Week 15 Reading Reflection

1) I was surprised to learn that women are more likely than men to reinvest profits into the household than men. 
I was also surprised to learn the author only gives loans to women, but is it bad for me to say, women are just more conscious of their finances(?)
2) Nothing in the reading was confusing to me, it was a very interesting and optimistic story.
3) How do you convince a skeptical person to take a loan from you?

How important is it to understand the culture before you approach potential customers. 

4) I do not think the author was wrong about anything. Overall, I was very inspired to read his story and see how entrepreneurship is more than just profits. 

Final Reflection

1) The Highs: "Growing My Social Capital" post. (Only because I actually got hit on, online) Score!!!
The Lows: All the times I had to make videos for my assignments. (Trust me, I love making videos, but they got kinda stressful sometimes.) 

2) The Most Formative Experience: "The Bug List." It made me realize that I really had to sit down and realize the things that needed a solution to them. 

3) Do you feel like you've developed an entrepreneurial mindset? Heck yea. Honestly, the more and more I think about my future, I can't imagine doing anything that didn't involve entrepreneurship. I want to make something out of myself, and for some reason, I just feel deeply motivated. 

4) What do you recommend to future students? How would you recommend them to do to foster this mindset? Honestly, just do you. Once you start this entrepreneurial blog journey, have fun with it. You're going to have to, lest you want to waste weeks of doing mundane work. Make your work fun, and it shall be rewarded back. Look at everything as an opportunity and strive to make something even better than imagined. That's what differentiates the ordinary from the extraordinary. 

 

Venture Concept No. 2

Feedback:

 “This is constantly something I find trouble with while at the library. I am hungry but don’t necessarily want to go too far and waste valuable time that I can use for studying.”

“Your idea is pretty neat. Sometimes when I get hungry while I’m at the library studying or working on an assignment, I sit through it because I don’t want to lose my spot…what makes this unique is that the food can be delivered to exactly where you are sitting. I’m not really sure how payment works, I don’t think anyone would want to pay for someone’s food with their own money to then deliver it to them.”

“Love your idea but there are other companies (2 dollar delivery and doorstop delivery) already in this industry. How do you plan on marketing it differently? Maybe guarantee a certain amount of time for delivery. “

“I love that you present the idea as community members helping each other. I think that it could go very far on many college campuses. You may want to try this idea in colleges known for being collective and progressive, such as New College of Florida.”

Opportunity:

I knew that being in a college campus, students everywhere would be studying and often hungry.

Innovation:

I wanted to create an app experience that brought together the Gator community.

Venture Concept:

By adding a community aspect to a food delivery app, users would be able to rely on friends and classmates for all their hungry needs.

How did you change your venture concept:

In addition to being able to “food challenge” your friends and strangers, I tweeked the app idea to incorporate a “tinder-my-food” option, where users had the choice of swiping up for a yes and swiping down for a no. This allows users to have “fun” with their preferences. Whoever they choose to be their deliverer would provide a fun study break for the hungry individual plus this all ties back into the whole “community” aspect of the app. I wanted to incorporate this fun feature because everyone seemed to be confused on who would be delivering the food, so by adding this option, the choice would be up to the user.

(Like mama said, the way to someone’s heart is through their stomach).

