30A - Final Reflection

1. Reading through all of my posts from the semester brought back a lot of memories of the course, specifically what my life was like at each point in time when I was completing the assignments. It is exciting to see how far we've come this semester and crazy to think about how much things have changed.

2.  I would say the most formative experience was simply having the opportunity to develop an entrepreneurial idea from conception and go through so many stages in the process of what any successful entrepreneur would do to bring their idea to life. I will remember doing my elevator pitches and getting better at presenting an idea. I am proud of myself for reading the three books that I did and learning from them as I had been slacking in doing reading recently.

3. While I don't see myself as an entrepreneur per se as I haven't had any technical experience with bringing an idea to life, I do believe this class has definitely helped to grow my entrepreneurial mindset so that when the time comes for me to actually put entrepreneurial skills to work I will be able to do so.

4. I would recommend to future students taking this class that they keep a very open mind and be open to new ideas throughout the entire duration of the course. Entrepreneurs need to be able to see things in a different way from other people and practicing that in everyday life will help to foster those skills. In order to perform well in this course I recommend that they stay on top of all assignments so they never accidentally forget an assignment due to poor planning like myself.

29A - Venture Concept No. 2

1. In Gainesville, especially on the UF campus and the surrounding residential areas, there is very limited parking for students. With many students owning cars, coupled with the rapid growth of Gainesville and UF due to the school’s surging academic prowess this lack of parking has becoming a big problem for many students, faculty, and other residents in the area. While most apartments offer some form of reserved parking spaces, these can be incredibly expensive, costing upwards of 100 dollars per month. If purchasing your own parking space is not an option for someone, they are left with no other option but to purchase a city parking decal, relegating them to parking on the street with no guarantee of location or even availability in general. This may lead many students to try to avoid using their car just so they won’t have to be in a situation where they are unsure of where they are going to find parking. However, some students don’t even have the luxury to have options on when to use their car. Students with part-time jobs may have to drive to work and then go straight to class leaving them very little time to spend searching the streets for an available spot or waiting for someone else to leave one open. I believe that no product or service is currently serving the demand for facilitating the process of finding parking and apart from reserved spaces (which are contingent on whether you have the financial resources to get one) there is no readily available solution for students in this situation. This window of opportunity should be open for a considerable period of time. The only thing that could take this opportunity away would be the development of a considerable amount of more parking that is easily accessible and cheap which could either not happen at all or take years to decades to manifest itself. I, therefore, believe this opportunity is significantly large and would have a large enough consumer base to make it a worthwhile opportunity to find a solution to. 
The innovation I’m proposing would be one that would allow people using city parking to find spaces easier and know the amount and location of open spaces. 

- I am proposing an app that uses crowdsourced data to compile and distribute this information. 
- Of course, this app would become more and more useful as more and more people used it and that is sort of the beauty of it in a way. 
- With people reporting spaces that are open and reporting when they have parked in a space, the algorithm that the app uses will continuously update the map and show other users where there are currently open parking spaces. 
- You could also input where your home is or to what location you are trying to get to so the app will always show the most convenient parking spaces first. 
- It would also update which parking spaces are currently lifted, so if for example, you were trying to park near your friend’s house on a Saturday, the app would tell you if there is enforced restrictions in that area or not. 
- In order to make the app work, it would have to first be offered to students as a free download and then as the user base was built up, we could begin selling advertising or even paid content if the service becomes large enough. 

Therefore, the development of the app would require a significant amount of personal capital infusion with a considerable amount of risk behind it as the app would not begin to generate revenue for a portion of time. However, once it does start generating revenue, I am confident that this could be a huge moneymaker. This innovation is deceptively simple but would be hugely influential in the way people at UF live their lives. As there is no current solution to this problem, there is no reason to think that customers looking for more ease in their lives would be willing to try this product out, especially since it will be a free download. As more and more people begin to use the app, it will allow the app to work more efficiently and will attract more people to it in turn. This would work as a positive feedback loop sort of scenario. Also if the app works very efficiently it may even attract some people from outside of the original target market. For example, If I am paying for a reserved spot but see everyone else having no trouble finding parking for free, I may feel that I am being ripped off and look for alternatives. This could even in turn bring the prices of reserved parking spaces down. Current competitors are technically only people offering reserved parking spaces but we are not competing in the same price-point so I would not really even consider that to be competition. The price point is extremely important in the success of the business, especially since I am offering it to college students who generally are extremely frugal. The way that it is distributed on a smart phone is also critical for getting people to use it as well. While there is no “packaging” per say, the aesthetic appeal of the app will be very important in the design process and that will psychologically encourage use of the app. In order to organize a business to support the further use of this app, I would have to have several sectors. For one I would have to have a software/ technical design team that would maintain the servers, code and continuously update and improve the way the app works. They would also be responsible for debugging and servicing the code if we run into any problems.  We would also have an executive team responsible for strategic decisions and financial aspects as well as a marketing team. I believe those aspects would be enough for the initial launch of the business and use of the product. As it grows, the management structure would most likely also have to be expanded as well.

2. I did not receive any feedback on my Venture Concept 1 or What's Next assignments. I believe that my original venture concept was pretty complete and covers what is important about my idea.

3. Since I didn't receive any feedback, I changed the formatting a bit to include a bulleted list so the text was not as dense as a huge paragraph.

28A- Your Exit Strategy

1) I intend to sell this business and use the capital to venture into other, more profitable and sustainable enterprises.

2)  I am not sure if my idea is viable long term and therefore, I want to capitalize on the success we initially receive and use that capital to make sustainable, long term growth investments. I do not believe this is my "one big idea" in my life and I am confident that I can parlay any success with this idea into other more successful enterprises.

