13A-Reading Refection

To start off with, I knew a little about Elon Musk now a days but I did not know he did some much before his career with Tesla and SpaceX. I found it surprising that he started one software company, then went on and co-founded x.com which he would eventually become PayPal which was later acquired by eBay for a huge amount of 1.5 billion dollars. I admired his tenacity to never give up and his drive. As someone going into the tech field, I love technology and I admire some of the work that Elon is doing and attempting. He is never satisfied and always wants to be groundbreaking on something new. In the tech industry, tech is always changing and you should always being wanting to strive to learn all you can. From the authors perspective, he kind of makes Musk seem dark and cold sometimes and it seems like it would be stressful to work for him. As great of an innovator as he is and as smart as he is, you need to be able to be a CEO that people would wanna work and that would get a long with you. He defiantly saw failure, most the beginnings of his projects were failures and then after multiple tries, he would be successful. Then even in his personal life, you could consider his marriages were a failure as he had three different marriages. But with these failures, he never stopped and kept persevering and now he is one of the greatest CEO's in our world right now. As far as competencies go, like I said he just lacked that nurturing boss feel and seemed cold and dark sometimes to his workers, especially if there was a deadline approaching. I was confused personally on how solarcity part of the book where it talks about the startup he helped his cousin produce. If I could ask Musk 2 questions, one would be if you had any advice for a young adult going into a technical field, what would it be? And then was all the work you've done so far in your life worth the effect it has had on your private life? I think Musk would say hard work is anything that complexes your mind and makes you think outside of the box. He is always being an innovator and changing the way things are done, so I think anything that makes someone think hard and use their analytical skills is hard work. 

12A-Figuring out buyer behavior

When I did my three interviews, I decided to pick a segment that I highlighted earlier in an assignment and that is a segment in the UF student body that are not in fraternities or sororities. My solution is creating an app that would connect people around campus to help in their studies, form study groups or even search for tutors. I first interviewed Blake who is a student here at UF.  He said he has this need when he is at the library either either during the day or at night and does not have anybody to study with. Sometimes he feels like he needs help in a specific class, but he doesn't have anybody to help him right then. He sometimes get frustrated at problem and just needs a little help and that is where study buddy could come into play. I then interviewed Rachael, who said she has the need when she wants to form study groups with her classmates, but does not have a way to do unless she posts on Facebook or something and she said that never helps. She said she also is in the library when she has this problem and just wants and easy way to see if anybody else would want to help her study. Then I interviewed RJ, who had a combined problem of both Blake and Rachael, where he wanted to ask his classmates a question on an assignment but didn't have an efficient way to do so.  All three subjects had the same response when they thought about how they handled the problem now. They either just forget about it and work through it with out getting any help or they just post on Facebook or some sort of social media, if they even do that, and they said they normally don't get any responses. They also make friends in the classes they are in, but they never get in contact with their classmates outside of class, so they can't get help aside from the teacher. If I had to summarize what I found, it just seems like the segment I have found just want a quick and easy way to link or connect with classmates on a social media based platform outside of Facebook so they can get help with assignments and such.

10A-Elevator Pitch 1

Elevator Pitch 1

11A-Idea Napkin 1

1. Who am I? I believe I am an outgoing, driven individual who won't stop until I achieve my goals in life. I love meeting new people and connecting with individuals. I am great with customer service as I have worked for Publix for almost five years now. I have a technical background in computers as I am an Information Systems major and I have a passion for technology. I would love to make a product that helps someone. If I were to make this app and it help one person, I would have met my aspirations of helping someone.

2.What am I offering to my customers? I am offering an app that would promote a different channel of communication and connection of your fellow classmates. If you have a problem on a specific homework or need a quick tutor lesson from a topic in class, you could find that in my product. This is promoting learning the right way on campuses and can help kids branch out and get help in subjects that maybe hard to find around campus.

