Final Reflection

1. Read through all of my previous posts.

2. I think the most formative experience for me throughout this semester for this class was doing the reading reflection assignments. I think it really helped me form the mentality of what an entrepreneur stands for in the world and how they can come from different backgrounds and take on different ventures that ultimately allow them to succeed. I enjoy reading in general and the books that I chose for my reading were very influential because they can be applied to a lot of different situations besides entrepreneurship.

I think my most joyous experience was performing the elevator pitches for the class. I've never been someone that likes to be in front of the camera and speak, but the way I had to craft my elevator pitches around myself and around my venture made it extremely fun to do. I was working on what words sound best and how it would flow and various other little things that make an elevator pitch extremely effective in the professional world.

3.  I think I have moved closer to developing the entrepreneurial mindset. I don't think I see myself as one yet, but I'm starting to develop the mindset of looking at opportunities in the real world and how I could potentially take advantage of them with my skillset. I think becoming an entrepreneur takes years and years of development before you can consider yourself one, but I believe I am on the right path.

4. I would say one recommendation for this class would be to really look back at the feedback you get from your peers for this class. It was extremely beneficial for me because it made me think about certain things that I wasn't thinking about during the process and how I could make changes to this idea or that idea. I would also say to really take this class seriously because it will help you create that entrepreneurial mindset for yourself that you can use in your future endeavors.

 

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity

As a student and a season-ticket holder for football games, the unmet need I identified was the Gator Student Ticketing Office lacking the software to track and reprint lost or stolen tickets for students that purchase tickets through them. I was one of these many students that were unfortunate to lose one of their tickets before a game early in the season. However, the primary target of this opportunity is the ticketing office because they are the people I will be presenting the solution to solve the unmet need for my secondary consumer, University of Florida students that purchase football tickets through the ticketing office. Currently, the only way to 'satisfy' the need is for students to either not attend the games after losing a ticket or purchase another one from the ticketing office or another student which can be costly in the end. The size of this opportunity can keep growing past what the initial target is as other ticketing offices at other universities around the country can implement this system into their ticketing software that will allow students to have their tickets reprinted if they are lost or stolen. I believe when it comes to the "window of opportunity" for the venture concept can stay open for as long as the ticketing office doesn't implement a system to track tickets and have them reprinted if they are lost or stolen by students on campus. However, I believe that jumping through that window sooner than later because they could be working with someone or developing the feature in-house to solve the issue that has been affecting them for a long time now.

The changes of the environment when it comes to solving this unmet need would be changing the process of how the ticketing office hands out the tickets when students come to pick them up during the week leading up to the game. The process will involve them scanning the tickets into the system after they have swiped your ID card to check for tickets. Those tickets are attached to your account after they scan them. Now, the tickets are 'attached' to your student ID card and if you were to lose your tickets before the game, you could go to the ticketing office, hand them your ID card and they will reprint the tickets off for you. This will remove the issue of students having to buy new tickets form the office or another student on campus that is no longer attending the game.

Innovation

The software that I am introducing isn't innovating to ticketed events as a lot of places that have a ticketing system also including a way for the tickets to be tracked and reprinted if they are every lost or stolen. I understand this because I work at a performing arts box office and we have a system for customers to contact us and have their tickets reprinted for whatever reason like if they lost them or the mail failed to deliver them or anything else. The plan for this opportunity is to work with a team on developing a software feature that can be implemented in the Gator Student Ticketing Office software that can attach football tickets to students ID's and be able to reprint those tickets if they are ever lost or stolen by the students at the University of Florida.

Venture Concept

The innovation that I am proposing will be solving the issue of the Gator Student Ticketing Office having to deal with students that have purchased football tickets through them and having lost them after picking them up. As of right now, the ticketing office doesn't have a proper solution to the issue besides telling the students to either find the lost ticket, buy a new one from them, or buy an unclaimed or claimed ticket from another student on campus. Not only that, but we plan to provide the service to all sporting events offered at the University of Florida. While the ticketing office will serve as the primary target audience of this innovation, the students that purchase tickets are the secondary target audience because they will benefit from the innovation that I am offering as they will no longer have to worry about buying another ticket if they were to lose their previous one before a game. They will be able to go to the ticketing office and have them reprint the ticket they lost as it is connected to their UF ID card. I believe the ticketing office would be quick to adopt this feature as it will help improve that customer relationship they have with the students and provide a 'safety net' for them if they were ever to lose their tickets in the future. At first, it could be difficult to train employees on the process, but it will become second-nature to them during the deployment process. As for competitors, their current software provider could be working on developing this feature for them to implement in the future, but also other teams that might be looking into pitching this software feature to them to implement. I would organize the 'business' as a small to work on the initial development of the project, but as it grows and time goes on, an expansion will be important for us to be able to provide sufficient support for the project.

Three Minor Elements

For the first element, I believe the most important resource to follow during the development process is to stay simple and continue working diligently despite running into speedbumps during the development process of the opportunity.


For the second element, I believe the next opportunity in line for the innovation is to start expanding the software feature to other ticketing offices around the state of Florida to continuously grow and develop the software to be as efficient as possible. We would then look into expanding nationwide to different colleges and universities around the country.

For the third element, I would like to see the software implemented at the majority of all major universities around the country and into multiple sporting programs like softball, basketball, and soccer. I think it is important to continuously expand the scope of the business to remain successful in the long run.

Feedback

Regarding the feedback I got from my first venture concept, neither of the two students had any negative feedback or concerns regarding it. They were both pretty supportive of the venture concept and were interested in how it would progress after this class is over with. However, I went back to my "What's Next?" post and read over it again for any changes that I could make to the concept. One of the people that I interviewed in the post stated that we should look into expanding it to other sporting events at the University of Florida because they mentioned they have lost a ticket for one of the basketball games. Since he already claimed a ticket under his ID, he wasn't able to claim another and had to look on the Facebook page for an unclaimed ticket.

The Changes

The changes I made from the feedback were minimal, but I altered the service from just being provided to the Gator Student Ticketing Office for football to being provided to all of the sporting events that are offered here at the University of Florida. There might be other changes that I could make to the venture concept, but I don't want to make any unnecessary changes that I might not need if the venture concept is good the way it is.

Your Exit Strategy

1. I believe the proper exit strategy for me would be stepping down as the CEO of the company that is running my venture and serving as a consultant for them. As the venture in question aims to provide the Gator Student Ticketing Office with the right software so that they will be able to reprint lost student tickets through their UF identification cards, it would be important to me to continue working for the company and continue to be involved with it in the long run. However, I think at a certain point that I should step down and let new blood to come in and take the reins from to see if they will be able to continue to expand the company more.
2. As I stated above, at a certain point in the life cycle for the company, new blood needs to come in and take control of the company to drive it past where it stalemates at. However, I would like to remain as a consultant for the company to continually help them drive forward and guide them in certain situations that I could have expertise and knowledge in.
3. I believe it has influenced the growth decisions for the business because, with the venture, we are just aiming to remain local to the Gator Student Ticketing Office. However, we plan to expand across the state to other universities and so on until we can hit it nationally. I think at the point that we hit across the state of Florida and the outlying regions, I would want to take a step back from the CEO role and choose to become a consultant and potentially chase other ventures in the free time. After that would be left for the new blood to come in and decide whether the plans to move nationally we’ll be worth the cost and manpower.

