30A – Final Reflection

1) Read through your posts from this semester. Recall all of the experiences you've had a long the way -- the highs, the lows -- the fun moments, and the moments of drudgery, and even the moments of dread.

I think the exciting moments was when I conducted all of my interviews. It was fun to interview my friends, family, and random people in the library!  

2) What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?

I believe the experience that I'll remember years later would be the 3 elevator pitches I completed. My first elevator pitch was not the best as I never knew how to make a pitch before. My second elevator pitch was much better since I fixed a lot of my mistakes by listening to the feedback I received. My third and final pitch was definitely my best one and I think I have it mostly memorized without any mistakes now!

3) At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?

Now that we have reached the end of the semester, I do see myself as an entrepreneur because I created my business idea and have had lots of experience with writing about how I'm going to start up my business during my time throughout this journey. 

4) What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?

I recommend that students start their assignments early to perform greatly in this course. I found it helpful to watch every lecture live if you are able to. Watching the lectures live definitely makes the experience more enjoyable while taking this course.

29A – Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity: The opportunity that exists for me is to save lives by creating a product/service that prevents people from texting and driving. This service would be built into new cars that are being manufactured and it would turn off the driver’s phone. You would be allowed to make a phone call if you speak a password to your car's computer system. People would stop looking at their phones while driving and this would prevent car crashes. I could sell this service to not only car dealers, but I would make an app as well to sell to people that don’t want the service built into their car. I believe that this service has a good chance of success because of the number of car accidents that are shown on the news every day.

Innovation: The product/service that I would create would be available to anyone that is interested in it. This service would be a feature added on to cars when you go to purchase one. The service would be built into the car's computer system. The app that I would create would be called SafeDrive. This app would prevent people from looking at their phones while driving and they wouldn’t get distracted. I would charge $2.99 for the app and I believe that a lot of people would benefit from purchasing it. It is an affordable price and could save lives which most important. It is important to follow the rules on the road so this app would also tell you if you’re going over the speed limit. All these helpful features are what make the app innovative.

Venture Concept: I believe that my customers will be attracted to my product/service once they hear about it in the news. I’m hoping that my product/service would become well-known and my app gets on the top 10 list in app stores. If someone is unsure if they want to purchase my app because they’re not sure if the features would be necessary for them, then they can test it out with a 14-day trial option. This option is very helpful in my opinion since it allows buyers to get good use out of the app and they will for sure want to purchase it after finding out how necessary it is to keep. Hopefully, the service is as big of a success as the app. The car dealerships would purchase my service since it’s supposed to be included in their cars.

My most important resource is the skills that I have learned from the courses I have taken. I have learned how to be a better public speaker with a lot of courses I took both in high school and here at UF.

The next step for my venture is to create my app and advertise it around the world. I will always be taking feedback so I will ask friends and family members what they think about it.

In the next 10 years, I hope to have the most downloaded app in the world. I am going to try my best to make the app available on all platforms such as Androids and iPhones.

I received a lot of positive feedback, so I didn’t have to change anything really. One person suggested that I pitch my invention to car companies, and I couldn’t agree more. I think my product/service will become more well known if I make sure I have a large audience. I know it can be tough when I first try to get my product out there, but I will try my best.

28A – Your Exit Strategy

The exit strategy I plan to make is to sell my business in the next five or ten years for a large return. I have selected this particular exit strategy because I believe that I could have some competition with this business once I sell it. Once I have competition, it will be hard for me to find customers and still produce lots of revenue. If my business doesn’t make any revenue when I first introduce it, then I will have to tweak some parts of my business plan. It is not easy to start a new business at first, so that is why it’s ok to learn from your mistakes. I think my exit strategy has influenced other decisions I’ve made in my concept because I have also talked about getting my business started right away in some of my other blog posts. I am hoping to start my business as soon as I graduate from UF. I will play everything by ear and see how it all goes.

27A – Reading Reflection No. 3

1)    What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The book I chose to read is called How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Scott Adams. The general theme of the book was to look after yourself and don’t let anyone stop you from achieving your goals. After reading this book, I learned that it is ok to fail a bunch of times, the most important thing is that you tried your best and you will keep on trying until you succeed. This book was very interesting to read since I’ve never read anything like it.

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

I think this book enhanced what I’m learning in ENT 3003 because the previous assignment that I submitted was about celebrating failure. Failure does not always have to be considered negative.

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

The exercise I would design is similar to the celebrating failure exercise where students would explain how they have overcome their failures whether they failed inside or outside of school.

4)    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?