Elevator Pitch No. 4

1. The pitch
(Transcript)

"Hello, my name is Lauren;  I am a 4th year at the University of Florida, and I am an avid scavenger of food. I don't know about y'all, but I search far and wide and sometimes, I wish I had food at the most inconvenient times. Have you ever wished your friends or even a stranger could deliver you food late at night when you're studying and immobile at Club West or Marston? Well, let me introduce you to an interactive app that connects you to a community of food deliverers to you. This app called "Growl" will allow you to connect to your friends in an interactive app community where you all are able to accept each other's personal food requests and retrieve these food items in a "food-run-mission" under a limited amount of time, like 20 minutes, which the hungry person can set. Let's put this into a scenario.
You’re a college student, stuck alone at Marston. You hear your stomach growling. And all you can think about is burgers, nuggets, COFFEE! And then you suddenly remember “Growl,” the app that lets you find people to challenge on food quests. There’s even an additional feature where instead of challenging them, you can post an amount you’re willing to pay to have it delivered to you as a tip to them. It’s simple as 1. 2. 3. 1. You log onto the app on your smart phone, post on your status something along the following lines: "I am hungry for some McDonalds, and I need it in 20 minutes." If someone on your friendslist is available and accepts your food challenge, he/she will accept the chance to pick up your food item after you have purchased it from the store with the Growl app. With every successful food run, your friends can rack up points for prizes, and after every food delivery, you can rate if the deliverer was a 4/5 star deliverer, if the food was correctly ordered, etc. You can even change your settings and allow other community members that aren't your friends to deliver you food. You should never go hungry late at night. A new addition to the app will be the “tinder-my-food” edition, where you can select who your deliverer will be through a swipe up for a yes or a swipe down for a no motion. I think this’ll create an interesting study break, allow for other members to meet each other and ultimately allow the hungry student to be satiated. After your food run date, you can rate how your deliverer was and how accurate the order was. Mama always said the best way to someone’s heart was through their stomach. Join the Growl app community. Remember. Don't let your hunger roar, just "Growl."

2) Reflection

A lot of people had no clue who would be delivering the food, so I added the new feature of not only allowing friends to deliver you food but making it into a tinder-like dating app ignited through hunger. 

3) What did you change? 

I made the app idea more flexible in that users can buy the food right there on the spot, as opposed to making the deliverer go and pay for the food. I added a "tip" option to allow the deliverer to be tipped if the person who orders the food likes the experience enough. I added an option to allow users to swipe up or down and pick their own food deliverer, so it's kinda like a dating app through food.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?
What surprised me the most is how corporate entrepreneurship, or intrapreneurship, is basically when entrepreneurship evolves into something much larger.  It baffled me how even though they are big corporations, they had to start somewhere.
2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
What was confusing to me is the comparison of incremental innovation and radical innovation.
3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?
Why is it that incremental innovation and radical innovation seem separate when they can co-mingle?  It just seems like even though there are differences, there could be a thought process in your idea that may require both types of innovation.  Also, what makes a corporate entrepreneurship branded as such?  It seems confusing that there are no set parameters to what separates a corporate entrepreneurship from a standard entrepreneurship.
4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?
Other than that, I do not have any disagreements.

Google Gold

1) A discussion of your general approach and strategy to search engine optimization (SEO). What were some of the activities you did for each blog post to pursue SEO? 

Honestly, I haven't been trying as hard as some of my peers in trying to find internet fame or success. 

(But if I were)

 ....I would utilize key words into my labels like, instead of just posting by weeks. I would post things on my facebook, and I would seek out SEO help from the tech business owner I know.

2) What were your keywords. How did you select those keywords? Did you change or refine your keywords through the semester?

I literally just posted weeks. I basically what I was told because (tbh) this was an assignment. Now looking over it, I really truly did I think I had fun with these assignments, but they were just "aight." If I had went above and beyond, the possibilities could have been endless. (Soooo.) I think what I plan to do is basically go back and fix posts and make them better. And make this post be literally about my entrepreneurship journey the whole way through. 

But my key words would have tried to incorporate a link to modern news with my post. But maybe in a humorous way cause that's gold.
                                                       ....google gold.

 

3) How did you use social media to enhance your SEO efforts? What were your surprises or general impression of using social media to improve your blog's profile? Was social media generally receptive of your blog, or did it get ignored?

I think it would have had "likes," but not enough to create a worldwide change in my life. I think we--sad to say it--live in a very consumptive and narcissistic life, so in order for my blog to reach epic proportions, it would have to be near professional quality pics, blog posts, just everything in general. Social media is one of the best avenues, but my blog was ignored because no one really cares, and that is why everything has to look "a certain way." That and maybe create video-content, because people like interaction. (Why is Snapchat popular? Why are vines popular? Even the swiping motion from the Tinder app makes it fun--No, I haven't used Tinder, I've heard stories.)