Reading Reflection No. 3

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big – Scott Adams

1. The general theme of the book is about the life story of Scott Adams and the lessons that he has learned from his entrepreneurial endeavors in the world. Not only does he talk about the lessons that he has learned, but also all of the failures that he has encountered that led to eventual success and winning big.
2. I believe the biggest lesson that I learned from this book that enhanced what I have been learning from this class is that failure is inevitable in life and you will always end up failing at something. However, how you react to that failure is up to you and will have an impact on how successful you will be in the future after that failure. I think that was an important lesson for me because we are all taught that failing is bad, and we should avoid failing at all costs, but the lessons that we learn from failing are just as important because it teaches us the post-failure thought process and how we respond to that failure in the future.
3. An assignment that I would design for this class would be like one we already have is the “Celebrating Failure” assignment. However, I would adjust the assignment from something that we have already failed at and how we felt about it afterward to trying something that we haven’t experienced or done before, failing at it, and what our thought process is after we have failed at it. I think the task of doing something that we have never done before, failing at it, and seeing how we reacted to it is important for us to learn that not everything we are going to immediately good at and failure is to be expected in certain situations.
4. For this book, the ‘aha’ moment for me was the lesson from Scott Adams that instead of building goals for our lives that we should build systems. This stood out to me because everyone has goals they want to accomplish and hope to do so in the future. Scott Adams talked about goals having two inherent flaws in them as one, they are in the future, and two, they are specific. When it comes to the future portion, goals are set at an unknown date for us and without having that ‘system’ of having it done on this certain day can be depressing. For the specific portion, when we set goals, they are clearly defined by us and if we don’t reach that exact definition for the goal, it can be disappointing for us. Adams states that with systems, we are able to adjust the plans within them and that each day of accomplishing a part of the system is a success for you.

Celebrating Failure

1. As a person that Is in the gym four to five days a week, failure is something that you must learn to live with because it happens almost every day for us. You’re either unable to quite hit that max lift that you have been aiming for the past couple months or you can’t hit a certain amount of repetitions on a set. For me, right before the semester began, I was able to hit 315 pounds for my bench press max. It was also right before I left for Germany to see my sister before the fall semester started. I was ecstatic because I have been recovering from a surgery from last May that has prevented me from working out effectively up until this past summer. A labral tear in your shoulder really is one of the worse injuries that I have ever had to my body. However, after I returned from Germany, I couldn’t hit anywhere near on bench than what I did right before I left. It put me in a serious slump that messed with my confidence for a bit that I was gone for a little over a week and I could barely do the sets that lead up to my one-rep max. It is disheartening to fail at something that you have successfully done in the past and getting stuck in that cycle of failure.
2. I decided to take a step back from my current workout regiment for chest day and research some potential solutions that I could use to help solve my problem. On Youtube, I’m a fan of Jeremy Ethier, a Youtuber that is a graduate student in Kinesiology from Canada that posts scientific-based workout and therapeutic exercises to improve your body. I reviewed his chest-based video and adopted his exercises into my current program along with adding more lightweight exercises as a build-up to increase strength. I spent around a month working through the program that I built for myself from my experience and Ethier’s recommendations. I started to see improvements slowly come from working through the regiment. My shoulder slows down my progress a bit because of the extensive amount of damage that was done when I dislocated it and tore the labrum around the socket. However, I was able to return my max bench press up to 315 pounds recently, but I was also able to increase the number of repetitions I was able to do at 225 pounds from around 10-12 to 20 repetitions. What I learned from this is:
1. Do not let failure and the roadblocks that come with it discourage you from achieving what you want to achieve.
2. Sometimes, you need to take a step back and reevaluate what you are doing and researching a better method of doing things to improve your chances of succeeding next time.
3. Don’t mess up your shoulder because the recovery process is long and painful.
3. Failure is embarrassing to some, but I believe I see it as an opportunity to learn from the failure to improve yourself in the future. For me, I see failure as a love-hate relationship because when you fail at something, you despise it for what it is in the moment, but after going back and understanding why you failed and fixing the mistakes or adjusting what you are doing, you love to see yourself to be able to overcome it the next go around.

What's Next?

Existing Market

Step 1: The next step for this venture is to look into expanding to other colleges and universities around the state that don't have a similar software feature implemented into their ticketing offices for their sports programs. If we want to be successful as a business, we can't be complacent with where we are right now. We need to be looking into what we can do with our service and what kind of opportunities are available to us. After we have become comfortable with testing the software at the University of Florida, we will look into approaching other colleges and universities across the state to pitch our software to them.

Step 2: I decided to sit down with two people that I interviewed previously about the opportunity I originally presented to them, Hannah and Chad. The third person I sat down with for these set interviews was a new person that I haven't interviewed before, Lucas, who used to work at the ticketing office in the past. Since they are all students that have attended football games in the past or will attend in the future, they fall within my primary and secondary target audience and will see a lot of the benefits from the implementation of my service at the Gator Student Ticketing Office.

I sat down with each of them separately to figure out the question "What should we be doing that we aren't planning on doing?" Chad brought up that I could look into expanding the service to other sporting events even though they are free events. He mentioned that he lost a basketball ticket and since he already claimed one before the game, he wasn't able to claim another one nor have his old ticket reprinted. Hannah couldn't think of much about what we could be planning to do in the future of the business but could look into providing safety nets for students that buy tickets from other students to prevent issues like fraudulent tickets being sold to them. Lucas brought up what I was thinking beforehand about expanding to other schools around the state and country once the system has become stable and there is sufficient support to maintain the software.

Step 3: When it comes to growing the service to others around the state and across the country, I think the issue that we need to keep in mind is to not grow too fast that it becomes too much of a burden to operate and starts costing us more than it is making for us. What I will look at is a timeline of where we should be with our service currently and where we should be in the future and figure out an efficient plan to make those targets for the business. I still want to expand to other universities around the country, but I believe we will need to be realistic and limit ourselves until we were ready for it.

Along with that, we will look into perfecting the software while we remain 'local' at the University of Florida and make sure that it is perfect to work here. We will then continue adding safeguards and features that truly benefit both the primary and secondary target audience of the software. We will try to avoid becoming too comfortable with what we are doing and try to continuously innovate our product to be the best it can be.

 

New Market

Step 1: For the new market, I decided to talk to two employees that currently work at the Gator Student Ticketing Office about my venture and the potential I have since they will be the people that work with the software feature on a daily basis when handing out tickets.

Step 2: I believe the value that the employees will see from the software is that it will improve the customer service experience for the students that pick-up tickets from the ticketing office and have them reprinted if they are lost or stolen. It is hard to find a drastically different target market because the specifics of this opportunity and limitations that come with it.

The hard part of seeing how much value this will provide to the employees depends on how each employee cares about customer service and how much of an impact that they will have on the students that have their tickets reprinted after losing them. This will be a business-to-business focus so the amount of value when it is first introduced to them is less than how much value is added later on once they are using the software feature and dealing with lost tickets.

Step 3: The two employees that I sat down with that work at the Gator Student Ticketing Office were interested in my venture concept that I proposed to them and how it would be implemented into the system they are currently using. Both stated that they always wondered why there wasn't a system already in place that can track lost tickets for students because the tickets aren't exactly cheap compared to other universities across the state that have free tickets for football like the University of Central Florida.

