Final Reflection

After going over my blog posts from the past semester, I can definitely say my most formative assignments were the interviewing customers ones. These would also be the assignments I'm most proud of completing. I think they were important to me because I failed so many times at them. They were difficult assignments but I managed to do them all and learn a lot by the end. After finishing the first set of customer interviews, I wasn't nearly as nervous doing it the second time. I think these assignments were definitely the most important in developing a tenacious attitude.
The assignment I'll remember the most in ten years would definitely be "Growing Your Social Capital." I was surprised at how welcoming the people I interviewed were. I didn't think they would want to spend time talking to me but I got the opposite reaction. I think a part of the reason the assignments went so well was because I called the people and talked to them personally rather than just emailing them. I'll never forget the conversations I had and what I was able to learn from them.
The most joyous assignment was definitely "Google Gold." Reaching the first and second pages of Google was the affirmation I needed that everything in this class paid off for me. I was so surprised and satisfied by the results I got.
I think I can definitely say I am an entrepreneur after taking this class. I can tell that I've started to use the entrepreneur's mindset in every day life. Whenever I see something I don't like, I look at it as an opportunity and think of how it could be improved. This is definitely something I didn't do before this class. I think the skills I've gained will be important in continuing to be an entrepreneur in the future.
The one recommendation I would make to future students would be to be confident in your opportunity. Don't just settle for something but actually think of an idea that could succeed in the real world. The entirety of the class is built around that idea and you're going to want it to be something worthwhile. The quality of the opportunity could shape how much a student gains out of this class. Besides that, another important way to succeed in this class is to be proactive. If you wait to the last day to complete assignments, they're probably not going to get done. And if they somehow manage to get completed, the quality of the posts won't be nearly as good. That's why doing the posts ahead of time is extremely important to success in the class. Having quality posts and learning a lot from them is the most important part of developing the entrepreneurial mindset in this class.

Elevator Pitch No. 4

From my last elevator pitch, I got a lot of positive feedback. People said it was an awesome idea and I presented it well. This is great to hear but I unfortunately didn't get a lot of constructive feedback for me to improve upon. The only real thing somebody mentioned was to maybe have a little bit more enthusiasm in my next elevator pitch. I think this is pretty good feedback because enthusiasm is definitely important in an elevator pitch. I adjusted this pitch to have more passion in it and I hope it worked out well.

Week 15 Reading Reflection

The most surprising part of this article was when Akula said the most critical factor of their growth was focusing on the customer. This was surprising on two levels. First of all, it's surprising that other companies don't focus on the customer in their work and are only in it for themselves. The other surprising part was that SKS operates in the customers' favor even if it hurts the company in the short term. Most companies don't do this today and it's very admirable.
The most confusing part of this article was when Akula explained how microfinancing works and that they are usually non-profits. Usually when I think of financial planning, I think that the person in charge usually takes in a chunk of the sales. Maybe this is a different type of financing and works somewhat differently. Either way it's very interesting to see how it works.
The first question that I would want to ask would be what was the hardest part about starting this business. I'm sure there were lots of difficult stages and I would want to know what was the biggest roadblock. The next thing I would want to ask would be what was it like working with another culture. This is definitely a challenge for anybody running an international business and I'd want to know what it was like.
I didn't find any thing to disagree with in this article. It was kind of impossible to do so since the whole article was just the story of a company. There weren't really any opinions and it was just the facts of what had happened.

Venture Concept No. 2

There I was, laying in my bed just a day before I needed to turn in my opportunity for ENT3003. I looked up and realized that I was never going to be able to do it and I would fail the class miserably. Then all of the sudden, the sun shined through the window and illuminated my textbooks. It made perfect sense. There was such an opportunity to be had with textbooks. College students hate having to buy them for many reasons and I realized there has to be a better way. At the beginning of each semester, the average students deals with extremely high costs, textbooks that get mailed late, and textbooks that are in horrible condition. This need for an easier way became quite obvious to me as I thought about the opportunity. Students were going to want a cheaper, easier, and faster way of getting textbooks. The vast majority of the people in this market are college-aged students located around these college towns. Most of these students currently get their textbooks from Amazon, Chegg, or the school bookstore. Students can’t be very loyal to any of these suppliers because they force an extremely high credit card bill. I think this is a pretty big opportunity with a potentially short window of opportunity. Textbooks are such a huge issue that there needs to be some large change and I believe that change could come soon as students are getting fed up with the process as it exists today.

After noting all of this information, I came up with an app that could fix this broken system for a lot of people. The app would operate by connecting college students on the same campus together. Students would create a profile and list all of the textbooks they’re in need of and those that they’re selling. The app would connect students with matching interests and allow them to exchange their textbooks at designated locations on campus. The app would be profitable primarily through advertisements that I could charge companies a monthly fee for (not sure on an exact number). 

This innovation would address the opportunity at hand because it would make the textbook process much easier and cheaper for students. The average student might only end up paying 40 or 50 dollars for a textbook compared to the 200 for a brand new copy. I think there would also be lots of companies who would want to advertise on my app primarily because they would be advertising to college students who are always on their phones. If they saw ads for local restaurants or bars, they would probably visit them at some point. I don’t think it would be difficult to get customers to abandon Amazon or the school bookstores mainly just because of how much cheaper my app would be. The cost of these competitors would be their main weakness. Also the fact that their service takes a lot longer is another weakness. When it comes to the Facebook Textbook Exchange page, I think I have the upper hand here as well. When I ask customers and friends about the Facebook page, I get mixed responses. Some people find it easy while others find they have to spend a lot of time looking for textbooks and sometimes don't even find it. If you want to find a specific textbook, you could be scrolling for forever. With my app, all you have to do is look up the ISBM and any matches would instantly pop up. This makes it overall faster and easier. I don’t think distribution will be a real issue, as I’m not selling a physical product. The only thing I need would be people researching to determine what campuses are most in need of the app and where to market the app. I would probably start out with a small team of employees. To start I would need at least three people. There would be one person to code the app, one person to develop how the app looks, and then me to continue developing the actual idea. After that, I would just develop several small teams of people who can come up with ideas, people who take care of the finances, and people who engineer the app.

I believe my secret sauce is my success at meeting new people. According to different strength tests, this is my best strength. I think I can make a good impression on people and hopefully add them to my team if need be. This would be a really important resource when it comes to hiring experts in the field.

