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

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.

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.

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.

Your Venture's unfair Advantage

10 Resources:
- The car sharing business called Travel Car
- Enterprise-rent-a-Car recruiter
- Cold-calling ability
- Gainesville co-accelerator in the innovation hub
- I intend to create a culture that has some of the best interconnectedness by using resources like slack and wunderlist
- I will limit my costs by not holding limited liability to the property that my clients have
- I have a very good sense of people and I will bring the best people to the organization
- I am very well connected within Tampa so it will prove to be an asset
- Will create a healthy independent environment so most people can work on their own
-  I will leverage my family in order to raise money for funding.

Analysis:
- The car sharing business called Travel Car

• This is valuable because it is one of my main competitors and they are willing to give me information on their current business plan. This will only work until they realize that I have started a similar business. 

- Enterprise-rent-a-Car recruiter

• I know a recruiter for Enterprise and they will give me more information on legal liabilities regarding my business plan. This might not be sustainable for too long though 

- Cold-calling ability

• This will be useful because I will be able to call companies within the airport and establish myself as a credible business person. Itmight not be viable in the long term because I will eventutally hire someone to do this. 

- Gainesville co-accelerator in the innovation hub

• This will help me get connected with people all over the state since I will leverage my network within the coaccelerator 

- I intend to create a culture that has some of the best interconnectedness by using resources like slack and wunderlist

• Thiswill help me stay cost effective becasue I wont need to use sales softwares such as Sales Force or anything else

- I will limit my costs by not holding limited liability to the property that my clients have

• This is especially novel becasue most car rental businesses have a big portion of the liability associated with the car

- I have a very good sense of people and I will bring the best people to the organization

• This type of skill is especially important because my ability tot recruit talent will show how strong of an organization we can become. It also is very longlassting of a skill because I will be able to use it multiple times throughout the company's history

- I am very well connected within Tampa so it will prove to be an asset

• Me leveraging my network in tampa will get me on my feet, at a very big market. It will eventually be useful to help me move out of the state too 

- Will create a healthy independent environment so most people can work on their own

• Creating a healthy work environment will let my employees feel more free. By creating this environment I believe that my employees will be more efficient

-  I will leverage my family in order to raise money for funding.

• This will help me get on my feet fiancially and will provide a sense of security in my endeavour. 

Elevator Pitch 3

I did not turn in my elevator for the last assignment but I did present my elevator pitch in front of people and they told me that I stutter a lot and that I use too many transition words without enough content. This leads to people getting distracted from my main points and focusing on my flaws as a presenter. When I got this feedback, I consciously focused on not using stutter/filler words and being more articulate.

https://youtu.be/zLoTvwJQtT4

Bringning in a Second Opinion

The general theme of the book is how to have a mindset of winning in spite of the continued failures that blind our vision towards that type of mentality. It is through a winning mentality that one can eventually get to win. The book had interesting opinions on what it meant to be a success in business and in life in general. For example, I liked the idea of people being guided by the systems in their lives as opposed to their goals. If I could involve one of the main points of the book into this class it would be an assignment in which we write down our goals in life and transform them into systems that we can incorporate every day of our lives. One of the biggest aha moments was when Adams described how people shouldn't be discovering their passions. Instead, they should be finding their energy through the small things that will make their lives happier. For example, Adams breaks down these common energies into Activities, Space and Time.

Growing your social Capital

1. The person that I interviewed as an industry expert is Emily Overchill, the head of recruitment for Enterprise Rent-a-car. She has extensive knowledge in regards to the entire industry o rental cars. This will prove to be very useful with the type of business that I own. Her knowledge of the rental car industry will help me save time and errors in the future.

2.  One of the people that are heavily involved with my market is my cousin Caryn Garcia. She is the VP of marketing for her division of carnival cruise line. Since she is so involved with travelers, I think I could learn more about my clients buying behaviors

3. One of the main suppliers in my industry would be a younger traveler ho is always looking for new forms of income. For this person, I chose my friend Sebastian who always travels. Through this connection, I think that I can get a deeper understainding of my clients and also have Sebastian work as an advocate for my brand.