I explained to them on how the process will work when it comes to attaching the tickets to the student's UFID card and how they would be tracked if they were lost or stolen from that student. They mentioned that it sounds like a good idea because it is common for students to lose their tickets after picking them up and there isn't anything they can do because there is no way of finding it for them. The only issue they brought up is that it could take time to train staff on the new system and when it gets busy, it could slow down the ticket dispersal process. However, they felt that it would be valuable for them because the students they serve would be happy to find that they don't have to worry about buying a new ticket if they lose theirs.

Step 4: I think what surprised me the most about this target market is the amount of support and interest both of the interviewees's that I sat down and talked about it with. Since they are actual employees at the ticketing office and deal with the software on almost a daily basis, I thought it was encouraging to hear that they liked the venture that I proposed for them. As for my expectations, I was correct with them before I interviewed them and what I expected to hear. I have worked in the service industry for a long time now and it is nice to be able to provide good customer service to people and for them to be happy with the overall experience.

As for the attraction of the new market, I think it is on par for my venture that I am proposing. They are a good target audience that I could take advantage of with the venture. I believe they would be a good representation of the whole target market, but more research will have to be conducted to provide an accurate picture of what I will be working with this venture.

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity

As a student and a season-ticket holder for football games, the unmet need I identified was the Gator Student Ticketing Office lacking the software to track and reprint lost or stolen tickets for students that purchase tickets through them. I was one of these many students that were unfortunate to lose one of their tickets before a game early in the season. However, the primary target of this opportunity is the ticketing office because they are the people I will be presenting the solution to solve the unmet need for my secondary consumer, University of Florida students that purchase football tickets through the ticketing office. Currently, the only way to 'satisfy' the need is for students to either not attend the games after losing a ticket or purchase another one from the ticketing office or another student which can be costly in the end. The size of this opportunity can keep growing past what the initial target is as other ticketing offices at other universities around the country can implement this system into their ticketing software that will allow students to have their tickets reprinted if they are lost or stolen. I believe when it comes to the "window of opportunity" for the venture concept can stay open for as long as the ticketing office doesn't implement a system to track tickets and have them reprinted if they are lost or stolen by students on campus. However, I believe that jumping through that window sooner than later because they could be working with someone or developing the feature in-house to solve the issue that has been affecting them for a long time now.

The changes of the environment when it comes to solving this unmet need would be changing the process of how the ticketing office hands out the tickets when students come to pick them up during the week leading up to the game. The process will involve them scanning the tickets into the system after they have swiped your ID card to check for tickets. Those tickets are attached to your account after they scan them. Now, the tickets are 'attached' to your student ID card and if you were to lose your tickets before the game, you could go to the ticketing office, hand them your ID card and they will reprint the tickets off for you. This will remove the issue of students having to buy new tickets form the office or another student on campus that is no longer attending the game.

Innovation

The software that I am introducing isn't innovating to ticketed events as a lot of places that have a ticketing system also including a way for the tickets to be tracked and reprinted if they are every lost or stolen. I understand this because I work at a performing arts box office and we have a system for customers to contact us and have their tickets reprinted for whatever reason like if they lost them or the mail failed to deliver them or anything else. The plan for this opportunity is to work with a team on developing a software feature that can be implemented in the Gator Student Ticketing Office software that can attach football tickets to students ID's and be able to reprint those tickets if they are ever lost or stolen by the students at the University of Florida.

Venture Concept

The innovation that I am proposing will be solving the issue of the Gator Student Ticketing Office having to deal with students that have purchased football tickets through them and having lost them after picking them up. As of right now, the ticketing office doesn't have a proper solution to the issue besides telling the students to either find the lost ticket, buy a new one from them, or buy an unclaimed or claimed ticket from another student on campus. While the ticketing office will serve as the primary target audience of this innovation, the students that purchase tickets are the secondary target audience because they will benefit from the innovation that I am offering as they will no longer have to worry about buying another ticket if they were to lose their previous one before a game. They will be able to go to the ticketing office and have them reprint the ticket they lost as it is connected to their UF ID card. I believe the ticketing office would be quick to adopt this feature as it will help improve that customer relationship they have with the students and provide a 'safety net' for them if they were ever to lose their tickets in the future. At first, it could be difficult to train employees on the process, but it will become second-nature to them during the deployment process. As for competitors, their current software provider could be working on developing this feature for them to implement in the future, but also other teams that might be looking into pitching this software feature to them to implement. I would organize the 'business' as a small to work on the initial development of the project, but as it grows and time goes on, expansion will be important for us to be able to provide sufficient support for the project.

Three Minor Elements

For the first element, I believe the most important resource to follow during the development process is to stay simple and continue working diligently despite running into speedbumps during the development process of the opportunity.


For the second element, I believe the next opportunity in line for the innovation is to start expanding the software feature to other ticketing offices around the state of Florida to continously grow and develop the software to be as efficient as possible. We would then look into expanding nationwide to different colleges and universities around the country.

For the third element, I would like to see the software implemented at the majority of all major universities around the country and into multiple sporting programs like softball, basketball, and soccer. I think it is important to continously expanding the scope of the business to remain successful in the long run.

Venture's Unfair Advantage

1. Financial security to take advantage of this venture

Value - This venture is going to require a significant investment upfront to be able to take advantage of it. I have created a significant amount of financial capital over the past few years that could be used for this venture.
Rarity - For this venture, financial capital isn't rare when it comes to developing this feature. The costs can vary but software development and significant costs go hand-in-hand.
Imitability - My venture can be easily imitated by others in the market. However, it is usually done by well-known and financially secure companies.
Non-substitutability - Without financial capital to develop the feature, it will be nearly impossible to substitute it for something else.

2. Networking abilities allow me to find others that can help me with this venture

Value - Networking will be important for me when it comes to taking advantage of this venture because I will need assistance in the development process.
Rarity - While networking isn't a rarity, networking with the right people can be partially rare when it comes to taking advantage of this capital.
Imitability - Networking with the right people for this venture can be easily imitated.
Non-substitutability - This venture will require me to network with others. It cannot be supplemented or substituted.

3. Previous sales experience to pitch this venture to a client

Value - Development of the venture will only be half the battle when it comes to making this a reality. It is extremely valuable to be able to properly pitch this to the client that I'm targeting for the venture.
Rarity - Sales experience isn't a rare capital to possess as a lot of people have worked in sales before.
Imitability - This resource can be easily imitated by others with the proper experience.
Non-substitutability - Substituting this resource for something else is possible, but it will be extremely challenging to do so.

4. Dedicated and extremely high work ethic to this venture

Value - The value of this resource to the venture is extremely important for its success because when I show dedication to a project, nothing can prevent me from completing it.
Rarity - My work ethic and dedication are rare to find in others as it is unique to me alone in the world.
Imitability - It will be extremely tough to imitate my work ethic and dedication by others.
Non-substitutability - It will be impossible to substitute this resource in my venture's unfair advantage.

5. My ability to keep going despite failing or running into 'speedbumps' in the development process

Value - This resource will be valuable because the development process is going to be a road full of speed bumps and failures that can make it tough to stick it out in the end.
Rarity - I think this resource is somewhat rare in the sense that not everyone is the same when they encounter failure and some are still able to keep going while others will fold.
Imitability - This resource can be imitated by others in the same field as the venture.
Non-substitutability - This resource can't be substituted as it is a requirement to make mistakes and keep going despite the 'speed bumps' in the development process.

