This is incredibly innovative because most car rental places have their own vehicles and it leads to a lot of increased liability on their side. It also creates an opportunity for people to make money in their own way. I plan on making money by collecting a portion of the car rental and retain it. I will also make money on different insurance plans that people will buy since they might want the best type of protection.
This type of solution will provide my clients with a solution for paying for parking and even putting money in their pockets so they can spend on their vacations. I also think that an incentive program that gives clients air travel miles would be beneficial in order to directly tie in with more vacation or business people. It will, however, be fairly difficult for people to switch to this product that they don't even know they need. It will require a very talented marketing team in order to inform people about the solution we wish to offer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)