Assignment 24- Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity: 

• Who has the need? People who regularly buy fresh food items and want to save the most money possible.
• The need is specific to produce items, butcher items, and bakery items. These are items with price that fluctuate weekly so customers never know where and when to get the best deal.
• Geographically the initial market is the Gainesville area. The target demographic is younger adults who shop frequently and are looking to save money in the area.
• Customers currently satisfy this need with coupons. The coupons for these items, however, are limited and expire quickly so I think they won't be all that loyal.
• This opportunity is a nationwide problem and everyone wants to save money. There is a lot of competition in the market for saving people money so the window may not be open for long.

Innovation:

• My innovation is an app called "Bananas." This app analyzes your shopping list and tells you where you should go shopping to get each item. The app will compare the prices of each item you entered at all of your local supermarkets and farmers markets. It will then calculate how much you will spend in gas to get to each store. The app will then run a cost-benefit analysis to determine the best places to shop for each item on your list.
• The app will have a 30 day free trial. After the trial expires the customer will move to a $5 a month subscription. 

Venture Concept: 

• This app very easily allows the customer to see where they should shop for their food. Customers will download the app because they don't really have any reason not to at least try it out. The app doesn't exactly rival coupons, but more so works with them. There are really no competitors for this product other than some shopping list apps that don't do nearly the same thing. Marketing for this app is going to be the most important thing. People need to be aware of it and download it in order for me to generate money. 

The Secret Sauce:

• Competitors will not be able to easily copy the apps algorithm. The algorithm will be patented so that only I can run the calculations.

What's next for the venture?

• Honestly, the next step for this venture would be to sell the app to another, larger company who could implement the algorithm into their company.

What's next for me?

• In five years I want to have sold this venture for a large enough profit to fund my next venture, but at this point I don't know what that'll be.

Assignment 23- Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

5+ years of graphic design experience

• Value- My 5+ years of graphic design experience will allow me to make social media, advertisements, and a website for very cheap to help with exposure
• Rarity- It's not rare to know the basics of graphic design, but it is more rare to find the experience that I have and to be able to get that experience for free
• Inimitability- This can be imitated if someone were to put in the work
• Non-substitutability- There are no other resources that can provide the same benefits at this price point

Financial capital

• Value- Starting up an app is relatively cheap and requires mostly time
• Rarity- Not rare. Startups often have the funds required to get up and running
• Inimitability- Someone can easily get funds to start up their own app
• Non-substitutability- There isn't really a substitute for money

Outgoing personality

• Value- This will help me when building connections with stores to get their prices for the app
• Rarity- Obviously anyone can have an outgoing personality, but I have a drive like no other
• Inimitability- I guess someone could copy my personality?
• Non-substitutability- There is no substitute for a bomb personality

Knowledge of the retail space

• Value- I have worked in retail and the food service industry for years so I have knowledge about how all the pricing and ordering works behind the scenes
• Rarity- Lots of people work in retail, so not too rare
• Inimitability- This experience can easily be found
• Non-substitutability- I wouldn't want to substitute this experience because I feel it is really valuable

Open schedule

• Value- The biggest thing with building an app is that it takes a lot of time. Luckily I have spare time when I'm not in class to dedicate to building an app
• Rarity- This is actually more rare than you might think. A lot of people just don't have time.
• Inimitability- People could make time, but probably won't
• Non-substitutability- How would you substitute time?

Contacts with local supermarkets

• Value- These contacts allow me to get the prices of items for the app as early as possible so I always stay updated
• Rarity- Pretty rare, not many people would have these contacts
• Inimitability- People can pursue these contacts, but I doubt they will
• Non-substitutability- You can't substitute relationships

Contacts with local farmers

• VRIN- Same as above for everything

Friends who are in the tech field

• Value- My friends in the tech space have extensive knowledge of app design and UI so they would be really beneficial when developing the app
• RIN- Same as above

Determination

• Value- I don't give up easily and will work hard everyday
• Rarity- People have determination, but not many have it like me
• Inimitability- There's no copying my drive and ambition
• Non-substitutability- Why would I substitute this?

Knowledge of app UI design

• Value- I kinda ran out of resources so this is just kinda a rehash, but yeah I can design apps so that's helpful when designing an app
• Rarity- Anyone can learn it
• Inimitability- See above ^
• Non-substitutability- Again, why would I substitute this?

My top resource is probably my already established contacts within local supermarkets. This contact will allow me to get accurate prices as soon as they change so my customers always stay up to date.

