Assignment 29A - Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity:

• Every year, students at the University of Florida and Santa Fe College deal with housing problems in two forms: (1) their lease ends before the summer term lets up (2) they can’t find suitable short-term leases.
• This described problem is mostly a problem for those that take internships during the school year, do not stay in Gainesville for the summer, are international students or graduates. That being said, every UF and Santa Fe student is likely to fall into of these categories at some point in their career as a student. 
• The nature of the need arises from the fact that students typically do not need a lease for the entire year, but that is often the only thing that is offered. That means that students are forced to sign a year-long lease to ensure adequate housing at the cost of later having to pay for vacant months. 
• The force that allow this to occur is lack of other options. For instance, most people only live in the dorm their first year of college. Upon finding off-campus housing, you are required to sign a year-long lease where you’ll be assured that you can find a sublet whenever you need. But the reality is that when summer rolls along, everyone is trying to get rid of their apartment and will severely underprice you. Personally, I lived at the Courtyards and couldn’t sublet my apartment because people in the Standard whose rent is typically $700+ were offering their rooms for $250. 
• In addition to the force that allows this to happen, about 78% of undergraduate students nationwide live off-campus. This means that there is a huge window of opportunity. 
• Currently, there is no satisfactory resolution. There are very few places that offer flexible leases and they come at the cost of comfort or location. For instance, some places that ride will allow you to lease on a semester-basis are a forty-minute bus to school or of dormitory nature, but those options lack optimal location and comfort respectively. 
• This window of opportunity is likely to be open for a while due to the force that allows this problem to arise in the first place: a lack of other options. 

Innovation:

• My innovation is to create a service that pairs UF Housing with off-campus housing communities in order to provide students with the option of flexible leases.
• For students, this makes finding housing easier as well as allows you to choose a flexible lease option. How this would work is that the student would apply to the off-campus community of their choice through the UF housing portal and on the application, they would select the flexible lease option and specify the dates that they will need the lease for. This adds a one-time fee of $250 that you will pay at the beginning of your lease. The fee can then go towards UF funds to find a substitute lessee for whatever time remaining in your lease. 
• For the University, on the other hand, this expands their customer base. Not only will all students now be using their housing portal, but they will be getting an extra fee every time someone doesn’t need a full year lease. Additionally, UF is better equipped to find sublets than an individual person is. For instance, there are many people who might need a sublease but may not come across your ad for your sublease. They are likely, however, to contact the school about any availability. 

Venture Concept:

• Students will use my service if they know that they need a flexible lease. My service is better than the current housing process, where the students pays to sublet your apartment only if they successfully find a sublet; that means that if they can’t find the sublet, then they have to pay the full rent for the remaining months of their lease. Under my service, the student will not be liable for finding a sublet.
• I do not think that ‘switch’ can be used here as there are not other options. If UF offers flexible leases and a student needs one, I do not see why they would not start using the service. Additionally, there are no other competitors. 
• Price Points: The pricing of my service is critical. If I price too expensively, it would not reduce the financial burden on students and many are likely to just assume responsibility for the rent. That means that they will never use my service. Currently, I am planning to price around the price point of the sublet fee that many apartments use. 
• Distribution: I will distribute flyers throughout UF campus about the availability of flexible leases. I am hoping that this will then spread by word of mouth. 
• Customer Service: Since the housing will reflect on UF, I think it is important for our customer service to be friendly and caring. 
• Location: Gainesville, FL. If my service proves to be successful, then I can expand to other universities/college towns. 
• Packaging: N/A
• Employees: I think the employees would remain the same as now. UF will have its housing representatives and the off-campus communities will have their housing staff. The only types of employees that I have to add are marketing and administrative. 
• The marketing staff’s job will be to get the awareness for the service. This might be a team of 5-10 people. 
• The administrative staff will work with UF housing and off-campus housing to work out logistics. This might be a smaller team of 3-5 people who know the ins and outs of partnerships such as this one. 

Unfair Advantage: I have connections with many off-campus housing complexes as well as UF housing representatives that will make it hard for people to copy my idea. Even if they wanted to, it would take them a while to develop the credibility I have with such institutions.

What’s Next: I want to relieve the financial burden that the housing problem in Gainesville puts on students. As a college student, we have other expenses to worry about.

For me: I am a huge planner. Being able to get rid of tiny nuisances along the way would personally benefit me, but in this case, it would benefit thousands of my peers. If this venture is successful, I would go on to create other services/products that will continue to rid people of tiny nuisances like this one.

Feedback:

• Well thought-out, structured, and professional
• Direct 
• Easy to comprehend 
• Including different perspectives was a smart choice 

How I’ll adapt: 

• There wasn’t any negative feedback for me to improve on, so that’s a good sign!
• Personally, the way that I think I can improve this is to figure out the pricing. Being able to stay in an affordable range will most likely be the selling point of my venture.

Picture: UF Housing Portal

Assignment 30A - Final Reflection

• What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?
• What stuck out to me as the most formative experience is the books that I read for the second and third reflection. I get stressed very often and at certain points in the semester, I found myself in a rut. Reading “Mindset: The Psychology of Success” and “How to Fail at Everything and Still Win Big” helped put things into perspective for me. Going forward, I think I am going to read similar books. 
• An experience that I’ll remember years later is the feedback on my points. While I welcome and appreciate constructive criticism, it still makes me anxious and I tend to remember it forever. 
• The most joyous experience was hearing what my closest friends had to say about me. It was encouraging and neat to see how people perceive me to be like. 
• I am most proud of myself for never missing an assignment. This semester got hectic at times and being able to finish strong makes me proud. 
• At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset? 
• I see myself as more of an entrepreneur than I used to. Before taking this class, I strongly believed that I would never create a business because I am not a risk taker. However, after taking this class and seeing how easy it is to identify venture opportunities, I could see myself wanting to pursue an idea. That being said, I think that I would have to be really passionate about the idea to move forward it. For instance, while the housing issue is something that bothers me, I am not passionate enough about it to move forward with it. 
• What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset? 

• One recommendation to students who are going to journey down this path in the future is to come in with an open mindset. Even if you are taking this class for an easy elective, be open to the idea of entrepreneurship…you might change your mind about it! 
• To perform their best in this course, I’d advise them to plan, plan, plan! Some assignments in this class are longer than others so look ahead. What took you an hour last week might take you three hours this week. Post-it notes, agendas, etc. can help plan and ultimately will help you make yourself a better entrepreneur.

Assignment 28A - Your Exit Strategy

1. Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. Do you intend to sell your business in the next 5 years for a large return? Do you intend to stay with the business for several decades and retire? Do you intend to protect the venture as a family business, and pass it down to your children?
• My ultimate plan with Flexilease is to get it up and running with a decent profit margin. Depending on the difficulty as well as the extent to which students and their parents rate the service, I would like to expand to other college towns; this is because my ultimate goal was to make the housing process easier for students. After that, I ultimately hope to be selling it. The return does not matter to me. 
2. Why have you selected this particular exit strategy? 
• The entire reason for this venture is to make student lives’ easier; it was not for personal gain. Therefore, I would stay with the venture if I felt like I was continually making an impact. When the impact isn’t there anymore, I would want someone to take over and just maintain what I have created. 
3. How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept? For instance, has it influenced how you have identified an opportunity? Has it influenced your growth intentions or how you plan to acquire and use resources? 
• I think my exit strategy has strongly influenced the pricing aspect of my decision. I want to make my service profitable for off-campus housing communities and UF so that I can hand off the service to them; this caused me to not think of what kind of return I would want for myself. Furthermore, the reason for my exit strategy is dependent upon the reason I identified the opportunity in the first place. For instance, once I make housing easier for everyone (considering the hassles I faced myself), I intend on bowing out. As for resources, it is hard to say whether my exit strategy influenced them because my venture is a service not a product. Therefore, the most valuable resources remain the two parties that are left in the venture after I leave.