3) To be completely honest, I was not considering this exit strategy when I was making initial decisions about the growth of my business. This is more of a strategy that has come about due to the overall concept that I have pieced together throughout this class.

27A - Reading Reflection No. 3

For this assignment, I chose to read Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson

1) I was very surprised to learn that the first introduction of the Mac computer was a failure. I always assumed that Mac was the first big launch for Apple but I was confusing it with the iMac. I have always admired Steve Jobs' ability to see the bigger picture and his commitment to the craft. He understood that creating technology had an element of art in it in addition to the science of being a functional machine. I least admired how Steve Jobs could often come across as being selfish or standoffish in his commitment to his goals. Yes, in the early days of Apple, not every product was an instant success. Like I mentioned before, the original Mac was a failure in comparison to other product launches.

2) Steve Jobs not only had great technical skills in regard to the design of the product and the actual coding necessary in the creating of the original Apple products alongside Steve Wozniak, but he also had great business acumen and extraordinary creative vision.

3) I did not fully understand what lead Jobs to create NeXt after leaving Apple in the 80s. This company seemed so vastly inferior to Apple, I struggled to believe that Jobs truly could've believed in its product.

4) How do you feel your relationship with Sculley influenced the direction that Apple went in and are you satisfied with his contributions? Do you still stand by your design and business decisions regarding the release of the original Mac?

5) While I believe Steve definitely saw the value in hard work, he also seemed to me to be the type of guy to always be looking for the most efficient and savvy way to solve a problem. In that sense, I believe he understood that the best solution to a problem may not always be the one that requires the most amount of work.

26A- Celebrating Failure

1) Last semester I was taking the second Actuary exam. These exams are very rigorous and require much study to pass. I took the first one and did not study much yet was still able to pass which gave me a false sense of security. Therefore I did not study nearly as much as I should've for the second exam. I thought I would be able to pass it as easily as the first one. Due to that, I actually failed it when taking it my first time.

2) I learned that you cannot always count on things coming easily to you. Especially if you have been able to do things one way in the past, you have to account for the fact that you may have to change your tactics depending on the situation.

3) I believe that failure is a necessary and unavoidable part of life. I do not believe that failure will always necessarily help you in the future, but it could be a catalyst for positive change depending on how you react to it. Personally, when I am confronted with failure I first choose to analyze why it was that I failed, in order to understand whether or not I can avoid that failure in the future or whether or not it was inevitable. Doing this will help you to understand how to succeed the next time you are confronted with a similar situation. This class has taught me that many of the most successful entrepreneurs have failed many many times before ending up successful and that you should not be scared to take risks.

25A - What's Next?

Existing Market

1) For my existing market of UF students and people living in the immediate area surrounding the campus, I believe that a logical "next step" in the services offered would be to potentially begin to gather data from people's phones so they don't have to self-report, much like the way a GPS app does.

2) I talked to three UF students that (not currently) live in apartments east of 13th street. They said that the concept seemed pretty complete to them. One of them discussed wanting to see where their friends had parked if they were sharing a car or whatnot. That seemed like it could be easily done. Another said that you should be able to request a preferred location that you want to park in to see those spots first.

3) I believe those ideas would be easy to implement and they definitely could be done. I also think that in growing the market it would be nice to make it available to a further range in Gainesville as some students don't have the luxury of living right next to campus. I also think increased marking would be the overall best way to expand the current market.

Since the app would be constantly monitored by the development team it would be very easy to update so this product would definitely be one that would keep changing.

New Market

1) The new markets that I would like to expand to are other college campuses across the U.S.

2) I believe this is not only a Gainesville specific problem. This is definitely present at other colleges in the U.S. especially those in cities. I believe with appropriate research we would be able to take this concept to other colleges around the country and provide value in the same way we are providing value to those in Gainesville.

3) I interviewed two of my friends that go to other colleges. One goes to college in Boston and then other goes to college in Atlanta. They both told me that people that own cars have many problems with parking there as well. However, both people told me that not nearly as many students have cars as at UF. This creates a potential problem as the markets would be a lot smaller than UF and with less users, the app may not work as well.

4) Based on my interviews I believe that if I were to expand to other colleges in the U.S. I would have to either consider their geographic locations and whether they were more urban or rural. I would also have to do a lot of demographic surveys on the population to learn about the socio-economic conditions of the students and how many of them are frequent car users.

However, I believe with enough research, the concept definitely could be expanded outside of Gainesville.

