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.