3. My customers may not have the means or ways  to connect with other students as easily as others do, so this would be a great way to help with school, at the same time, try and make connections with your fellow classmates. My demographic would include College aged individuals seeking an easy alternative to finding help outside of the classroom. Also, people who have taken certain courses may sign up as tutors to try and provide help and assistance to those in need.

4.I believe my customers would care because they're tired of the normal ways of trying and reaching out to get help in school and coming to a dead end. This would be an alternative that may help people and with an end result of hopefully higher grades in the classroom and with that comes a whole lot of other added benefits like increased confidence and etc.

5.I think I stand apart because I want to see students connecting with their fellow classmates and also more importantly, doing better in the classroom. I don't think their is an app out there like the one I have an idea for and I think students would respond well to the app.

I think getting students to care would be the hardest point for me. I would think a majority of students have ways to connect with other students but convincing them that this app would help them if they used it would be a challenge. But I do believe that what I am offering could help. I know who my customers are and what I am offering, it would just take sometime to really get across to students and show that even though it's a different approach to the common way of getting help in school, it could really help.

9A-Testing the Hypothesis Part 2

After interviewing five different people, I have come across these ideas and thoughts when it comes to try and setting my boundaries for my opportunity. My opportunity is developing an app that connects students in similar classes to try and help better their grades in those classes. After interviewing the five people, I have been able to define the boundaries and find a more clear a set of people who fall outside of that boundary. For the Who, it is students who are in similar classes but already have ways to branch out and meet other students. In a college town, most of the students in this case fall into greek life, where they have hundreds of friends in their fraternity or sororities that chances are someone else is in the classes they are in, so they have an easy way to connect and try to get help. My friend Rob who is in ATO here at UF who I interviewed said it is easy to find someone who is in the same class as you or someone who has taken the class to try and get help. Olivia, who is in a sorority said the same thing and it makes easy to get help or form study groups with people you already know. It is also other students who use the tutoring services in town to help them study and with that, they do not need to go and try and find other students to help or ask questions to other students because they have the tutoring service at their finger tips. Justin said "I used to Studyedge for my harder classes and I never had reach out to other students because Studyedge provided everything I needed".  The need for my idea differs from other needs when a student does not have the opportunity of joining or paying for such organizations or groups and just wants to branch out to their fellow classmates for help with their classes. Some kids are like that, that they just don't wanna join a fraternity or sorority and don't wanna pay for a tutoring service, so they just do it all on their own. Well with my idea, they would not have to do it on their own anymore and they can reach out to other kids who are in similar situations as they are. The outsiders have access to multiple channels or getting extra help outside of the classroom where someone in the boundary does not.

Inside the Boundary: 
-A student who wishes to get extra help in school who does not have the ease of access to other students.
-The need is to connect with other students for help in school.
-The need exists because someone wants to do better in school.

Outside the Boundary:
-Someone who has the ease of connecting with students through multiple channels.
-They have a way to reach out and get help with their classes because of organizations or clubs they are in.
-They feel as though they don't need someone else help or they don't like the idea of connecting with other students who they don't know.

8A-Solving the problem

The opportunity I have found the through the previous exercises is an idea to connect students in a way that would help them in the classes they are in and also branch out and meet other students like themselves. The solution to this would be to make an Application that is phone based. This would be a platform like most social media apps but students input what classes they are taking for that semester and then it is like an open chat where they can ask for help with homework or try and form study groups with fellow students or even have a way where someone can sign up to help tutor other students in that specific class. I think this would be a great way to connect with other students and I would actually enjoy the process of making an app as I like to code. With it being on an app a mobile phone, I feel like most students would be up to trying it and using it, as it would work just be like the other social media that a lot of students are so used to using.

7A-Testing the Hypothesis1

-University of Florida students can sometimes face a challenge of connecting with classmates in the same classes or have trouble with a problem or assignment and not have anyway to ask their classmates in a fast, social media type setting outside of say Facebook. With my opportunity, I want to create an App that connects students at UF to other students in the same classes as you are to help with anything from homework problems, to assignments, to linking with tutors, or creating study groups for classes.
-The Who: UF students wanting to connect with other students
-The What: Connecting students together in a social media type way
-The Why: Some students may learn better that way or helps students with certain assignments or classes.