Assignment 27A - Reading Reflection No. 3

“Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol Dweck

1. What was the general theme or argument of the book?
• The general theme of the book is that differences in mindset is correlated to success. For instance, Dweck argues that those with a fixed mindset, or a mindset where one believes that their abilities are fixed, are less likely to experience success with parenting, business, school or relationships.
2. How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?
• Some of the concepts in the books overlap with topics that we are learning in ENT3003. One of the major things that I saw overlap was the concept that our skills and abilities can be developed. For instance, there was multiple assignments in this class that repeat. It is because our ideas and ourselves are constantly developing, so it is important to develop our entrepreneurial idea accordingly. 
3. If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?
• This book delves into the impact that a fixed mindset versus a growth can have on different aspects of life. If I had to design an exercise for this class based on this book, I would ask everyone to determine situations in which they have a fixed mindset and situations in which they have a growth mindset. Once they identify areas in which they have the two mindsets, I would ask them to define why they believed they had each mindset. 
• For example, reading this book made me realize that while I possess a growth mindset in things such as sports and business, I do not possess a growth mindset when it comes to relationships; instead, I possess a fixed mindset that manifests itself as extreme emotion and the ultimate failure of many relationships. 
4. What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?
• My biggest ‘aha’ moment when reading this book was both a surprise and old news. I used to see a therapist with whom I worked on cognitive therapy with. Each week, we would take all the discouraging thoughts that I had and reframe them into positive thoughts until positive thoughts are what naturally came to mind/what I really believed. While it was a process, I found it crazy that it is that easy to change a whole mindset. This book further reemphasizes the importance of cognitive therapy; Dweck argues that once people notice that they have a fixed mindset, they are likely to actively change that mindset. If that is the case, why isn’t cognitive therapy more popular than it is? I think it should be.

Assignment 26A - 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.
• Accounting. So for those of you who didn’t know, I am an Accounting major. I am in the last stretch of impossibly hard classes and had major anxiety going into it because of poor performance in the prerequisites. I prepared heavily for the first exam that fell the day after my 21st birthday (I had family fly in from Seattle and didn’t celebrate because I was studying) and ended up with a failing grade. 
• I figured I had three more exams, so put in all my effort again for the next exam to get even a worse score (and I had felt more prepared for it than the first one). At this point, I was starting to spiral because I had a lot riding on passing this semester. For instance, I have changed my major 4 times before finding one that I could actually see myself doing AND I have an internship lined up for next summer which is contingent on passing the classes I am enrolled in right now. 
• I am not easily discouraged, but what do you do when your best is not enough? 
2. Tell us what you learned from it. 
•  Interestingly enough, the turning point for me this semester was when I accidentally started crying during office hours. I went to see my accounting professor about how I could change my study habits to maybe improve my grade, and when we could come up with nothing to help me, tears involuntarily welled in my eyes. It was the following conversation with him that gave me perspective. What is the worst thing that could happen if I failed? What is the worst thing that would happen if I had to change my plans? 
• It was that conversation that gave me the insight that I needed. I learned that not every plan goes accordingly and that’s okay. 
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 just a few months ago? 
• I think that failure is inevitable. My way of handling failure is to plan for the worst case scenario. If you knew me at all, you would know that not only do I have a plan A, but a plan B through Z. I also have been told that the best thing to do is “fail hard, fail fast.” That is something I keep in mind every day. It is best to fail now and learn from mistakes/experiences because we are young and have less to lose. That being said, it is a learning process and I am no pro at handling failure.
• This class has changed my perspective on failure in the sense that it taught me how to minimize risk, if I had to risk something. For instance, if I decide to follow through on my venture, it taught me that increasing my social capital will ensure that I won’t make the same mistakes that other entrepreneurs do.

Assignment 25A - What's Next?

What I Think Is Next:
I think that the next step for Flexilease is to work on the timing of leases in addition to its flexible nature. For instance, I know that my apartment complex started leasing for the academic year of 2020-2021 in September 2019 and that ends up frustrating many students. If I can get UF and off-campus housing partnered for flexible leases, my next step would be to work on when people can actually apply for leases. My proposed solution would be to stagger the release of housing. That means that instead of making all housing available in September, allow those who want to renew do so in Fall semester and then have new people sign on in Spring semester. This would give people adequate time to figure out their plans for the next year.

Existing Market Interviews:

1. The interviewee agreed that this was a good next step. She said that even with the possibility of flexible leases, it’s hard to estimate for what semesters you’ll need a lease so early into the year. She also mentioned that for her personally, she doesn’t know when she will graduate (Fall or Spring of the following year), so that makes it hard to decide housing.
2. This interviewee suggested that instead of changing the time to get housing, that I should see if you can sign for housing and get out of it later. I mentioned that currently a lot of housing communities do this so it would not be that advantageous of an idea to pursue. 
3. This interviewee said that looking into the timing of a lease was a natural next step for me to pursue. He said that having to sign a lease so early places a lot of stress on her, particularly this semester. He mentioned that he was looking to intern in the following Fall semester but had to sign a lease anyway because it rolled out so early. 

Reflection:
After listening to what these individuals had to say, I think that this would be a natural progression of my service. In addition to flexible leases, it would be nice to push out housing applications a few months in order to let students decide what they were doing the following year.

From what I understood, the interviewees had the same opinions as me about the situation and agreed that this would help them out. For instance, interviewee three mentioned that while he does not know if he will be interning next Fall yet, he would know by Spring. Therefore later housing application dates would greatly help him.

New market:
A market I have not thought about until now is students who prefer to live in houses as opposed to apartments. While it is true that most students live in apartments in Gainesville, there are students who prefer houses because they have pets, or a family, or are PhD students. My previous interviews have consisted of people who intended on living in an apartment since that is a popular choice, but it might be worthwhile to see what those who prefer houses say. That being said, houses tend to be city property so I do not know how I would appeal to these students. Perhaps they’d consider townhouses?

New Market Interviews: 

1. This interviewee said that the only reason they prefer houses to apartments is because they are cheaper than most student apartment complexes.
2. This interviewee said that they liked to live in a house so that their dog has space to run around outside and such of the like. They said that while flexible leases would be ideal, they would not be willing to move out of a house to an apartment. 

Reflection:
These interviews confirmed some of the thoughts that I already had. For instance, I was pretty positive that those who prefer to live in a house are unlikely to want to switch to an apartment and these interviews confirmed that. Additionally, neither interview suggested any ideas as to how I could enter this ‘new’ market.

After these interviews, I might have to conclude that students that prefer living in houses might not be in my market segment. Because of city ordinances, it is not possible to expand my idea to houses.