6. Ability to adapt to the development process and listen to feedback

Value - This resource will be important in the long-run of this venture because it will help with understanding the limitations of the software and how we can make it better for the consumer.
Rarity - I think this resource can be rare in some fields because some people lack listening skills in some form when working on projects and understanding feedback from consumers.
Imitability - This resource can be imitated by others but it will depend on the person/organization that does.
Non-substitutability - This resource is crucial to the success of the venture so it cannot be substituted by another.

7. A professional relationship formed with consumer open door to new clients

Value - This will be important in the long run after the development process to expand the software to others around the country that could be in demand of it.
Rarity - This can be rare as it is difficult to already have the established relationship, but the consumer to spread awareness about your venture others in the market.
Imitability - Others will be imitating this resource once they get their foot in the door with consumers.
Non-substitutability - Other relationships could be substituted of this resource like personal ones that could also help with opening the door to more consumers.

8. Time and flexibility to be able to develop the venture

Value - This will be important during the development process because it will take a lot of time to sit down and work through developing the feature. I have a lot of 'down time' and a flexible schedule that I could spend on the development cycle.
Rarity - As a college student, it is rare to have a lot of downtimes to be able to work on side projects outside of school. However, it isn't rare for entrepreneurs that are actively working on projects like this for a living.
Imitability - This resource will be easy for others to imitate in the professional industry.
Non-substitutability - Time and flexibility will be required for this venture so it won't be possible to substitute them for another resource.

9. Ability to avoid 'feature creep' during the development process

Value - This resource is highly-valuable because this can be a huge issue for developers when they are working on projects. I am able to make sure that I avoid falling into this trap into a development loop.
Rarity - This resource isn't rare when it comes to similar ventures as it is an important mindset you need to keep when developing software.
Imitability - This resource can be imitated by others in the industry.
Non-substitutability - This resource shouldn't be substituted with another resource because 'feature creep' is an important attribute to avoid when developing software.

10. Ability to work with others as a team on the development process

Value - This is important for my venture because working as a team on it will increase the chances of success for the venture in the end.
Rarity - It isn't rare to find people working as a team on software projects in the professional industry as they are almost always done by a team of engineers.
Imitability - This resource can easily be imitated by others that are working on similar ventures to mine.
Non-substitutability - This resource can be substituted by working alone on the venture and developing the venture myself.

Conclusion

I think the most important resource for me when it comes to taking advantage of this venture is number six because the development process will be a long and tedious process that will require the team to keep going despite running into speedbumps that could hamper the project in the end. I had a hard time selecting which resource was the most important, but I ultimately settled on this one because I believe it is the tipping point for all of them. Without it, I believe the project would fail before it was able to get started.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

1.  Here is the final elevator pitch for everyone to watch. Since this one was only a minute, I did have to speak a little faster so that I didn't run over the one minute mark for it. I made significant changes to this one based on the feedback I got from my last one.

The Final Installment of the Trilogy

2. Regarding the feedback I got, Reece Porath pointed out that I missed on the criteria of the previous elevator pitch for the class. While I went back to check the assignment page to make sure I did it right, I might've missed something that was mentioned in the lecture videos for that week that stated that it should be geared towards your business idea. However, I think this was a great piece of feedback because it forced me to adjust to formulating an elevator pitch that focused on my business opportunity that I have been working on throughout the semester for this class. Reece Porath really has been a great person to interact in this class because he puts a lot of good feedback that forces me to think about my business opportunity and adjust it.

3. As for what I have changed, the whole pitch is completely different from the previous two. This pitch is focusing on my business opportunity that I have been working on throughout the semester regarding the Gator Student Ticketing Office and the issue that they have with students losing their tickets with no way of having them reprinted. However, the pitch is directed towards a manager or supervisor that works in the ticketing office as I figured out last week, they are my primary consumer audience of this opportunity while the students that interact with the ticketing office are the secondary consumer audience.

Reading Reflection No. 2

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

1. According to Daniel Kahneman, the overall thought process when it comes to decision-making and judgment, our minds have a two-system process that works together in situations that require it. When it comes to the two system, the first system is responsible for fast thinking that is done instantaneous and without effort. A great quote from the book about system one states:

System one executes skilled responses and generates skilled intuitions, after adequate training. System one creates a coherent patter of activated ideas in associative memory.

When it comes to system two, this involves the process of slow, methodical thinking. It is more complex and mental than system one because it involves using your conscious self to make the decisions. When they are working together, system one serves as the pilot of the craft, but when it runs into an issue that involves a deeper thought process, system two kicks in to help make the decisions in those situations. System one is the pilot that makes the initial decisions and system two is the co-pilot that monitors those decisions.

2. Entrepreneurship requires a lot of thinking by an individual when coming up with opportunities that they would like to exploit. When connecting this book and the lessons we have learned from this class, system one serves as the initial recognition of the opportunity that thinks of when researching into what we can do, but system two serves as the process of digesting and figuring out if that opportunity really exists and if it can be effectively exploited by an entrepreneur. The book also talks about defeat and how entrepreneurs are prone to overestimating the chances of success of the opportunity they would like to exploit. Along with defeat comes to regret, because not only do we see it as an emotion, but as punishment, as well for the mistakes we have made with our decisions.

3. If I were to create an assignment for ENT3003 that is based on this book, I think I would design a simple assignment where the student has to think about the times they have had a regret from the decisions they made on anything in their lives or where they didn't do something in their lives because they were afraid to lose something from the experience. It would be similar to the first few assignments that we had in-class where we listed off the 'bugs' that we encountered in life.

4. I think my biggest 'Aha' moment from reading this book was about the different attributes of the two system process of thinking and how each one applies to system one and system two respectively. Not only that but how each system works together in situations to help you make decisions from our past experiences and beliefs. The thought process is very complex because it just happens and we never take the time to sit down and think why did I make this decision or that decision in this scenario or that scenario.

Growing your Social Capital

First Individual

1. The first person I spoke to was Robbie who is my manager at the box office I work at. Robbie has been working at the box office for a little over ten years and worked in the music industry during his time in New York before he came to Gainesville. I decided that Robbie would be a good choice for this part because he has worked with multiple ticketing programs during his time at the box office.

2. I consider Robbie a domain expert on the opportunity that I presented in previous posts because he has worked with different ticketing programs throughout his years as a manager at the box office. He also works on improving features of the software with the company that provides it.

3. I've been working with Robbie for about a year and a half now and I decided to talk to him about it after I lost one of my tickets this year before a football game.

4. I explained to Robbie how the Gator Student Ticketing Office processed lost or stolen tickets and the solutions they provided to fix the situation. Robbie talked about how the ticketing software at our box office works and what differentiates our ticket office compared to their ticketing office. However, he stated that it is "stupid" that their ticketing office doesn't have a way to track lost or stolen tickets for students and feels that it is bad practice to have students pay a lot of money for tickets throughout the season and not provide them with a solution besides buying a new one. When I proposed to him the possible solution that I came up with, he mentioned that it could work with them but asked what would happen in the case of students that sell their tickets and claim they lost them if they went back to the ticketing office. He also mentioned while the feature would be good for the students that purchase tickets from them, he also told me to think about how it would affect the ticketing office and the costs of implementing it.