I learned that it is ok to sometimes be selfish when it comes to taking care of yourself. It is important to spend some of your own free time to work out, eat healthy, and chase your dreams. The author of this book, Scott Adams states that you should focus on the needs of others once you meet your own needs.

26A – Celebrating Failure

I failed with a few things this semester. I will be talking about how I didn’t make it into a certain organization. This organization is called the Florida Cicerones. I never had an interview before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had thought of some answers beforehand, but all of those answers were of no help. I wish I completed a mock interview a few days before my real interview. Nonetheless, it was a great learning experience since it was my first ever interview. I learned that failing that certain interview shouldn’t keep me from trying again. I think failure is an experience that gives us the opportunity for a second chance in most cases. I don’t usually get disappointed when I fail because I learn from my mistakes and strive to be better. This class has changed my perspective on failure because I believe that I failed my first pitch video and I nailed the last one. I’m more likely to take a risk now than I was a few months ago. I am willing to start my business soon because if it doesn’t work out, I can always learn from the mistakes I make and fix them.

25A – What’s Next?

The existing market for my service can be considered parents that tell their kids to not text and drive. This would be an existing market because these parents already want their kids to stay safe, except they just don’t have the right service provided in the car. I believe that parents would purchase this service, especially for their high school students since they are new inexperienced drivers that just got their license. I’ve seen a lot of my high school friends drive while looking at their phones. I actually have told one of my friends to pull over before since they were texting people while driving and I didn’t want to get into an accident because of this. It is a scary feeling to know that the driver in your car is distracted and could get into a car crash. This is why my service could be a big success for the existing market.

I believe that the new market for my service could be anyone that has a driver’s license. These people could be of any age really. My app would mainly attract college students since a lot of them have trouble staying off their phones while driving. College students would take advantage of this service because it costs a lot less to purchase the app than pay for damages in a car accident. It is common for college students to drink and drive as well so this service in the car would have a feature that prevents the car from turning on unless you can type in a certain word correctly. This feature would be able to tell if a person is drunk or not if the word is typed incorrectly. I think this feature could work, but there are definitely some improvements that could always be made. Everything would be trial and error. I always say that practice makes perfect!

24A – Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity: The opportunity that exists for me is to save lives by creating a product/service that prevents people from texting and driving. This service would be built into new cars that are being manufactured and it would turn off the driver’s phone. You would be allowed to make a phone call if you speak a password to your car's computer system. People would stop looking at their phones while driving and this would prevent car crashes. I could sell this service to not only car dealers, but I would make an app as well to sell to people that don’t want the service built into their car. I believe that this service has a good chance of success because of the number of car accidents that are shown on the news every day.

Innovation: The product/service that I would create would be available to anyone that is interested in it. This service would be a feature added on to cars when you go to purchase one. The service would be built into the car's computer system. The app that I would create would be called SafeDrive. This app would prevent people from looking at their phones while driving and they wouldn’t get distracted. I would charge $2.99 for the app and I believe that a lot of people would benefit from purchasing it. It is an affordable price and could save lives which most important. It is important to follow the rules on the road so this app would also tell you if you’re going over the speed limit. All these helpful features are what make the app innovative.

Venture Concept: I believe that my customers will be attracted to my product/service once they hear about it in the news. I’m hoping that my product/service would become well-known and my app gets on the top 10 list in app stores. If someone is unsure if they want to purchase my app because they’re not sure if the features would be necessary for them, then they can test it out with a 14-day trial option. This option is very helpful in my opinion since it allows buyers to get good use out of the app and they will for sure want to purchase it after finding out how necessary it is to keep. Hopefully, the service is as big of a success as the app. The car dealerships would purchase my service since it’s supposed to be included in their cars.

My most important resource is the skills that I have learned from the courses I have taken. I have learned how to be a better public speaker with a lot of courses I took both in high school and here at UF.

The next step for my venture is to create my app and advertise it around the world. I will always be taking feedback so I will ask friends and family members what they think about it.

In the next 10 years, I hope to have the most downloaded app in the world. I am going to try my best to make the app available on all platforms such as Androids and iPhones.