I think the biggst thing that I appreciated is the value of a connection within a well connected network. For example, I realized that I need to utilize the people that I know the best to do some of my work. If I dont do this, I will waste more time and do more mistakes.

Second Shot at Idea Napkin

1. I am Gabriel Peña, and I am a young businessman who has a good amount of experience dealing with marketing for companies. I am currently the head of Sales at a startup company called Imprint Genius and I help generate physical marketing campaigns that can best represent my clients' brands.  believe that I have a large variety of business experience to be able to apply my knowledge to my business idea. This is mainly due to the skills I have in portraying a message out to my targeted clients (specifically people who travel). Since I have some amount of experience of marketing through Imprint Genius, I think I will be able to target my specific audience very effectively. I believe that the number one talent I will be able to translate into this endeavor is the ability to communicate myself well and effectively with a client base. My product is a new way for travelers to make an extra buck while they are out of town for a vacation of some sort. This will be provided by a car rental service where people drop their cars off and other people rent them out. I am offering it because I think people are always looking for ways to leverage their assets and find a new way to make an income. I am offering this service to any travel enthusiast or businesses that constantly have employees traveling. The feedback that I was offered showed how much of a good marketer I am. For some reason, I thought that my young age was kind of a disadvantage but it turns out that my age is one of my biggest assets

Create a Customer Avatar

My typical customer is a 30-40-year-old male traveler who is still single and is pursuing many of his goals by himself. His hobbies include traveling and golf since he is also a businessman and he is constantly meeting with clients and prospects across the country. He drives a grey Nissan Murano and is willing to rent it out so he can have a new flow of income. He also can't completely afford the car that he bought so my services help him pay for his car. He likes to watch shows like shark tank and American bidders. It shows how he is open to new ideas and has a slight entrepreneurship mindset. He also is a small social media influencer and has a following of 10,000 people. On his Instagram, he posts about his travels and his business moves.

I think I share the entrepreneur mindset of my customer's avatar. Just as my customer is interested in new technologies that solve unique problems, I think I too find an attraction to that. I definitely don't think this is a coincidence because it only proves the point that the founder of the company should see themselves as a chief user of their product.

Secret Sauce

I have experience working with a large group setting and being the leader for a large thousand dollar projects
I have a great public speaking ability and I am charismatic in front of crowds.
I have superior knowledge about the stock market and financial readings for companies in order for them to be successful
I am very sympathetic and have emotional intelligence when it comes to interacting with people no matter the social environment
I have a great work ethic when it comes to working on business endeavors.

1. The first person that I interviewed was my brother. In the interview, he told me that I have the best work ethic in the family and that he always respected how I would put social-time to the side, just to work on things that were important. This took me by surprise because I figured that he always spited me for working while he was playing. He would also always tell me to lighten up and not always work hard.

2. The second person that I interviewed was my best friend since middle school, Austin. He told me that I had a crazy amount of knowledge about business and that I inspired him to make his own business. He also told me that I am very aggressive when it comes to my idea about ideas and that I might be stubborn to change my mind. The last part of this caught me by surprise because I always thought that I was sympathetic and somewhat accepting of people's ideas.

3. Next, I interviewed my friend Isaac. Isaac told me that I he has always looked up to me for my ability to motivate the people around me. He then went on to say that I was really good at convincing people about a vision that they should have, whether it be for business or for something like deciding where to eat for dinner.

4. The next person that I interviewed was my father. He told me that I have always been the creative one in the family and it has inspired him for my whole childhood. he elaborated and said that my talent as a musician was something that he always admired me. When my father told me this, I noticed how right he was and that I should take up an instrument because it was such a good creative outflow for me.

5. The last person that I interviewed was my business partner Zach. He told me that I do a great job of keeping people accountable when they need to get things done in regards to workouts, studying, or for the business. For example, I wake up Zach every morning so we can run to the gym and workout before we start the business day. I have not missed a day since the start of the year and I make sure that he is always there no matter what his excuse is.