24A - Venture Concept - ParkLocator

In Gainesville, especially on the UF campus and the surrounding residential areas there is very limited parking for students. With many students owning cars, coupled with the rapid growth of Gainesville and UF due to the school’s surging academic prowess this lack of parking has becoming a big problem for many students, faculty, and other residents in the area. While most apartments offer some form of reserved parking spaces, these can be incredibly expensive, costing upwards of 100 dollars per month. If purchasing your own parking space is not an option for someone, they are left with no other option but to purchase a city parking decal, relegating them to parking on the street with no guarantee of location or even availability in general. This may lead many students to try to avoid using their car just so they won’t have to be in the situation where they are unsure of where they are going to find parking. However, some students don’t even have the luxury to have options on when to use their car. Students with part-time jobs may have to drive to work and then go straight to class leaving them very little time to spend searching the streets for an available spot or waiting for someone else to leave one open. I believe that no product or service is currently serving the demand for facilitating the process of finding parking and apart from reserved spaces (which are contingent on whether you have the financial resources to get one) there is no readily available solution for students in this situation. This window of opportunity should be open for a considerable period of time. The only thing that could take this opportunity away would be development of a considerable amount of more parking that is easily accessible and cheap which could either not happen at all or take years to decades to manifest itself. I therefore believe this opportunity is significantly large and would have a large enough consumer base to make it a worthwhile opportunity to find a solution to. The innovation I’m proposing would be one that would allow people using city parking to find spaces easier and know the amount and location of open spaces. I am proposing an app that uses crowdsourced data to compile and distribute this information. Of course, this app would become more and more useful as more and more people used it and that is sort of the beauty of it in a way. With people reporting spaces that are open and reporting when they have parked in a space, the algorithm that the app uses will continuously update the map and show other users where there are currently open parking spaces. You could also input where your home is or to what location you are trying to get to so the app will always show the most convenient parking spaces first. It would also update which parking spaces are currently lifted, so if for example, you were trying to park near your friend’s house on a Saturday, the app would tell you if there is enforced restrictions in that area or not. In order to make the app work, it would have to first be offered to students as a free download and then as the user base was built up, we could begin selling advertising or even paid content if the service becomes large enough. Therefore, the development of the app would require a significant amount of personal capital infusion with a considerable amount of risk behind it as the app would not begin to generate revenue for a portion of time. However, once it does start generating revenue, I am confident that this could be a huge moneymaker. This innovation is deceptively simple but would be hugely influential in the way people at UF live their lives. As there is no current solution to this problem, there is no reason to think that customers looking for more ease in their lives would be willing to try this product out, especially since it will be a free download. As more and more people begin to use the app, it will allow the app to work more efficiently and will attract more people to it in turn. This would work as a positive feedback loop sort of scenario. Also if the app works very efficiently it may even attract some people from outside of the original target market. For example, If I am paying for a reserved spot but see everyone else having no trouble finding parking for free, I may feel that I am being ripped off and look for alternatives. This could even in turn bring the prices of reserved parking spaces down. Current competitors are technically only people offering reserved parking spaces but we are not competing in the same price-point so I would not really even consider that to be competition. The price point is extremely important in the success of the business, especially since I am offering it to college students who generally are extremely frugal. The way that it is distributed on a smart phone is also critical for getting people to use it as well. While there is no “packaging” per say, the aesthetic appeal of the app will be very important in the design process and that will psychologically encourage use of the app. In order to organize a business to support the further use of this app, I would have to have several sectors. For one I would have to have a software/ technical design team that would maintain the servers, code and continuously update and improve the way the app works. They would also be responsible for debugging and servicing the code if we run into any problems.  We would also have an executive team responsible for strategic decisions and financial aspects as well as a marketing team. I believe those aspects would be enough for the initial launch of the business and use of the product. As it grows, the management structure would most likely also have to be expanded as well.

23A - Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1. Coding skills- Before becoming a finance major I was a computer science major and thus have intermediate coding skills that would help with this project.
2. Access to coders - I also know many people who are still in computer science and have even better coding skills
3. Knowledge of Gainesville - I know the city parking very well and thus would be able to create a service for it.
4. Knowledge of UF - I understand the way the UF campus works and how UF students would respond to a product like this.
5. Access to people with business skills - My dad is a successful business owner and thus could help with the management and technical aspects of running a business.
6. Personal capital- I have plenty of money to start a business like this which is unique to college students.
7. Ability to raise capital- I know several wealthy people who would be interested in investing in a business like this.
8. Ability to attract people to a project- I am good at finding people passionate about an idea that would be able to help.
9. Marketing skills- I have been very interested in the advertising process and as such believe I could attract users to my product.
10. Communication skills - I think while these are not exclusive, they are still very valuable and will come in handy in launching a product like this.

Based on a VRIN analysis, I believe my top resource is personal financial capital. Other college students trying to start a business like this may not have access to the money to do so and I believe its a pretty rare thing to be able to do so.

21A- Reading Reflection No. 2

For this assignment, I read "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big" by Scott Adams.

1. The overall theme of this book is regarding the fact Scott Adams has learned to leverage his failings in his life and take advantage of those failures to encourage and advance his own successes. Throughout the book, he covers several failures that he has encountered and explains how he used these failures to help his life.

2. This book was definitely relevant to what we learn in ENT, as while we are only pursuing one potential idea in ENT, it is very likely that a potential entrepreneur could need to pursue dozens of ideas before finding success. Therefore I think that this book is very necessary to connect to the curriculum in order to round out one's understanding of the subject.

3. If I had to design an exercise for this class based on this book, it would involve reading an article on a hypothetical product failure and using the information presented to design another product with improvements you received from your first reading.

4. One thing that I read that made things really click for me was that you can't expect people to behave rationally. I always try to think through things rationally and come up with deliberative solutions to problems. This is an ugly truth you have to keep in mind as an entrepreneur.

19A - Idea Napkin No. 2

Me

I am a 4th-year Finance and Statistics major from Naples, FL. I have always been good at understanding the big picture of things as well as being able to look at problems from a quantitative perspective. I have served on the executive board of the Student Finance Group for several semesters as well as Community Service Chairman for my fraternity. I interned as a Risk Consultant with RSM this past summer. I want to bring my idea to life to make people's lives easier and to hopefully allow it to grow to help people all over the country/world.

What I am offering to Customers

I am offering an app-based service that would allow people to locate open parking spaces in the Gainesville area specifically on the UF campus and the surrounding area. It will crowdsource data from other users who will be able to report open spots, similar to the way the traffic app Waze works.