I think the next direction that my company is headed is online textbooks. I want to create a system where people can get online textbooks through my app. I think this is good because so many classes are abandoning physical textbooks today. I would also want to have homework help, study guides, and tutors involved with this aspect of the website.

I assume within five years after this app started, I would probably try to sell the app to somebody else. This would primarily depend on how successful the app is. I would hope that I continue to be an entrepreneur and look for new opportunities beyond TextSwap. I think this first experience will be a springboard to more opportunities as an entrepreneur. 

I got some really good constructive feedback from my first venture concept. The most important thing people mentioned was differentiating myself from my competitors, specifically the Facebook Exchange page. I made sure to include that in this revised venture concept. I also took the advice of eliminating the download fee for the app since the Facebook page is already free. I think this will level the playing field even more. Other than though, I got some really positive feedback as well. People were commenting that I went into a lot of detail and agreed that there is a definite opportunity to be had here. Some of them even said they would use the app themselves which is great to hear. 

Week 14 Reading Reflection

I think one of the more surprising things from these chapters was when Kuratko said "many companies today are recognizing the need for corporate entrepreneurship." I'm just surprised that companies didn't realize this until recently. Entrepreneurship and innovation just seems like such a necessity that it would have always been important. Maybe with companies like Apple and Google doing so well, other companies have tried to follow their path.
The most confusing part from these chapters was when Kuratko first started talking about social entrepreneurs. He first mentioned how most social entrepreneurs had to be NPO's but then mentioned how for-profit organizations could be social entrepreneurs as well. This seemed like kind of a contradiction to me and was a bit hard to understand the difference.
One question that I would ask Kuratko would be whether he considers innovation to be chaotic or systematic. He mentions how a lot of people disagree on which it is so it would be interesting to see which side he is on. The next question that I would want to ask would be which part of the CIIP he considers to be the most important. They obviously all contribute a lot but I'd like to know which he finds the most effective.
The part that I disagreed with the most was when Kuratko mentioned how entrepreneurship can fix climate change and solve other ecological problems. I've never really thought of this as entrepreneurship and I've never heard of an entrepreneur really helping the environment. Maybe I just have a different definition in mind of what a social entrepreneur is.

Google Gold

My main approach to search engine optimization was just using my keywords over and over in my blog posts. I thought this would be my best chance to reach the first page of Google. In addition to this, I went a step further when it came to commenting on other blogs. Not only did I include my own link, but I also described what the post was about and used the keywords there as well. I thought the combination of the link and keywords would really help me SEO.
My main keywords were TextSwap(the name of the company) and textbook exchange app(essentially the purpose of the app). I think another important keyword was probably college or college students since that's who the app is aimed at. I chose these keywords because they seemed to be the most relevant in regards to my app and what it did. I don't think I consciously refined my keywords throughout the semester although I bet I did subconsciously. As I developed a more specific idea of what the app looked like, I probably started using my keywords more often.
I didn't really use social media to promote my blog that much. I didn't think that my Facebook friends or Twitter followers would really be interested in my class blog and would just scroll past it. I did always thumbs up my YouTube videos and share my posts on Google+ though. These may not be the most popular social media but it was the easiest thing to do that would help.
My post with the most traffic was my second elevator pitch. This beat the other posts by a long shot as it has 27 page views and it's the only page with 20 or more views. I think part of the reason for this is that there were four people assigned to comment on this post. This obviously increased page views. In addition to this, I think it had a lot of views because it had a YouTube video in the post. Anybody who saw the video on my YouTube might have gone to the blog to check out the post. Other than these reasons though, I just think I did a good job with the elevator pitch. I thought it went really well and would be a good example for people to look at.
When I finally looked up my keywords for this assignment, I tried a couple different things. I first googled the phrase "TextSwap textbook exchange app college students" and ended up being the eighth post on the first page. Yippee! When I cut the phrase down to just "TextSwap textbook exchange app college," I went down to the fifth post on the second page. I'm still pretty happy with this though. I further cut it down to "TextSwap textbook exchange app" and dropped one spot to the sixth post on the second page. Overall, I'm very happy with my results. Although I didn't get on the first page on all of my searches, my worst attempt was still on the second page. It's really difficult to reach the top page of Google so I'm pleased that I made it there on at least one of my searches. All of my SEO efforts paid off!

Very Short Interview, Part 2

After going over my initial interview, I found some correlations between the answers I got and what I have learned in this class. He told me that overcoming the fear of failure is very important and that's definitely something we've talked about in this class.
I went back to Dr. Fogarty and asked him three more questions. Q: When do you most value being an entrepreneur?
A: On pay day.  I get paid exactly what I am worth.  I can't blame anyone else for what happens.
Q: How have changes in technology over the past decade changed the way you work?
A:I can now transact business without ever having to meet the person face-to-face.  It can all be done with technology.  Not necessarily a good thing.
Q: If you could go back in time, what's something you would change in regards to your work or being an entrepreneur?
A: I would have started younger and done more research up-front to find the best fit for my needs and desires.  Knowing what you want in advance is critical.
I think after going through everything this semester, I was more comfortable reaching out again to Dr. Fogarty. When I did part one of this assignment, I was much more nervous about the response that I would get. But now that I've gone out and interviewed random people, interviewing somebody I know is quite easy. I also feel like the entrepreneur could tell that I progressed based off the more advanced questions that I asked him.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

I thought the most surprising thing from this reading was when he talked about the control factor. It's crazy to think that someone who only owns 2% of a company can be the deciding factor in key company decisions. There must be a lot of thought and persuasion within the company to try and win that 2% though and it would be interesting to read about a real life situation where that played out.
The price/earnings ratio was probably the most confusing thing I found from this chapter. I've never been super familiar with the stock market so it was confusing to read about it. It makes a little bit more sense now that I've read it all but it was definitely hard to understand at first. Hopefully that knowledge will come in handy when I start investing.
One of the questions that I would want to ask would be what he considers to be the best way to avoid start-up costs. They're obviously important when starting up a company so it would be interesting to know how to avoid or minimize them. The other question I would ask would be what he thinks is the most important part of analyzing a venture. He talked a lot about different aspects but it would be good to know what he thinks is the most important one.
The biggest thing I found that I disagreed with was when Kuratko said that small businesses shouldn't compare themselves to large corporations. Maybe they don't plan on being as big as Apple but I think it would be a good idea to see what made them successful. By understanding that, the owner of the small company can perhaps apply some of it to their company and become more successful.