Assignment 24A - Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity:

• Every year, students at the University of Florida and Santa Fe College deal with housing problems in two forms: (1) their lease ends before the summer term lets up (2) they can’t find suitable short-term leases.
• This described problem is mostly a problem for those that take internships during the school year, do not stay in Gainesville for the summer, are international students or graduates. That being said, every UF and Santa Fe student is likely to fall into of these categories at some point in their career as a student. 
• The nature of the need arises from the fact that students typically do not need a lease for the entire year, but that is often the only thing that is offered. That means that students are forced to sign a year-long lease to ensure adequate housing at the cost of later having to pay for vacant months. 
• The force that allow this to occur is lack of other options. For instance, most people only live in the dorm their first year of college. Upon finding off-campus housing, you are required to sign a year-long lease where you’ll be assured that you can find a sublet whenever you need. But the reality is that when summer rolls along, everyone is trying to get rid of their apartment and will severely underprice you. Personally, I lived at the Courtyards and couldn’t sublet my apartment because people in the Standard whose rent is typically $700+ were offering their rooms for $250. 
• In addition to the force that allows this to happen, about 78% of undergraduate students nationwide live off-campus. This means that there is a huge window of opportunity. 
• Currently, there is no satisfactory resolution. There are very few places that offer flexible leases and they come at the cost of comfort or location. For instance, some places that ride will allow you to lease on a semester-basis are a forty-minute bus to school or of dormitory nature, but those options lack optimal location and comfort respectively. 
• This window of opportunity is likely to be open for a while due to the force that allows this problem to arise in the first place: a lack of other options. 

Innovation:

• My innovation is to create a service that pairs UF Housing with off-campus housing communities in order to provide students with the option of flexible leases.
• For students, this makes finding housing easier as well as allows you to choose a flexible lease option. How this would work is that the student would apply to the off-campus community of their choice through the UF housing portal and on the application, they would select the flexible lease option and specify the dates that they will need the lease for. This adds a one-time fee of $250 that you will pay at the beginning of your lease. The fee can then go towards UF funds to find a substitute lessee for whatever time remaining in your lease. 
• For the University, on the other hand, this expands their customer base. Not only will all students now be using their housing portal, but they will be getting an extra fee every time someone doesn’t need a full year lease. Additionally, UF is better equipped to find sublets than an individual person is. For instance, there are many people who might need a sublease but may not come across your ad for your sublease. They are likely, however, to contact the school about any availability. 

Venture Concept:

• Students will use my service if they know that they need a flexible lease. My service is better than the current housing process, where the students pays to sublet your apartment only if they successfully find a sublet; that means that if they can’t find the sublet, then they have to pay the full rent for the remaining months of their lease. Under my service, the student will not be liable for finding a sublet.
• I do not think that ‘switch’ can be used here as there are not other options. If UF offers flexible leases and a student needs one, I do not see why they would not start using the service. Additionally, there are no other competitors. 
• Price Points: The pricing of my service is critical. If I price too expensively, it would not reduce the financial burden on students and many are likely to just assume responsibility for the rent. That means that they will never use my service. Currently, I am planning to price around the price point of the sublet fee that many apartments use. 
• Distribution: I will distribute flyers throughout UF campus about the availability of flexible leases. I am hoping that this will then spread by word of mouth. 
• Customer Service: Since the housing will reflect on UF, I think it is important for our customer service to be friendly and caring. 
• Location: Gainesville, FL. If my service proves to be successful, then I can expand to other universities/college towns. 
• Packaging: N/A 
• Employees: I think the employees would remain the same as now. UF will have its housing representatives and the off-campus communities will have their housing staff. The only types of employees that I have to add are marketing and administrative. 
• The marketing staff’s job will be to get the awareness for the service. This might be a team of 5-10 people. 
• The administrative staff will work with UF housing and off-campus housing to work out logistics. This might be a smaller team of 3-5 people who know the ins and outs of partnerships such as this one. 

Unfair Advantage: I have connections with many off-campus housing complexes as well as UF housing representatives that will make it hard for people to copy my idea. Even if they wanted to, it would take them a while to develop the credibility I have with such institutions.

What’s Next: I want to relieve the financial burden that the housing problem in Gainesville puts on students. As a college student, we have other expenses to worry about.

For me: I am a huge planner. Being able to get rid of tiny nuisances along the way would personally benefit me, but in this case, it would benefit thousands of my peers. If this venture is successful, I would go on to create other services/products that will continue to rid people of tiny nuisances like this one.

Assignment 23A - Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1. Housing Experience: I work in the leasing office of my apartment complex, so I can first-handedly understand housing struggles as well as meet UF students who need flexible leases.
1. Valuable: This is valuable because it lets me understand the scope of my market 
2. Rare: This is not rare at all. 
3. Inimitable: This is not super inimitable, as others can choose to work in their leasing office, but it is limited. 
4. Non-substitutable: This is a hard thing to substitute because you can’t just ask people for personal company statistics (regarding profit, etc.). 
2. Social Capital: Housing Connections: Working in the leasing office of my apartment complex lets me see the ins and the outs of the businesses and better understand the pros and cons of my idea. 
1. Valuable: This is valuable because my idea requires two parties to agree to some form of a binding experience and they will only do it if there is something in it for them. 
2. Rare: This is not rare at all. 
3. Inimitable: This is not super inimitable, as others can choose to work in their leasing office, but it is limited. 
4. Non-substitutable: This is a hard thing to substitute because you can’t just ask people for personal company statistics (regarding profit, etc.). 
3. Lack of Competitors: There are not many places that partner with UF to provide flexible leases now. Currently, it is just the Continuum. 
1. Valuable: This is valuable because I can reach my entire market with little competition. 
2. Rare: It is rare in nature as there are no competitors. 
3. Inimitable: Someone could easily copy this in the future, so it might come down to a pricing/location competition. For instance, I could remain a successful competitor in the market if I am partnered with all the housing communities by campus. 
4. Non-substitutable: I can try to come up with something substitutable, such as a sublet matching company. However, I am pretty sure those exist and are unsuccessful. 
4. Social Capital: UF Students: As a UF student, I have access to many students who face housing troubles. 
1. Valuable: This is valuable because it is my main market. 
2. Rare: This is not rare. It is a college town; everyone knows UF students. 
3. Inimitable: This is imitable for the same reason it is not rare. 
4. Non-substitutable: This is not substitutable since it is my market. 
5. Social Capital: UF Housing Representatives: Because of a previous assignment, I was able to contact a UF housing rep for the Continuum. 
1. Valuable: This is valuable because the Continuum is the only complex that currently employs the idea I am presenting. This allows me to ask questions about the logistics. 
2. Rare: This is not rare. Anyone can reach out to him. 
3. Inimitable: This is not inimitable for the same reason it is not rare. 
4. Non-substitutable: This is not substitutable for the same reason it is valuable. 
6. Social Capital: Student Entrepreneurs: I know people who have started their own companies so they would be useful capital in the sense that I could ask them questions/seek advice. 
1. Valuable: This is valuable because I don’t want to encounter problems that could be avoided.
2. Rare: This is somewhat rare; it is hard to know people that have started their own businesses. 
3. Inimitable: This is somewhat imitable for the same reason that it is rare. 
4. Non-substitutable: This is not substitutable. 
7. Public Speaking Experience: I have had experience public speaking; I once gave a TedX talk and have been endorsed on LinkedIn for having exceptional public speaking skills. 
1. Valuable: This is valuable because I will need to pitch my idea to two parties: UF and off-campus housing communities. 
2. Rare: This is rare because no one can have the exact same speaking personality as me. 
3. Inimitable: This is inimitable because everyone has different levels of experience with speaking publicly. 
4. Non-substitutable: This is not substitutable. 
8. Social Capital: UF Alums: UF Alums are likely to be advocates for my idea as they have experienced the same problem and often have kids that want to go to UF. 
1. Valuable: This is valuable because this expands my market. 
2. Rare: This is not rare because UF students tend to know UF alum. 
3. Inimitable: This is inimitable for the same reason it is not rare. 
4. Non-substitutable: This is non-substitutable because it has to do with my market. 
9. Social Capital: Santa Fe Students: I know a lot of Santa Fe students who may also have housing issues.
1. Valuable: This is valuable because it is my secondary market, behind UF students. 
2. Rare: This is somewhat rare. It is common to know UF students, but not so much with Santa Fe students. 
3. Inimitable: This is somewhat imitable for the same reason it is somewhat rare. 
4. Non-substitutable: This is not substitutable since it is my secondary market. 
10. Social Capital: CEO of Imprint Genius, Isaac Hetzroni: This will help me with the publicity of my idea. 
1. Valuable: This is valuable to get news out that people have the option of flexible leases through UF. 
2. Rare: This is rare because not everyone has a personal connection with Isaac. 
3. Inimitable: This is inimitable because nobody can develop the same relationship I have with Isaac. 
4. Non-substitutable: This is substitutable by befriending another printing company. However, using a friend may be cheaper than seeking another option. 

