22A – Elevator Pitch No. 3

https://youtu.be/htIaj5KppbI

21A – Reading Reflection No. 2

 Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?
- The general them of this book is to explain how when we are conducting research, creating a product, or starting a business, we need to take into consideration many different aspects of what we're doing. We need to be able to carefully analyze  and observe every possible angle. If we're conducting research, we need to carefully look at the research, we're reading and look at the authors, when it was published, where it was published and why. And we have to also do that if we want to create a product or start a business; we need to think carefully about everything and take our time to take everything into consideration.

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?
- I think it enhanced with what I'm learning in class right now because we're trying to build a product or service right now, and sometimes we just present a really general idea and we don't take into consideration other aspects. We want to create something, but we don't look at the viability, how much would it cost,  if people actually care about the product, etc. We mostly just focus on creating something WE would like but don't take a second to see if your audience would actually buy it.


3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?
- I would make the class share all of their products and services with their classmates, and I would make them write a list of 5 things that could affect the success of their classmate's product or service. That way, they give each other feedback on their project and they can help each other take into consideration things that they would've never thought of.


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?
-  My favorite chapter was the one titled: Expert Intuition: When Can We Trust It? Because even though the whole book is about taking everything step by step and being really careful with your research, this chapter tells you that sometimes some research is not worth proving that it's wrong or that it won't work for your project. It explains how sometimes even though research says that your project won't work and it will not be successful, you really think that it will actually work because of some observations and analysis you've done on your own. So, sometimes, instead of listening to some of the research, if you are really really sure about your product and you truly believe that it will work, it is okay to follow your guts and launch your product or service.

20A – Growing Your Social Capital

One person must be a domain expert in your industry.

1)    Who they are and what their background is.

a.     Alex Rivera is a University of Florida senior student double majoring in agriculture and business. She is part of many agricultural clubs and movements like #UnLitter dedicated to keep the environment clean. She has always been passionate about the environment and he goal is to start a non-profit organization that will help the environment.

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

a.     She would be my domain expert because she has done a lot of research about the environment and ways to help it. Her classes have also helped her gain knowledge about the topic and her passion for the environment also contribute to her filling this spot.

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

a.     She is one of my co-worker’s sister and when I commented this project to my co-worker, he gave me all of her info and I was able to meet up with her and talk about the topic.

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

a.     She went out of her way and showed me more research about the topic. She showed me other attempts people have made of starting similar movements and why they failed. She gave me advice on how to fix the issues they had so my wouldn’t fail too.  

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

a.      As someone who doesn’t know a lot about the environment, having her on my side would help me make well-informed decisions. She would be able to help me take smart approaches.

One person must be an expert on your market

1)    Who they are and what their background is.

a.     Pablo Nuñez was in charge of changing from plastic straws to paper straws at the W South Beach Hotel. He used to work in Human Resources in a Marriott and he was always in charge of the going green project and now he goes to various hotels and gives his ideas and the hotels decide whether or not they want to make the change.

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

a.     He would be filling the market expert slot because he has the experience and knowledge required to help me on this project.

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

a.     My mom works at the W South Beach hotel so she helped me get in contact with him and I just talked to him through the phone.

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

a.     He said that he was happy to help and that he’s just doing me the favor for free and that there was no need to give him something in return.

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

a.     Having him on my side would help me understand better the product. Because he has experience with a lot of different compostable products, he would be able to help me decide which type of material is better to use for the new compostable cups.

One person must be an important supplier to your industry. 

1)    Who they are and what their background is.

a.     Paola Perez works along with Pablo and she is the one in charge of supervising the quality of the products that they sell and filling out the paperwork and put in the order to distribute their products.

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

a.     She would be filling my supplier spot because she already has experience with supplying and distributing her products

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

a.     When I talked to Pablo about my idea, I mentioned that I also needed a supplier and he told me about her so he gave e her contact info so I was also able to talk to her over the phone.

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

a.     She was also happy to help with my project without expecting anything in return. She talked about the process of distribution and how she supplies her product to everyone.

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

a.     Her expertise on distributing and supplying products will help me because I would have absolutely no idea in how or where to start. She would be able to educate me in that area.

-       Reflection:  

o   This experience helped me practice reaching out to potential partners and investors. If I was to actually go along with this project, I would have enough practice to reach the necessary people I need to grow my product. I think it definitely differs from experiences in the past because in past assignments, I only reached out to friends or co-workers, but this time I had to reach out to actual professionals.

19A – Idea Napkin No. 2

1) You.  
- My name is Camila and I am a Telecommunications major. Some of my hobbies include dancing, reading, binge watching Netflix, and cooking. Something that I really enjoy to do is volunteer in many different organizations that deal with different causes. One of my favorites are the ones that due beach cleanups or any project that has to do with helping the environment. Like I said on the previous post, I come from Puerto Rico, an island that has a lot of different ecosystems and I've seen all of them being affected by pollution. It no only affects the habitat itself, but it also affects the animals that live there and the people around it. 

2) What are you offering to customers?
- What  I'm offering to my customers is just a step up from something that is already being done. Plastic straws are being banned in many places and are being replaced for plant-based, compostable ones. So I want to continue this amazing idea that has started and also start replacing the plastic cups and lids for compostable ones. 

3) Who are you offering it to? 
- Every project has to start from somewhere, so I would like mine to start on college campuses. I believe that there would be a really big impact on the environment by just changing the plastic cups in campuses' restaurants. So I would be offering it to these restaurants located inside of campus.

4) Why do they care? 
- I think that my customer would care about a product like this because its something they can use to start turning their company into an environmentally-friendly company. This will help them attract more people to their company and will make more money. All of this can happen just by making a small change that would have a really big positive impact on the environment.


5) What are your core competencies? 
-  I think that what sets me apart from other products is the convenience it offers. Sure, re-usable cups are great and all and I even have two of them but sometimes its just hard to remember it. By offering the compostable cups, students won't feel bad when ordering drinks whenever they forget their cup.


- I think all of my elements work well together because its all a win-win situation. If companies decide to go green and help the environment, they're not only helping reduce pollution (win), they're attracting more customers that are interested in supporting a company that helps the environment (win!).  I think that there are a lot of people that do want to help the environment, but they just don't know where to start, If companies start showing the public that they're doing their part to help the environment, customers will feel motivated and will start looking for ways in which they can help. 
All of my feedback was positive so I criticized myself and what I did this time was be more specific with my answers. On my last post I was too general on my answers and I wasn't able to explain my ideas correctly so I tried to clarify them a little bit more.

18A – Create a Customer Avatar

 

My  prototypical customer would definitely be environmentalists and people who study agriculture. These people are usually the ones that are all about saving the planet and make the most extreme and ridiculous changes in their lifetime if they think its going to save the world one way or another. They are the ones who are usually described as hippies and are all about vibes and being connected to the universe. Hobbies that they take on would probably include going to the forest and camping every weekend or setting up a hammock every time they can. They would also probably protest anything they can if its affecting the environment. They also probably drive a Volkswagen Van ( if they actually own a car) because they would probably prefer to bike everywhere in order to minimize the CO2 on the environment. Their politics believes would also probably leans towards the Democrat party.

Even though I just described the avatar and I'm not anything like that at all, I still think I can identify with it, and a lot of people can too. I think that my avatar represents the people that will say 100% agree with my idea and jump right away but then there's people like me who even though we do care about the environment, it is not out number one priority (sadly). People like me usually need a little motivation in order to do something. That is not a positive thing and that is something that I do have to work on and thankfully this project has been helping me actually care more and do more research on why it is so important to take care of the environment.