Figuring out Buying Behaviours

Interview #1

The first person that I interviewed was Isaac Hetzroni. When telling Isaac about the product, he was mainly concerned about the safety of his vehicle. It seemed that he was more concerned about people treating his car poorly more than he cared about getting the money for the rental. I think I could patch up that hole by showing him a breakdown of the different insurance plan that shows the three-way coverage that both him, the driver, and the company take. I think it would also be important to show how safe it is to drive a car and how people tend to drive better with a car that's not even theirs. Overall, this interview showed me how the most important thing for him deciding what to pick is trust.

Interview #2

For the second interview, I interviewed my friend Mickey, who is also a travel enthusiast. He told me that a lot of his buying strategies line up pretty well with the model that I offer. With this being said, he also noted that he would never walk up to a car rental place and trade his car in. He then went on to say that a lot of the airport is hard to navigate and it intimidates him. Finally, he said that he would need an online platform that would be tagged to different airlines so that it would be part of the checkout process.

Interview #3

In my third interview,  I talked to my friend Austin, who typically leaves the country for a month at a time. After I interviewed him, the best piece of information that I took was his post-purchase evaluation of a business. For example, he told me that he would like updates on how his car is doing after leaving it at the airport. Just like Amazon.com sends all of their customers a confirmation of the order and makes sure that the customers are satisfied with their products service. In the same fashion, I think that my company should send the customer pictures and updates about the other person's drive, for example, every day that the car is driven, it tells the owner the progress and the money that they are getting for it.

Tenacity & Paying it Forward

One of the big behaviors that I have acquired through the development of this course was the ability to think in a way that is focused around the problems. This has proven useful since the beginning of any pitch should always be the development of a problem. Only when this is established are we able to create the right solution to this problem.

One of the times that I felt like giving up was when I hit a series of roadblocks with the people that I interviewed. Because of this, I was discouraged and it was hard for me to move forward with the same tenacity as I did when I first started the business idea. I was abe to overcome these setbacks by readjusting my strategy and looking at the problem from a different perspective. I think its also important to note that most businesses don't fail because the business failed but that the entrepreneur gave up.

The first tip that I would offer would be to always be open to criticism of the idea that you have. The second tip is to always play devil's advocate and to be slightly pessimistic at times if you need to reevaluate certain topics. The last tip that I would suggest is that an entrepreneur should always continue to move towards their goal no matter what people say. It is important to take critisism but to not take it seriously enough where it demoralizes you.

Reading Reflection 1

The book that I read was Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson. Isaacson did an excellent job of speaking on Job's strengths and weaknesses as an executive in his position as Apple's founder. One of the thing that surprised me the most was the Job's excessive authoritative nature. For example, I didn't know that he was such a jerk to his co-founder Steve Wasniak. This can be seen by how he failed to acknowledge the apple 2 team when he was presenting the original Macintosh computer at a shareholders meeting.

The thing that I admire most about Steve Jobs is his impeccable work ethic. According to the book, he would have a laser focus where he would work on any long project. Such as when he was working on the Macintosh project he would cover his floor in papers and documents and submerge himself in his project for hours on end without taking a break.

One of the least admiring aspects of Steve Job's personality was his lack of respect towards his team. For example, he was characterized by always treating his employees with an iron fist and never giving them breaks from their projects. He also was known for not agreeing with anyone's ideas other than his own.
Yes, perhaps one of the biggest setbacks was when he was fired as the CEO of Apple, the very company that he founded. After experiencing this setback, he went on to found the company "Next" and then Pixar.
One of the parts of the reading that confused me the most was his reluctance to pay for his daughter even if he neglected her time after time. This is especially confusing considering the fact that he was so rich at the time.
One of the questions that I would ask Steve Jobs would be "How would you handle the crisis with privacy concerns about apple?" I would also ask him what new technology he would introduce to Apple's vast list of products.
Steve Jobs opinion on hard work was very simple. "Do what you love, and work as hard as you can to get it" I without a doubt support this opinion.

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

The main market segment that I will be focusing on is the vacation enthusiasts who will be out of town for a long time. In certain instances, there are travel agencies who have all of the information for their clients so there might be a possibility to coordinate a partnership with them. But first, I will see the thought process behind these travel enthusiasts and how they decide to purchase a product like this. 

