Friday, March 29, 2019

Assignment 22: Elevator Pitch 3

1. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=98wlfA07Saw

2. The small changes in my Pitch that I made for the last assignments worked out pretty well. They did mention that I should include some sort of potential testing for my product just so that the person I'm pitching to knows that everything is in progress. I agree with that but at the same time, I'm not testing anything for this product so I won't be mentioning that in my pitch today.

3. I made sure everything positive from my last two pitches were included into this one, but this time I mentioned that I had networked with certain individuals that are currently in the tire business to gain some more perspective on my market and production of my product.

Assignment 21: Reading Reflection 2

1. I didn't really a notice an argument per say, but Kahneman described two types of thinking and how humans operate on certain biases and heuristics to make decisions in everyday life, big or small. He also relates his theories to everyday problems in, for example economics to better explain what he is trying to say.

2. Thinking, Fast and Slow connects with this class in that it makes you reconsider how you go about making decisions and what biases you may have when making small and big decisions just how in an entrepreneurial aspect, you should take into account certain past events and determine which bias or heuristic you need to move forward and make a good business decision.

3. I think the exercise I would design would involve some of the more simple experiments Kahneman included in his book when describing the two ways of thinking.

4. I feel like this book just caught me a bit off guard in general. With the two systems of thinking I was a bit skeptical at first but then he was able to fully back up what he was saying with experiments that he had done and it was just really convincing. When he pointed out that we survive making choices on different heuristics and biases, I agreed but I didn't really have the support behind that until he presented his. I also liked how he was able to conceptualize his prospect theory by using economics too.

Friday, March 22, 2019

Assignment 20: Growing Your Social Capital

Part 1
 1. This person is the head mechanic at one of the Tire Kingdom's in my area. He went to trade school for car mechanics and his father was also a mechanic so he grew up around fixing cars and knowing which tire brands are the best for the season or type of car you have.
 2. Domain Expert. This person would be a domain expert because he knows tires in and out and I'm trying to produce a tire that would be functional, as well as environmentally friendly, so he would be very helpful on my team.
 3. I asked my mom who she thought would be a good fit for this type of position and she suggested I should talk to someone who works with tires everyday. So, when I took my car over to get the tires replaced I started talking to the head mechanic and asked him questions for this assignment on the spot.
 4. He changes my tires and I pay him to do it. For the information, he explained what he did and what his background was and I listened. I explained my idea for my potential product to him before asking him for his thoughts on the idea and he said it was plausible and that he knows of certain materials I could make them out of.
 5. Including him in my potential network will help me have some idea of what needs to go into making a tire for it to be functional, which is one of the most important aspects of my product.
Part 2
 1. This person is the owner of the Tire Kingdom franchise branch in my area. She has a masters in business and has other entrepreneurial projects on the side.
 2. Market Expert. This person would be a market expert because she already owns something that sells the type of product that I want to sell so she knows the market for this product very well.
 3. I asked the previous person if he knew who the owner was and he gave me her card. I called the number and asked her the questions for this assignment over the phone.
 4. She just answered my questions. I'm sure she makes a large profit off of the branch she owns so when I take my car there, she sees some of that money. I explained my idea for my potential product to her and she had really good ideas for marketing and who a potential buyer would be.
 5. Including her in my potential network would help me scope out my potential market and the best way to advertise and figure out what the prices should be set at in order to make a profit and make sure people will actually buy them.
Part 3
 1. This person is a manager over at Goodyear. He has a bachelors degree in business and he has been in that position for about 10 years.
 2. Supplier. Goodyear is one of the main tire manufacturers in the country and this person has experience in the tire manufacturing business so he would know a lot about the things that go into actually making a tire. This would be very useful to me, as I can find different potential materials and he would be able to give me feedback on whether those would be a good fit for a tire or not.
 3. I looked up top tire manufactures and Goodyear came up. Then I searched for local Goodyear manufacturing plants and then called the number that came up and eventually got to talk to the manager there. I was able to talk to him for this assignment over the phone.
 4. I explained my idea to him and he was able to give me some feedback on what goes into making a tire that keeps the prices lower and the tire functional. I asked different questions on the types of materials that could be used instead of rubber and he said that he would do some research on it with me if I were interested in actually starting this business.
 5. Including him in my potential network would be very beneficial since he knows how tires are manufactured and all the basic requirements that need to be met before they can sell them. He would also be very helpful in coming up with different environmentally friendly materials to use in making the tire.
Reflect: I have never had to network before so this was a completely new experience for me. I found it pretty easy to do and I met some really nice people. This experience will help me in the future because now I feel more confident in asking questions and approaching people I wouldn't normally approach.

