30 A Final Reflection

Some of the highs in this class include discovering more about myself and my best skills that I have while also identifying some things I need to improve such as my tone of voice and deliverability during an elevator pitch. I also had an enjoyable experience while creating my ideal customer avatar that really allowed me to think deeply about who I was going to market my service for. Lastly, the exercise that made us test our hypothesis was very helpful in that it helped identify flaws within my business plan. I most dreaded writing up the big post for my venture concept and also did not like having to do the elevator pitch 3 separate times.

The most formative or enriching experience that I had in this course was during the Growing your Social capital assignment that required students to conduct interviews with the intent of finding meaningful connections that could help the business idea. I was able to meet a restaurant manager in this process that gave me valuable information for starting my venture.

I would definitely consider myself to be more of an entrepreneur now than I was at the start of the semester. I have been through many interviews and self evaluations that have given me a better understanding of how to successfully take risks as well as own and operate a venture.

The best way to have success in this course is to really think outside of the box when developing that first venture concept to ensure that it is applicable for the assignments in the future. I know several kids who had to change their business idea completely because it was not applicable for later assignments. Also, It is essential to do the assignments before the last day because of the early 12pm deadlines in this course.

Venture Concept No.2

The main problem that I identified in previous exercises was the unmet need for delivery food within a stadium during football games and potentially other sporting events. I believe that a large opportunity exists for the huge crowds that American Football attracts. In Major league baseball stadiums, there are roaming vendors constantly offering and selling a plethora of snacks and goodies that fans can purchase from the convenience of their seat. In the NFL, roaming vendors exist to a much lesser extent.  I am trying to target the continuing trend of America prioritizing and valuing convenience. The target audience is people who think to themselves at football games, "oh, I am hungry but just can not bear to wait in line for 20-30 min at halftime for hot dog or mini pizza" To solve this issue, in addition to vendors continuing to operate normally with people queuing up for food during a timeout or halftime break, these vendors should offer an uber eats esque type option where fans can go on a stadium app and have food from the vendor delivered to their seat for a small $2 fee. Another feature of the app would be having the option to order your food in advance for a certain time to avoid the lines. If a football game starts at 4 and ends at 730, then you would have the option to place an order for delivery to your seat before the game and choose for it to be delivered at Halftime or a specific time like 530, when you expect the food lines to be long. This need has always existed but has become more of an ubiquitous issue as of late as people have never been more obese; Ergo, people are lazy and want convenience.

My customer base loves their food, television, and drinking. They do not care how they look or what people think of them and they exhibit passion for the game. The fans in my target market are older than 50 and feel as if they are even older due to the way they mistreat their bodies with excessive eating and drinking. 

I am trying to target the continuing trend of America prioritizing and valuing convenience. The target audience is people who think to themselves at football games, "oh, I am hungry but just can not bear to wait in line for 20-30 min at halftime for hot dog or mini pizza." People care because my service creatives time value and they don't have to miss some of the game to eat. As most fans are over 50, some people may not be physically able to able to keep getting up from their seat.

My value proposition focuses on creating a unique service that will satiate my target audiences needs in the most efficient and effective ways possible to provide a tasty and hasty service. I would have a contract with the NFL that gave my company exclusive rights to provide this service in NFL stadiums during games. I would also have access to all existing employees that are under employment with the stadiums so I would not have to focus on re-hiring, just training. 

Also, the stadium food app will give the chance for customers to build up reward points to earn prizes which will further incentivize fans to order. 

From a Demographic perspective, only 9% of current NFL fans are under the age 18 and NFL fans that attend games mostly come from the United States. However, the NFL has made a valiant effort to go international and let foreign fans from London, England experience games by moving 4-6 games overseas per season. For the most part, The fans in my target market are older than 50 and feel as if they are even older due to the way they mistreat their bodies with excessive eating and drinking. Customers are currently satisfying this need by getting up and standing in line at food vendors with long lines around the arena. This process limits the amount of time fans spend on actually watching the game and can be considered a hassle to keep getting up for fans who are older. Customers are very loyal to depending on standing in line for food during games because people love to eat and there are not any alternatives available. However, as soon as my concept is implemented and marketed well, customers will start to recognize the value my service provides and will eventually make the switch to having their food delivered to their seat for a small fee. I could expand on my idea by providing food delivery services for different sports in different countries depending on the circumstances. Thus, this idea could eventually be used in all arena's that have food vendors. The switching process would be efficient and simple as the app will be heavily advertised in and around arena's to gain brand recognition. A key factor with my food delivery service app is that the goal is to utilize current employees for the delivery jobs that food vendors currently have on staff. My differentiable factor will be organizational and operational efficiency. By utilizing current staff, vendors could avoid a re-hiring process and just directly train staff that are already familiar with the arena. There would be one or two "runners' per section in the stadium so each person has a designated area to deliver to in order to avoid confusion. This opportunity is huge and should be around as long as arena's are getting filled. For now, my idea is focusing on capturing NFL fans but this idea is easily applicable to other sporting events and even concerts.

