20A Growing Your Social Capital

1)    One person must be a domain expert in your industry. This would be someone who's engaged in the same type of business activity as you would like to be. They may own the same kind of company that you would like to own, or they may be a technical expert who knows a lot about the kind of product or service that you would like to produce.

·      Who they are and what their background is.

After a ton of research I found a company in Wisconsin that does microchip implants in their 
employees. Patrick McMullan is the president of Three Square Market, a technology company 
that provides self-service mini-markets to hospitals, hotels, and company break rooms.

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

Domain expert

·      A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I found them on google and emailed them.

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

They haven’t responded to my email yet.

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

Well, this is the only person I found that is doing the exact thing my company would do so they would be a large impact to my network. They can give me information on how to create the product, how to service it, and contact information to a supplier.

2)    One person must be an expert on your market. This would be someone who is targeting your market with similar products services -- or knows a lot about conducting customer research in your area -- or represents a major piece of your market (this might be most applicable with B2B markets).

·      Who they are and what their background is.

I would have to use the same individual from my domain expert slot. Since he is the only individual in America doing anything similar to my company. Patrick McMullan is the president of Three Square Market, a technology company that provides self-service mini-markets to hospitals, hotels, and company break rooms.

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

Market expert

·      A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I emailed them. And found them on google.

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

I haven’t received a response back yet.

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

They have actual experience when it comes to finding customers that are interested in this product/service. So, he would be able to help me narrow down my customer market and he could also share information on how he got customers to agree with this microchipping process even though it is invasive. That was one of my biggest concerns.

3)    One person must be an important supplier to your industry. This would be someone who is selling products and services to other organizations/firms in your industry. 

·      Who they are and what their background is.

I found a CEO named, Steve Sanghi, of a company online called Microchip Technology Incorporation. Microchip Technology Inc. is an American publicly-listed corporation that is a manufacturer of microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog and Flash-IP integrated circuits.

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

Supplier

·      A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I found this individual on google, and I emailed him and connected with him on LinkedIn.

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

He hasn’t yet responded.

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

This supplier would help me create an actual microchip product. He has experience in creating micro chips of “High-Accuracy Phase Measurement for 5G” with real-time response, high performance and high reliability. This is exactly what I need for my product.

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?

Hello, my name is Victoria. I’m a Junior at the University of Florida and I’m studying Business Administration at UF’s College of Warrington. My passion for the last two years has been in being of service to those who have economic struggles such as addiction. I’ve been a mentor in changing peoples lives for the better including my own success story. I’ve instilled my dedication in growth and empowerment throughout my college career in relation to Business, while I’ve earned certificates in Business Specialist, Business Operations, and Accounting Technology Specialist. With the skills I obtained I received an Associates Degree with High Honors and transferred to the University of Florida. Right now I’m looking for an internship for this summer where I can enhance my skills in the field of Business and Economics.

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

My product/service that I could sell to customers to provide a solution to this epidemic is the creation of a navigation chip that could be surgically placed under the skin of an individuals’ body. This chip would be able to give the exact location of that individual at any given time in the case of an emergency via an online website. Each chip would be given a pin to enter onto the website to track the location according to the chips pin. This would provide a large solution to where a missing individual is and where other victims of human trafficking are located. I could price the procedure at a low cost so that any family could be able to afford it, and also retain a percentage of the profits to donate this procedure to the local homeless community and have online representatives given the information of the homeless populations pin numbers and names in the case that one is reported missing.

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?

My selected opportunity is human trafficking in Gainesville, Florida. Human trafficking in Gainesville is now marked as a green zone, which means that it’s on the human trafficking map of locations for Florida. This problem directly affects woman, children, teenagers, and the homeless population. My customers all have in common that are they are the normal target of predators due to their sex being female, and age. People under 18 such as teenagers and children are more vulnerable compared to an adult and females are more vulnerable in comparison to a stronger and larger male.

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 will use my product because it can be applied to a widespread of concerns, not only concerning human trafficking. My product will offer the safety and peace of mind of knowing where a person is when needed, such as a simpler and higher accurate version that an Iphone does with “sharing your location” with someone. For someone or for a demographic that is directly affected by human trafficking, my product would be the best option to ensure someone’s safety and direct location if any concern would arise. My product is priceless when it comes to purchasing it. Any family would choose to spend the price of the product to ensure the safety of their loved one or themselves.

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

My product would be new to the market. There has never been a tracking chip company that places an electronic chip in people to acquire their location. Something that cannot be replicated would be that it the chip is patented to be undetectable to any system or scanner. So, when the company becomes more exposed with more users, sex traffickers will also be aware that their victim could have my chip placed and try to scan the body of the victim for it; though, my chip is undetectable and cannot be found on the body through any scanner or electronic system once it is placed. This would be give me a further advantage from my future competitors, because I would be the only undetectable chip with my patent.