After doing the VRIN analysis, I realized that some of resources are stronger in some areas than other. Therefore, it would be ideal to be able to use a combination of events. If I cannot do so, I would choose my housing connection because the hardest part to work out with my idea is the logistics. Without this resource, it is possible my idea never may come to fruition.

Assignment 22A - Elevator Pitch No. 2

Check out my pitch here!

Reflection of feedback: Based on the feedback that I received, I was able to pinpoint some things that I conveyed well and others that could use improvement. For instance, the feedback regarding how I explained by problem/solution was overwhelmingly positive! This was good to hear because clarifying the problem/solution was one of the main things that I had focused on improving from the first elevator pitch to the second elevator pitch. Additionally, I received affirming feedback on my hook which was created to establish pathos with students and their parents who may deal with housing issues. In terms of improvement, the consensus was to improve my delivery.

What I changed, based on feedback: I practiced my pitch a few times before recording. This allowed me to reduce my stammering and finish my pitch strong (i.e. without mumbling). I also was wearing business professional like in my previous pitches but put on a jacket (because I was cold and really sick), but it ended up adding to my pitch because it is a Warrington Diplomat jacket. Who better to pitch a UF-sponsored service than a diplomat herself (woo, social capital)? Go Gators!

Assignment 21 - Reading Reflection No. 2

“How to Fail at Everything and Still Win Big” by Scott Adams

1. What was the general theme or argument of the book?
1. The general theme of the book is that failure is a part of everyone’s life, but there are things we can do to ensure that we learn and grow from it. Scott Adams draws from his life to come up with key takeaways such as happiness derives from health, systems are for winners and goals are for losers, and luck can be managed.
2. How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?
1. Some of the concepts in the books overlap with topics that we are learning in ENT3003. One of the major concepts that I saw overlap were regarding social capital. In class, I learned that it is important to grow your social capital as it is one of the few (if not only) resources that no one can imitate. Adams reinforced this concept by talking about how the biggest obstacle to his success was not knowing people who could have guided him along his journey. He encourages his readers to seek out people who can impart their wisdom upon you. 
3. If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve? 
1. Something that this book emphasized is that goals are for losers and systems are for winners. If I had to design an exercise for this class, I would ask everyone to write down their goals and the systems (if any) that they have in place for these goals. Then, I would ask them to reflect on the effectiveness of their systems. Is it truly helping them get closer to their goals? What could they improve? 
2. If I wanted to take it a step further, I would encourage the students to seek out people who have similar goals as them and interview them to find out more about systems they might have in place. They can then reflect on the differences. Is there a good difference they should integrate into their own systems?
4. What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations? 
1. My biggest ‘aha’ moment in this book was the emphasis placed on health. My mom often told me while growing up that health is wealth, but like any other college student eating Ramen at midnight and skipping most of the food pyramid levels on the daily, I can honestly say that this is something I have neglected in my life. Adams put health back into perspective for me by emphasizing the relations between eating/exercising and productivity/creativity.

Assignment 20A - Growing Your Social Capital

Domain Expert

1. Who they are and what their background is.
1. Damien, area coordinator for the Continuum
2. How this person is a domain expert: 
1. He coordinates housing with the Continuum on behalf of UF. The Continuum is currently the only UF housing affiliate that is off campus. This is what I am looking to build on.
3. A description of how you found the person and contacted the person. 
1. I found this person through the UF housing website and emailed him at the email provided. 
4. The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 
1. He listened to my service idea and answered any questions I had about the logistics of the Continuum’s affiliation with UF. He seemed very excited to talk about his job. 
5. How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity? 
1. Including them in my network would enhance my ability to follow-through with my idea in terms of logistics. For instance, they can help me figure out how to get started, who to speak to, etc.

Market Expert

1. Who they are and what their background is.
1. Matthieu is a fifth-year UF student, who will be graduating this December. 
2. How this person is a market expert: 
1. This person is a market expert because they are graduating this December and have been through the process of searching for flexible leases. 
3. A description of how you found the person and contacted the person. 
1. This is one of my friends so I just texted him. 
4. The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 
1. The encounter was casual. I told him that I will most likely end up only needing a lease for a semester during my senior year, so I was curious as to processes he went through/complexes he looked at. 
5. How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity
1. He is a great representation of the opportunity I am trying to exploit. Since he has been through a flexible lease search, he represents the market with the unmet need and exhibits the extent to which a prototypical customer is interested in my proposed service.

Industry Supplier

1. Who they are and what their background is
1. Stacey is a manager for one of American Campus Communities’ properties.
2. How this person is an industry supplier:
1. She is an industry supplier because she is a manager of an apartment complex. She said she is always looking for ways to improve the living experience and would be open to hearing my idea. Stacey added that American Campus Communities is focused on providing comfort to their residents, and that is typically why they try to remain close to college campuses and out-price its competitors.
3. A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.
1. I work in the leasing office, so this is my manager.
4. The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 
1. Since I work in the leasing office, Stacey always wants to hear my ideas. I gave her my pitch and she seemed interested, but is worried about the feasibility and the profit margin of such an idea.
5. How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity
1. Once I get my service up and running, I think it would be smart to start with this apartment complex. It has a mission that is designed to provide comfortable living for its residents and the complex is close to campus, which is one of the things that students look for when applying for UF off-campus housing.

Reflection

• Targeted marketing is difficult, but I think it is extremely beneficial. It helped me work out some the logistics and allows people in your market or industry voice their comments on the service and its feasibility. For instance, the industry supplier mentioned that my service is definitely ideal but it might be hard to get apartment complexes on board if they aren’t seeing a profit. Additionally, targeted marketing can be difficult because some people you reach out to may not be cooperative. I was lucky to not have experienced this!

Assignment 19A - Idea Napkin No. 2

• You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?
• My name is Izzy Chigurupati. My name is Izzy Chigurupati. I am an Accounting major here at the University of Florida and I hope to be doing my Master’s in ISOM starting next year. My skills and talents have stemmed from my experiences thus far. I usually must do a lot of things by myself and I would say that this has caused me to be very driven. When I talked to the people closest to me, they agreed that I am a problem-solver and very driven. 
• These qualities make me want to have every aspect of my life planned out. This is what led me to my business concept. If there was a service that paired UF with off-campus housing that resulted in flexible leases for us, the student body, a lot of financial stress would be alleviated. I would be able to not worry about finding a summer sublease and could use that money to pay for the next step in my journey which is my master’s degree. 
• What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs).
• This did not change. I am offering a service in which UF partners with off-campus housing. This can result in flexible leases for us. This solves many unmet needs such as international students who only need housing for a semester, parents who are worried about their children being homeless during Summer C finals week, and those who have trouble finding sublets and face a money deficit (i.e. end up paying two leases at once).
• The only feedback that I have received in terms of improving my idea is regarding cleaning the apartments. I think this would solve itself because any housing that pairs with UF would have to have higher cleaning standards. 
• Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common? 
• This aspect might change in the future. Currently, I am offering this to UF (and possibly Santa Fe) students who are not Gainesville-native. This entire category has the fact that they need housing (and thus flexible leases) in common. Another category which may substitute the students would be the parents/guardian of the students, if they pay for their child’s housing. According to some feedback I received, this is a problem for other institutions so I may be able to expand my service to other college towns.
• Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service.
• The customers would pay to use this service because of the convenience. For instance, an add-on fee of $200 for a flexible lease is still substantially less than having to pay for months of unoccupied rent space and it beats being homeless. Even the feedback I received was regarding how people personally have been victimized by the housing problem. 
• What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 
• What sets me apart from everyone else is the novelty of my idea, as well as the statistics I used to support my idea initially. For instance, I cited in my elevator pitch that over 70% of undergraduate students live off-campus which means that they face these problems regularly. It also means that there is a huge untapped market for UF. The only part that I feel that my business concept is weak is that my service depends on cooperation from UF. I know that UF is spending money renovating dorms right now as admittance numbers go up and we trek to a top five public school, but convincing UF to pair with off-campus housing might need lucrative support and could take a while to implement.