The first interview I had was with a friend named Sami Katan, he is a travel enthusiast and he is away from the house a decent amount. he told me that there are a lot of travel agencies out in the space and it might be oversaturated for a consumer like him to make a final decision to use one provider. Thus, he told me that it would be a good idea to partner with websites that have a large user base and a fair amount of followers. 

The second interview I had was with a young lady by the name of Gill Stewart. Gill is also a traveler and she mainly circulates between Los Angeles and Florida. She told me that she would like to personally see who is the person who is driving their car and a little bit about them. I completely agree and I think that transparency will give the company a much-needed dose of personal touch. 

My final interview was with an older man by the name of Oscar Genaro. He was dumbfounded by the idea and he thought that there should be an easy user interface for people of his age to easily navigate the steps. I completely agree with this given the fact that older crowds who are already in retirement are traveling very often. 

Idea Napkin No. 1

1) My name is Gabriel Peña and I believe that I have a large variety of business experience to be able to apply my knowledge to my business idea. This is mainly due to the skills I have in portraying a message out to my targeted clients (specifically people who travel). I believe that the number one talent I will be able to translate into this endeavor is the ability to communicate myself well and effectively with a client base. My product is a new way for travelers to make an extra buck while they are out of town for a vacation of some sort. This will be provided by a car rental service where people drop their cars off and other people rent them out. I am offering it because I think people are always looking for ways to leverage their assets and find a new way to make an income. I am offering this service to any travel enthusiast or businesses that constantly have employees traveling.

Solving the Problem

The solution to the problem I have created has already been stated in my previous blog posts.
I believe that there can be a service in airports where people drop their cars off while they are gone for a long period of time. During this time there will be an inflow of people who need a car to travel to the city. Thus, there is the creation of those two consumers satisfying their need through a marketplace that I have created. When people leave their cars in the airport then they are able to receive a passive form of income from the car when people rent it out.

Testing a Hypothesis

The Who: Travelers that park at Airports and Tourists that need cars
The What: 1. They are overpaying for parking 2. They are overpaying for rental cars
The Why: The combination of both outbound travelers and inbound tourists, make it an ideal marketplace for an exchange of a person's car, to an affordable rental car for a tourist

Testing the Hypothesis:

First off, all of the people in my 'who', do not share this problem because they may be dropped off by a family member who will need the car while they are gone. Also, this would be a competition for Uber, which typically drives people to the airport. This fact means that people won't need to pay for parking from the beginning.

One of the boundaries for this solution is the current infrastructure for the car rental business. There is a huge industry already in place for this type of solution. In addition to this, there is a large number of legal fees and insurance papers behind this type of business. I am sure that there will be an insurance policy that will need to be in place in order to account for accidents with other people's cars.

One of the reasons that the "why" statement might be weak, is because some people won't trust other strangers using their cars and perhaps crashing it. Also, my why doesn't exactly apply for everyone since not everyone who goes to the airport will need a rental car.

4)
In my first interview, I was able to interview my father who is a frequent traveler to the airport. In his case, he gets the majority of his stay paid for and all of the transit fees are taken care of by the company. In this case, there will be a large chunk of my "target market" taken out since they won't be able to provide the company with a car.

I learned that I would have to overcome this hurdle by possibly creating a partnership with corporations so that all of their employees go directly through us for all of their travel. This would lead to all of those corporations to pay our company for their employees' travel.

My second interview was with my uncle who is an avid traveler. He saw a lot of utility in the hypothesis I proposed. He thought that there could be a collaboration with specific airlines so that there could be a predictable flow of cars into our airport office. For example, he thought that there could be an option to register their car at the end of purchasing their airline tickets. By doing that, they could know more about the service and our company could learn more about the availability of rental cars.

My last interview was with a fellow student of mine. When I first explained the concept to him, he sounded very confused and not quite sure what I was trying to do... At first, I thought he was just incompetent and not "business savvy" since he couldn't put 2 and 2 together. But after thinking about it further, I just realized that this type of concept might be hard to sell for the average American since some parts of the business model might be confusing.