I did not receive much feedback on my venture concept post but it revolved around ideas of potentially hiring a completely new sales force and the potential to add and expand on this idea in other events besides just football. 

I came up with a change in fees that it would cost to utilize my service. Also, I took the advice of starting out the business by running many promotions to get our name on the map. I also the considered the idea of creating a specialized training program to garner a higher tip rate for employees. 

Your Exit Strategy 28A

My plan from day 1 of creating this business concept was to sell my business when it is well into the maturity phase. I envision this process to take around 7-10 years to successfully implement and expand the business. I plan on taking my food delivery service in stadiums outside of just the NFL and start delivering to stadium seats during concerts and other events before I sell to maximize my company's market valuation.

I view my main target market, the NFL, as a ticking clock with all the extreme injury's and inability of the league to augment player safety. Also, the NFL has already lost significant viewership because of political reasons, mostly thanks to players kneeling during the National Anthem. Thus, I want to enter the market and leave the market as fast as possible.

Just in case the NFL falls apart while I still own and operate the food delivery service in stadiums, it is imperative that I find a way into other markets to negate this revenue loss. Thus, I am looking into the concert market and even thinking about catering extremely large events to try and keep my business afloat. My exit strategy definitely influenced my growth intentions. As I said before, I plan on milking the business concept into the maturity phase where my service is implemented in various markets and will plan to sell when I think the NFL is 2-5 years away from being eradicated.

Reading Reflection 3

How to fail at almost everything and still win big- by Scott Adams

1. Contrary to the popular belief that passion is the root cause of success, Adams believes this works the opposite way with small levels of success increasing passion, which is essentially reinforcement. It is more effective to operate with systems rather than specific goals. Adams posits that systems allow slow growth overtime while goals, once achieved can result in feeling lost or miserable because of the loss of direction and having to find some new goal to replace the one just achieved. Adams emphasizes the importance of being selfish with the right attitude and positive energy.

2. Both the book I read and several assignments in this course are based on responding to failure in a positive manner and ways in which to avoid failing in the first place. I think the professor of this course might disagree with Adams and argue that SMART goals are more effective than the systems method proposed in the book.

3. In assignment 26A, we worked with what it is like to celebrate failure, so I would design an assignment that focuses on how to differentiate between positive failure and negative failure. Thus, this would help students know when to throw in the towel and quit, or if there are some encouraging signs, it would help students understand some important indicators that progress can still be made.

4. The concept that surprised me the most in this book was the idea that Adams thought two complementary skills are more important and useful than having one excellent skill. "the more you learn, the easier it is to learn more."

Celebrating Failure 26A

I began this semester with one goal in mind besides excelling in my academia–finding a girlfriend. I went out on most weekends and utilized dating apps such as Tinder, but none of these things mattered because I was really lacking in self confidence. Even when I matched with a girl on tinder or met someone attractive, I was unable to muster up the confidence to make a real effort at achieving my one goal. There was a large disconnect between what I told myself I wanted and the actions that I actually took to "try" to manifest this goal. I just simply was not doing enough and didn't take the risks I needed to succeed. This lack of taking action brought me to a self-loathing state where all I would do is doubt myself and thus not take risks.

I have a very successful past and know what it takes to turn a plan into action. For example, I went into my freshman year of high school with a class of 500 students determined to finish #1 in the class, and I did.  However, nothing gets done when you are not 100% dedicated and committed to the task at hand. I really underestimated mental health, especially while living 5 hours away from home, and I learned how important it is to try to build and maintain a positive and confident mindset and that there are no magical handouts and things do not miraculously just happen without effort. I underestimated how much effort this endeavor would require and thus just kept avoiding it as my confidence gradually slipped. Failing is very difficult to endure for me as I consider myself a perfectionist. If 90% of everything is going accordingly, I will focus relentlessly on that last 10% to achieve my goal. In this case, I would just avoid potential opportunities if I thought that the smallest thing was off. I would look for excuses and it just got to the point where I gave up trying. Failure is no fun, especially for someone like me that is not used to the feeling. Everything I have done thus far in my life I have given all I had and tried my absolute best, yet I just could not garner the confidence to make a legit effort of finding a girl. I learned that sometimes, it is imperative to step outside my comfort zone and to try and achieve things that I would never imagine attempting in the first place.

