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