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.  

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