24A-Venture Concept No.1

This semester has been a new challenge for me in taking this class, as this class has really stretched my mind into finding a new business idea that I have come up with. This will be my first Venture Concept for Study Buddy.
1. To start off with, I will dive into the opportunity section of the Venture Concept. My opportunity stems from groups of students around campus that feel like they have reached a dead end or are having trouble in their classes and haven't found a way that they can try and help their grades. This group of students also feels like they don't have the "social capital" that others around campus do and may not have the biggest group of people around them to try and help them with classes. The un-met need is just a way that someone could connect with their fellow students in their classes and try and form study groups or try and help find tutors or get help and ask questions to other students as well. More specifically around UF, a lot of students are involved in Greek life which is great, but the students who aren't don't have that great amount of people around them, who some of them are most likely in the same classes as they are, which gives them an easy way to get help outside of the classroom. The students who aren't in Greek life, don't have a way to really branch out and look for help outside of the classroom because they don't have this large group of students around them like others do. I am firm believer that you should learn the material in your classes from multiple different sources, especially if you are struggling and a great way to do that is through study groups or even tutors. This way a student can see the material in a different way and then hopefully do better in their classes.  I think this market could stretch and be seen in many of the large Universities around the U.S. So the markets could be spread out through the U.S, but would be more defined to college campuses and not really anywhere else. I also think that this opportunity will be around for a long time as technology is always changing and we are getting better tech everyday, students will always have this need to get help outside of the classroom no matter how far tech has advanced. So I think an opportunity like this would last for a while.
2.My innovation for this idea is only slightly different than things that are out there right now. My idea is to develop Study Buddy just like a social media app that would allow students to just download on their phone and use it from there. The idea of apps is not "innovative" but having a way for students to connect with their classmates in social media type manner, that is made to help students outside of the classroom I believe is innovative. Every student now a days feels more comfortable on their phone and so trying to reach out and form study groups or post on a wall about questions or even looking for tutors, doing this on a smartphone in a social media app would make students feel more comfortable. At first, I would make money by trying to sell ads on the app itself that students would see while using the app. I would charge a small upfront fee of 5 dollars to download the app, and then try and have promotions on the app to try and get the user to get their friends to sign up.
3.I think my customers would buy my product because of a couple reasons. One, they have tried everything in their power and haven't found successful ways to try and get help outside of the classroom. Study Buddy is a great way for them to turn and lean on their classmates for help. Two, students feel comfortable with meeting people over social media now a days, so giving the app a try and finding out that there are students who could help you do better in school would be a reason they stay. My competitors are the local tutoring places around Gainesville and while they offer a lot of entry level courses, they don't do a lot of upper level classes that students struggle with and so we would be able to try and help where our competitors couldn't.

Minor Elements:
My biggest resource I think would be the social capital that I have around me to help and develop my app. I have a lot of resources and people that are very technical that can help me develop my app which I believe would be one of the biggest challenges of this venture. I can tailor the business model or my market I am going for, but to sit down and develop a full functioning app is a huge challenge in itself. My next venture, if successful would be to try and tackle other campuses around the U.S. I think if successful here, it would be a great resource to have at other campuses. Then as far as what's next for me, I would want to keep trying and developing new apps, as I am fascinated at the tech start up of the worlds and have always wanted to start my own or be apart of one.