Taking this class has definitely broadened my perspective on failure because I didn't really know how to deal with it and thus just brushed it aside and tried to forget about it instead of getting up from the mud and trying to get back on my feet.  The very specific assignments given in this course illuminate just how easy it can be to fail with so many obstacles to overcome depending on the situation. This class enriched my ability to respond to failure and for that I am forever grateful.

Your Venture's unfair advantage 23A

1. location of the stadiums are valuable because they  allows me to eliminate competition such as Uber eats and thus limits peoples choices. Also cheaper to promote/market. Rare to use stadiums as a vendor because events only happen a few times a week which limits profit.
2. employee training process, not hiring = valuable bc provides operational efficiency, rare bc no need to hire more people and still plan to increase revenue.
3. brand/patents- valuable bc people can not copy my concept, rare as nothing like my idea currently is on the market.
4. transportation of the food-Valuable because employees are assigned sections to deliver to and thus speeds up the process. Rare as no other company is delivery food to seats.
5. Vendors-valuable because they provide the food that is going to be delivered. Rare bc most vendors make customers line up instead of giving them options to deliver.
6. Financial capital-Valuable because without it there is no business. rare because most businesses do not get enough capital to properly operate a new venture.
7. Human Capital- Valuable because no other human being has the same skills, knowledge, and experiences as me when it comes to satisfying customers when it comes to food delivery. Rare because there is only one of me and this idea would not be able to come to fruition without me.
8. Computer technology- Valuable because it will help contribute to operational efficiency by reducing the time it takes to place and receive an order. As soon as an order is placed, the vendor will be notified electronically and when it is almost ready, the vendor will notify the runner to pick it up. Would not be considered rare as everyone has access to computers but the software created for this specific purpose will be patented to avoid other companies doing the same thing as efficiently.
9. Employees are valuable bc they provide the goods/services that are required of a company in a manner than keeps the customer satisfied. employees in general are not Rare, but for minimum wage employees to display character and empathy when dropping off is hard to come by.
10. Time is valuable as sporting events such as football usually only last around 3 hours so it is essential to use time in the most efficient ways to maximize profits.

The employee training process is my most valuable resource because my system of implementation does not require new hires nor any exceptional skills that would result in high employee turnover. Instead, the employees take a simple training course regarding the architecture and location of all vendors in the stadium they will be working in. The training will also include how to interact with customers in a way that will make them want to order again. the strategic training process will help with growth and customer retention.

Venture Concept #1

       My customer base loves their food, television, and drinking. They do not care how they look or what people think of them and they exhibit passion for the game. The fans in my target market are older than 50 and feel as if they are even older due to the way they mistreat their bodies with excessive eating and drinking. 

       I am trying to target the continuing trend of America prioritizing and valuing convenience. The target audience is people who think to themselves at football games, "oh, I am hungry but just can not bear to wait in line for 20-30 min at halftime for hot dog or mini pizza" To solve this issue, in addition to vendors continuing to operate normally with people queuing up for food during a timeout or halftime break, these vendors should offer an uber eats esque type option where fans can go on a stadium app and have food from the vendor delivered to their seat for a small $2 fee. Another feature of the app would be having the option to order your food in advance for a certain time to avoid the lines. If a football game starts at 4 and ends at 730, then you would have the option to place an order for delivery to your seat before the game and choose for it to be delivered at Halftime or a specific time like 530, when you expect the food lines to be long. This need has always existed but has become more of an ubiquitous issue as of late as people have never been more obese; Ergo, people are lazy and want convenience. These two key forces:laziness and the need for convenience are the driving forces behind the idea as America is trending toward increases in both of these categories. As I stated earlier, the average age of a football fan is over 50 years old and my service takes this into consideration by catering to an older population. Also, the stadium food app will give the chance for customers to build up reward points to earn prizes which will further incentivize fans to order. 

