Week 15 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise for me in this final weeks reading was probably the supreme importance of customer loyalty. Obviously customer loyalty is important, but I figured it was more of a 'bonus' than an essential tool for growth. Though I guess having people you can rely on to come back for repeat business would be very important.

The bit about sending loan information via text messages confused me. It seemed a somewhat sub-par way of relating important information like that, and certainly not the way I'd wish to receive such information. If I could ask the author any two questions, I'd ask for more info about the motivations for using microfinance as a tool against poverty, and the success rate in using such ventures in a more focused, local environment. There was nothing in particular I disagreed with the author on, though I would like to see a bit more info on the success rate of microfinancing.

Final Reflection

After browsing through the blog I've kept over the past semester, a few moments stick out. I think my favorite activity I did was interviewing people in my demographic about my venture idea. It was kind of scary but a lot of fun and taught me a lot about conducting interviews. I remember dreading the first entrepreneur interview I did, but it was a lot easier the second time around. I think overall the in person interviews were the most formative experiences for me, I really learned a lot about getting over my insecurities and approaching people, which is useful in and out of the business world.

I suppose I definitely see myself as more of an entrepreneur than I did at the beginning. I wouldn't call myself a full fledged entrepreneur, what with haven't actually started a business, but I definitely feel more comfortable and in-tune with that sort of mindset. If I were to give advice to future students in this course, the number one piece of advice would be to not be too afraid to leave your comfort zone. Its essential for success and for growing as an entrepreneur and a person overall. If you let go of your insecurities a bit, you'll find yourself having a lot of fun!

Elevator Pitch No. 4

In my 4th elevator pitch I made a significant effort to include the feedback I had gotten for my venture idea in other assignments. Specifically, I included the feedback about how my app would be paid for and how I could offer it as a service package to schools to offer to their students. I feel that adding these pieces of feedback significantly improved my overall elevator pitch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HayXdB6T1SQ&feature=youtu.be

Venture Concept No. 2

My venture concept idea is an app targeted at college students for planning out their semesters schedule, viewing degree audits, and viewing class catalogs. The app is called AdviseMe. This is meant to alleviate the problem many college students face which is long waits and inconvenient hours to see their advisers. This app will replace the need to see these advisers for basic questions about class schedules and what is needed for their degree. The app will make money via ad-support, and an optional 1 dollar fee to remove ads permanently. Our 'secret sauce' is the convenience factor of exploiting the prevalence of technology among the college demographic to solve a very common problem. In the future, I would like to expand this venture by selling it as service packages to colleges for them to provide to their students free of charge. I would like to manage this venture for awhile, and eventually sell it off.

The primary feedback I received while talking about this venture with people was positive. People in my targeted demographic agreed that they would find such a product useful. Originally I was going to charge everyone for the app, but feedback suggested that I make it free with ads with an optional buy in to appeal to college students more. Additionally the idea to sell as a package to schools was an idea I gained from feedback with a professor at UF.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

In this weeks reading I was somewhat surprised by just how useful an entrepreneurship philosophy is to have. It makes sense when I think about it, but the extent to which it can be used to help your venture succeed was a surprise to me.  I was confused with the author's stance on nepotism, I was always under the assumption that it was a bad and ethically dubious thing to practice. If I could ask two questions of the author I would first ask if there are legal situations where nepotism could get you into trouble. I would also ask what sort of entrepreneurial 'mindsets' are most important for a fresh entrepreneur to take. There was nothing I really disagreed with this week, excluding the issues I had with the nepotism.

Google Gold

The main strategy I used in my blog posts for SEO purposes was to try to have tags that accurately describe the variety of terms someone might use to search for my blog post. This would include the name and words in the title, such as for this post Google and Gold, as well as general tags such as business and UF. I tried to use more keywords as the semester went on. They are free to use, after all and it doesn't hurt to add more tags. I tried using social media once or twice to share my posts, but my social circle on Facebook doesn't really care about my school assignments. I used the built in share functionality to share a few posts on Google+, but I don't think anyone actually uses Google+. Overall I'd say social media ignored my blog posts, which I am not really surprised by. If I was one of my friends seeing me post assignments on Facebook, I probably wouldn't read them either.

My most "viral" post was the Unfair Advantage assignment with 31 view. I think it reached this number because multiple people decided to comment on it, presumably for their assignments. I tried searching for this blog post using the name and all the tags, but there were over 30,000 results and after thumbing through around 20 pages of search results I was unable to find it.

Very Short Interview, Part 2

In my first interview with Mr. Tobin, I asked him basic questions about entrepreneurship, like what does it mean to be an entrepreneur, what does he wish he knew before he started, and what I should try to get out of this course. In retrospect a lot of his answers, like the importance of networking, seem almost obvious in hindsight. However I can remember being surprised at the time. I guess this just shows what I've managed to learn over the following months since the interview.

I set up a chat with Mr. Tobin over the phone to ask him three new questions now that I have new found perspective thanks to this course.

1. How much of your entrepreneur mindset is unique to your field, and how much is universal?

He told me that he believes a great deal of entrepreneurial skill is universal. Things like market research, interviewing potential customers, and managing your business transfer between almost every field. There are specific tricks to every trade of course, but a great deal is universal.

2. What do you think is the major point of failure for fresh entrepreneurs?

He said that is absolutely would have to be lack of understanding of the market. Many entrepreneurs have what seem like amazing ideas, but totally mismanage it when it comes to finding a receptive demographic or delivering in a way that is attractive to customers.

3. What do you think the single most important skill as an entrepreneur is?

Lack of a fear of failure. There is almost no such thing as a sure bet, and risk is proportionate to reward. Don't be afraid to fail! (But make sure potential failure won't ruin you.)


I felt a lot more comfortable conducting this interview the second time around. Partly because I had already interviewed Mr. Tobin before, but also because I have done so much interacting and interviewing throughout this course that I was used to it. He was also impressed on the quality of my questions, he thought they were very direct and no-nonsense. I attribute this to my experience in this course.