I learned that this problem might be a roadblock from getting a sufficient amount of funding since investors will be confused or unsure of my intentions. However, most importnatnly, this service might be hard for the average consumer to understand so then they wont bother with it.

 

6A Identifying opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends

1) The first trend that could be applied to my business concept is the constant growth of a communal economy. This trend can be seen with companies such as Uber, Airbnb, Turo, and countless others that place their supply and demand in the hands of people within a specific community. For example, Uber is a company that holds less liability than most companies because all of the infrastructures behind it is solely owned by the drivers. Most of the company is simply a service that is controlled within an app. Just like Uber, there are countless other businesses that simply make a marketplace for clients to exchange services and they just get a cut for brokering the deal.

2) The second trend that is relevant to the communal airport car sharing is the interest in consumers trying to find new flows of passive income. This can be seen with the dominance of small apps like acorns and Robinhood that do the majority of the investing for the consumers and then the consumers feel rewarded since they aren't being stagnant with their money. I think this is such a valuable opportunity because my business idea will be a new way for people to be effective with their assets. Just like people can list their houses on Airbnb when they are gone for long periods of time, they will be able to list their car on my platform by simply going to the airport.

3)The first regulatory trend that is being implemented can be seen in a city like Las Vegas. For example, the city of Las Vegas strongly discourages the use of uber ride sharing since it takes away the income of the taxi system that the city has implemented. This regulatory trend can be an opportunity because it is a substitute for the Uber concept since it will be a new way for tourists to navigate themselves around the city.  I was able to find this opportunity by traveling to Las Vegas and personally seeing the way that the uber industry was viewed. For example, when I pulled into the Venetian hotel in an uber, I was charged for entering with the uber. Overall though, this opportunity will be difficult to take advantage of because my own business might be faced with animosity if I enter into a new city with a large infrastructure. I was able to form this opportunity because I think that any city will do what it takes to find a competitor to Uber and I think that my business concept has that potential.


4)The last regulatory trend that shows an opportunity is the new bills that subsidize many car rental places that offer electric and hybrid vehicles. This proves useful because my business concept could adapt to users who own a hybrid or electric cars. I was able to find this opportunity by reviewing a lot of the SEC filings for companies like Tesla and BMW and seeing all of the regulatory subsidies that are provided for electric and hybrid cars. Overall, I think this will be a relatively easy opportunity because the overall consumer appeal is already veering towards fuel efficiency and it will be an easy upsell

Identify Local Opportunities

Article 1

1.  Here's how to recycle your Gasparilla 2019 beads in Tampa

2. https://www.tampabay.com/previous/things-to-do/heres-how-to-recycle-your-gasparilla-2019-beads-in-tampa-20190123/

3. This news article talks about the problem with Gasparilla beads polluting the streets and waters of Tampa Bay. It also speaks about the solutions that have been enacted by businesses in the Tampa Area. These businesses include the MacDonald Training Center, Krispy Kreme, and the Florida Aquarium. Even though these small businesses have done their part, there hasn't been much of an organized effort to solve this major issue. 

4. The problem in the story is the excessive amounts of Gasparilla beads being disposed of incorrectly. Whether it be through drunk Paraders or people accidentally recycling them in their regular recycling bins. 

5. The city of Tampa is the organization in which this concerns because it is with the authority of the government to hold its citizens accountable for being renewable

Article 2 

1. Whitman: Pastor experience of abuse inspires him to counsel other victims 

2. https://www.tampabay.com/news/religion/whitman-pastors-experience-of-abuse-inspires-him-to-counsel-other-victims-20190124/

3. This article talks about the negative effects of domestic violence and how a church Pastor is using his experience to help other people with domestic violence. Throughout the entire article, the pastor talks about his own experiences and the evolution that he went through in order to solve his issue. 

4. The main problem in this article is the domestic violence issue that is so common for most women in relationships and marriages. 

5. The people that have this problem is the pastor himself, at the beginning of the story, and then it transpires to the lives of many women and men within the church he serves. 