From a Demographic perspective, only 9% of current NFL fans are under the age 18 and NFL fans that attend games mostly come from the United States. However, the NFL has made a valiant effort to go international and let foreign fans from London, England experience games by moving 4-6 games overseas per season. For the most part, The fans in my target market are older than 50 and feel as if they are even older due to the way they mistreat their bodies with excessive eating and drinking. Customers are currently satisfying this need by getting up and standing in line at food vendors with long lines around the arena. This process limits the amount of time fans spend on actually watching the game and can be considered a hassle to keep getting up for fans who are older. Customers are very loyal to depending on standing in line for food during games because people love to eat and there are not any alternatives available. However, as soon as my concept is implemented and marketed well, customers will start to recognize the value my service provides and will eventually make the switch to having their food delivered to their seat for a small fee. I could expand on my idea by providing food delivery services for different sports in different countries depending on the circumstances. Thus, this idea could eventually be used in all arena's that have food vendors. The switching process would be efficient and simple as the app will be heavily advertised in and around arena's to gain brand recognition. A key factor with my food delivery service app is that the goal is to utilize current employees for the delivery jobs that food vendors currently have on staff. My differentiable factor will be organizational and operational efficiency. By utilizing current staff, vendors could avoid a re-hiring process and just directly train staff that are already familiar with the arena. There would be one or two "runners' per section in the stadium so each person has a designated area to deliver to in order to avoid confusion. This opportunity is huge and should be around as long as arena's are getting filled. For now, my idea is focusing on capturing NFL fans but this idea is easily applicable to other sporting events and even concerts.

I would consider my food delivery service idea to be a dynamically continuous innovation because people are not used to having food delivered to their seat at football games, but the concept of food delivery has been around for a long time which keeps my idea from being a discontinuous innovation. My app would work similar to that of uber eats, which features that include being able to pick from various vendors around the stadium, an option for customizable orders, and the option to add an additional tip on top of the standard $2 delivery fee. I feel that this fee is negligible in respect to the inflated prices that stadiums typically charge for food; thus, it will be adopted with open arms by NFL fans. I plan to profit on that $2 delivery fee as .50 cents for every delivery will go to me.

Customers will switch from standing in lines to ordering from their seat because of convenience and my competition will still be people getting up and ordering while having to wait in line. I am planning on meeting with the NFL to present the idea with the hope of earning an exclusive rights contract that would give only me the ability to provide this service for the NFL. I am also planning to look into patenting the concept.  The location of the business is the key factor in that Uber eats can not just have employees walking into stadiums to drop off food. The location gives me a competitive advantage so that only my service can deliver food to fans' seats. All vendors would have separate technology for orders taken through the app and the runner responsible for picking up the food will be notified to pick it up several minutes beforehand. My most valuable resources include the location of my service, an exclusive rights contract with the NFL, and trained employees that can meet and exceed expectations.



      

Elevator Pitch 3

The most important feedback I received on my elevator pitch was regarding my tone of voice. Multiple people were impressed with the idea and how it was presented, but noted that that I sounded monotone when delivering the pitch. This time I tried to emphasize my points and spoke louder to sound more confident. I also tried to look up at all times.

Book:Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker

1. Entrepreneurship and innovation are responsible for driving economic growth. Drucker believed that despite high tech innovations, entrepreneurship at its core, is best at driving economic growth in low to no tech sectors. Drucker does not consider entrepreneurship a personality trait and defines the term as someone who systematically searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity. The author emphasized to not overcomplicate the processes of entrepreneurship and innovation as they are carried out more effectively when you start small and have simple, yet focused goals.

2. The book's core message resonated with this course as it encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to build on their strengths in order to innovate. In this course we had to identify our strengths and weaknesses for several assignments. Also, the idea that systematic innovation begins with analysis of opportunities relates to this course as we had to go through several levels of identifying potential constraints to our business opportunities.

3. If I had to design an exercise/assignment for this book, it would involve students creating a low-cost product concept with carefully crafted objectives and goals. Then, students would be graded on how well they stick to their objectives throughout the product process by comparing them with how well the product performed.

4. The most surprising thing about this book was Drucker's emphasis on how important it is to find a specialized product or service niche and the vast amount of steps that it entails to verify that a product or service is ready and competitive enough for market entry.

20A- Growing your Social Capital

1. This person is a Restaurant Manager at Felipe's here in Gainesville. This restaurant is right down the street from where I live and I go once or twice every week;Thus, the manager is familiar with me and was willing to give me some helpful advice.

2. Jorge Mendonza, the restaurant manager, would be considered a domain expert as has been dealing with running a food business for over 10 years.

3. During my usual, weekly stop at the restaurant I informed Jorge of the situation and he agreed to sit down with me for 10 minutes to hear me out.

4.He knows how to negotiate with suppliers, keep employee motivation at a high, and even gave me some short cuts and tips to getting started. He also gave me his business card so we can stay in touch electronically. He also gave me the name of someone who used to work at his restaurant but now works at the football stadium.

5. Since he is in the same basic industry I am attempting to get into, he might be able to help show me the ropes and point me in the right direction when starting my business.