Feedback Memo: 

• One piece of feedback that I incorporated into my idea is to address the cleaning issue. Apartments currently don’t do a thorough job of cleaning between lessees, but this is something I am hoping will solve itself when apartments pair with UF housing. If not, I will attempt to address that directly. 
• Another piece of feedback that I have including is expanding the market. As my idea launches into effect, I would like to keep my market small (aka just in Gainesville). That being said, I think there is true potential to expand to other college towns in the future.

Assignment 17A - Elevator Pitch No. 2

Check out my new pitch here!

Reflection of feedback: Based on the feedback that I received, I was able to pinpoint some things that I conveyed well and others that could use improvement. For instance, my hook correctly pulled on people’s empathy strings and I effectively was able to establish pathos. I also tried to incorporate gestures into my pitch so that my pitch wouldn’t appear rigid and that was another aspect that I received good feedback on. The most useful feedback was to clarify my solution, which I tried to do this time around. 

What I changed, based on feedback: I clarified my solution. It was unclear whether I whether I was suggesting that UF pair with off-campus housing or buy entire complexes in order to provide the flexible leases. This also had the added benefit of adding some length to my pitch. My pitch the first time around was about one minute and the clarification added about 20 seconds, to achieve the optimal length of a minute and half.

Assignment 18A - Create a Customer Avatar

My service can theoretically have two segments of customers: the student or their parent. This depends on how proactive the student/parent is. For the sake of this exercise, I am going to focus on the parental segment. 

She is a Florida Alumna and excited to have her son follow in her footsteps. She is fifty years old, so UF looked vastly different back in her day. That being said, she’s excited to have her son commit to UF so that she can pass on her wisdom. She drives a 2008 Honda minivan and reminisces about the days she had to drive her little boy to and from football practice. She occasionally enjoys a good issue of People magazine and has a pet pug. Some people say that she is bubbly and easy to be friends with. She watches House Hunters, Grey’s Anatomy, and Ellen in her free time. Basically, she’s a perfect date for a wine night. Others say that she is a helicopter parent, but she’s just worried about her only boy leaving for college, hundreds of miles away from her.
 

This picture was taken from Rosemary’s Twitter account (@roasty194). The woman on the left is representative of the customer avatar that I am picturing for my service.

What do I have in common with her? I think that I also can tend to be helicopter-y. I am the kind of person who likes to have everything planned out (e.g. where I will be living next year, how I want things done, etc.). This tendency will probably result in me being a concerned parent, similar to my customer avatar in the future.

I don’t think this is a coincidence. I came up with this service because of hassles I’ve faced with housing that I would have liked to avoid. I think that my customer avatar would also like to avoid these hassles with her baby boy.

Assignment 16A - What's My Secret Sauce?

Five ways in which I think I have human capital:

1. Direction – I have a clear sense of direction in terms of what I want out of life aka career, family, etc. I think this is a unique quality to have because a lot of people tend to waver on what they want (e.g. how some people switch their majors frequently or job hop).
2. Loyalty – I am loyal to my friends and family. I have unwavering faith in them and would stand up for any of them. That being said, I can still identify their strong suits and their shortfalls so that my faith isn’t misplaced. 
3. Expressive – I tend to always express what I am feeling. This means people can often read my face to see how I am feeling. Although this can be a shortfall, it has been an asset because people often view me as trustworthy since they can get a good read of me. 
4. Competitive – While this can be viewed as negative, I think it is beneficial because it gets results (and it’s all done in good fun). 
5. Sociable – I tend to make friends easy. 

Interviews:

Recordings can be found here.

Reflection:

I interviewed five of my closest friends and I think that my view of myself is similar to how they view me. A lot of the words they used to describe me were synonymous with things I said about myself. This makes sense because I would think that, if anyone, my closest friends have an accurate perception of me.

One interesting thing that I learned from one of my friend’s interviews is that my loyalty to people depends on their loyalty to me. I think that I can be a great, loyal friend but it ultimately depends on if I feel that will be reciprocated. If I could change anything from the list, it would be the loyalty part; I’d clarify this point.

Assignment 15A - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

• Find three people who would fit that segment and arrange to interview them.
• Similar to last time, I am focusing on the segment of parents of UF students. Interviewee #1 has a child who just signed a lease off-campus for his sophomore year. Interviewee #2 has a child in graduate school in need of housing for one semester. Interviewee #3 is the parent of a child in a sorority. 
• Report the findings. 
•  Begin with alternative evaluation. In this step, your job is to figure out how they do their picking. Does price matter the most? Does quality? Does style? Is there more than one factor that is important to your customer segment? 
• In the first interview, the parent expressed that they signed an off-campus lease because that is what his child’s friends were all doing. The third interview was similar in that the parent mentioned she was not looking for housing for her child because her child wanted to live in the sorority house with her friends. Both interviews differed vastly from the second interviewee who mentioned that they were still looking for housing and did not care much for roommates. Upon further questioning, I realized that due to the higher course load in graduate school, this parent preferred her child lived alone or in a quieter setting to focus on school. All the interviewees did mention that furnished housing was a requirement. Any additional questions regarding quality, style, and pricing seemed to be irrelevant. 
• How/where do they buy? Elements of the actual transaction can help characterize your segment. Is your segment more likely to buy online or in a store? Are they more likely to use cash or will they finance the purchase? Etc. If this is a B2B purchase, who's involved in the purchase decision? 
• This purchase would be done completely online, whether that be through UF housing or a virtual lease agreement. The parties involved would be the lessee, the guarantor (typically a parent) and the lessor. 
• Post-purchase evaluation. What matters most to your customers when they think back on the 'rightness' of the purchase? What helps them determine the purchase was a good idea? What sorts of things make them think a purchase was a bad idea? 
• My customer segment evaluates the ‘rightness’ of the purchase depending on the criteria. For instance, the first interviewee has no regrets about the purchase because he would rather his child live with friends than be stuck with random roommates (who could be awful); to him, the price compromise is worth it. 
• Draw conclusions. 
• I think the market is still there, but the priorities are more diverse than I’d imagined. Some of the original market is still there such as the parent of the graduate student who only needs housing for a semester. They are still looking for an adequate solution and I believe my service would be utilized by them or people in a similar boat. However, it appears that some other people of my previous market are okay with compromising some financial aspects of the housing decision such as paying for an empty apartment over summer, if it meant that their child would have roommates they know (aka comfort over value). That being said, I think they would still utilize my service because the core need, housing, is still there. The flexible lease service would allow them all to still live with friends but choose the amount of time they would actually need the apartment for (summer vs. no summer).