Celebrating Failure

I think my most notable failure in this class would have been for the first assignment where we had to interview customers. I went around Turlington that afternoon and had seven people deny me before I got my first interview. This was extremely frustrating and I almost gave up on the assignment. I didn't understand why people wouldn't want to be interviewed for just 60 seconds. There were some people who were even kind of rude when they rejected me.
I did learn a very important lesson from this failure though. I figured out the key to interviewing customers. The first seven people that I talked to all were walking somewhere when I talked to them. When someone is walking somewhere, I realized they are far less likely to agree to an interview. The five people that I did ended up interviewing were all either sitting or standing around somewhere. Since they're not going somewhere already, they are far more likely to agree to the interview. In the next few assignments where I had to interview customers, I made sure to talk to people who were sitting down. I did end up failing a couple more times but I never reached seven again which was great.
Failure is extremely frustrating for anybody to deal with but it is inevitable. Anybody who wants to be an entrepreneur will fail at one time or another. I think whenever I face failure, the first thing I do is think about what I can change. If I'm failing then I'm obviously not doing something right. I look to see the source of the problem and what changes I can make to eliminate the problem. I think this class has changed the way I look at failure. I'm definitely more likely to take a risk now. Before this class, I would never have wanted to interview customers about a random idea but now I think I could do that easily.

My Exit Strategy

I think the best option for my app TextSwap is to build it up and sell it in the span of a few years. I think this is the best option because I would like to do more than just manage this app. I'm hoping TextSwap would be a spring board into many other opportunities I can find and take advantage of as an entrepreneur. By selling it, I can gain a large sum of money that could help me in my next venture. I think my decision to do this has influenced my other ideas to some extent. Throughout the course, I've known that as a college student it would be very difficult to run an app and manage classes. So whenever I've come up with new ideas for TextSwap, I've always kept in the back of my head that eventually somebody else would probably be running this company. I want to come up with the best ideas that would help the future CEO succeed and give them the best starting point. I don't think this has influenced how I came up with the opportunity or how I decided to acquire resources though. My ideal situation would be I make the app and have a team with me. My team would test the app on a college campus and see the results. If the app is successful, hopefully an investor would like the idea and would be able to bring TextSwap to campuses around the nation, which is something I'm not sure I would be able to do at this point. I did want to start up the app and develop it to some extent before selling it though.

Week 12 Reading Reflection

One thing that was surprising was the three different types of failures that Kuratko talked about. We've talked about failure a lot in this class but we've never really acknowledged different types of failures. It was interesting to see what the different types of failures were and how a company should respond to each type of failure. Understanding this probably puts the company in a much better position.
I think the most surprising thing from this chapter was the amount of start-ups that lack strategic planning. It just seems like kind of a no-brainer to me. Without a plan, how can a company expect to succeed? I guess it's easier just not to plan things out and hope for the best but it just seems like a necessity.
The first thing that I would ask Kuratko would be what he considers the biggest reason that more people don't plan strategically. He talks all about the different reasons but it would be interesting to see which is the biggest reason people don't plan things out. The second question that I would want to ask would be what Kuratko considers the toughest part about growth. He talks all about transitioning to management while also maintaining an innovative quality so I would like to see what he finds the toughest part about that to be.
The biggest thing I found that I disagreed with was when Kuratko said it was necessary for everyone in a firm to share the entrepreneur's vision. I think it's important for everybody in a firm to share the entrepreneur's mindset but I don't think everybody should have the same exact vision. If everybody thinks the way the top entrepreneur in the firm does, then there won't be any new and innovative ideas.

Venture Concept No. 1

There I was, laying in my bed just a day before I needed to turn in my opportunity for ENT3003. I looked up and realized that I was never going to be able to do it and I would fail the class miserably. Then all of the sudden, the sun shined through the window and illuminated my textbooks. It made perfect sense. There was such an opportunity to be had with textbooks. College students hate having to buy them for many reasons and I realized there has to be a better way. At the beginning of each semester, the average students deals with extremely high costs, textbooks that get mailed late, and textbooks that are in horrible condition. This need for an easier way became quite obvious to me as I thought about the opportunity. Students were going to want a cheaper, easier, and faster way of getting textbooks. The vast majority of the people in this market are college-aged students located around these college towns. Most of these students currently get their textbooks from Amazon, Chegg, or the school bookstore. Students can’t be very loyal to any of these suppliers because they force an extremely high credit card bill. I think this is a pretty big opportunity with a potentially short window of opportunity. Textbooks are such a huge issue that there needs to be some large change and I believe that change could come soon as students are getting fed up with the process as it exists today.

After noting all of this information, I came up with an app that could fix this broken system for a lot of people. The app would operate by connecting college students on the same campus together. Students would create a profile and list all of the textbooks they’re in need of and those that they’re selling. The app would connect students with matching interests and allow them to exchange their textbooks at designated locations on campus. The app would be profitable primarily through advertisements that I could charge companies a monthly fee for (not sure on an exact number). I’m also thinking of charging a small amount of money to use the app.

This innovation would address the opportunity at hand because it would make the textbook process much easier and cheaper for students. The average student might only end up paying 40 or 50 dollars for a textbook compared to the 200 for a brand new copy. I think customers would be willing to pay a small fee for this app because it would cost significantly less than the cost of buying new textbooks. I think there would also be lots of companies who would want to advertise on my app primarily because they would be advertising to college students who are always on their phones. If they saw ads for local restaurants or bars, they would probably visit at some point. I don’t think it would be difficult to get customers to abandon Amazon or the school bookstores mainly just because of how much cheaper it would be. The cost of these competitors would be their main weakness. Also the fact that their service takes a lot longer is another weakness. I don’t think distribution will be a real issue, as I’m not selling a physical product. The only thing I need would be people researching to determine what campuses are most in need of the app and where to market the app. I would probably start out with a small team of employees. To start I would need at least three people. There would be one person to code the app, one person to develop how the app looks, and then me to continue developing the actual idea. After that, I would just develop several small teams of people who can come up with ideas, people who take care of the finances, and people who engineer the app.

I believe my secret sauce is my success at meeting new people. According to different strength tests, this is my best strength. I think I can make a good impression on people and hopefully add them to my team if need be. This would be a really important resource when it comes to hiring experts in the field.