23A – Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

Top Ten Resources

1.     Human capital: A good group of employees.

Valuable: 8, Rare: 5, relatively inimitable: 3, non-substitutable

2.     Network: Know people that work for car dealerships.

Valuable: 10, Rare: 8, relatively inimitable: 1, non-substitutable

3.     Public speaking skills: I’ve taken a few courses that enhance these skills.

Valuable: 9, Rare: 4, relatively inimitable: 3, non-substitutable

4.     Publicity: Advertise all around UF campus and high schools.

Valuable: 8, Rare: 6, relatively inimitable: 2, non-substitutable

5.     Unique Application: No other application like this will be available.

Valuable: 7, Rare: 5, relatively inimitable: 3, non-substitutable

6.     Affordable service price: No competitor can beat my price!

Valuable: 9, Rare: 5, relatively inimitable: 2, non-substitutable

7.     Social capital: Employ people that have a wide network of connections

Valuable: 10, Rare: 6, relatively inimitable: 3, non-substitutable

8.     Academics: I’ve learned a lot of different stuff from my courses.

Valuable: 7, Rare: 4, relatively inimitable: 1, non-substitutable

9.     Internet access: The App is available when you have service.

Valuable: 8, Rare: 5, relatively inimitable: 3, non-substitutable

10.  Easy to build into a car: The service would be simple to install.

Valuable: 10, Rare: 6, relatively inimitable:2, non-substitutable

My top resource is my public speaking skills. This resource is very important when meeting new people and hiring different people. If I want to sell my service to someone, I have to be a good public speaker. I am guaranteed to sell my product/service to people if they are entertained with what I advertise to them.

22A – Elevator Pitch No. 3

1)

2) A reflection on the feedback you received from your last pitch. Describe what stood out to you as important, what feedback surprised you the most, what feedback you think was outright wrong or silly or amazing and inciteful. 

The feedback that stood out to me the most was to step back from the camera and I took that into account in this video. I believe I did a much better job in my last pitch compared to my first two. Some feedback that was amazing was to use more hand gestures so I tried my best to do so. 

3) What did you change, based on the feedback?

I changed my voice to sound less monotone. I tried my best to use more hand gestures and step back away from the camera. Stepping farther back from the camera gives the audience a better view of how I'm professionally dressed compared to just seeing my face. Overall, I believe my last pitch video is the best one out of all 3. I've improved significantly since I was able to change some stuff from the feedback provided. 

21A – Reading Reflection No. 2

1)    What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The book I chose to read is called The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users, Guy Kawasaki. The general theme of the book was to guide you through building your social media and gaining followers. After reading this book, I learned how to promote my business on social media. Understanding how social media works and attracting customers on it is such a useful skill to have.

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

I think this book enhanced what I’m learning in ENT 3003 because I’ve learned that marketing is a great way to attract customers. The easiest way to promote your business is by producing advertisements on social media.

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

The exercise I would design is to create a social media account promoting your business idea and see how many followers you gain as well as how many people interact with your posts. I think students would benefit from this because it is a good learning opportunity on how to build a social media account and get other's attention.

4)    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?

I learned that there’s a lot more to social media than just knowing how to open the apps. Businesses take a lot of time to build their social media accounts so that they can gain clout. I had no idea how much more there was to learn about the art of social media!

20A – Growing Your Social Capital

1)    Who they are and what their background is.

The first person I contacted is a family friend who owns a seafood restaurant.

2)    Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

Domain expert

3)    A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

This person is one of my dad’s closest friends and my family eats at their restaurant all the time.

4)    The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

This person gave me advice on how to run a restaurant successfully. They gave me the opportunity of going fishing on a boat and learn how to catch fish. The return expectation was promoting their restaurant on social media.   

5)    How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

This person will always be there for me when I have questions about opening my own restaurant. They already have connections with other business owners as well.

1)    Who they are and what their background is.

The second person I contacted is a family member of mine who is a dentist. They went to the University of Maryland for undergrad and dental school.

2)    Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

Market Expert

3)    A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

This person is my first cousin and we have a very close relationship with each other despite the age difference.

4)    The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

This person taught me how to create great posts on their social media accounts to promote their dental services. In return, I advertised their dental office to my friends.

5)    How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

This person gives me the best advice on how to succeed in college since they already completed their bachelor's and doctoral degrees. They have lots of experience which allow me to always learn from them.

1)    Who they are and what their background is.

The final person I contacted is my friend that started their own vintage clothing store.

2)    Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

Supplier

3)    A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I’ve known this person my whole life. I went to school with this person since I was a kid. This person decided to skip college and start working right away instead. They got a loan from their parents and opened up a vintage clothing store that does very well. They make lots of profit from this store.

4)    The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

This person provided me with some awesome shoes and clothing that are limited. They expect me to provide them with products once I start my own business.

5)    How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

This person has connections with big companies, so I believe that having them in my network could provide me with opportunities that I wouldn’t be able to get by myself.

Finally: Reflect. This experience requires you to do a little 'targeted networking.' How will this experience shape how you participate in any future networking events?