Who I am offering it to

I am offering it to students and faculty of UF, as well as anyone with a car who lives in the area immediately surrounding the UF campus. These people all would be using either UF or city parking i.e. they do not have a reserved parking space. They also would be frequent users of their cars and also have busy lives that make spending significant time searching for a parking space illogical. I believe these characteristics fit many of the people here.

Why do they care?

They care and would pay for this service because time is money, and this service would save significant time the more it is used. Therefore if a user frequently uses their car, the time it would save would add up quickly. It would also lessen the frustration that occurs when you have to drive around for a while searching for a parking space. Improved attitude and ease of life is also something I believe customers would be willing to pay for.

What are your core competencies?

I believe that I am a natural leader and would be able to find people to help bring this idea to life and sell them on my vision. By getting the right people on board to develop this app/service, I would be able to ensure that it works to my standards and actually provides people the services that I want it to be providing. By giving users a working easy to use service, I believe my idea will be a success.

Reflection

I only received a single positive comment on my last post. I believe my idea napkin was overall very comprehensive and that there was not much to change. I think I have a good grasp of myself and my idea.

18A - Create a Customer Avatar

My typical customer is a college student affluent enough to own a car and lives close to campus. They are between the ages of 18-22. They enjoy hanging out with friends, partying, playing sports, working out, etc. They drive any sort of car but it maybe something like a ford or a jeep. They like watching TV shows like the office, it's always sunny in Philadelphia, Rick and Morty, and game of thrones. They don't have any kids but they may have brothers and sisters. They probably tend to be liberal because they are college-aged. They don't really read that many books. They feel like they are older and more mature than they actually are.

I am in the same age range as the customer avatar and as such share a lot of things in common with this hypothetical customer. I do not think this is a coincidence as I based it off of the current culture of this age range of people so it stands to reason that I would have many things in common with them.

15A- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

I interviewed 3 more UF students with cars living off-campus, without a reserved parking space. Since the only other "service" that really acts as a solution to this problem is having a reserved space, the metric that most comes into play in making a decision is price followed by location/convenience factor. Based on my discussions with these three students I have gathered that the main alternatives are: city parking, reserved spot, and not having a car at all. While not having a car is the cheapest it also sacrifices a lot of utility. City parking is the cheapest parking decal but sacrifices location and convenience, which is why my service would be useful.

For a product like mine, the purchase would occur on their phone as it would be an app. Also, in my interviews, I learned that all three students have no qualms with online shopping. They are more likely to use cash/credit card to make purchases.

They evaluate their purchases based on either how much the service improves their lives, how much they enjoy using the product, and whether or not they think they got a fair deal for whatever the product/service is. They would think the purchase was a bad idea if the utility they receive from the product/service is not as great as they anticipated.

Based on these interviews, I've learned that my segment values price quite a bit but also would be willing to pay more if they feel the utility they get from the service is significant. They enjoy purchasing online as they are mostly younger people who believe that it is more efficient.

14A - Halfway Reflection

1) Tenaciousness is definitely a competency you have to exhibit to keep up with the coursework in this class. Having assignments due twice a week, weekly makes it necessary for you to keep up with the work or you will quickly fall behind. I have developed a lot of discipline in order to make sure my work is done on time to the excellence that is required to understand the material and get a good grade.

2) I felt like giving up this past week as I was reading the assigned material, as it was also my midterm week and I had many other exams and didn't feel like reading an entire book. However, I realized it was necessary for my success in the course and organized my time appropriately so I could finish the book and all other studying I needed to do.

3)
Tip 1: Begin all assignments at least two days before they are due.
Tip 2: Talk to other students in the class if you feel that you are misunderstanding the point of an assignment.
Tip 3: Watch all the lectures on the days in which they are posted.

13A - Reading Reflection No. 1

For this assignment, I read "The Wright Brothers" by David McCullough.

1. One of the things that most surprised me from reading this book was learning about how the brothers first got into the bicycle business which would eventually lead them to begin dreaming of building planes. Wilbur wanted to go to college but suffered serious facial injuries from being hit with a hockey stick and it caused him to stay in Dayton, Ohio. I also was surprised to learn that bicycles were considered to be very problematic by residents of the late 19th century, who thought they would corrupt the youth. I most admired Wilbur and Orville's ingenuity and perseverance as the idea of a flying machine was something that seemed impossible to many people, and the brothers faced many setbacks. I least admired the fact that many people tried to take credit for helping to push air travel along after their initial experiments. They encountered a lot of failure with their initial prototypes however they kept pushing on and testing aircraft after aircraft.

2. The Wright Brothers definitely exhibited a lot of competencies in the development of the airplane. Obviously, their engineering prowess was especially helpful as the development of new technology is going to require scientific knowledge and construction skill, but they also had many soft skills that made them celebrities after the plane was developed. Wilbur acted as the charming ambassador for their project and convinced many people to support them. They also were very hard workers and would spend long hours in the workshop even after making significant progress.

3. I was a bit confused about how they would continue to improve their designs after facing many failures as it seems to me that I would conclude that it was not possible, however, the Wrights had great scientific curiosity which allowed them to innovate continuously.

4. Q1: Did you see the airplane as being a good commercial idea to make money, or were you simply doing it for curiosity's sake and to pursue engineering progress?
Q2: What were some of the most hostile reactions to bicycle sales in Dayton during the time when they were seen as controversial?

5. Orville and Wilbur definitely had a positive outlook towards hard work as it was reported they would often be seen sneaking off to go work in the workshop even after they were already being lauded for their success. They believe that the design could always be improved and they were looking for a way to do so. I agree with this as if you get complacent after initial success, other people will be able to surpass you.