5. I think the best way to incorporate Robbie into my network would be as a consultant role since he understands how ticketing software should work at a ticketing office and the expectations of it. I think from my experience of working with Robbie, I could potentially have him help me exploit this opportunity if I pursue it.

Second Individual

1. The second person that I sat down with and talked to about my opportunity was Matt, who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the whole performing arts center that I work at. Matt is directly responsible for working on improving the ticketing software and working with the company that provides it to us to make sure that is running efficiently and changes are made to improve it.

2. Matt is filling the role as the market expert for this because he has been working with ticketing software for a long time and is responsible for the actual development of it within the performing arts center. He is also conducting research on improvements that could be made to it and how it benefits everyone that is involved with the software.

3. Since Matt works at the performing arts center and I work at the box office connected to it, I've met him a few times when he comes up throughout the day to talk to my managers at the box office. After I spoke to Robbie about my opportunity, I decided to ask Matt a few questions about it to see what he thought about it.

4. I proposed to Matt the situation that I was looking into and the possible solution that I thought could help solve the problem at hand. Matt had a similar feeling to what Robbie had, but he was also looking at it from the point-of-view of the Gator Student Ticketing Office. He also mentioned that they deal with a lot of students every weekend in a small period of time during the week before home games of the football season. He thought the solution I provided is good, but it could also be problematic when it comes to efficiently get tickets out to all the students throughout the day.

5. By speaking to Matt, it provided me a lot more insight for my opportunity and solution to for it. What I need to do according to Matt is to figure out ways to improve on the efficiency of the system and fail-safes to keep from students from scamming each other when they sell them and have them reprinted afterward. However, Matt wouldn't exactly be able to fit into my network as he is focused on developing his position at the performing arts center.

Third Individual

1. The final person I spoke was Stephen, a computer science student that I met through a friend of mine. Stephen also develops simple programs for people as a freelancer as a way to improve on his skills and knowledge from what he learns in school.

2. Since Stephen does freelance software development for other people for a fee, he fills the role as a supplier because he is supplying a service to a customer with his programs.

3. I found the person through a friend of mine who is also a co-worker of mine. I asked her if she knew anybody that was in the computer engineering field here at the University of Florida. She gave me his phone number and I texted him asking if I could ask him a few questions.

4. When I spoke to Stephen, it was over the phone as he was not able to meet up at the time that I wanted to talk to him. Since I don't have the skill set to develop the actual software the I was proposing, I had to do my best to explain it to him without it sounding to far-fetched. Stephen commented that while the opportunity presented does it exist for me, he questioned how feasible is it for the ticketing office to implement the feature. He explained to me that there is a lot of trivial tasks when it comes to software development and you have to avoid being a feature-creep during the development process. He mentioned that it is a good idea, but you have to look at it from the point-of-view of a developer and what to avoid as one.

5. While Stephen provided me with good information about the opportunity, he didn't have any interest in being a part of my networking circle because he was focused on doing his own freelance development.

Reflect

This assignment did require a lot more 'targeted networking' than I have had to do in previous assignments. I had to find people that fit within a specific parameter to talk about my opportunity with them. However, the previous assignments have made it much easier to network and establish social capital with people in the industry. For this assignment, it was pretty simple since I already established social capital with the first two individuals because I have been working with them for almost two years now.

Idea Napkin No.2

The answers below will be similar to what I stated in my previous "Idea Napkin" post.

1. Who am I?

My name is Sean Pruitt. I am 22-years-old and a senior advertising student at the University of Florida. Ever since high school, I have been working in the customer service industry and I continue to do so at my current job. Along with that, I am experienced in ticketing software from working at my university performance arts box office. In regards to my major in advertising, I have become skillful in using digital design software like Photoshop, InDesign and Premiere Pro.

Like I stated before, I plan to join the U.S. Air Force as a Public Affairs Officer upon graduation in the spring. I have also looked into becoming a freelance graphic artist and editor with the experience that I have received from courses during school. It is important for me to continue improving in the design field so that it could be an additional income source in the future.

Similar to what I posted before, I am proposing to the Gator Student Ticketing Office that handles football tickets for the student population a "service" or feature in their existing software that can solve the issue of students losing their tickets after claiming them from the office.

2. What are you offering to customers?

What I am offering to the customer (Gator Student Ticketing Office) is a program feature that will allow their customers (students) to be able to recover lost or stolen tickets after they have been claimed at the office. Currently, the ticketing office scans your card to see if you have tickets reserved under your name. Once they see that you do, they rip you a ticket from their stacks and hand it to you. However, the issue presented is that it will only show that you claimed your ticket. The system doesn't track which exact ticket you claimed. This leads to the solution of the ticketing office scanning each ticket under your account before it is handed off to you. Now, if you were to lose your ticket prior to gameday, you would be able to stop by the ticketing office and ask for them to reprint it for you.

3. Who are you offering it to?

After going through my previous post about the idea napkin, there was something that I noticed that didn't quite add up when reading it. Previously, I stated that the primary demographic of my service would be the students on campus that have either had a ticket lost or stolen after claiming it. However, my opportunity is more directed to those ticketing box offices (e.g. Gator Student Ticketing Office) around the country that lack software allowing for students to recover lost or stolen tickets without having to buy a new one. The students that I stated before are more like a "secondary" customer to my service than a primary one.

4. Why do they care?

The main reason that my service will be more valuable to the customer that I stated above is that it improves on the business-customer relationship that is formed by the Gator Student Ticketing Office and the University of Florida students and their guests that purchase tickets through them. The ticketing office will be able to improve on the customer service aspect within their office that could increase traffic that gets from students that are purchasing tickets. Speaking from experience, I have lost a guest ticket that was meant for my dad this past season. I spoke to the ticketing office about possible remedies to the situation and responded back with that I would have to buy a new ticket. Luckily, I found the ticket I lost on campus, but I didn't particularly feel good about buying tickets through them again because of my experience with them.

5. What are your core competencies?

What sets me apart from everyone else is that the service doesn't exist for the ticketing office as of now. If you were to lose one of your tickets for a football game, you would either have to buy a new ticket or find the one you lost because you wouldn't be able to get it reprinted from the ticketing office. The ticketing office lacks the feature in their software that I am proposing and there is an unmet need by the students that have lost tickets in the past. Along with that, I have the networking capability from working at the performing arts box office that contains the software to track lost tickets with ease and reprint them without an issue. I work with this software on a daily basis and I work with the people that have developed, deployed and maintained the software that allows us to solve the issue at hand.

I believe the core competencies work well together. Like I stated in my previous post, there is a clear unmet need by the ticketing office with the lack of ticket tracking for students that purchase football tickets regularly. The proposed solution can help solve it by importing a set of features and protocols that will allow for lost or stolen student tickets to be tracked and reprinted for them. While I lack the actual skill set to develop the software feature, I think networking with colleagues from my time at the performing arts center on campus could help me work with someone that does possess the skill set to make this opportunity a reality.

Feedback Memo

The most important piece of feedback that I got about my previous idea napkin was from Reece Porath which states:

Sean,

I am enjoying seeing your progress in the development of your idea. I have been intentional in reading and commenting on the majority of your posts because I am very interested to see how you continue to develop your idea.