Article 3 

1. Volunteers Fan through the city to tally homeless 

2. https://www.gainesville.com/news/20190123/volunteers-fan-through-city-to-tally-homeless

3. This article talks about volunteers entering all parts of Gainesville and Alachua county and taking a tally of all the homeless people in the area. After tallying all of them up,  they were asked a series of questions that showed what the cause of their predicament was. 

4. The obvious issue in this article is the homeless problem in Gainesville. There are obviously too many homeless people in the area and the survey that was conducted should serve as proof that the city should do something about this issue

5. The main people that have this problem are the homeless people themselves. I believe that the homeless people in Alachua county should be encouraged to find new jobs instead of just begging and trying to find the scraps of other peoples labor. 

Article 4 

1. Mayoral candidate explains voting issue

2. https://www.gainesville.com/news/20190123/mayoral-candidate-explains-voting-issue

3. This article talks about the issue behind the voting issues that surround the city of Gainesville. In the city. The article specifically talks about a mayoral candidate that had to purposely vote at a precinct outside of the city because he was unable to change his address in the eyes of the city. 

4. The main problem presented in the story is the built-in obstacles that the voting system can pose or potential mayoral candidates and for regular citizens as well/ 

5. The main people that have the problem are regular citizens that see the voting system as too convoluted and will jsut decide not to vote if the process is made too hard. 

Article 5 

1. Afraid you're not going to be able to retire? There are good reasons to worry. 

2. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-americans-retirement-falling-fertility-rate-us-japan-012419-story.html

3. This article talks about the fertitlity rates of Americans today and how the working class of young workers will not be able to support the aging baby boomers that are now looking to go into retirement. 

4. The issue that is presented in this article is that baby boomers will have to remain in the workforce for a little bit longer because the hyperinflated economy will require them to 

5. the main issue with this supposition will likely land on the hands of young people and old people as well

Forming an Opportunity Belief

Forming an Opportunity Belief

Beginning point: 

I believe that there are a large group of Americans that are frustrated with the overall organization of parking all over the place (specifically airports) and the idea for paying for parking even though you're just leaving your car at some random place.

Describing my belief

The unmet need is people to not paying for parking and use their car for what it is (an asset). Almost any American with a car has the unmet need of what to do with their car when they are not using it. This is mainly because the car depreciates even if it is just sitting there and I think most people would be willing to use their car to their advantage instead of it just taking up space. Most people who want to use their car to their advantage put it up for rental use on a website called Turo (basically an Airbnb for cars.) After analyzing all of these points I think that this opportunity doesn't exist in people's minds but I 80% sure that this is the right direction for the future of our communal-style economy  

The prototypical customer for this business is anyone who is going off for vacation/business trip and is just leaving their car in their driveway or even leaving it at an airport. 

Iteration #1

The first person that I talked to about this problem was my father. He is an avid traveler and is used to paying for parking at airports and doesn't put much thought into it. When I told him that there could be a solution for people to park their cars at airports for free he became very skeptical. He asked, how is a business expected to thrive like that?" When I later explained to him that I would like to incorporate the idea of a shared parking application for airports he got interested.

My idea was simple, create a shared parking company that manages peoples cars to be rented out once they leave for vacation/business trips. Instead of paying for parking, you would be getting paid for people using your car when you're gone. And when you go to the city you are traveling to, you can go to one of our "airport centralized parking stores" and rent out someone else's car that is going on a similar trip.

Once I told him my whole pitch for the solution to the problem that he didn't think existed, he had a new perspective to look through. By providing the solution to a problem he didn't know he had, he couldn't go back to the old mindset of airport parking. Most of his rebuttals consisted of insurance and other logistics that have already been figured out by companies like Turo. 

Iteration #2

 

After talking to my father, I decided to talk to another prototypical client, a businessman. I decided to pick my uncle, who works for a large investment firm and travels across the country. It seemed to me that he didn't have the problem like my father because most of his expenses were paid for by the company. This included a taxi to the airport or free airport parking.