12A - Figuring out Buyer Behavior No. 1

For this assignment, I chose to focus on the market segment on UF students without reserve parking who have a need for time utility in their daily lives. People with this need would be willing to pay for an app that helps them find parking I believed.

My interviews truly helped to reaffirm my belief that this problem is very important to this segment. The first student I interviewed is a 4th-year biomedical engineering major who also does research and volunteers at Shands. He said due to his busy schedule, being able to save time anywhere possible is a huge help in his life. He said that this is a service that he would definitely be willing to pay for. He said he didn't realize this was a problem that had any sort of solution other than to buy a reserved parking space, but that he would check if a product or service is any good on the internet. The second student I interviewed is a 4th-year finance major who also works a part-time job. While he is able to walk to class, he told me that he has to drive his car to get to work. Sometimes depending on when he is scheduled to work, he will have very little time before class so he said that every minute counts. He said that because he uses city parking, he also finds it very frustrating to have to look for parking after taking his car anywhere, even to just get groceries or something of the like. He said he talked to friends in similar situations to find out what they did about this problem. The third student I interviewed was a sophomore business management major. He said that he uses his car frequently to go to the gym, get groceries, or do other activities that are too far off campus to walk but said he gets frustrated looking for parking spaces, even if he is not in a rush to get anywhere. He said he hadn't considered searching for a solution, but generally, he would talk to people he knows about a product to see if its any good.

It seems that people don't believe that there are any solutions to their problems at this moment which would explain why none of the three people I interviewed could explain how they used information search to help. However, it seems that most people check with friends in similar situations to see how their experiences are first, and then use the internet to reaffirm that information.

11A Idea Napkin No. 1

Me
I am a 4th-year Finance and Statistics major from Naples, FL. I have always been good at understanding the big picture of things as well as being able to look at problems from a quantitative perspective. I have served on the executive board of the Student Finance Group for several semesters as well as Community Service Chairman for my fraternity. I interned as a Risk Consultant with RSM this past summer. I want to bring my idea to life to make people's lives easier and to hopefully allow it to grow to help people all over the country/world.

What I am offering to Customers
I am offering an app-based service that would allow people to locate open parking spaces in the Gainesville area specifically on the UF campus and the surrounding area. It will crowdsource data from other users who will be able to report open spots, similar to the way the traffic app Waze works.

Who I am offering it to
I am offering it to students and faculty of UF, as well as anyone with a car who lives in the area immediately surrounding the UF campus. These people all would be using either UF or city parking i.e. they do not have a reserved parking space. They also would be frequent users of their cars and also have busy lives that make spending significant time searching for a parking space illogical. I believe these characteristics fit many of the people here.

Why do they care?
They care and would pay for this service because time is money, and this service would save significant time the more it is used. Therefore if a user frequently uses their car, the time it would save would add up quickly. It would also lessen the frustration that occurs when you have to drive around for a while searching for a parking space. Improved attitude and ease of life is also something I believe customers would be willing to pay for.

What are your core competencies?
I believe that I am a natural leader and would be able to find people to help bring this idea to life and sell them on my vision. By getting the right people on board to develop this app/service, I would be able to ensure that it works to my standards and actually provides people the services that I want it to be providing. By giving users a working easy to use service, I believe my idea will be a success.

Reflection
I still believe that my service is a necessary one, that people that comprise a large demographic at UF would be willing to pay for. I believe my specific experiences, knowledge, and abilities would allow me to bring my idea to life and ensure that it is a success. Based on these questions, I believe everything ties together into making a successful business.

Elevator Pitch

https://youtu.be/urd8vrKzVPM

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

Interviews
In order to find people that shared a lot in common with the core group that this opportunity could extend to but nevertheless didn't have that need, I talked to students living near campus with cars but who didn't drive them as often as the previous people that I had interviewed. I was able to draw a lot of conclusions from these interviews as many of these new 5 people had similar statements as to why this isn't a huge problem in their lives/ why they don't feel there needs to be a service in the way that I had described to help with this issue. Most of them said that they don't drive/ move their car often enough for it to be an issue and when they do, they don't find that it is overly difficult to locate parking and that they have plenty of time to do so. Based on these new interviews, I believe that in order to have the opportunity, you have to be a frequent driver/ user of your car, and also only use city parking.

Who: Students that live near campus, use city parking, but don't drive their cars frequently do not seem to view this as a huge issue.

What: The need to find parking quickly and easily differs from the overall need to have an available parking space.

Why: The underlying cause of the outsiders' needs is still a lack of parking, however, the need is exacerbated by frequent car usage.

Inside the Boundary
Students/Teachers/ACR's who have cars, drive them frequently and park in Gainesville city parking
Being able to find available parking quickly and easily
The need exists due to an overall lack of parking coupled with a large area that the city parking spans

Outside the Boundary
People without cars, people with cars that don't use them as frequently
The need is not an existence of parking, but rather being able to locate where that parking is
The explanation for this is that this need is really only brought out by having to do it often

Solving the Problem

The problem that I identified was a lack of parking in the UF campus and surrounding area, causing people to have to potentially spend significant time searching for a spot or parking far away from their destination.

The solution I have come up with is a crowdsourced app that identifies open parking spaces and where they are. The app would collect data from its users in a method similar to traffic apps like Waze. Users would report when they leave a spot or report where open spots are. Once the app becomes more widely utilized, it may be possible to collect data without the user having to manually do it via motion sensors in the phone, similar to the way apple maps is able to detect where traffic jams are. There are obviously many things to refine with this idea but that is the current place I am at with it.