I think the next direction that my company is headed is online textbooks. I want to create a system where people can get online textbooks through my app. I think this is good because so many classes are abandoning physical textbooks today. I would also want to have homework help, study guides, and tutors involved with this aspect of the website.

I assume within five years after this app started, I would either sell it or continue to be the CEO. This would depend on how much time I have in my life and how successful the app is. I would hope that I continue to be an entrepreneur and look for new opportunities or continue with TextSwap. I think this first experience will be a springboard to more opportunities as an entrepreneur. 

Week 11 Reading Reflection

One thing that surprised me from this article is that he didn't mention the government at all. In a recent article I read by the Economist, it cited large governments as one of the main reasons there isn't much innovation today. All of the rules and regulations prevent companies from being able to innovate. I think his theory is pretty interesting as well and could be true. I'm just surprised he didn't mention the government.
One thing that I found confusing was when the author was going over Corning's innovation strategy. It's very different from every other innovation strategy I've ever been exposed to, probably because I don't think of Corning in every day life. It was really interesting to see how they force customers to stick with them in a different, but similar, way than Apple.
The first question I would want to ask would be when he started noticing this lack of innovation in society. It would be interesting to see if there was an event that caused it or if it just happened naturally. The second question I would want to ask would be whether he considers Corning or Apple's innovation strategy to be more successful. They've obviously both worked out for each company but I wonder which he would find to be more effective.
The biggest thing I found that I disagreed with the author with was when he said crowdsourcing isn't good or bad. I disagree because I think crowdsourcing is a great tool that entrepreneurs are able to use now. I guess there might be some downfalls of it but for the most part I find it to be a great way to help start up companies grow.

Amazon Whisperer

My idea is for an app called TextSwap. This app will connect college students and allow them to exchange textbooks much easier and cheaper than before. My current revenue driver is through advertisements. I think companies that appeal to college students would want to advertise on my app. I talked to someone who had built an app though and he explained to me how it's difficult to survive solely on ads unless I have millions of users. I'm currently thinking of charging a fee to use the app or taking a percentage out of each exchange. I'm not sure what I want to do as this was brought to my attention recently but it's good to know.
I think the next thing my customers are going to want is another service that will help them get better grades and I have a few ideas. Using my idea of connecting college students together, I could create a tutoring service within the app or I could allow students in the same class to form study groups. Online textbooks have become really popular recently so if I found a way to incorporate that into the app, that would be great. Although this idea would change my target audience, I could change my app from textbooks to just books in general. People could exchange books and eliminate the need for a library. Obviously this idea would take a lot of thinking through and might not work so for now it is just an idea.
I think whatever I do next, it will take my app from a textbook app to a college survival app. There could be more benefits than there are currently and it could become an app that people use all the time rather than once a semester. This would probably attract a lot more college students if they found that the changes were giving them higher grades. I think the higher grades would be enough to keep my customers loyal.
After doing some research on the App Store(since Amazon doesn't work in this situation), I think I found my next idea. When I looked up textbook apps, the number one result was Chegg. It has a ton of users and some pretty great reviews. It's main uses are for textbooks, studying, tutoring, and homework solutions.

Chegg has an overall rating of four out of five stars. People really like Chegg because it saves them money, helps raise grades, and it makes renting books easier. One of the features on Chegg or at least based off my understanding of the service is that there are online textbooks people can look at. The biggest problem that Chegg users seem to have is with these online textbooks. Apparently this part of the app is glitchy, hard to read, and overall just not user-friendly. 

Since I don't have actually use Chegg and can't see how it works, it's hard for me to say specifically what I would change. I know that based off these reviews, I would like to incorporate an online textbook feature into my app TextSwap. The main difference is that I would like to spend a lot of time and effort into making sure this service is better than Chegg's. There are so many complaints about this part of Chegg that if I was able to make the service very accessible and easy to use, I think I could gain many more users. I think I would mainly do this through a Beta service where people could test the service and point out any of the issues they might be facing. For now, I only know that I want an online textbook service but I think there are several directions this could go. I could simply allow people to rent online textbooks, or pay more money in order to get detailed solutions, study guides, or homework help. Hopefully I'll get more ideas the more I think about this. 

I think this would be a good addition to my app based off some feedback I got in my "Growing Your Social Capital" assignment. I talked to a family friend, Jim, who used to work in the textbook industry. His biggest criticism of my app was that there are so many publishers who are switching to online textbooks. If it got to the point where physical copies of textbooks were no longer being used, my app would have no use. By incorporating online textbooks into my app, I can make sure TextSwap will be used by college students for decades to come. 