After noticing that he wasn't the ideal client for the business I decided that the business owners are the right ones to target since they have a vested interest in saving their company a lot of money.

 

Summarize: 

I believe that a lot of the opportunity I had is still there and I think that talking to prototypical customers made the idea more concrete and branched out like I wouldn't expect. 

Yes, I think my idea is structurally more sound after hearing a lot of questions and formulating an answer that seemed intuitive to me. 

I believe that most entrepreneurs must listen to customer feedback with somewhat of a filter because sometimes the feedback is coming from a valid source and other times it is coming from someone you thought was a target customer but just simply isn't the target you hoped they were. However, I do think that it is important to readjust the idea whenever you have a constructive conversation with a real customer or even a fake one. 

My Entreprenuership Experience

I have experience through entrepreneurship because I am the head of Sales of a student-led startup company called Imprint Genius. We help out a lot of companies with the coolest swag there is and it is the start of my second year with the team. So far, I am the head of sales for the company and I help new sales reps handle all steps of the selling process with clients. In addition to that, I have to keep morale high for the whole team and make sure we meet all of our sales goals every month.

I'd like to gain more insight into hiring people into a new business. I'd also like to be refreshed on the whole ideation to prototyping phase of starting a business/product.

Below is a picture of our company's landing page:

Gabe's Bug List

Bug List Assignment

1.     My alarm is so annoying that it gives me anxiety every morning

a.     So it annoys people to the point that they have to wake up

2.     The weight clips in southwest rec are so hard to put on that it makes me not use them

a.     In order to secure the weights it has to be hard to put on

3.     Weights are constantly out of place at Southwest Rec

a.     People are lazy and don’t care to reorganize them if one person misplaces them

4.     Protein powder tastes horrible

a.     All of the compounds in protein powder are not particularly tasty

5.     The music that’s played while being on hold (for just about any call) is not pleasant

a.     The monotonous and repetitious song has been the norm for all companies for a very long time

6.     Charging phones takes way too long

a.     The batteries in phones are just very large and take a long time to transfer energy

7.     Business cards are useless cause no one ever keeps them

a.     They were useful before Linked in but now they are useless

8.     Parking at UF is horrible

a.     Not enough lot space in order to accommodate all the students

9.     The Bathrooms in Marston first floor is always filthy

a.     The constant flow of people makes it inevitable that it be dirty

10.  The bell tower is extremely annoying if you study in Marston

a.     The close proximity of the bell tower/the thin walls of Marston

11.  The printing lab in the Reitz Union is so hard to access

a.     Because it is the cheapest place that SGP could place it

12.  It is hard to find group seating in library West

.     There is no organized capacity tracker in most modern buildings

13.  Phone wallets are too clunky to hold for phones

a.     It is in the design of the wallet itself

14.  It is hard to access the TD Ameritrade website so it makes it hard for small investors like me

a.     Making the website very confusing means that most people will just pay TD Ameritrade to invest for them (meaning more money for TD Ameritrade

15.  The seats at Library west are not comfortable for my tailbone

a.     The rigid and uptight design of the chairs makes it harder for kids to lounge while they study

16.  The line at the Marston Starbucks is always bad in the middle of the day

a.     The high volume of people through the middle of campus is high at mid day

17.  Turlington flyers / tablers are very annoying and awkward

a.     They don’t have successful “attention grabbers” so their interactions just come off as pushy

18.  H-itt clickers are such old technology, I don’t know why there isn’t something more intuitive/new

a.     That is how it has always been done and UF has the hardware for it

19.  SNAP cars are very slow which makes it unreliable for people to use

a.     In order to help all students, its very hard not being slow

20.  People are terrible at parking at the Frat row lot

a.     The parking lines are way too narrow and the flow of traffic is too tight


One of the challenges that I came across was finding annoying problems in my day to day life. I believe that the majority of the time I just ignore most of the problems in life and just accept them as a matter of fact. Also, I had trouble looking for reasons behind the problems other than "well that's how its always been." The last thing I found very difficult about the assignment is seeing how any of these ideas have a pracical solution or whther they are just inevitable issuess.