4) What was your most "viral" post? In other words, which post obtained the most traffic? Why do you think?
I'm actually very surprised that the "Identifying Local Opportunities" post was the one with the most views. It makes sense though. The keywords are very common and google would pop them up almost instantly depending on what you're looking for. This was also near the beginning of the semester, people were probably more attentive, so the more interesting blog posts near the end, like around now are being dismissed.

5) Finally, did you make it to the first page of Google results for your keywords? If not, what page of results did you make it to? 
You can't really find me unless you google "Lauren Nguyen entrepreneurship" LOL.

Very Short Interview Part 2

My first impression of the first short interview I had was that it was a big learning stepping stone for me. Here I was, asking someone established a piece of their mind, basically picking apart the components to success, in order to form my own pieces.

(Unfortunately, my entrepreneur did not want to be identified)
Me: So, revisiting the last time we met, what do you wish you could tell me, as one piece of advice?
Entrepreneur: To have heart. You can't do anything unless you believe in it yourself. If you're selling something you don't believe in, how far are you going to get?
Me: How do you instill that belief in your workers?
Entrepreneur: It's hard. Everyone has their own methods to being a boss. I just believe that if you embody the example you want to see, things should work out.
Me: Are there things you wish you could change?
Entrepreneur: Always. In business, you need to be able to change with the times.

This class has taught me that believing in yourself more than anything is the first step to success.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?
I was most surprised by the formulas involved in understanding the growth of your company, and I'm surprised that it is applicable to all businesses.
2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
I was most confused by the discussion of stockholders and what goes into the decision of going public.
3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?
I would ask the author to describe some of the changes in management and production after companies change.
I would also ask how to know how to manage such a large change such as going public, and how to gauge its effectiveness for your business in particular.
4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?
I think the author did well on these concepts. I did not disagree with anything.

Celebrating Failure

1) Tell us about a time this past semester that you failed -- whether in this class, or outside of this class. Don't spare any details! It'd be even better if there was something you tried several times this semester, and failed each time. 
I know this sounds weird, even funny, but I FAIL at being single. As a budding senior, I can honestly say the longest I have been single is 6 months in college, with the last time being 1 month--let's give me some credit--1.5 months. Now that I'm single again, I have to understand and dedicate my time on focusing me and on my abilities.
2) Tell us what you learned from it.
Now I know what you're thinking:"That's cool and all, but what does that have to do with this class?"
Well, being an entrepreneur, much like being single, is a mindset. Yes, you can be single, but if you do not input the time and effort in deflecting the pursuers, you cannot accomplish your goals. With entrepreneurship, you have to constantly remind yourself of your end goal. (I recently heard that some people write down motivational quotes or little message "pick-me-ups" to re-motivate themselves.) 
Plus, much like entrepreneurship, being single allows you a period of inner-reflection. You understand your highs and lows, and sometimes that is the greatest lesson you can learn--BUT you have to learn it on your own. You cannot just seek it through someone else.
3) Reflect, in general, on what you think about failure. Failure is hard, isn't it? It's embarrassing, sure, but it also means that we have to change something about ourselves. Talk about how you handle failure (emotionally, behaviorally). Finally, talk about how this class has changed your perspective on failure -- are you more likely to take a risk now than you were four months ago?
I handle failure in a variety of different ways. I do not see how there could be one particular path to handling it because in life, we just fail so much. I think it is important for us to understand that failure is imminent, but it isn't lasting. we must understand that in order to succeed, we need to fail...like a lot. (Walmart filed for bankruptcy several times because it hit big.) I think this class has taught me that with every failure that I come across, I should learn to not be so sensitive and to be adaptive. "Sure, I failed," but ask yourself, "Okay, now what did I do wrong, so I don't f*** it up next time?" 
Life is a series of lessons, and failures are definitely one of them. 