18A- Create a Customer Avatar

I’ve established that my customer segment includes woman that have children, so basically moms. They would have to be of middle class or the upper class. The basic description of my customer would be a working mom with two children. The mom is 38 years old and has two children of ages 9 and 12. She is a pediatrician and has a husband that works as a police officer. Her hobbies include yoga classes, boxing classes, going to the gym, and cooking. Her favorite shows are fixer upper, 20/20, survivor, law and order: SVU, greys anatomy, and American idol. She drives a silver Volvo SUV. She could be either democrat or republican, I think both classes would find a need in my product. Her and her family go camping often and enjoy the outdoors.

 

I have nothing in common with my avatar except for liking some of her favorite shows and enjoying the outdoors.

17A - Elevator Pitch No. 2

16A- What's your secret sauce?

1. My passion for the last two years has been in being of service to those who have economic struggles such as addiction. I’ve been a mentor in changing peoples lives for the better including my own success story. I’ve instilled my dedication in growth and empowerment throughout my college career in relation to Business, while I’ve earned certificates in Business Specialist, Business Operations, and Accounting Technology Specialist. With the skills I obtained I received an Associates Degree with High Honors and transferred to the University of Florida.

2.
https://soundcloud.com/victoria-saraiva-234903203/jillian
https://soundcloud.com/victoria-saraiva-234903203/mom
https://soundcloud.com/victoria-saraiva-234903203/dad
https://soundcloud.com/victoria-saraiva-234903203/roomate1
https://soundcloud.com/victoria-saraiva-234903203/roomate2

3. I think that each of the people that states my qualities were accurate. They definitely input some qualities that I could add to my first explanation. I see myself as all of the above characteristics. One thing that nobody mentioned is my life of living with addiction and overcoming it. I definitely believe that is one of my strongest qualities. I completely turned around my life within a few years and became a very powerful motivating person. This showed me also how to help others and not only care for myself.

15A- Figuring out Buyer Behavior No.2

·      Begin with alternative evaluation. In the last case exercise, you determined how customers sought information related to solving their need. The outcome of this step is to produce a set of alternatives. Customers pick from among this set of alternatives. In this step, your job is to figure out how they do their picking. Does price matter the most? Does quality? Does style? Is there more than one factor that is important to your customer segment?

I interviewed 3 different people; 1 mom, 1 college student, and 1 homeless person.  After interviewing them the most important factor in deciding which alternative to go with was cost. Since my product is of high technology it would be a bit above the budget of most college students and they wouldn’t be able to afford a high price for my product and homeless people definitely wouldn’t be able to afford it. My best customer segment for my product would be parents. Quality definitely is a factor, I need to have a product that works perfectly and accurately, by giving accurate locations and fast searches. This would help evaluate the purpose of the high cost. Style doesn’t matter.

·      How/where do they buy? Elements of the actual transaction can help characterize your segment. Is your segment more likely to buy online or in a store? Are they more likely to use cash or will they finance the purchase? Etc. If this is a B2B purchase, who's involved in the purchase decision? 

Most of my interviewees stated that they would be more inclined to purchase my product in person. They explained how it’s a serious decision as it would require a surgical procedure and they would need to be shown examples of how it works in person. For my customer segment being parents, the mom stated she would most likely pay fully using a credit card.

·      Post-purchase evaluation. What matters most to your customers when they think back on the 'rightness' of the purchase? What helps them determine the purchase was a good idea? What sorts of things make them think a purchase was a bad idea? 

The interviewees stated that the most important aspect that would affect their post-purchase evaluation would be if the product worked accurately and consistently. They also said they would correlate how efficiently the product worked to the price they paid for it. The things that would make them believe it was a bad idea would be if the product didn’t deliver on its service consistently and accurately. That would make them believe that they spent too much on a low quality product.

·      Report the findings. Simply summarize your interviews and

Draw conclusions. Based on what you know about this segment and what you learned in your interviews, how would you succinctly describe this segment in terms of alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and post-purchase evaluation? 

I gained a ton of information interviewing these select individuals. I learned through alternative evaluation that the most important qualities of my product would be the cost of it and the quality. I also learned that the purchase decision of each interviewee differed in many aspects according to alternative evaluation. Meaning 2 out of 3 of my interviewees couldn’t even afford my product whether there was a need for it or not. This helped me evaluate what my customer segment would be, which would be parents. The interviewees stated that if my product didn’t deliver its’ service by giving an accurate location at all times, then they would have a negative post-purchase evaluation. They said if my product was high quality and accurate at all times, then it would be worth the cost as it could potentially save lives.