Assignment 13A - Reading Reflection No. 1

1. I read Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance.
• What surprised you the most?
• I was surprised to see him compared to Steve Jobs, who has a prominent role with both Pixar and Apple. This was mostly surprising to me because I have an esteemed view of Steve Jobs, being an iPhone user of seven years and a strong advocate for its technology/simplicity. I haven’t thought about the commonality between the two entrepreneurs until this book pointed it out not me (probably because I haven’t personally been exposed to his products); after all, Musk has commandeering three industries with Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity.
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? 
• As we talked about this week, tenacity was the thing I admired the most about Elon Musk. In the wake of the recession in 2008, both his companies, Tesla and SpaceX, were losing funding. Instead of giving up, he scraped together financing for the two the day before payroll was due. 
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? 
• Elon Musk was known for talking a big game. This is what I least admire about him because I believe that actions speak louder than words; in this case, his innovations should speak for themselves. 
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? 
• Elon Musk has faced failure. As previously mentioned, he was losing his investments in Tesla and SpaceX; he went from a millionaire to living on a friend’s couch as he tried to get these start-ups going. Musk has a problem with SpaceX primarily as it was competing with Lockheed Martin. He overcame this adversity and failure by promising innovative things and doing everything in his power to follow through on them. 
2. What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?
• There are many competencies that Musk exhibited including imagination, drive and previous entrepreneurial experience. Musk’s imagination allowed him to move from one successful venture to another, his unwavering drive made him successful in his ventures (especially in the wake of adversity), and he was able to build upon his entrepreneurial experience with Zip2 and PayPal. For instance, from Zip2 he learned that it’s easy to lose control of your company and vowed to stay CEO for any future ventures. Today, he remains the CEO of Tesla. 
3. Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
• An overarching part of the reading that was confusing to me was how Musk jumped back and forth between ideas. For instance, he divorced his wife but later go remarried despite lengthy prenuptial agreement settlements. He also mentioned wanting PayPal back after making the decision to sell it. Entrepreneurs tend to need to be decisive, but he does not appear to be and that was personally confusing to me. 
4. If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why? 
• The two questions I’d ask are as follows: 
• Tesla sales are down despite it being the first largely successful electric car. What are the next steps to recovery? 
• Why would you go from one venture to another? For instance, Mark Zuckerberg stayed with Facebook, instead of selling back in early the 2000s and it is now the most lucrative social media platform. 
• I would ask these questions because they would let me understand what Elon Musk is motivated by. Is it the ability to create a lasting impact? Is it money? For instance, Musk mentioned wanting PayPal back; does he have regrets? It will also allow me to understand more about how to deal with failure, and that is valuable insight considering the number of entrepreneurial ideas that fail yearly. 
5. For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?
• I think Elon Musk valued hard work. He once told an employee that it was not okay to miss the SpaceX launch for the birth of his child. That paints a good picture of his work ethic and values. I share a similar opinion; I value hard work and discipline and believe it pays off in the long run. That being said, I do not think that missing your child’s birth for work is appropriate (but I could see myself postponing starting a family if I had a business venture underway).

Assignment 14A - Halfway Reflection

1. Tenaciousness is a competency. What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course? 

• Organization is the key to keeping up with the requirements of this course. Before the semester began, I wrote down the due dates for this class (amongst others) and made it my goal to finish each set of assignments the week before they are due (see to the right). This meant that I would dedicate Fridays (since there is no class on Fridays) to completing the following week’s assignments. This allowed me adequate time to schedule interviews, write meaningful peer reviews, and read any course material such as this week’s [auto]biography. 
2. Tenaciousness is also about attitude. Talk about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you through? Do you feel like you've developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to this? 
• I felt like giving up earlier this week because I had two exams on the same day and fell behind on homework assignments and studying due to a combination of my 21st birthday and our homecoming game. Come Sunday, I had not looked at a single thing for any of my classes. Even after 12 long hours in Lib West, I was not any closer to being done and the frustration of it was getting to me. However, I pulled through. I was able to keep studying because I told myself that I had spent the last few days relaxing and blowing off steam, and that a few days of studying is well past due. Additionally, I reinforced that sometimes it’s okay to fail and that a single exam grade should not be the reason I give up on myself. This tenacious attitude has been developing for quite a while now, mainly starting last Spring where I was working full-time and taking 12 credits (including Business Finance). 
3. Three tips. What are three tips you would offer next semester's student about (1) fostering the skills that support tenacity and (2) developing the 'tenacious mindset'? 
• Ask for help. While things like deadlines can’t be changed in the interest of academic fairness, you can still ask for help from others whether that is as simple as asking your roommates to pick up groceries for you because you need to study. 
• Treat everything as if it’ll contribute to the next chapter of your life and the tenacious mindset will follow. For instance, I know that in Spring I will be applying to graduate school and I remind myself that every time I want to give up on classes because what I do now can affect my future. 
• Manage your time! If you manage your time well, this is not a demanding class (especially with no exams). However sometimes life gets in the way and there will be days that your friends will go to happy hour, and you are going to need the self-discipline to say no and stay in.

Assignment 12A - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Choosing a segment 

For this assignment, I choose a segment of parents. All three of the interviews were with parents of children who are currently enrolled at UF. One of them is the parent who has to pay two leases for their child over summer, their existing lease in Gainesville and one in Philly, where their child interned. Another interviewee is the parent of a freshmen who has not thought about where their child will live during summer. The last interviewee is the parent of a graduating senior, who has opted to live in a dorm the entirety of his four years here.

What I learned 

Need awareness: 

• From these interviews, I learned that the actual customer base may be extended to (or even replaced by) parents as opposed to the actual students. It became evident that a lot of students rely on their parents, prepaid or something of the like to pay for housing. All three of the interviewees admitted that this would be a good service for UF to be a part of. However, some interviewees felt more passionately about the problem and its corresponding solution than others. For example, the parent that had to pay two leases talked about the financial burden and how he wished there was a better alternative to housing in Gainesville. On the other hand, another interviewee (the one that is the parent of the freshmen) was not completely aware of this need until I had mentioned it because they haven’t had to think about it yet. However, upon me explaining the likely predicament that will come up in summer for their child, they expressed more interest in my solution.

Information Search:

• One thing that my interviewees brought up was the feasibility. This is something I had considered in a previous assignment. I was hesitant about UF’s willingness to partner with off-campus housing but I let them know that it is just a concept at this point and if it were to have enough of a base to implement, then I would look more into statistics/projections of profitability and other benefits for UF in implementing this solution. Until then, these interviewees told me that they would be looking for alternative solutions such as subletting from someone who resigned (so that their child won’t get kicked out) through the UF Facebook page or ask UF alum to see how they’ve handled this problem thus far.

How I would describe this segment 

I think that there are some parents who are aware of this problem, and have found adequate solutions such as having their child stay in a dorm the whole time they are at UF, but I think there are some parents who aren’t quite aware of this problem. This is not an evident problem at other universities such as USF, so parents can only learn about this problem if their child goes through it or through word-of-mouth. Overall, this segment saw merit in my solution as they want what’s best and most convenient for their child.

Assignment 11A - Idea Napkin No. 1

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life? 

• My name is Izzy Chigurupati. I am an Accounting major here at the University of Florida and I hope to be doing my Master’s in ISOM starting next year. My skills and talents such as being organized have stemmed from my experiences thus far. I usually have to do a lot of things by myself; for instance, at one point I was working 60 hours a week and was enrolled in Business Finance. This causes me to be busy and overwhelmed, so I aspire to make processes or aspects of my life (and others’ lives) easier. This is what led me to my business concept. If there was a service that paired UF with off-campus housing that resulted in flexible leases for us, the student body, a lot of financial stress would be alleviated. I would be able to not worry about finding a summer sublease and could use that money to pay for my master’s.