 

My Exit Strategy

1)   I intend to sell a portion of my business to interested investors within the next 5 years for a return on investment. I intend to stay with the business for maybe 5 more years before I let it go and invest my time and focus on the next venture. I plan to develop the app into not only a food app anymore but a dating app. Essentially the idea is to have hungry study-ers (or whomever) post a message on the app asking for a food delivery, and then the user would swipe up (to accept) or down (to decline) from their choice of food deliverers. It’s like Tinder but with food. I believe it is a good alternative because students would have the chance to meet someone they might find attractive, pay tip (through the app to their deliverer, if they wanted) plus it would be a good study break. I would still want to have ownership over it, but I intend to sell portions of the business to interested buyers. I believe it would be an interesting thing for my future children to have as well, because each generation is different, and I would love to see how the venture would grow within a 10-20 year span.

2)   I have selected this particular strategy because I truly believe in this idea, and ultimately, at the end of the day, this idea is my baby, and I intend on making it worthwhile.

3)   I think it has shown the growth that my venture has developed throughout the planning process. It has definitely influenced my abilities to identify opportunities in a collegiate environment. It allows me to step back and ask the question, “Would ‘I’ even do this?”

What's Next

Existing Market. 
Step 1: Talk about what you think is what's next. You may rely on your analyses from "The Amazon Whisperer" exercise (when you discussed what product you thought might come next.)
New additions to the app would be alcohol deliveries (after age approval and ID verification)
Step 2: Interview three customers who are already part of the market you have identified, and ask them what they believe is next for a venture like yours. Describe to them your business, and simply ask "What should we be doing that we aren't planning to do?" Next, ask them about your ideas of what customers might want next. Video or audio record these interviews.
What do you think of the product?
Person 1: "I think it's innovative"
Person 2: "I think it's cool."
Person 3: "I think you may need more clear focuses." 
What do you believe is next for a venture like mine? 
Person 1: "Maybe you could have it instagram based somehow--people like taking pics."
Person 2: "I think you may need to make it free. Is it free?"
Person 3: "I can't really think of any."
Step 3: Based on your own expectations and the feedback you received from customers, set a path for the future. In two to three paragraphs, describe what makes the most sense for your venture in terms of growing in your existing market.
What makes the most sense in the existing market is to launch the app and monitor its usage in a 12 month span for up to 2 years. Depending on whether the growth of usage increases, we can move from there. Research is one of the most crucial things about businesses. We have to also research the market we are targeting to make sure we are not wasting our time. 
 
New Market.
Step 1: Identify a radically different market from what you're currently planning to target. If you're currently targeting B2B, think about going after a B2C market. If you're currently targeting an affluent part of society, think about targeting a very poor part of society. 
I plan to target adults.
Step 2: Once you have identified a radically different market, describe how you think your venture concept might be able to create value for people in that market. You may have to get creative with this -- that's OK -- and perfectly welcome!
Adults are consistently busy. They have to work a 9-to-5pm job (sometimes more hours), they have to grocery job, take the kids to school/dance class/soccer practice, etc. I believe that with this app, their lives-- food-wise-- will be easier.
Step 3: Interview three people from this new market. Again, describe to each interviewee what your concept is. Then, ask them how they think your business might be help to meet customers like them. What kinds of adaptations to the product/service mix do they think you should make to be successful in this new market? Video or audio record these interviews.
Person 1: "I think it's innovative"
Person 2: "I think it's cool."
Person 3: "I think you may need more clear focuses."
 Step 4:  Reflect, in two to three paragraphs, on what you learned about this new market. What surprised you the most? Were any of your expectations/assumptions correct? Does this new market, on second thought, appear to be as attractive as your existing market? And so on.
I think what surprised me the most was the willingness of the older generation to try new things.

Week 12 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?
I suppose I was surprised at the many layers that are intertwined in a process. For instance, along with learning what strategic planning is, but also learning what tactical and operational planning are as well.
2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
None of the concepts were confusing. 
3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?
I have no questions. 
4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?
For this particular section, I believe the author was right.