My Unfair Advantage

1. Social Capital-Connections- Valuable: It's extremely valuable to know a ton of people and have connections which is something I think my company would excel at. Both my father and grandfather know a ton of people because of their jobs and their involvement in the community. They probably know enough people that could help me with any potential problems. It's rare because not everybody knows all the people that I know. Other people have connections but nobody has my exact group of people that I can reach out to. It's inimitable because nobody would ever be able to know all the people that I know. A friend could know all of my friends and a family member could know all my family but I doubt I'll ever have a friend who knows all of my family. It's non-substitutable because the people that I know are unique in the ways they'll be able to help me.
2. Social Capital- Skills-Valuable: I once took a strength test and was told that my best strength was meeting new people. This is a great strength to have because I'll be able to make a good impression on people I meet and it would be particularly useful in business. Rare: This is rare because according to the test I took, meeting new people is not a strength that a lot of people have. Inimitable: It's hard to copy this because I think it takes certain unique experiences in order to become good at this. It's non-substitutable because it's hard to get good at this by any way other than just meeting new people.
3. Financial Capital- Valuable: Money is one of the toughest resources to come by and I think I'm in pretty good condition right now. It's obviously rare because nobody else owns my money. I guess it is substitutable and imitable because anybody can get money.
4. Financial Capital- Safety- Valuable: My Dad is a financial planner so I could use him to help organize my company's money and make sure I'm prepared for any sort of economic disaster. Rare: It's rare because not a lot of people know a financial planner so close to them. Inimitable: It's hard to copy this because not everybody is going to be willing to spend the time and make sure they're prepared for the future. Non-substitutable: People won't be able to get this exact experience unless they also go to my Dad.
5. Customer Service Experience- Valuable: As a business owner, being able to talk to customers and clients is going to be extremely important and my experience from working in fast food will be really helpful. Rare: Customer service experience isn't extremely rare but there aren't a whole lot of people who have it. Inimitable: It's impossible to copy my customer service experiences because nobody has had the exact same set of experiences that I've had. Non-substitutable: Anybody can gain these experiences if they work with customers but not everybody is willing to do that.
6. Human Capital-Public Speaking Skills- Valuable: Public speaking skills are extremely hard to come by and very useful in a business context. Rare: It's rare to find a good public speaker because it's the number one fear of most Americans. Inimitable: It's hard to copy because if it's the number one fear, then nobody's going to want to do it. Non-substitutable: The only way to really become a good public speaker is through experience.
7. Human Capital- Positivity- Valuable: Having a positive outlook and being optimistic is an important quality to have when running a business. Rare: I think positivity is rare because so many people want to look at the negative things in life. Inimitable: This isn't super hard to copy but nobody will have my exact attitude or way of looking at things. Non-substitutable: I think you can become a positive person through many different ways but having that experience might be tough to come by.
8. Human Capital- Computer Skills- Valuable: I took a class in high school that required me to master Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, and Excel. My experience using these will be extremely helpful whenever I need to use these services. Rare: It's rare because not a lot of people have taken this class that I know of. Inimitable: I guess this one is slightly inimitable as people can learn how to use these services. Non-substitutable: This one doesn't exactly work well with this category because there are classes people can take to learn these skills.
9. Organizational Culture- Valuable: I've read a decent amount about successful companies and I would hope to model my company like Apple and Google. These companies have become so successful because of how they work together and I think it would be a good thing to copy. Rare: I think this is rare because there are only a few companies who have had the amount of success that Apple and Google have. It is imitable if I would be taking ideas for this from Apple and Google. Non-substitutable: I suppose people could learn from other companies about how to do this.
10. Social Capital- Start Up- Valuable: I know several people who told me if I seriously tried to pursue this app, they could help connect me to people who develop apps. Rare: This is rare because not everybody knows someone who develops apps for a living. Inimitable: I guess this could be copied if people just went to the same people that I went to. Non-substitutable: This one may be substitutable because I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who would be willing to help other people develop their apps.

I think my most important resource is number 2, my strength of meeting new people. Owning a company obviously takes a team and I think my skills of meeting new people would be great when it comes to getting people aboard my team. People aren't always excited about being apart of a start-up because they know it could easily fail but I think I could convince people otherwise.

Growing Your Social Capital

Supplier:
1) Jim Misenti. Worked in the textbook industry for many years until 2008.
2) Jim fills my supplier slot because of his experience in the textbook industry. My idea deals with making the textbook process easier for students and he's perfect to talk to because he has experience supplying textbooks.
3) I found Jim because he's my Dad's cousin and my Dad gave me his contact information. I contacted him by phone.
4) I talked to Jim for about ten minutes and basically just asked him what it was like working in the textbook industry and any feedback he could give me on my idea.
5) This call couldn't have gone better in my opinion. I learned a lot of valuable information about how the textbook industry works and why the costs of textbooks are so high. He did also give me some great feedback on my app idea. He said one potential problem I would face is that so many classes are moving to the online textbooks now and that could make my app useless. As long as there are hard copies of textbooks going around though, he thinks it would be a great idea.
Market Expert:
1) Alex Koepsel. Alex developed an app that was aimed at young people from age 18-35 but mainly college students.
2) Alex fills the market slot perfectly because we targeted virtually the same audience.
3) Alex is a family friend of ours. I got his phone number from my brother who was great friends with him in elementary and middle school.
4) I talked to Alex on the phone for around 20 minutes and basically learned about his experiences from being an entrepreneur. I asked him how he targeted his market and what some of the challenges were when it came to targeting them.
5) Alex ended up being another great person to contact. He said if I ever try to pursue my idea, he knows plenty of people in the central Florida area that he could put me into contact with. He mentioned a lot of similar stuff that we've learned in this class such as talking to strangers and asking open ended questions. He also brought up the customer avatar and told me what his customer avatar looked like.
Domain Expert:
1) David Stoker
2) David fills the domain expert slot perfectly because he has a ton of experience developing apps and he's a UF alumni.
3) David is my sister's best friend's brother. I reached out to my sister who gave me her best friend's contact info who then gave me David's.
4) I talked to David on the phone for around 10 minutes and basically learned what it was like having to develop an app and sell the idea to other people. I asked him what some of the challenges are when it comes to app development.
5) David gave me a ton of great information that I can use in the future. He told me that the biggest challenge to developing an app is going to be having the money and also having the right team of people. He mentioned how there are three different types of people you need in order to make an app and gave me tips on how to find those people.

I actually really enjoyed this exercise. It was really intimidating at first but ended up being really rewarding. I thought everybody would be annoyed but everyone I talked to was happy to talk and share their insight. Now I know I can go back to these people if I ever need anything from them. I think this will help me in future networking events primarily by giving me more confidence. It differed in past networking events in that I called the people. Usually I just email them but my Dad gave me the advice that people are much more receptive to personal contact and that ended up being very true.

Week 10 Reading Reflection

One thing surprising was that the balance sheet always balances. When Kuratko first mentioned it I thought a balance sheet would just measure if the company is in debt or not. It was actually something entirely different though. It's crazy how something like that always balances itself out because I didn't expect that at all.
I think the most confusing thing was learning about the balance sheet. I know this is something I'll have to deal with when I take financial accounting and it won't be easy. It's complicated and seems like it would take a lot of time and effort in order to master it. I'm sure it'll get easier the more exposed to it I am though.
The first thing I would want to ask Kuratko would be what the biggest challenge of managing balance sheets would be. It's obviously got to be difficult if classes put so much emphasis on it but it would be cool to know what he considers the toughest part. The next thing I would want to ask would be if he had any tips on learning everything about financial preparation. It's a lot to take in and he obviously knows it very well. I wonder how he got to the point he's at now and any tips he would be able to offer.
The thing I found I disagreed with Kuratko on was when he said that the payback method was one of the easiest things to learn. I found all of the different processes pretty difficult to understand and this one wasn't any different. Maybe it's a quicker or fastest method once you get the hang of it but based off my first exposure to it I wouldn't call it the easiest to learn.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

I think I got some really great feedback on my last elevator pitch that I was really able to use in my third pitch. It was constructive and made a lot of sense. I put on some nicer clothes, kept the camera at eye level, and went with a blank background rather than my closet this time. I think this will allow people to be less distracted by anything other than my pitch. In terms of content, the only thing I added was how my app would generate revenue. I left this out in the past and it was a good thing to add in order to show potential investors how my app would be profitable.