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 

• I am offering a service in which UF partners with off-campus housing. This can result in flexible leases for us. This solves many unmet needs such as international students who only need housing for a semester, parents who are worried about their children being homeless during Summer C finals week, and those who have trouble finding sublets and face a money deficit (i.e. end up paying two leases at once).

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common? 

• I am offering this to UF (and possibly Santa Fe) students who are not Gainesville-native. This entire category has the fact that they need housing (and thus flexible leases) in common. Another category which may substitute the students would be the parents/guardian of the students, if they pay for their child’s housing.

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 

• The customers would pay to use this service because of the convenience. For instance, an add-on fee of $200 for a flexible lease is still substantially less than having to pay for months of unoccupied rent space and it beats being homeless.

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 

• To my knowledge, the only competitors on the market are those that do not completely fulfill the needs of the students (i.e. dorms) or give up convenience (i.e. apartments far away from campus). Dorms provide flexible leases but there are often not considered because many upperclassmen prefer apartments and the only apartments that offer flexible leases are at least a thirty-minute bus ride to campus thus compromising convenience. My service will cover aspects in which the current solutions fall short.

In addition to these five elements, please spend a paragraph evaluating whether you believe these elements fit together or whether there are aspects of your business concept that are weaker / out-of-joint with the others.

• I believe that all of these elements work well together. For instance, I cited in my elevator pitch that over 70% of undergraduate students live off-campus which means that they face these problems regularly. It also means that there is a huge untapped market for UF. The only part that I feel that my business concept is weak is that my service depends on cooperation from UF. I know that UF is spending money renovating dorms right now as admittance numbers go up and we trek to a top five public school, but convincing UF to pair with off-campus housing might need lucrative support and could take a while to implement.

Assignment 10A - Elevator Pitch No.1

Check out my pitch here!

Assignment 9A - Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

• Who: Previously, I stated that all University of Florida students (and some Santa Fe students) are the ones that have the need for flexible leases. Through my interviews, I found that the exception to this is students who have resigned leases, freshmen who wish to live in dorms and Residential Assistants (RAs). People who resign do so because they do not want to deal with the hassles of moving. They do not have this need because they enjoy their living conditions and when you resign, you will not be kicked out of your apartment and thus can stay or leave as you please. These people, although they must pay for days or months during which the apartment is vacant, believe it is easier than hiring moving services or moving from one unit to another. The other categories are freshmen who plan on living in dorms and RAs because the school works with them on flexible leases for whatever dormitory they are in.
• Additionally, I was able to identify a market I was not previously unaware of. This market is international students. They only attend UF for a semester usually and need a short-term lease for that. 
• What: This problem is different from the college housing problem in general. The housing problem in Gainesville is high prices and places near campus sell out quickly. This problem is different from the lack of flexible leases.
• Why: I do not think that the underlying cause is different. The outsiders’ have purely decided to prioritize different aspects which makes this opportunity less relevant. For example, UF students who resign leases compromise; they may not have the ‘homeless’ problem but often pay rent when they can’t find a sublease. 

Inside the Boundary

• Who: International students, students who don’t plan on staying in Gainesville the whole year (i.e. those not doing a summer term, December or May graduates), freshmen
• What the need is: flexible leases 
• Why the need exists: apartments don’t want to be liable for finding lessees on a semester basis, they need time to turn down the apartment 

Outside the Boundary

• Who: People who resigned leases, residential assistants
• What the need is not: finding housing

Assignment 8A - Solving the Problem

Tackling the Student Housing Problem

• My service has to do with the housing problem in Gainesville in regard to strict one-year leases. A lot of you may experience this problem as it has to do with being “homeless” during finals week of Summer C, and with having to find a short-term lease if you’re graduating soon, an international student or if you do not need an apartment for the summer.
• There are some solutions that involve moving further away from campus for flexible leases or staying in a dorm but for those who are not quite ready to give up convenience, this is not a sufficient enough solution. Personally, I am involved heavily on campus and buses do not run late enough for me to live far away from campus. I also have had problems paying for summer even though I am not in Gainesville in summer. My solution entails getting UF involved, whether that means having them buy apartments and making them UF campus housing or renovating dorms. 
• The different ways to go about this opportunity are: 
• UF can buy off-campus housing that is close to the campus and develop it into school-sponsored housing. This would allow them to provide flexible leases like they do right now with the dorms. 
• UF is currently in the process of renovating dorms. This process could entail them making the style of dorms apartment-style so that more upperclassmen are enticed to live in them. The communal style works for freshmen but is often inconvenient and unappealing to upperclassmen.

Assignment 7A - Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Housing Issues for Students in Gainesville, FL

• Opportunity:
• Every year, students at the University of Florida deal with housing problems in two forms: (1) their lease ends before the summer term lets up (2) they can’t find suitable short-term leases 
• The who: University of Florida students 
• The what: They need housing during summer term or need short term leases because they will not need to be in Gainesville for an entire year 
• The why: There are not a lot of housing options with flexible leases
• Testing the who: Though I cannot speak for other universities, I do know any college students in Gainesville have this problem. This includes University of Florida students and Santa Fe College students. 
• Testing the what: The boundaries of the opportunity are limited to those who need a flexible lease. For instance if someone is planning on living in Gainesville for a whole year and they have resigned their apartment for the following year, they will not get kicked out or have to pay for a term in which they are not in Gainesville. 
• Testing the why: This opportunity exists for a few reasons. For instance, apartments have a strict lease cutoff date at August 1st even though some people are still in Gainesville taking finals because they must prepare for the next set of lessees. The two weeks from August 1st to the start of Fall semester are critical for the apartments as they must repaint, clean, etc. This prevents them from being able to be flexible with the lease. I think the opportunity regarding students who do not need a one-year lease exists because apartments do not want to have the obligation to find students mid-year to lease. It is more profitable for them to make people be liable for a year. 
• Interview #1
• For this interview, I interviewed a freshman named Mark. He said that he has signed an apartment for next year but did have to commit to signing a year-long lease. Mark expressed that while this was not convenient because he will not need the apartment next summer since he already did a summer B term. He hopes to sublet but understands that this doesn’t always happen, so he is prepared to be liable for the rent payments. 
•  Interview #2 
• This interview was conducted with someone who is graduating this December whose name I will not be mentioning. He used to live close to campus for the past four years but relocated out by Archer for this year. He expressed that the situation is not ideal since he spends a lot of time waiting for the bus, but had no other choice since a lot of other places would’ve made him sign a year-long lease. The one he is living at right now, despite its distance, offers flexible leases. 
• Interview #3 
• I interviewed my current roommate who will be unnamed. She lived in a dorm last year and planned on doing her summer term this past summer. She did not want to move from her sublease to the apartment we signed this year, so she worked something out with the apartment complex that would let her move into the unit for summer and stay through this academic year. She expressed that though they worked with her on this for her convenience, she had to sacrifice some things. For instance, they did not clean the apartment or provide any staff personnel to help her move in as they would have if she moved in on a specific day. 
• Interview #4 
• For this interview, I made sure to interview someone who had a different perspective from us students. I interviewed someone who works in the leasing office of my apartment complex. During this interview, the staff (who will remain unnamed) reaffirmed my reasoning that they must have strict leases in order to clean and paint. 
• Interview #5 
• For this interview, I interviewed one of my friends who was kicked out of his apartment before Summer C ended this past summer, Connor. He said he crashed on a friends’ couch, but it was not ideal. Connor mentioned that his new apartment complex allowed him to move in a few days early but could not help him out during finals time. He plans on resigning to avoid this problem next summer. 
• Given your interviews, what do you know about the opportunity that you didn't know before? 
• The interviews gave me some new perspective as well as affirming some of my earlier beliefs. For instance, interviewee #3 was able to find a situation that best suited her situation that I did not know was a possible solution. Though it would only be suitable for that specific situation, it was an interesting alternative. 
• The other interviews provided some insight of problems that I thought existed. They reaffirmed the reason for strict leases as well as reiterated common problems regarding housing. 
• The interview that I found most valuable is interview #2. The person in that interview was able to find a short-term lease at the cost of convenience. So then the question becomes: “Is the added convenience worth the alternative solution?”