If you do choose to actually pursue this entrepreneurial venture, networking of people will be a great asset to you. Often, its not what you know but who you know. As you stated, you do do not have the skill-set to develop the actual software feature that could solve this unmet need. Perhaps by networking, you could build a relationship with someone who could partner with you in this entrepreneurial venture.

The first takeaway that I got from his feedback about my previous idea napkin was definitely the topic of networking. Like we both recognized, I don't possess the skill set to develop this feature myself, but networking could allow me to find someone that is capable of doing so and opening the door to do this for other ticketing offices around the country.

Another takeaway I got from his feedback was that he continuously comments on a lot of my posts and he brought up a question about my customer in a different post. From my "Create a Customer Avatar" post, he pointed out that my actual customer might not be the students attending the football games, but the actual ticketing office. The main point that I'm trying to get across is to go through my progressions when looking at this business opportunity and clearly identify who I am trying to target with it.

I incorporated his feedback by making changes to the 'who' and 'why' sections of my previous idea napkin by adjusting my customer from the actual students that have lost a ticket to the actual Gator Student Ticketing Office as they are my 'true' customer in this case. Not only that, but I included the idea of networking with my colleagues at work to figure out who I could work with to make this opportunity come true for the customer.

Create a Customer Avatar

 

Image pulled from this link.

 

Image pulled from this link.

My "customer avatar" would qualify as an undergraduate student that is in-between the ages of 18 to 21 or 22 years old that has lost a ticket to a university sporting event like football, basketball, baseball, and other sports. As I am also a student that enjoys attending sporting events like football and basketball, I have also lost one of my tickets after claiming it from the Gators Student Ticketing Office on campus. We have all gone through the same process with trying to see if the ticketing office was able to print it off again, but have been stuck with the other solutions like buying a new ticket through the office or through the Facebook group for selling and buying tickets for sporting events.

My "customer avatar" can be considered very diverse with the different amount of people that attend football games. However, I believe roughly 60-70% of them are invested into some health and fitness routine or program as that is becoming a growing hobby among the younger generation that attend university. I would consider only a few of them are married, mainly the upper portion of my audience, and slim chance of any of the customer audience having children at this point in their lives. When it comes to the male demographic of my avatar, I believe that they are sport fanatics and are well-versed in different sports from the university like baseball and basketball. They are also likely to invested into the sports atmosphere in general involving different schools around the country. As for the female demographic, I believe they attend sporting events in support of the university and as social events with their friends and family at university. I believe that a few that are invested into sports outside what is offered by the university.

Another characteristic that my customer avatar possibly have is that they are stressed and busy college students that are faced with the challenge of living their lives, attending classes and preparing themselves for a future after college. This can lead into them being forgetful and/or have the tendency to misplace items like football or basketball tickets.

I think when it comes to political stance in government, I think with them being college students they generally lean more liberal than they do conservative. A lot of young adults that attend university tend to lean towards the democratic party and recognize who they are interested in voting for and who they aren't. I believe that there is a minority of conservative supporters that fall within the target audience, but the overwhelming majority is on the left side of the political spectrum.

As for me, I have a lot in common with my customer avatar because I am a 22-year-old student that enjoys attending sporting events like football and basketball. I have also lost a ticket prior to a game like they have and went through the recovery process. As for political spectrum, I am middle-of-the-road when it comes to it, but I tend to lean to the left of the spectrum. I don't think it is a coincidence that I have a lot of similarities with my customer avatar. I just think it's a common scenario for a lot of people to fall into it.

Elevator Pitch No. 2

Elevator Pitch No. 2

The feedback I got from my previous elevator pitch harped on improving how I worded my skills and accomplishments in the middle of my pitch. After going back and watching my old pitch, I agreed with them and the parts didn't seem to flow very well together. To improve it, I switched around the order in which I said things in my second elevator pitch and just reduced the overall wordiness of the sections to improve the flow of the speech. I think my second elevator pitch flows a lot better in comparison to my old pitch. I am also no longer congested from being sick so it sounds much better than the first one did.

What's your Secret Sauce?

My Unique Human Capital

1. Adaptability - I am good at adapting in any situation that is presented to me. If a problem or hindrance pops up that forces me to change how I do things, I can quickly adapt to the problem and figure out a workaround to it without delay. This allows me to work in fast-paced environments that require a lot of moving parts and for the person to be able to change on the fly without much notice.

2. Determination - When I aim to accomplish an objective or task that is presented to me, I put my all in for it to accomplish the task. This allows me to stand out from others by showing that I am committed to what I am doing and aiming to get it done efficiently, but also correctly.

3. Perfectionist - When it comes to tasks, objectives, or anything that I am working on, I go above and beyond to make sure that it is able to compete with others around me. I strive to be the best out of everyone else, and I continuously aim to fully utilize the potential that I have when working on a project.

4. Dependability - When others are counting on me, I make sure to work for them like I am working for myself in the professional world. I want others to view me how I want to view myself in the world. I will make sacrifices for others that I am working with to meet a deadline or that a project is above normal standards when it is due. I work with others better than most can as I don't want to be seen as the weak link of the team.

5. Humble - I always tell myself that I need to stay grounded in the world because I am no better than anyone else in the world. However, by telling myself that I'm not better than this person or that person, it pushes me to try to be better than them. I don't see myself on top of the world and continuously try to improve myself, but others around me so they can grow alongside me.


The Interviews

Interview with my one of my best friends, Alex.

Alex spoke about how I am one of the nicest people he's ever met, a hard-worker, and outgoing but also quiet too. He also talked about my technological skills with computers and how I am crafty and artistic when accomplishing tasks.

Interview with another one of my best friends, Nathan.

Nathan mentioned that I am hard-worker with the drive to do things. He also mentioned that I am one of the smarter people in our group of friends and acts as a ringleader for our group of friends and dispels confusion in it. He also mentioned that I am helpful towards others and I am always giving 100% in any task.

Interview with another one of my best friends, Coal.

Coal said that I was the most-welcoming person of our group of friends and made sure to include him (Coal) in our activities. Coal also said that I have the motivational skills to be a leader and the dedication to getting tasks done.

Interview with my father, David.

My dad said I'm a determined and focused person, but I am also willing to listen to others and hear their side to a situation. He also talked about how discipline I am and was able to make the right decisions to benefit me. My dad also mentioned that I am even-tempered and have the ability to remain calm in situations. He also said that I am able to see how things really are and not show animosity towards others in situations.

Interview with my mother, Kim.

My mom mentioned that she saw in me is that I am an even-tempered person and didn't allow things to affect me in stressful situations. She also said I am cooperative with others when asked to do things as long as they were in-line with my beliefs. She said I am a team-player as well through my experience with football and soccer. She also mentioned that I am inquisitive and I wanted to know how everything worked to understand how the situation like when I had my shoulder surgery. 

Reflection

When comparing a lot of the characteristics that I used to describe myself and what others had to say about me, I see a lot of similarities from what people said with how I described myself, but also some differences. A lot of people mentioned that I am determined with everything that I do and that I work hard to make sure it is the best that it can be. Some also said that I can be relied upon by others showing my dependability when working together in a team. When I go back and listen to what the interviewees had to say about me, I can recognize almost everything they say applies to me as a person or what my human capital is. I think they were correct with how they thought of me along with how I thought of myself in the world. 