My Secret Sauce

1. I think the most important quality that sets me apart from everybody else is my passion for meeting new people. In my freshman and sophomore years in high school, I wasn't super outgoing and tended to keep to myself. The summer after my sophomore year though, I attended a leadership camp that really turned me into the person that I am today. I met so many great new people in the span of five days and that gave me a lot of confidence. Now I love getting the chance to meet new people and make a meaningful connection with them.
2. Another quality that goes hand in hand with my passion for meeting new people is my love for speaking in public. I was on the debate team in high school and had to speak to crowds of around 30 people every month or so. In student government, I took a position that required me to speak to hundreds of people at district meetings three times in the school year. This further gave me confidence about my ability to speak. Most people are intimidated by large crowds but I love the challenge of writing a speech and either impressing or persuading people with what I say.
3. Leadership skills are another thing that I think makes me unique. I have had many leadership positions throughout my educational career and I'm always looking for more. Being a leader is an extremely tough challenge but it's one that can be very rewarding if you do it enough. I think my experiences have turned me into a pretty good leader and those experiences are really important to me.
4. My positivity is something that I think sets me apart from a lot of people. I can't stand being surrounded by negativity and try to always see the positive side in everything. By cutting out the negatives, life is a lot more enjoyable. So many people today are stubborn and never want to be positive which is extremely frustrating but I think distinguishing myself from those people is very important to who I am.
5. The last thing that I think makes me unique is my drive to always do more. I'm constantly pushing myself to be the best that I can be. I always look for opportunities to improve my leadership skills and become a better person. I think than an opportunity not taken is an opportunity totally wasted. That's why I'm always on the search to do more with myself and put myself into contact myself with more people. It also helps in expanding my network that has become really important in shaping who I am today.

Interview 1: This interview was with my Mom and she addressed that I'm a very outgoing person. She mentioned how much I like to meet new people and that I'm very compassionate.
Interview 2: This interview was with my Dad and he mentioned how I'm a very determined person and like to set goals for myself. He then linked this to how my ability to do this has allowed me to be successful in life.
Interview 3: I interviewed my brother for this one and he mentioned how I'm better at talking to people than a lot of others that are my age. He said how this comes very naturally to me and sets me apart from a lot of other people.
Interview 4: My sister talked a lot about how I'm extremely determined and like to finish what I start. Relating to this course, she mentioned how I learn from my setbacks and don't let them discourage me.
Interview 5: This interview was with one of my best friends from high school and she talked about how I'm a very positive person. She said I maintain this positive attitude throughout difficult circumstances which is tough to do.
After reflecting upon this interviews, it seems that the people I talked to think that I'm very outgoing, determined, and positive. The one thing that nobody mentioned that I did was my leadership abilities. Maybe they're just not as relevant as some of my other strengths or maybe it's a sign that I need to become a better leader. I think they might not have mentioned leadership because not all of the people I interviewed get to see me in school and in leadership environments. I think the people I interviewed were pretty correct because they hit on four of the five things that I mentioned. I don't think I would make any corrections to the list as of now. Maybe I could work on leadership but the interviews didn't really highlight another quality that stood out to me.

Week 9 Reading Reflection

I think the most surprising part about this chapter was when Kuratko mentioned that so many entrepreneurs fail to do any marketing research. It seems to be one of the essential parts of starting a business but so many people miss out on it. I guess it is difficult to reach out to a lot of people to get the necessary research and cost is always an issue but still.
The changes that social media has made to the market were pretty confusing to understand. It's crazy how when people advertise online compared to on a TV, how much their marketing approach changes. It's not a small change either. It's a change that drastically effects how you present your product or service and it's somewhat confusing to understand the differences.
One question that I would ask Kuratko would be whether he finds qualitative or quantitative research to be more effective when it comes to gathering information. They are both very useful tools but I would be interested to see which one he has found to be the most successful. Another question I'd ask him would be what he considers to be the hardest change to adjust to when advertising on social media. He mentioned a lot of differences but I wonder what the most challenging thing is to change.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything that I disagreed with Kuratko on in this chapter. I think this was mainly because I don't know a whole lot about marketing in the first place. A lot of the material in this chapter was entirely new to me so it was difficult to find something to take a stance on. Hopefully I'll find more areas of disagreement next week.

Idea Napkin No. 2

1. I am Matthew Iandoli. I'm a freshman finance major at UF and I was born in Orlando, Florida. Growing up I played tennis, piano, and a lot of ultimate frisbee. In high school, I was heavily involved with my student government and debate team. I think my best talent is that I'm a good public speaker. I gained a ton of speaking experience in high school and I typically spoke to crowds at least once a month. It's one of my favorite things to do and I always enjoy the challenge of writing a speech. Earlier this year, I took a strengths test and found that my biggest strength was that I enjoy meeting new people. This seems to go pretty hand-in-hand with my passion for public speaking. My aspirations in life aren't quite clear yet. The biggest goal is to be happy with those around me and have a job that provides me enough to live a comfortable life. I think my business plan could play a huge role in my life if I decided to pursue it. I've gotten some awesome feedback from people who seem like they would be really interested in the app if it came out. If I got some help and committed to it, who knows where it could take me. 
2. The idea that I've come up with is an app called TextSwap that will connect college students at the same school to each other. They will create a profile and then list all the textbooks that they need and those that they are selling.  Students will then be able to search the ISBM of textbooks they're in need of and get connected to someone who's selling it. When the textbooks come up, the user could sort them by price or quality in order to find the one that best suits them. The students can then decide to either buy, sell, or trade with the person and then meet up at designated on-campus locations to make the exchange. 
3. My target audience is pretty self explanatory. I'm obviously going after college students if I want this app to be successful. I'd probably test out how the app works at a few colleges to start and then expand it to more schools. Another target audience could be the textbook publishers. I could potentially work with a publisher so they could advertise a new edition for a textbook that students might be in need of. 
4. Buying textbooks is an extremely expensive and frustrating process. Since TextSwap makes everything simpler and cheaper, I bet it would be very popular among college students. I imagine that the app would probably be free and the main way I'd generate revenue would be through advertisements. I could also get money through the partnership with the publishing company. If I can get enough traffic on the app, I'm sure plenty of companies would be willing to pay for ads in order to gain more exposure to college students. 
5. The most similar thing to my idea is a Facebook Textbook Exchange page. I know UF does this and I'm sure other schools do as well. The problem with this is that it is difficult and time consuming in order to find somebody with the textbook that you need. A student might scroll through 100 posts before they find somebody with a textbook that they need. My idea is better because you'd just have to search the ISBM, and all the students that have it would come up. I'm set apart from online textbook distributors because of how much less time it would take. Students wouldn't have to deal with the week or two that it could take to deliver the book. Finally, TextSwap would be set apart from the bookstores simply because it would cost less to the student.