1. This person is the former employee of the guy I talked about above. He works in the campus store at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Brayden has worked in retail and/or the food industry for 5 years and has a broad knowledge of market I am trying to exploit as he works in a football stadium.

2. Brayden is a market expert as he works for a food stand during football games so he has first hand experience dealing with my target market.

3. I found and contacted the person thanks to my first contact and Brayden's former employer at Felipe's.

4. Brayden gave me all the information I requested about my target market and he was able to identify and explain to me trends of when are the most popular times that customers line up for food. 

5. Brayden serves as a point of contact in the industry and can introduce me to his boss, a stadium manager, which can give me more detailed information regarding how to potentially set up and distribute my food delivery service idea. 

A supplier to my industry would be someone who provided the goods (food) at low costs. Unfortunately I could not find someone to fit this criteria. However, finding a supplier that is reliable and cost efficient is imperative for the success of my business. I asked Jorge from Felipe's and tried a few other online sources but was unable to find a supplier to have a conversation with regarding my business idea.

This experience of creating connections and establishing relationships with people that could potentially aid in my success in the future was very helpful and gave me some valuable experience. This assignment also pushed me to go outside my comfort zone and made me understand the importance of having social capital when starting a business.

Idea Napkin 2

1. Very analytical with deciphering patterns and numbers, Business oriented and always looking for opportunities to exploit. Extremely focused and dedicated when it comes to completing tasks or trying to achieve goals and motivated by competition. Strong ability to pick up on or learn new skills. I plan to own and operate my own business. If I started the sporting event food delivery service, I would have a lot of responsibility in making sure all aspects of the business are running smoothing all around the country. I would probably hire stadiums managers to manage the day to day operations of the business-such as training employees. I would focus on dealing with suppliers and the NFL, both macro business ideas.

2. In addition to vendors continuing to operate normally with people queuing up for food during a timeout or halftime break, these vendors should offer an uber eats esque type option where fans can go on a stadium app and have food from the vendor delivered to their seat for a small $2 fee. Another feature of the app would be having the option to order your food in advance for a certain time to avoid the lines. If a football game starts at 4 and ends at 730, then you would have the option to place an order for delivery to your seat before the game and choose for it to be delivered at Halftime or a specific time like 530, when you expect the food lines to be long. This need has always existed but has become more of an ubiquitous issue as of late as people have never been more obese; Ergo, people are lazy and want convenience.

3. My customer base loves their food, television, and drinking. They do not care how they look or what people think of them and they exhibit passion for the game. The fans in my target market are older than 50 and feel as if they are even older due to the way they mistreat their bodies with excessive eating and drinking. 

4. I am trying to target the continuing trend of America prioritizing and valuing convenience. The target audience is people who think to themselves at football games, "oh, I am hungry but just can not bear to wait in line for 20-30 min at halftime for hot dog or mini pizza." People care because my service creatives time value and they don't have to miss some of the game to eat. As most fans are over 50, some people may not be physically able to able to keep getting up from their seat.

5. My value proposition focuses on creating a unique service that will satiate my target audiences needs in the most efficient and effective ways possible to provide a tasty and hasty service. I would have a contract with the NFL that gave my company exclusive rights to provide this service in NFL stadiums during games. I would also have access to all existing employees that are under employment with the stadiums so I would not have to focus on re-hiring, just training. 

6. I did not receive any feedback on my last idea napkin assignment because I unfortunately forgot to submit it so i hope this one is good!

Create a Customer Avatar

The average age of a person who watches an NFL game is 50 years old with only 9% of viewers under the age of 18.
My customer base loves their food, television, and drinking. They do not care how they look or what people think of them and they exhibit passion for the game.
The fans that I am targeting mostly drive pick up trucks or other large, intimidating vehicles in darker colors
Their favorite channels on TV are ESPN at #1 and major news networks at #2.
Football fans in my target market do have a right leaning political bias due to their ability to stay focused, realistic and logical when watching a game. If their team is losing by 3 touchdowns in the 4th quarter, they know that they are going to lose the game and won't be filled with false hope that something magical is going to happen and change everything.
Their has been a noteworthy decline in the NFL's overall fanbase due to some questionable decisions with handling players actions towards the national anthem.Some fans now view the league as Un-American for allowing players to embarrass the soldiers who fight to ensure we remain safe on a daily basis.
The fans in my target market are older than 50 and feel as if they are even older due to the way they mistreat their bodies with excessive eating and drinking.