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

 The Interviews

The segment that I chose for assignment 12A was students that are current season ticket holders that have either lost their ticket or a guest they have purchased prior to a football game. With each interview lasting around 10 to 12 minutes for each interviewee, I was able to find out more information about how they choose from the alternatives that I proposed to them during the process. Since the opportunity that I presented in previous assignments is limited to certain alternatives, the information I got from them was similar to what others have said in past interviews.

The Alternative Evaluation

Before the interview process, I create a small list of alternatives and proposed it to the three interviewees to figure out which one they preferred regarding their unmet need.

1. A would-be system in the ticketing office software that can track lost or stolen tickets and be reprinted for the purchaser.

2. Hoping to find your ticket after you have lost your ticket.

3. Buying another ticket through the ticketing office or a Facebook group

4. Not attending the game.

The last three alternatives were proposed to them before I asked them about the first alternative to get results on both sets of alternatives. Without the first alternative, two of the three people stated that they usually stick with the third and fourth alternative when it comes solving the issue of losing their ticket(s). The third participant mentioned that he went to look for his lost ticket from the first game of the season this year. He was able to find it after he retraced his steps from throughout the day after he picked up his ticket from the ticketing office. However, I proposed the first alternative to the participants and they all were in agreement that if this alternative did exist now, they would've chosen this one as the first step to figure out their problem.

How/Where do they buy?

When I asked them about how they go about purchasing a new ticket after losing their previous one, they usually use their credit card if they go through the ticketing office, but cash when they purchase through the Facebook group because you have to pick it up with the seller to get the ticket. One of the participants mentioned that she has used Venmo once because she didn't have cash on her at the time, but usually pays with cash. All of them mentioned cash is easiest way to go about purchasing tickets because you have to pick it up at the same time.

Post-Purchase Evaluation

When I asked them about the post-purchase experience, they usually are happy with having a ticket for the game instead of not having one after losing their ticket. One of the participants mentioned that they have got a seat that wasn't as good as his previous seats so he was upset about that, but he was just happy that he had a ticket for the game instead of not having one. The participants did express negative feelings when I asked them about the potential system in place to find lost tickets because they wish it existed now so they didn't have to buy tickets again after they have lost their previous ones.

Conclusions

After interviewing the participants and running through the alternatives that I proposed to them, it's similar to my previous interviews with the consumer audience that this opportunity is geared towards. This opportunity is specific and niche to the consumer audience that it starts becoming mundane when interviewing more people because of the limitation of what the opportunity is. I still believe the opportunity still exists for the consumer audience, but I think it is simply just limited to that. I don't believe is there some form of expansion outside what the opportunity intends to do with the original unmet need.

Halfway Reflection

1. I do believe tenaciousness is a competency to possess as an entrepreneur. I think the biggest contributor that allows me to keep up with the requirements of this class was by opting-in into the Gator Squad for the class. By doing this, it pushed me to compare how well my work is to others that are within my group and 'competing' with them to do a better job with it. Along with that, I tend to work ahead with the assignments and critiquing and correcting them extensively throughout the week they are due.


2. Tenaciousness is also about attitude. When I hit the point where we had to start conducting extensive interviews with random people that fall within our consumer audience for our past assignments to figure out their thoughts, behaviors, ideas, and opinions about the unmet need and potential solution. I'm not a person that is open to randomly interacting with people without having some prior interaction before. However, what pulled me through is my prior experience from old mentors that preached about "be comfortable with being uncomfortable" which helped me with taking care of what I needed to get done for this class. I believed I have developed a tenacious attitude from the past two months in this class. It has fostered the mindset of showing determination in the ideas you are passionate about bringing to the world. I think the experiences that have developed this is the assignments that move through the levels of the unmet need/opportunity we have identified in our past posts that have allowed us to develop a connection with them.


3. As for three tips that I offer for next semester's students:

• Express determination in this class. The skills and knowledge that you gain from this class will help you in the future with whatever your end goal is in life.

• Dedicate time to this class. Don't do the work from this class with a lazy mindset, it shows in the assignments that you post and people will be able to see how much of 'tenacity' you have for it. 
• Compete with yourself and others. In life, we compare ourselves to others and you should do the same with others in this class. Try to beat yourself when working in this class.

Reading Reflection No. 1

 The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

You read about an entrepreneur:

• What surprised you the most?
• The most surprising thing about the Wright brothers when they were starting off their aviation dream was that the "trigger event" or event that kicked off their dream was the death of Otto Lilienthal during a flight in 1896 on his "No. 11" glider after falling from an altitude of 50 feet. 
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
• I think the most admirable thing about the Wright brothers was that they tried to sell their invention to the United States military. However, the U.S. War Department didn't even respond to the letter sent by the brothers. They eventually decided to sell it to France where they declared them heroes for their inventions.
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
•  The least admirable thing about the Wright brothers was how they treated Octave Chanute as Chanute felt that the knowledge of aviation should be shared with the world freely while the Wright brothers were more interested in monetizing their glider invention. The Wright brothers also "bad mouthed" Chanute in public speeches that made it seem like Chanute was trying to capitalize off the Wright brother's success. However, the Wright brothers were the first to contact Chanute about aviation information.
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?
•  Wilbur Wright was struck in the mouth by a hockey stick right before he left for university that knocked out the majority of his front teeth. He became a recluse afterward, giving up attending university, and taking care of his terminally ill mother. However, Orville and Wilbur eventually built a printing press that led to them opening up their own printing shop.

What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?

• The Wright brothers were extremely bright entrepreneurs in the birthing stage of flying machines. Both of the brothers were inspirations for each other and the biggest competency they possessed was the fact that they were both tenacious in reaching their goal of creating the first fully-functional manned flying machine in a time that was thought impossible.

Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

• The most confusing part of the reading was the fact that the United States decided to ignore the invention by the Wright brothers, allowing the opportunity for them to sell it to France and become heroes to them. I thought it was strange to see that the U.S. War Department had no interest in it since U.S. is known for having an exceptional military.

If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

• Did either of you have any regrets with what happened after the success of your flying machines that led to your fame around the world?
• How did y'all envision the future of the aviation industry after accomplishing what you did in the early 20th century?

For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

• I think the Wright brother's opinion of hard work is like I said in a previous question which is tenacity. I think they believed in being dedicated with their dreams in the aviation industry which allowed them to achieve what they did before others were able to do.

Figuring Out Buying Behavior No. 1

The Segment: 

The segment I selected for the interviews was students that were season-ticket holders that have either lost their own ticket or lost a guest ticket they have purchased.

The Interviewees: 

Matt, a 19-year-old Journalism major that I met through a previous writing class.

Larissa, a 21-year-old pre-occupational major that I work with at the performing arts center at the university.

Jonah, a 22-year-old political science major that I met through my foreign language class for my major.

The Need Awareness:

It was easy to find people that I could potentially interview with the number of students on campus that have season tickets for the football games. However, it was a little difficult to find those that have either lost their own ticket or a guest ticket prior to a football game. Luckily, I was able to find them through my contact list from previous classes that I had in the past.