I think these ideas fit pretty well together. The biggest setback is that I am only a college student. I'm focused primarily on school and don't have a lot of time to start up my own app. Maybe once I get out of college, I could pursue this idea and make it work. For now though, it's just an idea. One thing that I'm also not certain on is the publisher partnership. I don't know a whole lot on how a partnership like this would work but if I could figure out the details and make sure it's fair for both sides, then it could be really successful. 

Feedback Memo: 1. The main point that I took away from the comments was the publisher idea. I think it could really work in the app and make everything easier on both of us. I incorporated this into the audience portion of this idea napkin. 
2. Another good point I got from a comment was enabling the ability to sort the textbooks by price and quality. If somebody cares mainly about the appearance of the textbook, they can sort their options to see which books are in the best condition. I imagine that there would be several other options to sort the textbooks by but price and quality are the two that come to mind. I incorporated this into the what portion of the napkin. 
I only really got two critiques or improvements to make from the comments so my next three changes came from comments on other assignments. 
3. In order to solve any safety issues, someone suggested to have designated exchange areas and times. For example, when two people want to exchange textbooks, they would have to list a time and place such as Turlington at 3:15. I added this into the what portion of this assignment
4. I made sure to mention the part about how students could search the ISBM in the what portion. I forgot to mention it in that part of the napkin last time. 
5. In the core competencies part of this napkin, I made sure to differentiate myself even further from the Facebook Textbook Exchange page. People have told me multiple times that this would be the toughest competitor of mine so I wanted to point out even further how my app would be better than their page. 

Week 8 Reading Reflection

A part that was really surprising to me was how much money IPO's can raise. Kuratko mentioned how in some years only $27 or $45 billion were raised. It's insane to think that these amounts of money are considered small in terms of IPO's. I would have never guessed that they can have way more than that in value over the course of a year.
One thing that was confusing to me in this chapter was when he talked about other debt financing sources. Commercial banks made sense to me but a lot of the other ones seem complicated, specifically factoring. They're much harder to understand because they use so many technical financing terms that I might not be totally familiar with. Since I don't have a lot of experience with banks or investing, it's more difficult to understand this part
The first question I would ask would be if there are any advantages to getting debt financing from somewhere other than a commercial bank. He talked about places you can get debt financing besides a commercial bank and I'm just curious if they should be used as a last resort or if there is some upside to them. Another question I would ask him would be if there have been any really successful companies that got started due to social lending. It's a really interesting concept and I'm just curious if anybody really hit it big with the help of one of those services.
One thing I found I disagreed with Kuratko on was when he said "industry has become more efficient and more responsive to the needs of the entrepreneur." I remember I was reading an Economist article a while back that told me the opposite. It mentioned how due to the increased government regulations over time, there has been a decrease in innovation. With all of the new hoops people have to jump through, it has become so much harder to innovate successfully.

Half-way Reflection

Dear future student,
ENT3003 is a course that requires a lot of hard work and effort. If you commit to the class though, what you get out of it will be extremely rewarding. One of the skills that you'll certainly develop is tenacity. In order to keep up with this course, I've found one of the best strategies is to do everything in advance. I'm currently writing this 10 days before this assignment is due! I try and commit an hour every day to this class. It's an easy commitment but really pays off. When I finish all of my assignments that are coming up, I preview the assignments down the road and think of ways I'm going to have to attack them. Doing this allows me to feel much more prepared and ready for what's to come.
Although there are no exams, this class is not easy. You will stay very busy with all the work there is. Some of the assignments are extremely challenging and even discouraged me at times. One of the times I felt discouraged was when I interviewed customers for the first time. The first seven people I asked to interview all turned me down. I knew I couldn't give up and had to finish the assignment though so I kept trying. Finally some people agreed to be interviewed and I got the assignment done. I feel like I've certainly developed a tenacious attitude during the past couple of months. Whenever I didn't want to keep going, a little voice would speak from the back of my head. It was Shia LaBeouf and he was yelling "JUST DO IT!" This advice may seem dumb but it's actually quite useful. If you just do it and don't give up, the assignments will get done, no matter how difficult they are. I think the assignments that most provided me with this tenacious attitude were the ones where I had to interview customers. I can almost guarantee that people will say no to you at some point but if you keep asking around, you will get the assignment done.
My first piece of advice to offer in order to develop this tenacious mindset is one that I've just mentioned. Just do it! Don't be nervous and don't get discouraged. If you keep trucking, the assignments will get done. Another piece of advice I have to offer is to not be afraid to go out of your comfort zone. The work in this class certainly pushes you and some of the assignments may seem awkward. If you're not afraid of that though and just embrace it, everything will become a whole lot easier. My last piece of advice would be to put in 100% effort to these assignments. If you really want to become an entrepreneur, then these assignments will really help you. They're only going to help though if you put in the effort. Don't just barely meet the requirements. Try to exceed them and write a blog that you're proud to call your own. Best of luck!

Free Money

I plan on going around Turlington Plaza for this assignment and see if there's a specific location that works best. It's a very central location and plenty of people walk through there constantly. Plus it will be easy to have somebody recording me and not have the people I'm talking to notice it. I'm going to go after people walking regularly and I'll also try going after people that are on their phones. They'll probably be open to talking to somebody and receiving free money. I'll probably start the conversation just by asking people if they have a minute and if I could talk with them. My idea to convince them to take the money is to tell them that I have a New Year's Resolution where every month I want to do something to brighten other people's day. It's a pretty simple explanation and believable. I think I'll be able to give away all five dollars. Who doesn't want free money?