The thing that I have in common with my customer avatar is that we both have a passion for the game of football and would not trade anything for a chance to see my team play. We have this in common because I created the idea...However, when I am at a game I am solely focused on making sure I am cheering for my team and food does not even cross my mind, unlike my customer avatar. 

Elevator Pitch No. 2

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The most important feedback I received on my first elevator pitch was regarding my tone of voice. Multiple people were impressed with the idea and how it was presented, but noted that that I sounded monotone when delivering the pitch. This time I tried to emphasize my points and spoke louder to sound more confident.

Whats your Secret Sauce?

• Very analytical with deciphering patterns and numbers
• Business oriented and always looking for opportunities to exploit
• Extremely focused and dedicated when it comes to completing tasks or trying to achieve goals
• Motivated by competition
• Strong ability to pick up on or learn new skills

Interview 1 Eric

Eric believes that I am very loyal, caring, and understanding. He referenced the one time we were playing in an IM basketball game and he twisted his ankle. I immediately ran over and ended up taking him to the hospital to get crutches.

Interview 2 Franco

Franco claims that what sets me apart is that I am good at problem solving by picking apart a situation and finding the best way to go about solving the issue. Franco mentioned that when an issue arises and he needs advice, I am the first person that pops into his head. 

Interview 3

Manny Praised my self-discipline and ambition as he claims that my ability to lock myself in a room and solely focus on completing one specific yet onerous task is "admirable."

Interview 4

The first thing that Aiden mentioned was that my personality combined with my confidence creates a likable aura that people want to be around. This was probably the nicest thing any of the interviewees said (in my opinion)

Interview 5

Dylan said that I make a great team player and know how to bring the best qualities out of my peers. Also, praised my leadership skills as he claims that our friend group relies on me to give "direction."

While I mostly focused on qualities that mainly affect me, such as my analytical skills or ability to learn new things, my friends that I interviewed focused on mentioning qualities that impacted them in some way. Bottom line is, I realized that I am the most selfless person in my friend group and my view of what makes me different is slightly different to what my peers view as my unique selling points.

https://soundcloud.com/james-fryer-871216418/Erics-clip

https://soundcloud.com/james-fryer-871216418/Francos-clip

https://soundcloud.com/james-fryer-871216418/Mannys-clip

https://soundcloud.com/james-fryer-871216418/Aidens-clip

https://soundcloud.com/james-fryer-871216418/Dylans-clip

(Had trouble with links)

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior Part 2

Interview 1- Aiden

Aiden is a student here at UF in the business school that loves to attend sports events. If he was presented with several opportunities to purchase food from his seat and have it delivered to him, then he claims we would focus on reading reviews of the possible couriers for the B2C transaction. Once he has read reviews, the next thing he would prioritize when making the purchase decision is evaluating price points from the highest rated places. Aiden is not someone who always picks the most expensive option, yet he really emphasized how important it is to him to discover value when in making a purchase decision.  After the food has been delivered and consumed, the two things that Aiden valued most after the purchase was the taste and the timelines of the food delivery based on the reviews he read before purchasing.


Interview 2

Kara is a pre-med student here at UF who only goes to about 1-2 sporting events a year. When in the alternative evaluation process, Kara admitted to usually favor the the brand names that he recognizes the most or feels the strongest "connection to" when in the alternative evaluation process;Thus he can be impulsive and not do the proper research to make an informed decision which results in a limited consideration set. When I asked Kara what she would look for when making a decision on purchasing food at a sporting event, she claimed that besides the brand name, she also compares prices to reflect on the quality of the good as she believes that price and quality have a strong, direct relationship. However, Kara has the perception that the cheapest option is far inferior to the most expensive option and because of a significant price difference. Kara's approach will often result in missing out on value and constantly overpaying for meaningless goods by always choosing the most expensive option and assuming the value is justified. After a purchase decision, Kara cares most about how satisfied she was from consuming the good.

Interview 3

Franco is an innovation academy student that is one of my roommates on campus at UF. Franco is an avid UF football fan and has season tickets to attend all the home games. He loved the idea of a potential food delivery service during games instead of having the hassle of missing the game waiting in line. Franco is a big believer in utilizing the internet for reviews and feedback;Thus, when he is in the alternative evaluation stage, he looks for the companies with the highest level of customer satisfaction and customer retention rate when that information is available. Franco likes to compromise and says he would likely pick the most reasonably price service with the best customer reviews. His post purchase behavior would include analyzing the freshness and taste of the food as well as thinking about how much easier this concept is than waiting in line.

In Summation, all people interviewed have different sports viewing habits, but all seem to prioritize consumer reviews and price points when making a purchase decision.