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

The opportunity I am choosing to pursue is the one that I wrote about last week regarding a service to identify open parking spaces in and around campus.

Students and faculty at the University of Florida are unable to locate parking close to their destination/home in a timely manner, due to the limited space and growth of the area.

Who: Students and Faculty at UF
What: Unable to find parking in a timely manner close to their destination
Why: Limited parking space and growth of UF and the area

I conducted 5 interviews to learn more about this issue.

Interview 1: Student Living Off-Campus (Near Sorority Row)
He told me that he definitely has this issue as he has a city parking permit and therefore often has to spend a decent amount of time searching for a parking space. He says while he generally does not mind having to walk a bit to get back to his apartment, there are times when this is not ideal such as when he has groceries or something of the like. He does not experience the problem on campus as he walks to class. He said it generally is only a challenge to find parking in his neighborhood as when he goes anywhere significantly off-campus he can always find parking. He agrees with my "why" of the issue.

Interview 2: Student Living Off-Campus (Closer to Downtown)
He told me he has a reserved parking space at his building so he does not experience the problem. However he said he has to spend a very large sum of money on it, so he still wishes it was not so big of an issue. He also walks to class but says it is a bit far, and if it was possible to drive and park nearby he would probably do it. He said he does drive his car, but only to use the gym as that is where there is a significant amount of parking and he never has an issue there. He believes the issue is also caused by poor planning of the use of parking space.

Interview 3: UF faculty member
She told me that while UF faculty are able to get orange decals, which have a couple more dedicated lots, there is still often an issue to get a parking space close to where you are working that day. She also says that there is high demand to get good lots even for faculty higher up in administration. To get the gold or silver decal, there is a waiting list even amongst administrative faculty that have been here for a long time. She told me that she also thinks there is poor planning on the design and construction of parking lots/garages and wishes there was more space immediately off campus to park as well.

Interview 4: Business owner at midtown
I talked with the proprietor of a local business operating in midtown. While they are able to park in the lot near their business, I asked whether they thought that a lack of parking in the area affected business in any way. He told me that while they do have a parking lot, it is small and gets filled up very quickly. He said that while many students simply walk over from campus, he does believe that he would get more business if there was ample parking in the area. He said that there simply isn't enough space in the area to build lots and that zoning laws are also a problem.

Interview 5: Non-student living in the area
I interviewed my neighbor at my apartment building who is a recent graduate working in Gainesville. He said he is still living near campus as he likes the area, but the parking situation is making him think of moving into a more residential area. He has to drive to work every day and finding parking when he comes home can be a challenge. He is thinking of getting a house in northwest Gainesville closer to his job and where he will not have to worry about parking anymore. He said he really enjoys this area but the parking is frustrating for him.

Summary of Interviews

Everyone I interviewed had some problem with parking, whether it be in the direct way I originally hypothesized or something slightly different. I was surprised that almost everyone had slightly different ideas as to why it was such a problem. I had never considered how Gainesville zoning laws would affect parking, so this may be factored into the solution of the problem.

Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends

Regulatory Opportunity 1

A) Illinois governor signs law capping insulin costs at $100 per month
https://www.nbc15.com/content/news/Illinois-governor-signs-law-capping-insulin-costs-at-100-per-month-567282431.html
B) I think an opportunity might exist as there are many diabetics in the country that rely on insulin.
C) The prototypical customer would be anyone that uses insulin or anyone in the pharmaceutical industry in the United States.
D) I believe this would be extremely difficult to exploit with how tight the pharmaceutical companies are with regulatory agencies.

I saw this as I have been aware that the pharmaceutical industry is one of the biggest oligopolies in the United States and any law that tries to fix prices is big news.

Economic Opportunity 1

A) U.S. farm bankruptcies hit an eight year high: court data
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-farms-bankruptcy-idUSKBN1ZT2YE?utm_source=reddit.com
B) I think an opportunity might exist as the agricultural sector is a small but important part of the U.S. economy, so this trend would affect many people.
C) The prototypical customer would be anyone who works in the farming industry, or anyone in the related businesses that purchase products for their own companies, or the typical U.S. consumer.
D) I believe this would be difficult to exploit as the government is already offering bailouts and buybacks of farm products to support the trade war.

I noticed this opportunity as I had been staying up to date with ramifications of the tariffs on China and the trade war in general so this article stuck out to me.

Regulatory Opportunity 2

A) Recreational marijuana becomes legal in Illinois on New Year's Day
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-marijuana-illinois/recreational-marijuana-becomes-legal-in-illinois-on-new-years-day-idUSKBN1YS0US?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=reddit.com
B) I think an opportunity exists as this regulatory change opens up a whole new sector of the economy which has been seen to drive high sales in states that had done this previously.
C) The prototypical customer would be any business looking to sell recreational marijuana or any people who would buy it.
D) I believe this opportunity would be difficult to exploit as many organizations were probably primed to start selling given this regulatory change.

I noticed this opportunity as I had been reading about successes in other states and I believe that Illinois would also have success with it.

Economic Opportunity 2

A) Brexit: PM to address nation as the UK prepares to leave the EU at 11pm tonight
https://news.sky.com/story/brexit-day-the-uk-will-officially-leave-the-eu-at-11pm-tonight-11922156
B) I think many economic changes are going to come about as of this, and opportunities may exist as a result. Leaving an economic union such as this will present many changes for businesses within the UK.
C) The prototypical customer would be any business owner in the UK or anyone in the EU that does business with companies in the UK.
D) I believe this might not be too difficult to exploit as long as business owners are quick to make changes and stay up to date on what the change will mean for them.