After doing this exercise, I realized it's not as easy as it sounds. When you tell people you want to give them free money, people have very different reactions. I got three out of the five people that I asked to take the dollar. The two that didn't take the dollar seemed very weirded out about the whole process. They were very caught off guard. Even the people that did accept the dollar seemed like they thought it was weird. I think my initial prediction was wrong because I simply underestimated the assignment and thought it would be easy. It wasn't easy to make assumptions about the people I went after. I tried to go after people who seemed friendly but you can't really tell from a quick glance at somebody. In my video, I included one successful and one unsuccessful attempt.

Week 7 Reading Reflection

One thing that I found surprising was when he said the "Catfight Campaign" by Miller Lite wasn't as effective as the one where they mentioned they have lower carbs than alternative drinks. We usually think the flashy advertisements are the ones that boost sales rather than the actual logical ones but I guess this proves that wrong. I guess people care less about funny advertisements and really do want to know if there's going to be any real benefit to them.
A part that was confusing to me was when he talked about the Gravity of Decision Spectrum. He could go on forever about how a razor company segmented its market and that was only on the shallow end of the spectrum. It's just amazing how in depth these companies go into figuring out how to best market their ideas. It's extremely confusing and there is so much that one has to take into account in order to get the right answer.
The first question I would like to ask would be what characteristic he finds to be the most effective when segmenting customers. Maybe there's a certain quality that shows how a market is going to respond better than others. Another question I would like to ask him would be if he ever notices subliminal messaging in the market. I've learned about it in psychology classes and always found it pretty interesting. I wonder if he ever notices it or sees it first hand as a market expert.
I did find one thing that I disagreed with in this article. They mentioned how characteristics like "age, sex, education, and income" are no longer enough to come up with a marketing strategy. I'm sure there are better characteristics that you can go deeper into but I think these characteristics are still pretty relevant. They probably give a good idea of the customer that's most likely going to buy your product.

Elevator Pitch No. 2

I got a lot of good feedback on my last elevator pitch. People said it would be really helpful for a lot of students and could be really successful. I did get some recommendations to improve though, specifically in my content which I thought was really helpful. One thing I improved from my first elevator pitch was that I mentioned there were designated spots to exchange textbooks to solve the safety issues. I also tried to set myself apart from other textbook services by mentioning how much easier and less frustrating this would be for college students.

Customer Interviews No. 3

For these interviews, I gave each customer a description of the app and just asked for their general thoughts on it and whether they could see it being successful. I tried not to plan out questions for this one and just ask questions based on their responses. I went to the same area as last time as it turned out to be a pretty good spot for interviewing people.

The responses I got this time were pretty much the same as last time. People reacted positively and saw some potential in the idea. They mainly said as long as it was implemented well and could connect them to students with ease, it could be really successful. One customer did mention how it would be tough to compete with all the other textbook services that are around now.

Week 6 Reading Reflection

I think the biggest surprise in this article was the amount of barriers to entry he talked about. I've obviously heard of them before in different economics classes I've taken but I didn't realize how many there were. I had never gone in depth on them before and now understand that there are many different types that affect companies in different ways.
One thing I thought was confusing was when he talked about powerful suppliers. It's crazy how much influence one company can have just by making one decision. It can affect a lot of other suppliers and really prevent them from succeeding. It's confusing to understand though just what they are doing and how it changes the market as a whole. It's obviously a very well thought out process and is quite interesting.
The first question I would ask would be which barrier to entry he considers to be the biggest challenge for companies to overcome. There are several that he talked about but I wonder which is the one that makes the most people fail. I would also like to ask him if there are any stories similar to Dr. Pepper's. I think they have a really cool story as to how they were able to uniquely succeed in the market and I wonder if there are any other big names that also had unique successes.
One thing I thought I disagreed with was when he said selling to everybody can be bad for some producers. I guess that it's good to focus on one or two main groups to sell to but it's not at all a bad thing to be selling to everybody. That was the biggest thing I found that I disagreed with.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1. I am Matthew Iandoli. I'm a freshman finance major at UF and I was born in Orlando, Florida. Growing up I played tennis, piano, and a lot of ultimate frisbee. In high school, I was heavily involved with my student government and debate team. I think my best talent is that I'm a good public speaker. I gained a ton of speaking experience in high school and I typically spoke to crowds at least once a month. It's one of my favorite things to do and I always enjoy the challenge of writing a speech. Earlier this year, I took a strengths test and found that my biggest strength was that I enjoy meeting new people. This seems to go pretty hand-in-hand with my passion for public speaking. My aspirations in life aren't quite clear yet. The biggest goal is to be happy with those around me and have a job that provides me enough to live a comfortable life. I think the idea I've come up with could play a huge role in my life if I decided to commit and pursue it heavily. I've gotten some great feedback from interviews and think it has a lot of potential to be successful.
2. The idea that I've come up with is an app called TextSwap that will connect college students at the same school to each other. They will create a profile and then list all the textbooks that they need and those that they are selling.  Students will then be able to search the app for textbooks they're in need of and get connected to someone who's selling it. The students can then decide to either buy, sell, or trade with the person and the only hassle is meeting up with the student in person to make the exchange.
3. My target audience is pretty self explanatory. I'm obviously going after college students if I want this app to be successful. I'd probably test out how the app works at a few colleges to start and then expand it to more schools.
4. Buying textbooks is an extremely expensive and frustrating process. Since TextSwap makes everything simpler and cheaper, I bet it would be very popular among college students. I imagine that the app would probably be free and the main way I'd generate revenue would be through advertisements. If I can get enough traffic on the app, I'm sure plenty of companies would be willing to pay for ads in order to gain more exposure to college students.
5. The most similar thing to my idea is a Facebook Textbook Exchange page. I know UF does this and I'm sure other schools do as well. The problem with this is that it is difficult and time consuming in order to find somebody with the textbook that you need. My idea is better because you'd just have to search the ISBM, and all the students that have it would come up. I'm set apart from online textbook distributors because of how much less time it would take. Students wouldn't have to deal with the week or two that it could take to deliver the book. Finally, TextSwap would be set apart from the bookstores simply because it would cost less to the student.
I think these five ideas fit together pretty well. I didn't think my opportunity would turn into anything but once I came up with an idea and started asking people, my mind changed. I think this seriously has a lot of potential and could be something to pursue outside of this class. The only thing that doesn't quite fit is the fact that I'm a college student. I'm very busy and my number one priority is school work so it would be difficult to find time to develop an app. Maybe if I came up with a team of people to develop the app, things would be pretty manageable. There's obviously still a lot to think about but besides that fact, I think everything fits together pretty well.