Assignment 22- Elevator Pitch 3

Last time I received feedback that commended my dynamicness so I tried to stay dynamic throughout the pitch. It was suggested that I mention who my target demographic is so I added that to my pitch.

Assignment 21- Reading Reflection 2

The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users, Guy Kawasaki


What was the general theme or argument of the book?

• The point of this book is to help people grow their social media presence. It teaches you how to start a successful social media page, how to build a following, how to incorporate a blog and other things that seem basic but are really in depth. The book focuses on how you need to put out solid content to grow your presence.

How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

• This book focuses on the specific parts of social media marketing that this class doesn't go into. This class is more about how to develop an idea and build a company. Social media is a really important part of building a brand and I think should get its own unit in the class.

If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

• I would have liked to create a social media account for my fake brand and create fake content to practice and get feedback. I think getting some social media practice that is specific to our business concepts would be really cool.

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?

• One of the really interesting things to me was the whole blogging aspect of social media. I've always viewed blogging in a derogatory sense and never really saw the point of it, but blogging can actually be a powerful tool to connect with your audience and customers.

Assignment 20- Growing Your Social Capital

Domain expert

1. The person I contacted for this part was a contact of one of my clients. His name is Wes and he has experience building apps for companies.
2. Domain expert
3. One of my clients whom I have done some branding and web design for had a friend who had lots of experience in app creation. I contacted him via email thanks to my client, Jayson.
4. Wes met with me over facetime after we talked about the app via email. He listened to my pitch and offered some advice about app building. He said that my app was going to be very difficult to create and implement, but if I worked hard enough it was doable.
5. This person can definitely help me build a better app and is a good contact if I run into any problems.

Market expert

1. For this contact I reached out to a local Publix and spoke with their manager in a sit down meeting. 
2. Market expert
3. I called up the Publix and asked if I could get an appointment with their manager
4. The manager offered insight into how they receive their produce and how often they change the prices of their produce.
5. I think having contacts within the local stores will be extremely helpful when it comes to pricing items for the app.

Supplier

1. I contacted one of the produce suppliers for Publix (received the name from the Publix manager).
2. Supplier
3. I contacted a farm over the phone and talked with them about my app idea. I was curious about how they priced their produce.
4. The farm gave me information about how they price their produce. The price fluctuates depending on how much they are able to harvest of the produce and what time of the year it is. 
5. This contact could be beneficial to possibly find out the price of produce items before they even get to the store.

Reflect:

This experience was great because it gave me practice networking and looking for people who can help me. I think that through having this experience I will be more confident in the future when looking for contacts.

Assignment 19- Napkin No. 2

1. I am a graphic design and photography major and I own and operate a small graphic design company that does graphic design work and branding for small businesses. My five years of graphic design and coding experience will be helpful in the development of the app. I know that I can create a visually beautiful app with a good and easy to use UI. I want to make an app that is just as good looking as it is functional. My ultimate goal with this venture if I were to pursue it would be to sell it to the highest bidder down the line.
2. I am offering to customers an easier way to shop for produce, butcher items, and baked goods at local supermarkets. The app will analyze the users shopping list and tell them where to purchase each item to save the most money. It will also check the price of gas and determine if it's worth driving to the multiple stores or not. The best way to gather these prices at the start will be for me to personally gather all the prices of the items at all the stores in the Gainesville area each week. This would be to prove my concept and show the retailers that it will bring them more customers once they know where to get the best deal. Eventually I would implement a way for each retailer to update their prices in the app when they change the price. 
3. The target demographic of this product is shoppers who want good deals such as young people (millenials), couponers, and parents. These people in the Gainesville area are who I would focus on first before expanding state or nationwide.
4. Customers will pay money for this app because it will save them more money in the long haul. The app will have a 30 day free trial so the customer can see just how much they can save. After the free trial period the app will cost $5 a month.
5. The feature that sets my app apart from the crowd is the algorithm that will run a cost-benefit analysis on your shopping list. It will determine the cheapest places to buy your food items and then determine the cost in gas to get to each store. It will determine if it is worth going to certain stores to save money and then will show how much money you can save by shopping at certain stores for certain items. This feature will allow you to save the most money possible.

I think all five of these elements work well with each other. I think that if I was able to develop this app it would sell itself. The app would be incredibly useful to the customers and would be worth them subscribing to it.

Feedback memo: The two main points that I took away from feedback were determining how I will gather the prices of these items and how I will charge my customers (free trial, subscription, flat rate, etc). I addressed both of these points in the napkin.

Assignment 17- Elevator Pitch 2

https://youtu.be/StzZoNder-g