Reflection

It was fun reading through my posts from the semester and seeing how my ideas developed. I have been passionate about this idea from day one, but seeing it become more realistic and developed was cool. I did not like having to think of the logistical aspects, but I understand that is part of business.

I am most proud of my venture concept because it is developed and makes it seem like I can actually create this app. I also like reading about Coco Chanel, because I love the brand and she is a very interesting woman and I learned a lot from that assignment.

I think I have moved towards having an entrepreneurial mindset and wanting to start my own thing, but I don't know if I am there completely yet. I think I still want experience in the corporate world before I go off on my own.

For future students, I recommend picking a product that you are actually passionate about and could use yourself because it will make the assignments more interesting. If not, you will get bored and dread writing about your product. You will also do better in the course if this is the case.

Venture Concept 2

Venture Concept 2



My product is an app that connects people in the Greek community. It is like Tinder, but will only be used for date functions. You will get suggestions based on past dates and what kind of date you want. You will also not show up in the mix if you are not available for a certain date function.

Opportunity

Interactions, even in college, are becoming much more digital. Everything is done through the phone, texting, snap chatting, instagram. These changes make an app the perfect product to appeal to college kids. Even more so because a lot of people use Tinder and Bumble and are comfortable and aware of the concept that my app will model.

The market right now would be defined geographically by the people who go to the University of Florida. Later, as we expand it would be used on campuses across the US. Greek life really isn't a thing internationally so it would never expand past the US. Demographically, the market is men and women ages 18-22 who are in a greek chapter.

Customers are currently satisfying their need by asking their friends if they know anyone to take or just taking someone they already know that may not be as much fun. They may be risk takers and dm someone they don't know at all, but this is no platform like my product on the market.

The window of opportunity would be for as long as greek life is still around. This actually may not be that long since national policies are getting much stricter and greek life as a whole is viewed in a negative light by the general public. Many chapters are being kicked of campus at other university's and it could start happening here.

Innovation

There is nothing like my product on the market. It is an app for college students in greek life. You can pick preferences based on what kind of date you want (friend, fun, romantic). You can have bio where you can show your personality and humor. There will also be a calendar of all possible date functions so you can select you availability. If you are not available for a certain date, you will not show up in results to make this process as efficient as possible. Once you use the app a few times, you will start getting suggestions based on past dates. The app will be free for download but I will add premium features that are for purchases within the app.

Venture Concept

I think my customers will switch to this new product because a lot of people have this problem. M generation also loves trying new things and getting instant gratification of swiping and finding a date. I have no competitors besides traditional dating apps like tinder and bumble. For people like me and my friends, I would never use tinder and bumble for find a date for a function because these apps aren't used for that. I don't have packaging in my product because its an app but I know the design will be very important. If it doesn't look like its made fo r gen z, my consumers won't use it. At first, I'd probably just have me as an organizer for the business and my software engineer for my technical aspects.

Unfair advantage: nothing like this on the market
What's next: development and testing
Next for me: I will probably not be in the venture in 5 years since I will be out of college and I will be on my next venture, possibly something my corporate.


Summary
Everyone agreed that it makes sense to leave this app once I graduate college because I will be past the point where I am still relevant on the knowledge of date functions and greek life. I will also not have enough of a vested interest to continue. Everyone also agrees that my idea for anonymous ratings is good and that I should get help from psychologists for this. Someone also suggested that I hire people from competing apps as long as they don't have an NDA which I agree with. I still think my idea is unique and successful, but there are still a lot of things to work out. Another thing I just considered is if UF could regulate the use of the app since universities are looking to minimize greek life activity on campus. 

Reading 3

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

I picked this book because my sister is obsessed with Elon Musk and I wanted to know more about him. I found this book very inspiring and motivating. Obviously Elon is very successful and he gives tips on how to do this. He says to not chase money, but to chase meaning in a way that will benefit the whole society. He also says don't complain and that vacations can kill you. some of his other lessons are:

• figure out what questions to ask yourself
• create your own opportunities
• vacations can kill you
• value your time 
• get used to pain and suffering. 

