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.