Assignment 6A - Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Economic trend: US weekly jobless claims drop to five-month low 

• Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/12/us-weekly-jobless-claims.html
• I believe that there is an opportunity here because it is supported by data that shows the decreasing trend in jobless claims as well as job growth. 
• The customer most likely with the opportunity is those who are unemployed right now. The article’s finding suggests that there is a consistent decrease in the number of applications for unemployment benefits. 
• I saw this opportunity in the news. It was designed to negate the popular belief that the trade war between the US and China is causing people to be unemployed. The truth is that layoffs have remained low. 

Economic trend: Retirement? Baby boomers aren’t ready yet

• Source: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/retirement-boomers-arent-ready-yet-2019-01-23
• I believe that there is an opportunity because the article is backed by figures from credible institutions such as Stanford University. 
• The prototypical customer is a baby boomer. This article talks about the trend of why baby boomers aren’t retiring and how it can actually be beneficial to postpone retirement. 
• I saw this opportunity in my management class over summer. The professor brought up an article that detailed how baby boomers have a majority of the work market leaving many millennials doing jobs they’re overqualified to do. 

Regulatory changes: EPA rolls back Obama-Era regulations on clean water

• Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/epa-to-roll-back-obama-era-regulations-on-clean-water-11568300216
• I believe that there is an opportunity because the Trump Administration has rescinded an Obama-era policy that expanded federal oversight and the threat of steep fines for polluting the country’s smaller waterways. 
• The customers that are most likely to have this opportunity are farmers, property owners and businesses who will be able to spend less time and money determining whether they need a federal permit. 
• I saw the title to this article when skimming the news. Curious about Trump’s deregulatory efforts, I decided to read more. 

Regulatory changes: Trump says he will unveil ‘middle-income’ tax plan in 2020

• Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-tax/trump-says-he-will-unveil-middle-income-tax-plan-in-2020-idUSKCN1VY017
• I believe that there is an opportunity because there are many people worried about the recession right now, and this tax plan is designed to ease the minds of the middle-income families. 
• The prototypical customers are middle-income people. 
• I found this among some articles about an impending recession and was curious to learn more about governmental efforts to help those who will be affected greatly.

Assignment 5A - Identifying Local Opportunities

Title: “Raise tobacco sales age to 21” by John Michael Pierobon

• Link: https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=pubname%3AORLB%21Orlando%2BSentinel%252C%2BThe%2B%2528FL%2529/year%3A2019%212019/mody%3A0906%21September%2B06&f=advanced&action=browse&format=text&docref=news/175C8DB4EE9DB358
• Description of the story: Pierobon describes in this article the need to raise tobacco sales age to 21. With the rise of alternative forms of tobacco use such as e-cigarettes and vapes, our youth usage rate has grown over fifty percent. He argues that the tobacco industry has marketed to the youth with fun flavors and that this is detrimental because teenagers’ brains are still developing. Pierobon believes that changing the legal age from 18 to 21 will increase life spans and decrease premature births. 
• Description of the problem: The problem is that vaping and other forms of tobacco use by our youth is a growing problem. 
• Description of who has the problem: Youth that use any form of a tobacco problem have this problem.

Title: “Why I left my job as a college professor” by a guest columnist

• Link: https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=pubname%3AORLB%21Orlando%2BSentinel%252C%2BThe%2B%2528FL%2529/year%3A2019%212019/mody%3A0905%21September%2B05&f=advanced&action=browse&format=text&docref=news/175C35FF71C63000
• Description of the story: The guest columnist who wrote this article talks about his experience being an adjunct professor at multiple colleges including Columbia College and the University of Central Florida. He says he loved teaching but the practicality of it isn’t there due to poor compensation, lack of benefits and long hours. 
• Description of the problem: The problem is that adjunct professors are treated like part-time professors despite that they often teach a full course load. This means that they do not have key benefits such as health insurance, parental leave, sick days or 401k plans. They are also poorly compensated, so paying off student debt also becomes an issue. 
• Description of who has the problem: Adjunct professors who must string multiple part-time jobs to make a full-time work schedule with no benefits are the people who have this problem.

Title: “Be on the lookout for snakes, mosquitoes” by Stephen Hudak

• Link: https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=pubname%3AORLB%21Orlando%2BSentinel%252C%2BThe%2B%2528FL%2529/year%3A2019%212019/mody%3A0904%21September%2B04&f=advanced&action=browse&format=text&docref=news/175BE1AA12D87298
• Description of the story: The story educates people on dealing with a hurricane including things like displaced reptiles and mosquito-borne illnesses. It encourages people not to be lulled into complacency. 
• Description of the problem: The problem is that the hurricane caused flooding and this displaces snakes, alligators and other pests from their home. This could be a potential danger to nearby residents. Another problem is that Dorian may have brought mosquito-borne illnesses, but the Florida Department of Health are on the lookout for this. 
• Description of who has the problem: Anyone who was in Hurricane Dorian’s path has this problem. 

Title: “Many sexual assault ‘perpetrators’ deserve a government apology” by David Whitley

• Link: https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=pubname%3AORLB%21Orlando%2BSentinel%252C%2BThe%2B%2528FL%2529/year%3A2019%212019/mody%3A0903%21September%2B03&f=advanced&action=browse&format=text&docref=news/175B8DC5B68ABCF0
• Description of the story: This story describes the legislation around sexual assault and how it does not give much consideration to the convicted. Whitley argues that while legislation such as the “Dear Colleague” zealots and Title IX directives have helped convict a lot of guilty people, they have also pushed a lot of institutions to blindly accept assault convictions. This is because these institutions risked losing a lot of federal funding otherwise. Ultimately Whitley argues that though the motive was good, justice is not served (especially to those falsely convicted). 
• Description of the problem: The problem is the legislation regarding sexual assault. While the “Dear Colleague” zealots and Title IX directives seek to help sexual assault victims come forward, it also resulted in a lot of innocent people being convicted. 
• Description of who has the problem: People who were falsely accused of sexual assault have this problem. 

Title: “Shocker: Dorian wasn’t caused by climate change” by David Whitley

• Link: https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=pubname%3AORLB%21Orlando%2BSentinel%252C%2BThe%2B%2528FL%2529/year%3A2019%212019/mody%3A0907%21September%2B07&f=advanced&action=browse&format=text&docref=news/175CE22A78EE99A8
• Description of the story: This story talks about how tricky climate change is, and how one cannot correctly assert that climate change is the sole reason for the increase in hurricane activity. It also talks about how consensus among scientists regarding climate assessments is not prudent. 
• Description of the problem: Whitley argues in this article that climate change is not the reason behind the increase in the number of hurricanes. He says that people are quick to believe that climate change is the reason, but Whitley believes that one must be fluent in things such as radiative forcing to authoritatively debate the issue. 
• Description of who has the problem: The people who have the problem are those who are quick to believe that human activities are creating a detectable impact on hurricane activity, and scientists who merely agree to create a consensus.