All three of the interviewees mentioned that they have this unmet need because they have all lost a ticket at least once whether it was one of theirs or a guest ticket they purchased during the week. Matt actually lost his Florida-Georgia ticket he purchased two weeks before the game and had to repurchase a ticket for the game because of the ticketing office inability to track it. The interviewees stated that the only time where the unmet need applies is during the season and after they have picked up their tickets the week before the game. Usually, they experience it when they are on campus as that is where they all lost their tickets in the past. They mentioned that sometimes don't store them properly and they either fall out of their pocket or left on a table and are usually gone when they try to go back for them.

The Information Search:

When I asked them what they usually do right after they lose their ticket, they try to retrace their steps on where they have been between when they picked up their ticket and when they lost it. After that, they either try to go online to the ticketing office website or call them to ask them what can they do since they lost their ticket. Larissa lost a ticket on campus with her friends and asked them if they could help her find it. The interviewees usually end up either buying a new ticket online through the ticketing office on Friday or through a Facebook group dedicated to selling claimed and unclaimed tickets.

The Findings and Conclusion:

Compared to my past interviews about this topic, they were pretty similar to other students that have lost a ticket in the past. A lot of the information was similar to other students in what they do when they lose a ticket. They recognize that this need really needs to be addressed by the ticketing office because they don't think it's "fair" that the only solution they have available to them is to buy another ticket or not attend the game. The solution I proposed to them received positive feedback from all the interviewees and wish it was in place for the future.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1. Who am I? My name is Sean Pruitt, and I am a senior advertising student at the University of Florida. I have worked in the customer service industry since high school and have experience in ticketing software from working at the performing arts centers. I also have experience in digital design software like Photoshop, InDesign, After Effects, and Premiere Pro.

As for aspirations in life, I plan to join the Air Force as a Public Affairs Officer after graduation. I'm also looking into working as a freelance graphic artist/editor as another form of income post-graduation. It is important to me to maintain the skills that I have learned through my major so I can stay competitive in the market.

I have experience of working with ticketing software from working at the performing arts center and what to expect when it comes to working with customers of the performing arts center. The service I proposed was for the Gator Student Ticketing Office to implement a feature in their software that can help track lost or stolen football tickets during the season.

2. What: The service that I am proposing is a new feature for the ticketing software that exists for the ticket office at the football stadium. The feature would involve scanning the tickets into the student's account upon picking them up with their accompanying student ID card. Once the tickets have been scanned by the employees at the office, the tickets would be "linked" to the ID card where they could be tracked if they are lost or stolen while on campus.

3. Who: The primary demographic of this service would be students that either has season tickets for the football season or students that regularly attend football games. Not only are these students buying for themselves, but they are also guest ticket purchasers as well. The most important characteristic the demographics have is that they have lost a ticket in the past or have concerns about losing a ticket in the future. They also want to avoid having to repurchase a ticket if they were to lose their already claimed ticket.

4. Why: The service is valuable to the consumer because they will be able to retrieve a lost or stolen ticket without having to repurchase another ticket for the football game. They will save money because they won't have to purchase another ticket that will probably not be near their friends or family. Not only will the students benefit, but guests that are coming with the student will avoid being out-of-luck if they were to lose their ticket because they would have to purchase another one too.

5. Core competencies: I believe what sets this service apart from others is that the service for the ticketing office doesn't exist yet. The only option that exists for students that have tickets lost or stolen in the past and had to repurchase them through the ticketing office. The ticketing office lacks the feature in their software to be able to provide this service and the unmet need exists for many students that attend football games throughout the season.

I believe the core competencies fit together fairly well when it comes to this concept. There is an unmet need that requires a service to fix it for the ticketing office. The solution I am proposing is able to easily solve the issue many students and guests have when dealing with the ticketing office for football games during the season. However, I think the biggest issue with the service concept is that I don't have to skillset to develop the actual software feature that could solve the unmet need and if it will be worth it for the ticketing office to retrain staff and procedure changes when handing out tickets. Not only that, but it could be an expensive task that doesn't see any monetary return towards the ticketing office at the football stadium.

Elevator Pitch

Hey everyone!

Elevator Pitch

Here is my general elevator pitch for the class to watch. I've been pretty sick for the past week so that is why I sound congested and sort of monotoned in the video. However, I tried my best for it. I decided to upload through Youtube because Blogger was weird in uploading a video directly through the post editor.

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

As a continuation of earlier posts about the opportunity available when it comes to the Gator Student Ticketing Office and the unmet need of students that have their tickets for football games lost or stolen, I decided to interview five more students about the situation.

Four of the five participants were students that don’t buy seasons tickets for the football season. Two of them mentioned that they usually buy unclaimed or leftover tickets from the ticketing office on Friday’s before a home game and usually buy them in a group of people. They mentioned that they usually store their tickets in a card slot on the back of their phone cases, so they aren’t prone to losing them before the game. They mentioned the system seems like a good idea, but it wouldn’t mean much to them as they haven’t ever lost a ticket in the past and usually keep them in secure places right after picking the ticket up from the office. One student said that he usually buys tickets that were already claimed by students but are trying to sell them online through Facebook groups or private messaging. He said that the new software wouldn’t affect him because the ticket never originally belonged to him so they wouldn’t be able to track it down and reprint it for him. The fourth student I decided to interview doesn’t regularly attend football games and she didn’t see that she had an unmet need for the system at the ticketing office.

The last student I interviewed said that her parents are graduates from the University of Florida and season ticket holders for the football games, so she usually sits with them at home and away games instead of sitting in the student section. She has bought tickets through the ticketing office and sat in the student section before for football games but finds the alumni seating in the stadium a much more enjoyable experience for the game. She said that this system wouldn’t really mean much to her as she rarely interacts with the student ticketing office.

I think when it comes to this opportunity for the Gator Student Ticketing Office, I think it is limited to regular buyers and season ticket holders of football tickets among students. This system isn’t really offering a product or service but adding a feature to an already existing service that is meant to solve the unmet need that a lot of students might be facing during the football season.

Inside the Boundary:

Who – Students that regularly buy tickets or season ticket holders

What – The need for a system at the ticketing office to track and reprint lost or stolen football tickets for students.

Why – Without the system, students either must buy another ticket from the ticketing, another student, or not attend the game.

Outside the Boundary:

Who – Others that either doesn’t regularly attend games or at all and those that attend games through another ticketing process.

What – The need is not a system that replaces the current software of the ticketing office. It is not a whole new service provided by the ticketing office.

Alternate Explanations – The ticketing office is unable to control students that claim tickets, sell them, and have them reprinted at the ticketing office.

Solving the Problem

1. Referring to the earlier post about my hypothesis was formed from the Gator Student Ticket Office and their software lacking a feature to reprint lost or stolen football tickets for students after they have picked them up. The opportunity popped when I lost one of my tickets before a game this season and had to jump through a lot of hoops to get another ticket before the game. I have also interviewed other students in earlier posts that also recognize this unmet need even though some of them haven’t lost a ticket before. I recognize that the unmet need could offer a great opportunity for a software company that might decide to pitch their product to the ticketing office at the University of Florida.

2. The service that I am proposing is to before the employees at the ticketing office hand out the tickets to the students when they are picking them up, they scan the tickets and tie them to your ID card. The ticketing office does swipe your card to check their system to see if you have tickets or not. The software would essentially connect your ID card to the tickets that you have picked up so if you lose them or if they are stolen, you are able to go to the ticketing office to have them reprinted by them scanning your ID and pulling it up in the system.