This experience will shape how I participate in any future networking events because I will make sure I take full advantage of meeting remarkable business owners and learn from them.

Did this experience differ from your networking experiences in the past? How?

This experience has differed from my networking experiences in the past because I actually learned from all of the people I contacted and it is important to gain new knowledge when starting a business.

19A – Idea Napkin No. 2

1)    You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically, regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

My name is Jacob Tillinger. I am a first-year Information Systems major. I believe that I have great leadership skills. I gained these skills from my experience as being the president of a club back in high school. I held meetings for my club and made sure that every board member performed their job correctly. I aspire to be my own boss one day. I hope to open my own business with the business idea I have now or with one of the other business ideas that I have in mind. I believe that creating the SafeDrive app would play an important role in my life as it could potentially provide me with a decent income.

2)    What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs).

I am offering a product/service that prevents drivers from looking at their phone while their driving. This would solve customers’ unmet needs because it would prevent car crashes on the road, and this could save lives.

3)    Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

I am offering my product/service to anyone that has a driver’s license. I think my product would be especially useful for new inexperienced drivers. These drivers would most likely be high school students as they are just learning how to drive on their own for the first time.

4)    Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service.  

I believe that customers would pay money for this product/service because of the facts and statistics that prove how many car crashes are caused by texting and driving. Customers will care about my service since most drivers want to stay safe on the road.

5)    What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 

What sets me apart from everyone else is the fact that there aren’t many services similar to mine. I believe I have the motivation to start this service right away and I will always improve its skills.

I believe my elements fit together well because I can use my leadership skills to put together a team and create the app. I think my service would be very successful with all of the elements put together. The only problem with this service could be for older cars because they don’t the same technology that newer cars have today so people that own older cars would only be able to use the app I create.

Feedback Memo: I didn’t receive any feedback from my Idea Napkin No. 1.

18A – Create a Customer Avatar

The avatar I created using the My Blue Robot website can be considered a college student or middle-aged adult. My customer has hobbies such as playing sports and driving their kids to school. They tend to drive a midnight blue Honda Accord. Some TV shows that my customer watches are Lost, Madmen, and Game of Thrones. My customer has 4 children that are all in elementary school. His children's favorite books are the Harry Potter series. They don't follow politics because of their young age. They are 4, 5, 7, and 9. Some similarities I have in common with my customer is that we both love playing sports. I think this is a coincidence because I'm the one that created my customer avatar. We will definitely have a lot of similarities since created the customer avatar. I understand now that when selling your product to customers, it is important to see what you have in common with them to create a more personal relationship. 

17A – Elevator Pitch No. 2

1.  

2. What stood out to me as important was that a lot of the people that gave me feedback said similar stuff so I suppose what I can improve on was very noticeable. What surprised me the most was that some of the people that gave me feedback made me realize that I would have to compete against other services that are already out there and similar to mine. I think the most useful feedback I received was to be more confident in my voice. I believe that I did a much better job with being more confident in my second elevator pitch because I used the advice I was given!

3. Based on my feedback, I changed my tone in my voice to sound more enthusiastic. In my first elevator pitch, my voice was more monotone so I tried my best to fix that problem in my second elevator pitch. The only other thing I changed was that I stepped back a little bit so that the camera showed more.

16A –What’s Your Secret Sauce?

Five Ways I’m unique

1. I have always been able to learn things quickly and get projects done efficiently.

2. I can be a leader when needed.

3. I am a team player and I listen to all the ideas that are present.

4. I am dedicated to getting the job done.

5. My motivation is what keeps me busy.

Interview #1: My brother described me as hard-working and motivated. He noticed that I help others no matter what. He sees me as a great role model and hopes to meet the expectations I have for him.

Interview #2: My dad thinks that my personality makes me different compared to other people. He said that he sees how I react toward my younger siblings and understand how responsible I am towards them.

Interview #3: My music teacher thinks that it is easy for me to learn new songs on the trumpet right away. She described me as a super quick learner that strives to be the best.

Interview #4: My high school teacher described me as a professional leader. They saw how I started a club in high school and lead a great team. They told me how great of an experience it was to be the advisor for my club.

Interview #5: My friend described me as a caring person who always looks out for other people. They said that they enjoy the time we spend together and make sure to cherish every second of it.

I think that everyone has different opinions about me while there is no right or wrong opinion. I agree with most of the responses I got from my interviews. I think my interviewees are pretty spot on correct about me because all of these people know me personally. I think the responses would be completely different if I interviewed random people. I wouldn’t make any corrections to my list because everything on my lists seems accurate.