Halfway reflection

1. The course schedule for this class has enabled me to develop more rigid discipline for myself. The way the course is structured, with several weekly assignments all due at the same time, I realized it was essential to space them out and plan when I was going to do everything in order to make sure I did not miss any more assignments. In the first few weeks, I missed a few assignments because I failed to realize the obscure time that assignments are due in this course, 11:59 A.M. After this early mistake I became determined to get a firm grip on my assignments and started utilizing the google calendar, which helped tremendously with planning.

2. I was very frustrated a few weeks ago when I realized that I forgot to declare that I did peer reviews on canvas even though I did all of them on blogger. This was my second mistake in this class and I was close to figuring out if I could drop it. However, after calculating the potential points I could earn with the extra credit opportunities through cupcakes and surveys I decided to stick with the course. I also realized the bigger picture, and in order to reach my goals I needed to persevere.

3. I would recommend to use a calendar strictly for this class so you don't get lost or fall behind. I would also encourage future students to really think outside the box and be as creative as possible in order to foster a tenacious mindset.

Reading Reflection 13A Phil Knight

The Biography that I choose was Shoe Dogs, which delineates how one man from Oregon builds a shoe empire that still reigns supreme today.

The thing that surprised me the most was how Phil knight started his company. Instead of manufacturing his own shoes, he flew out to Japan and gained distribution rights to sell the Japanese shoes in the United States.

I admire that as an track athlete, Phil Knight was able to create footwear solutions worldwide from a problem that directly affected knight. I also admire his risk taking ability by flying out to japan and start distributing a foreign brand in the U.S.

Even though Knight is known for giving credit to his colleagues for coming up with some of the major foundations of Nike, such as the waffle sole and swoosh logo, I think that Knight should have created the essential brand symbols himself as he did start the company. He was also know for being "insecure" about his decision making.

The first major problem that Knight ran into at Nike was when the business was well underway and the products were now being produced by a Japanese company. However, due to customs violations that Nike's competitors's discovered, Nike was forced to pay a 25 million dollar fine. The company was able to overcome this as high demand for their products persisted.

The thing that confused me most was that Phil Knight was not known for being a great leader in the earlier years of his company. Knight admits that "he rarely gave positive feedback or expressed gratitude to team members." I don't get how a company with a reserved leader kept growing at the rates it did on a yearly basis.

Why did you step down in 2006 when the company was at growing at exponential rates and had sales revenue of 16 billion?
Who was the most influential person that contributed to your success and why?

I think Phil knight believes in hard work, dedication, and passion. When it comes to facing adversity, Phil believes, "When you follow your calling, you can suffer through fatigue and disappointments, and the highs will be incomparable to anything else in life."

Testing the Hypothesis part 2

Die-hard fans that don't want to miss a second of action, older fans, overweight fans, and fans that value convenience.	Casual fans that able and willing to get up and trek to a food vendor. These fans do not care about the outcome of the game; thus, they would happily wait in line for food at the expense of missing the action.
the need is be to eat while at a sporting event and not have to sacrifice missing the game or having to wait in long lines.	The need to eat is not the same as the need to go to the bathroom during a football game as the bathroom can't be brought to your seat.
People pay large sums of money to attend NFL games and they don't want to sacrifice watching the game even though they also have a need for food.	The underlying basic cause for the need are the same for everyone, Hunger! Beyond that the main specific reasons people want food delivered to their seat is fear of missing out, convenience. old age, and weight. People that fall into these categories are more likely to utilize a food delivery service to your seat.

Elevator Pitch

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Football stadiums in the United States are unable to provide adequate food and drink services to all fans–only those who can and want to wait in long lines– because people are old, lazy, overweight, or a combination of the three.

Who-Football stadiums/vendors
What- Unable to provide adequate food and drinks for everyone who wants them
Why-Lines to get food can get extremely long, especially during breaks or halftime. Also, the average age of the prototypical football fan continues to rise; thus, a good portion of fans are old, lazy, and/or overweight.

Testing the Who– All 30 football stadiums around the country share this unmet need for food delivery to individual seats. This need could extent to other sports such as soccer, where the only stoppage in the game is halftime so the lines would be extremely long because nobody wants to miss watching precious game time.

Testing the What– The only boundaries for this need is when it comes to delivering alcoholic beverages. All customers who use the stadium app that are ordering an alcoholic beverage will have to scan their ID on the app. All types of food can be delivered but some of the respondents had qualms about the freshness of the food as it can take time to get the food from point A to point B. Thus, i would implement different food packaging to best preserve whatever the food is. This service would be applicable to anyone that prefers convenience and there are no boundaries to how much food can be delivered either. Food can even be brought to your seat for your whole family from multiple vendors. The "runners" as i would call them would be employed by the stadium, not individual vendors and be assigned to a section, so it doesn't get confusing.