After doing interviews with five people, I have found some interesting things about my potential opportunity. When interviewing Rachael and when asked about the why, she stated that she thinks most students wouldn't see this as a "need" but something as a way to better help them study or do better in their classes. Kyle stated that the who were the kids I stated in my hypothesis, but also kids who were more out going but maybe don't have a channel or way to reach out to other students for help. Another Kyle also stated, it would be good for students who are in smaller classes but with more advanced topics , instead of a chem class or stats, because there is already ways around that to help kids study. With this, I would need to try and find out how many students would actually be willing to try this idea. When asked about the what, Sean A. stated that he thought it was a good idea to do it more in a social media type way because that is what kids are so used to now a days and they would feel more comfortable using it, if it felt like a social media app. I still think this idea could work, I just need to flesh it out more and try to adapt to the problems or kinks that my interviewers are pointing out.

6A- Economic and Regulatory Trends

1. For my first economic trend, I found an article on Forbes that states, experts are expecting consumer spending to rise in the near 2nd half of the year. With this, I see an opportunity for companies to grow as more and more people will be spending their money.   This is a very broad opportunity but I see an opportunity for a marketing company that would help get clients products out to the public. With consumers spending more, there will be a need for companies to market their products and even though this is already being done, I think there could be ways to better this process. I believe this leads to an opportunity that exists because smaller companies will want to get their name and products out to the public but with more than just in house advertising. The typical customer I believe would be a small company that does not have the capital to higher a big marketing company, but wants to get their brand recognition up. I think this would be very hard to exploit because you would have to convince a company that marketing their products would increase their sales, at the same time convincing them that consumer spending is going up. When seeing this opportunity, I just thought that smaller businesses would want the same marketing techniques that big companies use but on a smaller scale, as my dad owns a small business and he has always wanted to advertise and market his products, but there isn't a viable way to do so.

2. According the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate is at a very low 4.1% in the US. Right of the bat, I see opportunities that entail doing some job or task for a person because so many people have jobs. This entails walking dogs, babysitting, house cleaning, etc. Just certain jobs that people can't take care of because they are at work. I think the typical customer would be someone who is always on the run because of work and just needs someone or a company to do a task for them that they would not be able to do because of work. I think this idea would be relatively easy to exploit. You would just have to do some research and some testing and see how many people would have a company do a service for them because they don't have time and then try and narrow down what service is the most popular among ideas. I saw this opportunity because I have seen other companies exploit this, like shipted, who deliver groceries to people and everybody is just on the go 24/7 now a days and I just feel like the next big "service" company is out there yet to be discovered.

3.It maybe small, but there is a regulatory change going on right now under the Trump administration that would lift certain fishing regulations in certain areas as stated in a New York Times article. I am a huge fan of fishing so I see an opportunity here to sell better fishing equipment for those fish that are being deregulated. I see an opportunity because it gives people who want to fish a wider range of fish to catch and a wider time of the year to catch these fish. The typical customer would be someone who enjoys the outdoors and likes to fish. I think this idea would be relatively easy to exploit as you would just have to do research into what fish and areas are being deregulated and then figure out what equipment and such would sell best in certain areas. I saw through this opportunity because again I am a fan of fishing and this deregulation could open up more and potentially better fishing for other people who would like to participate.

4.In the same NY times article stated above, there is also a deregulation to stop discouraging plastic water bottles sales in national parks. I see this as a great opportunity to develop or sell reusable water bottles in these parks. The typical customer would be someone who enjoys visiting these national parks and either forgets to bring a reusable bottle or doesn't have one and doesn't want to litter or use plastic in a national park. I think this would be a little harder to exploit because there are already companies that sell really good reusable bottles but getting them into national parks would be a great idea for people who would want to use them. I see through this opportunity because I want to cut down on my waste  and use of plastic bottles and I see a great opportunity to sell them in these national parks.