Assignment 19: Idea Napkin 2

1. I'm a biology major in the innovation academy, here at UF. I'm great at procrastinating and still getting everything in on time. I don't really know what talents I have yet, I'm still working on figuring all that out but I am a very driven person and have slight perfectionist tendencies. I don't really have any experience in the business world except for my Catalyst project for the innovation academy last summer and my mom and grandfather have always been entrepreneurs so whatever business related things I know came from them. I recognize that I am not an entrepreneur, I want to be a plastic surgeon and I assume that I will need some entrepreneurial skill when I eventually open my own practice. Now, regarding my potential business of the production and sale of more eco-friendly tires, if I were to start a business with this I could see it playing a huge role in my life.
2. I am offering customers a more environmentally friendly option when it comes to buying tires. It's a way of helping our planet, for those who care to do so, in a small way but I believe it would make a big difference in the health of our ecosystems since, currently all of the discarded, unusable rubber tires are sitting in landfills or elsewhere taking up space and piling up as we use more and more of them.
3. My product is offered to all people who need tires for their cars but I think my market will specifically include those who really care for the environment and can afford something a bit more pricey than the average tire. Ideally, they would be the same price as the rubber ones but starting out, just so the business doesn't fail before it gets started, they will have to be a bit more expensive.
4. They would care because it's an alternative to the rubber tires that pollute the earth as we speak. The compounds used in these eco-friendly tires would have a much shorter half life than that of the compounds in the rubber ones, allowing them to break down quicker when they are eventually discarded into landfills.
5. I have the health of the earth in mind. I may not be able to have the lowest prices at first but that will come later on. Starting out, my product will be environmentally conscious compared to the others on the market and in today's society, there are more and more people who are starting to advocate for the environment.
6. I think that these elements fit relatively well together, my only true challenge would be the pricing. This is likely the most important aspect of my product but if I were to start this business I would really need to figure out a way to make a profit and keep the business going without raising the prices too high.
7. The first point I took away from my feedback is that this idea is pretty good and, if executed right, would yield a good profit. The second would be that I would need to figure out a way to keep prices comparable to others but also how to make a profit. I incorporated these into my points above by emphasizing that this is a good idea if executed right and also by addressing the price issue.

Friday, March 15, 2019

Assignment 17: Elevator Pitch 2

1. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tRFRtogzhq4
2. The feedback I got from my first pitch was very encouraging and positive. I got a question about what type of material I would use for my product instead of rubber and, to be honest, I have no idea. I would have to do more research on that to find the perfect material that holds up as a functional tire and is biodegradable.
3. I kept the majority of my pitch the same, I slowed down the rate of my speech a bit, but other than that, the information that was in the first pitch was included in the second as well. I would have added the material, but I am still researching this aspect at this time and I did not want to include information that I wasn't completely positive on.

Assignment 18: Create a Customer Avatar

My customer would be someone that is middle aged, educated beyond high school and is in the middle class. I'm not saying that this would be my only customer base, but it would be the majority of the people who would potentially buy my product. They probably drive a smaller car that is good on gas, or even a hybrid or electric car, they probably have young children and some of them are possibly adopted. Their favorite politicians are ones that are not extremists and who care about climate change. They're in their twenties or thirties and probably feel their age. I am in my twenties, I care a lot about climate change, I have some college and my family is middle classed. I drive a honda civic (that I'm told is good on gas), but I don't have children and don't plan on having any. I think my similarities with my customer avatar are a coincidence since the major thing about this product is helping decrease the amount of pollutants in the environment and a person has to care somewhat about the earth to look into buying it.
Related image Image result for care about environment

Friday, March 1, 2019

Assignment 16: What's Your Secret Sauce?

1. One: I don't spend money on things unless I need it or I really want it. If I feel even a little like I could do without it I won't buy it
    Two: I will ask for help from others if I truly don't get something but I would rather figure it out myself.
    Three: I think better when I first wake up in the morning than any other time of the day.
    Four: I want to help people and animals in any way that I can, I will stop whatever I'm doing to help someone else if they look like they need it.
    Five: I like to work in teams but sometimes I'd rather do everything on my own
2. The first person I interviewed was my mom. I was really happy with what she said but a little surprised when she said naive. The second person I interviewed was my little sister, Lizzie. With this interview I knew what she would say because she tells me these things on a daily basis but it was still nice to hear. The third person I interviewed was my little sister, Gaby. I also pretty much knew what I was going to hear from this one as well. The fourth person I interviewed was my friend, Ed. I didn't know what he was going to say here so it was really nice to hear what he had to say. The fifth person I interviewed was my dad. I was a little nervous about this one because my dad says what he thinks and he can be very critical so I was a bit relieved that he had all positive things to say about me.
Interview 1 Interview 2 Interview 3 Interview 4 Interview 5
3. Overall, I feel like I assessed myself in different ways than others notice or came up with. I don't necessarily consider myself to be nice, outgoing or intelligent. I do think that I have pieces of those things but they're not something I acknowledge about myself. I feel like these differences are caused by the fact that someone else's viewpoint on you is always going to be different than your viewpoint on yourself as people tend to be more critical with themselves than with others and that others can just name off qualities you have that you, yourself don't acknowledge or notice. I would hope that my interviewees are correct about me, I just don't think I can make that judgement about myself. Maybe I am all of those qualities, maybe I'm not, that won't change how I view myself or move forward, unless the qualities were bad in which I would attempt to address those issues. I wouldn't make any corrections to my list, above, because these interviews don't change how I see myself as a person.