Testing the Why- Stadiums are currently unable to provide delivery food but not everyone has the same reason "why" this is still an unmet need. Responses had to do with having issues implementing the service and getting it approved by the NFL. Others just flat out blamed the fans for their laziness in not wanting to get out of their seat and wait in line. Also, one respondent that has this unmet need claims he doesn't want to miss any game time as he usually pays over 100$ for a ticket.
    Overall, the problem exists bc people are hungry but don't want to miss the game or are too fat and lazy to wait and changes can easily be made to accommodate America's continual request for convenience.

Solving the problem

The main problem that I identified in previous exercises was the unmet need for delivery food within a stadium during football games and potentially other sporting events. I believe that a large opportunity exists for the huge crowds that American Football attracts. In Major league baseball stadiums, there are roaming vendors constantly offering and selling a plethora of snacks and goodies that fans can purchase from the convenience of their seat. In the NFL, roaming vendors exist to a much lesser extent.  I am trying to target the continuing trend of America prioritizing and valuing convenience. The target audience is people who think to themselves at football games, "oh, I am hungry but just can not bear to wait in line for 20-30 min at halftime for hot dog or mini pizza" To solve this issue, in addition to vendors continuing to operate normally with people queuing up for food during a timeout or halftime break, these vendors should offer an uber eats esque type option where fans can go on a stadium app and have food from the vendor delivered to their seat for a small $2 fee. Another feature of the app would be having the option to order your food in advance for a certain time to avoid the lines. If a football game starts at 4 and ends at 730, then you would have the option to place an order for delivery to your seat before the game and choose for it to be delivered at Halftime or a specific time like 530, when you expect the food lines to be long. This need has always existed but has become more of an ubiquitous issue as of late as people have never been more obese; Ergo, people are lazy and want convenience.

Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory trends

The first opportunity related to regulatory trends is that Bitcoin is not currently well-regulated enough to be traded on major stock exchanges and there is no rush to change this. I found this article on cointelegraph.com and this most affects technology stock investors but also all humans in the long run. Paper money is outdated and when Bitcoin becomes more regulated, it will have a major impact all over the world as it will slowly become the global currency of exchange. I think this regulation and verification process should be sped up as there is an opportunity for so many new markets when Cryptocurrency becomes fully accepted. I saw this opportunity because i think the world is ready and just waiting to make the switch from paper money to all electronic and digital currency.


The second opportunity related to regulatory trends is that now only 7 out of America's top 100 retailers sell guns due to the increasing sociocultural pressure in the U.S. I found this info on 24/7 Wallstreet.com. In light of the recent democratic debates and their incompetence regarding "complete gun confiscation" actually caused gun sales to skyrocket. Gun company's were calling Beto O'Rouke their salesman of the month. Also, More people now want to carry to protect themselves from random mass shootings committed by deranged people. Therefore, I think there is an opportunity for small gun company's to open a lot more stores to take advantage of a market that America's biggest retailers are scared to take part in. This might be difficult to exploit as this would cause significant debate and backlash. I saw this opportunity because I watched the democratic debate and I know how the public reacts to nonsensical garbage, they just do the opposite of what you want them to do!


The first opportunity related to economic trends is that Amazon has recently been accused of not properly checking products from outside companies that they sell on their site. This article was in the new York times. I believe that even know Amazon is a huge company, they should still be meticulous with everything they do to avoid errors or unhappy customers. I think an opportunity exists for Amazon to do product testing with everything it sells on its site to ensure that it is up to their standards. Online shoppers are often hesitant to buy from 3rd party sources on amazon as amazon never sees the product that it sells. I saw this opportunity because Amazon is the most dominant company in the world and i don't find it there current quality control methods effective.

The second opportunity related to economic trends is that kids are getting their first cell phones at the youngest age they ever have in the last few years. I found the article on msnbc. As easy as an Iphone is to use, i don't think it is appropriate for children as young as six or seven to be playing on a phone all day especially with access to things they should not see. An opportunity exists for apple to create a phone designed specifically for young children that focuses and enhances safety features and productive learning. The Prototypical customer is young parents who want to communicate with their kids all the time but dont want to buy them a thousand dollar phone with way too much power. I thought of this idea because children should simply not be using the all mighty and powerful iPhone at such young ages.