I noticed this opportunity as I had been curious about the ramifications of Brexit for a long time and had been keeping up to date reading articles on it.

Identifying Local Opportunites

1. Lane Ranger: Why are four lanes slower than two?
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200126/lane-ranger-why-are-four-lanes-slower-than-two
On State Road 20, the newly renovated 4 lane section of the road has the speed limit abruptly lowered to 45 from the 55 mph allowed on the 2 lane section of the road. This has lead to many people being pulled over and people questioned why this was changed.
The problem presented in the story is an abrupt change in speed limit leads to way more people getting pulled over than on a road where the speed limit is consistent.
Anyone driving on State Road 20 who does not notice the change of speed limit could be potentially impacted. This could happen to anyone driving on any road where the speed limit has been recently changed for only a small section of the road.

2. West End fades away
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200125/west-end-fades-away
The West End golf course which opened in 1969 recently closed its doors in December after not being able to maintain a significant demand and amount of play on the course. The course had been on sale but had to permanently close after lack of funds rendered the course unplayable.
The problem presented in this article is that the local owners of a golf course were unable to keep the course open due to lack of upkeep resulting in less play year after year.
The specific problem in this story is faced by the owners of West End and any golfers who frequented that course.

3. Virtual reality training helps humans spot mental health woes
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200123/virtual-reality-training-helps-humans-spot-mental-health-woes
A program called Kognito has recently been adopted by many schools in Florida which uses virtual reality to help kids learn to spot signs of mental health distress in their peers. UF's counseling and wellness center offers a free version of Kognito to students.
The problem presented in this article is that many students and teachers do not know how to accurately detect the presence of mental health distress in fellow students so they can not get them professional help.
This affects all students and teachers as well as anyone with a mental health illness.

4. In the Know: Aldi, Publix deals with Lucky's include a Naples store. What else does it mean for Collier and Lee?
https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/columnists/in-the-know/2020/01/27/in-the-know-aldi-cuts-deal-with-luckys-for-some-storefronts-will-it-add-more-locations-collier-lee/4592077002/
With Lucky's market set to close all stores as it files for bankruptcy, Publix and Aldi have made deals to buy several of their locations. They have not fully announced which locations are going to which stores or how their creditors will be paid, however.
The problem presented in this article is that as Lucky's files for chapter 11 bankruptcy, they are looking to sell some of their real estate which could pose interesting opportunities for other companies.
This problem affects the Lucky's creditors who are in line to be paid off as the company liquidates their assets as well as other companies who may be interested in purchasing their real estate.

5. Naples developer order to clean up home sites in Royal Harbor, or pay fines
https://www.naplesnews.com/story/money/companies/2020/01/24/naples-developer-harry-zea-faces-code-enforcement-actions-royal-harbor/4553892002/
A local Naples developer was found to have projects that violated multiple city codes on unsightly and unsafe conditions. He will have 10 days to fix the violations or face fines on each property at a daily rate of 250 dollars.
The problem presented in this article that sometimes real estate developers do not comply with certain ordinances that can present problems for both their workers and people living in the vicinity of their projects.
This problem affects real estate developers, construction workers as well as the general public.

Forming an Opportunity Belief

1. I have a suspicion that an opportunity to make money exists with a service that identifies open parking spaces both on UF campus/surrounding area.

2. The unmet need is people needing to spend a lot of time driving around to look for a place to park their car. The need is had by anyone with a car in Gainesville that either a) doesn't have a reserved parking space or b) wants to park their car on campus or in a different part of Gainesville. This need has arisen from the lack of parking in Gainesville, coupled with the absurd prices for private parking spaces. Currently, to meet this need, people are just spending additional time driving around looking for a place to park.

3 a b & c. For the purposes of this assignment, I will assume the prototypical customer is a UF student. For the interview, I talked to 3 of them: Matthew Fagliarone, Dylan Parker, and Janelle Barghout.

4a. Interview 1 Matthew Fagliarone
Matthew said he faces this problem almost every day.  He does not have a reserved parking space and simply uses a city decal so whenever he moves his car he never knows how long it's gonna take him to find another parking space. Matthew has had this need since he first brought his car to Gainesville almost 2 years ago. He currently addresses the problem by trying to move his car more sparingly and consolidate things that he has to do with it, however, that isn't always a feasible solution. Due to these factors, he says that he is not satisfied with this solution.

4b. Interview 2 Dylan Parker
Dylan said that he honestly would not rank this as a top problem in his life. While he has a car and uses city parking, he told me that he does not move his car frequently enough to consider this a major problem for him. He told me he typically has plenty of time to find a place to park and has never had to spend a significant amount of time doing so anyways. He told me that a larger problem is not finding a place to park, but rather how far away he will have to park from his apartment as it is a pain to have to walk back especially if it is after doing something like getting groceries for example. However, Dylan did agree with me that in general, there is not enough parking in the city of Gainesville and that many other people probably face similar needs.

4c. Interview 3 Janelle Barghout
Janelle commutes to school so while she obviously does not face the problem of having to find parking at her house, it is more difficult for her to obtain parking close enough to her job or classes in order for not to have to walk a long distance or face getting a ticket or getting towed. While she could look for parking on the street, that can potentially take significant time lengthening her commute. Currently, in order to meet this need, Janelle simply spends additional time looking for parking or parks much further away and either walks or takes the bus to work or class. She has had this need for her entire time she's been going to UF and says that she is not satisfied with her current solution at all.