Exit Strategy

My exit strategy will be to sell the company after four years. I really love my product, but since it is based around college student and greek life, I will want to move on to something else once I don't fit into those categories. My exit strategy has influenced the development of this product because I know I don't want to do this forever so I made the product very niche. I could possibly pass on the company when I am ready or there might be something new to replace it by then.

Failures

I failed this semester when I was late to an FLA session. It was in a different location than usual so I was going to have to Uber there. I made sure to call the Uber 20 minutes early so nothing could go wrong. After 18 minutes, the uber still wasn't there to pick me up and I was going to be late. I had to ask my roommate to scoot me there. I was really upset to be late to the first session because it doesn't make a great first impression. Even though I tried to prevent this, I know uber is not always reliable and I should've asked my roommate to take me from the beginning. I will have to keep this in mind when I have other important things like interviews and meetings.

What's Next

Existing Market

I interviewed three of my friends that I have already described the product to. They think all the features I have are good and two of them did not have any more ideas. One of my friends said that maybe we could figure out how to do an organic rating system that no one else sees and just affects the algorithm.

I would have to work with my software engineer to develop this and try to figure out how to incentive the "good dates". I don't want people to be rated poorly because their date did not hook up with them or things along that nature. However, I do want the good dates to be incentivized and get matched with the other good dates. If the good people are getting matched with people who are rude or boring they will stop using the app.

Since there are no other direct competitors, it is hard to see what others are doing to combat this problem. Maybe I could team with psychologists to create very objective questions to rate dates. These are things I will have to figure out as development progresses.

New Market 

I want to look at the baby boomer market. This is radically different from my target market of Gen Z'ers. They don't go on date functions so for my product it is kind of hard to expand to different consumers since it is so niche.

I interviewed my parents since they are in this generation. I explained my product but they obviously can't relate since they are not longer in greek life and married. They did however think my idea was clever.

I don't think I can expand my product into other markets since it is for a specific demographic and it is a niche product. This could be a downfall, but could also be one of my values since I have no competitors and if I make my product the best right off the bat, there will be barriers to entry to for copycats.

Venture Concept 1

My product is an app that connects people in the Greek community. It is like Tinder, but will only be used for date functions. You will get suggestions based on past dates and what kind of date you want. You will also not show up in the mix if you are not available for a certain date function.

Opportunity

Interactions, even in college, are becoming much more digital. Everything is done through the phone, texting, snap chatting, instagram. These changes make an app the perfect product to appeal to college kids. Even more so because a lot of people use Tinder and Bumble and are comfortable and aware of the concept that my app will model.

The market right now would be defined geographically by the people who go to the University of Florida. Later, as we expand it would be used on campuses across the US. Greek life really isn't a thing internationally so it would never expand past the US. Demographically, the market is men and women ages 18-22 who are in a greek chapter.

Customers are currently satisfying their need by asking their friends if they know anyone to take or just taking someone they already know that may not be as much fun. They may be risk takers and dm someone they don't know at all, but this is no platform like my product on the market.

The window of opportunity would be for as long as greek life is still around. This actually may not be that long since national policies are getting much stricter and greek life as a whole is viewed in a negative light by the general public. Many chapters are being kicked of campus at other university's and it could start happening here.

Innovation

There is nothing like my product on the market. It is an app for college students in greek life. You can pick preferences based on what kind of date you want (friend, fun, romantic). You can have bio where you can show your personality and humor. There will also be a calendar of all possible date functions so you can select you availability. If you are not available for a certain date, you will not show up in results to make this process as efficient as possible. Once you use the app a few times, you will start getting suggestions based on past dates. The app will be free for download but I will add premium features that are for purchases within the app.

Venture Concept

I think my customers will switch to this new product because a lot of people have this problem. M generation also loves trying new things and getting instant gratification of swiping and finding a date. I have no competitors besides traditional dating apps like tinder and bumble. For people like me and my friends, I would never use tinder and bumble for find a date for a function because these apps aren't used for that. I don't have packaging in my product because its an app but I know the design will be very important. If it doesn't look like its made fo r gen z, my consumers won't use it. At first, I'd probably just have me as an organizer for the business and my software engineer for my technical aspects.

Unfair advantage: nothing like this on the market
What's next: development and testing
Next for me: I will probably not be in the venture in 5 years since I will be out of college and I will be on my next venture, possibly something my corporate.