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.

My Venture's Unfair Advantage

1. My personal drive

• Value: I will not quit
• Rare: Not many other people have it
• Inimitable: I am self motivated
• Non substitutable: I don't think anything else can substitute drive

2. My parents are entrepreneurs 

• Value: I have seen a business grow and struggle
• Rare: Not many other people grow up learning about business the way I have 
• Inimitable: You can go to school to learn about this, but I grew up watching it 
• Non substitutable: I don't think anything else can substitute my experience growing up

3. My best friend goes to Duke for Engineering

• Value: He could help me with the technical side of the app
• Rare: He is also in greek life and relates to my consumers problem
• Inimitable: I could get another software engineer
• Non substitutable: No one would work better together than us

4. I am in a large sorority 

• Value: I have access to 300 potential consumers right at the tip of my fingers
• Rare: Not many other people have this close of contact with their consumers
• Inimitable: Other people in are also in large chapters
• Non substitutable: The girls in my chapter are very supportive and would help me test my product

5. I have friends in fraternities 

• Value: Access to the other side of my market 
• Rare: Again not many other people are this close to their consumers
• Inimitable: Other people have friends in frats
• Non substitutable: Non friends in fraternities could also help me 

6. I have a clear vision 

• Value: I can manifest what I want to happen with my product 
• Rare: Not many other people have it
• Inimitable: It is difficult to relay this vision to people sometimes 
• Non substitutable: I don't think anything else can substitute my vision besides a better idea

7. Support from my family 

• Value: If things get hard I know I have people to lean on and encourage me 
• Rare: Not many other people have the unconditional support I do 
• Inimitable: You can copy family support
• Non substitutable: Nothing can substitute this 

8. I am one of my consumers

• Value: I can understand what my consumers want and need
• Rare: Not many other people my age are their own consumer
• Inimitable: Other people could be their own consumer
• Non substitutable: Only research could give me the insight I naturally have 

9.  My finance background 

• Value: To understand a business you have to understand money 
• Rare: Other people could have this 
• Inimitable: Other people could have this background 
• Non substitutable: I could hire a finance professional 

10. Taking this entrepreneurship class

• Value: Learned things about starting  a business
• Rare: Not many other people have this knowledge 
• Inimitable: You can take another course 
• Non substitutable: You can't substitute these learning experiences 

I think the most valuable asset I have is my drive. I will never give up on my goals and vision which is something entrepreneurs need when encountering failures. 

Elevator Pitch 3

My feedback last time was to go more into depth and be more enthusiastic. I think I am more enthusiastic in this elevator pitch than last time. I know more about the direction of my product and features that I want in it. I also know more about who I am pitching to. 

Reading Requirement

 Thinking fast and slow is about the two ways we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation―each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions.

I think we had to use both these systems in this class when thinking about our product, consumers, and strategies. My biggest aha moment was just realizing there were two different types of thinking.