5. After performing these 3 interviews, I have gotten slightly different perspectives on the problem, but overall I feel that they all further cemented my initial hypothesis albeit in different ways. I learned that the location of the parking is just as important as the existence of parking in general. The most surprising thing I learned was that Dylan claimed to have never spent more than 5 minutes looking for parking as I know people that have definitely spent more.

7. I still believe my original opportunity is definitely still there and in fact, it may be able to be increased by adding other services. I feel that I have a much better sense of people's true thoughts and responses to this problem so my view of the opportunity is definitely more accurate. I do think that in order to be a successful entrepreneur you have to listen to the customers, however, there may be cases where you have a better sense of what the customer needs than the customer themselves so I suppose you have to consider the scenario and make a trade-off.

My Entrepreneurship Story

While I have obviously been exposed to many forms of entrepreneurship throughout my life, whether it be by observing new businesses opening and closing around me, or by choosing whether or not to use a new product, one particular experience I had really opened my eyes to the power of being an entrepreneur. One of our close family friends and neighbors was a very multi-talented person, and what you might call an inventor. In the past, he had tried to create and market a couple different products to little success. However, one product he created actually grew to have a decent demand and made him a good chunk of change. He created a towel for people who are working out, that you wear around your wrist like a wrist band called the flip towel. He also was behind a lot of the marketing efforts and sales. Seeing him accomplish this, made me reconsider the power of being an entrepreneur.

I enrolled in ENT3003 because I want to know some of the more technical steps to being a successful entrepreneur. While I understand there can be a lot of luck/art to having a successful idea, I hope this class can provide some of the more concrete pieces of knowledge necessary to get started on the right foot.

Bug List

1) During rush hour traffic backs up on SW 8th Ave. with people trying to either cross to museum or turn right onto 13th.
One of the main reasons this problem exists is due to the lack of a right turn lane in addition to the inclusion of the "no right on red" signs.

2) Some ethernet to USB adapters are only designed to work on specific devices. I.e. despite having the same functional ports, one might not work on a specific device.
I do not understand the full technology but I assume this is due to either brands wanting to sell more adapters or a true fundamental difference in technology.

3. Gainesville has a problem with not enough parking spots both at the UF campus, and within the city.
This exists due to the rapid growth of the city due to UF's rising presence as a top university while infrastructure and available land lag behind.

4. If I order a package and it is not delivered by USPS, the company does not have access to the PO boxes at my apartment building and is forced to leave it at my door with the risk of it being stolen.
This exists due to some apartment complexes not investing in appropriate mail delivery facilities for valuable products.

5. At many casinos nowadays, blackjack tables (especially lower limit ones) are switching from using regular shoes to CSM's (card shuffling machines) eroding the player's edge.
This exists due to casinos wanting to raise the house edge.

6. When I go to Outback with a large party and the waiter only brings you one loaf of bread to start.
This exists because restaurants want to take any chance to save money.

7. Nintendo Wii shut down their online services so if you want to play online games you have to install mods.
This exists due to Nintendo not wanting to support the online infrastructure for an older generation console.

8. If I want to use Bluetooth headphones on multiple devices, I have to go through a lengthy process of disconnecting Bluetooth on the first device and then connecting to the second device and vice versa to switch around.
This exists due to the headphones being programmed to automatically connect to whichever system they were previously connected to.

9. My phone battery is always draining quickly even when it feels like I haven't used it that much.
The battery health is likely depleted from overuse.

10. When I forget to turn my a/c back up after turning it down at night and my electric bill goes up.
This problem exists due to my forgetfulness as well as not being able to program the a/c for different times.

11. Going to the gym when it's packed and having to wait forever to use any equipment.
This exists because there are more UF students than the facilities can support.

12. Lack of consistency with original programming on many online streaming services today.
This exists because streaming services are stepping into the role of production companies and have to churn out many more shows and movies than the did in prior years.

13. When my devices disconnect from UF wifi on campus and I have to take the time to reconnect them.
I'm not sure if this is the fault of the school or my devices but I think even more so now with the addition of eduroam that this is becoming a bigger issue.

14. When I am at a restaurant and the person in front of me is taking forever to make up their mind on what to order.
This exists due to it possibly being a person's first time (less likely for large chains) or just not thinking about it before.

15. It bugs me that fewer and fewer businesses are dealing with cash and it is becoming more common for a business to not be able to make change for a larger bill.
This exists due to many consumers simply using a credit or debit card for everything.

16. Sometimes it is difficult to order food online due to the online interfaces not having all the options or availabilities for customizations and add ons.
This is due most likely to an attempt to streamline the web building process.

17. When you go to look for a particular piece of clothing but you realize you still haven't washed it yet.
Due to a busy lifestyle and the tendency to forget to do certain chores.

18. It bugs me when different websites all have different qualifications for your password so you end up having a ton of different passwords making it hard to remember.
This is due to the increasing prevalence of security concerns online and some sites being more secure than others.

19. How the libraries become so packed around exam time and it is impossible to find a table.
This is due to more UF students needing to study and not wanting to do it in their homes.

20. It bugs me that my printer is very difficult to connect to and seemingly work at random.
I'm honestly not sure the cause of this but it is possibly due to the USB cable used to connect to my computer.

I found this assignment very difficult. I am not used to thinking about the "problems" in my life in this manner. However, I found that once I came up with the first couple it got slightly easier and brainstorming some of them, lead me to find others. I also found that for some of my bugs I actually didn't know the precise cause of why they occurred. This showed me that I had never really dug deeply into the roots of these problems.

Test Post

Hello, this is my test post