Venture Concept No. 1-Assignment 24A

Opportunity:

·      The night life in Gainesville is something that very many students participate in practically every night, even more on the weekends. Better preparing students with information about the night life is the opportunity I am focusing on.

·      Students at UF who go out and even potentially students who live by UF and go to Santa Fe are the type of people who would be potential customers.

·      This opportunity is created because there are many different places people can go out to at night and they all have different aspects about them that cause people to go there.

·      This market, as I stated above, would be college student. Diving a little deeper, it would be marketed more towards freshman who do not know much about the night life but do want to go out and have fun. They would have to live in Gainesville as well, and most likely be a UF student.

·      This opportunity is pretty big, with there being nothing out there now that provides any kind of information about nigh life to students.

·      This window of opportunity will be open until someone does something with the opportunity. Night life at UF is always going to be someone a lot of students participate in and I don’t see that slowing down anytime soon.

Innovation:

·      My innovation is an app for the night life of Gainesville. This app would provide users with information about the different bars and clubs around UF. Specifically, the information would be about the different events places are having, line size, drink/food specials, etc. It would be an app that helps people make a smart choice of where to go out, because some places have restrictions about age or they may just be packed that night, and some people don’t like waiting an hour to get into a place. I have not exactly figured out how I would get all of this information, specifically how I would keep the line sizes updates or roughly updated so students know best times to go. I think I would be able to get all the other information by visiting the bars and clubs and seeking out the information from them. When it comes to the cost of the app, initially I would want the app to be free, or at least start as a free trial to get people excited and wanting to use the app. After that I think I would want to charge a monthly or bi-monthly fee, I am thinking either $0.50 or $1, so it would only actually be a couple of dollars a year.

Venture Concept:

·      As stated, the opportunity deals with the night life of Gainesville, specifically suppling students with relevant information about the clubs and bars in the area. Customers will eventually want to pay for this app because of the benefits it will give them. Not only will it provide them relevant information about the different clubs and bars but hopefully in the future also give them deals only to be used by app users.

·      Customers would not be switching to this app because no app like this exist in the Gainesville area. So I would mainly have to focus on actually getting the people to download the app.

·      While there are other apps like this out there, none are for the Gainesville area, so technically there is not competition. Though there are potential weaknesses and vulnerabilities which could come from a lack of interest by students, or they might not want to pay for the service, and actually may not find the information as helpful as intended.

·      Since it is an app I would not have to deal with packaging or distribution. Customer support and customer experience is something I would have to work on as I went, figuring out all the kinks of the app and ways I can increase the benefits and experience for customers overall.

·      To grow the business I would first want to find someone who has experience with creating apps, so I can make sure all the relevant information is on the app and easily accessible. When I first start it, I probably would not have too many employees, maybe a couple of ambassadors from different sororities and fraternities to get the word out to others. So total when starting out I would say a total of 5 employees, someone to help with the app and the other to help with marketing the app to others.

Three minor elements:

·      My most important resource would be my connection to people in fraternities and sororities. These are the type of people I would want to market most to. Since I have friends in multiple different sororities and fraternities I could use them as a way to get the message out about the app and it’s uses. This would make it a lot easier for more students to hear about the app then me trying to market it to individuals myself.

·      What’s next for this product would be to figure out the logistics so I can actually create the app. Logistics being again, how I am going to get the line sizes accurate enough for people to see it as meaningful enough to use the app.

·      This first venture will help to see what it is actually like to create an app of my own and all the work that comes with it. Hopefully in five years this is an app used by majority of students who go out, and I have partnered with the local bars and clubs to get special deals for the app users.

Your Venture's Unfair Advantage- Assignment 23A

1.     Communication experience: Through my involvement in different student organizations and internship experience I have learned to communicate well with many different types of people.

·      This is valuable because I will need to communicate with students and the bars and clubs around here.

·      This is rare because not everyone has the experiences that I do that allow me to be good at communicating with others.

·      This is something that can be inimitable, communication is learned through experience and I am not the only one with these types of experiences.

·      There are other resources that could provide this benefit, like other people.

2.     Leadership experience: Through being a mentor in multiple student organization and holding leadership roles, it has really allowed me to be good at leading others.

·      This is valuable because if I need to have people work with me to create the app I am able to be a leader to them.

·      This isn’t something that is rare, a lot of people have leadership skills and experience.g

·      Again this is not inimitable, simply because others have this skill or can learn this skill

·      This is somewhat non-substitutable, simply because I would want to use my own leadership skills but I could also use someone else to do the work for me.

3.     Access to students: Since I am a college student myself here at UF, I have access to other students to market the app to.

·      This is very valuable since college students are the broad market I am trying to attract.

·      This is somewhat rare because not everyone has access to college students when trying to get there opinion on something or getting them to buy your product. Since I am a college student I think I will be able to easily interact with other students.

·      While it may be harder for non-college students to interact with actual students, it is not completely inimitable.

·      Access to students is somewhat non-substitutable, since I am a college student it is easier for me to interact with other students, when going out or talking to them on campus.

4.     Unique product: There is no app like this currently in Gainesville.

·      This is valuable as the app would have no competition.

·      This is rare, as I stated above, since there is not app out their like this.

·      This product is not inimitable, simply because there are other apps out there like this one, specially one at UCF, but my app would have different information provided than others like it.

·      As stated above, it is not completely non-substitutable, if someone wanted to they could come up with an app similar to the one I want to create.

5.     Sororities and fraternities: I have friends in many different sororities and fraternities at UF, if I could get them to market the app or at least talk about it a little, it could allow me to reach even more students.

·      This is valuable because not everyone would have access to these type of people.

·      This is somewhat rare because non-students would have a hard time doing this, but another student could.

·      Again, this is not inimitable, as stated another student could have the same access to students in fraternities and sororities.

·      This is somewhat non-substitutable, because my connections with these people may be different than their connections with others.

6.     Knowledge: Since I am a college student at UF, I have faced first-hand what it is like to go out, to only go back home because lines were too long, the places were dead, or I wasn’t old enough to get in.

·      This is very valuable because I was the exact targeted market as a freshmen, I have first-hand knowledge of the actual benefits the app could provide.

·      This is rare because it is from my own experiences and knowledge.

·      This is not inimitable because another student similar to me could do the same thing.

·      This is not something that is non-substitutable, another student could have this knowledge as well.

7.     A UF Education: The education I get from UF I think has really helped me to be able to actually create an app like this. Through the many different classes I have taken, I have learned a lot about what goes into business presentations, interacting with others, etc. that will help me succeed in creating and marketing this app.

·      This is extremely valuable, because not everyone is able to get an education like this one, and have all the resources that are available through being a UF student.

·      This is somewhat rare, since not every student who applies gets into UF.

·      This can be imitated by any student that goes to UF.

·      I am sure while the education at UF is great, there are other schools with very similar educational programs and resources available to their students.

8.     Presentation experience: Through my involvement in different student organization and classes, specifically the Business Case Analysis Class, have helped me to practice and approve upon my presentation skills.

·      This is valuable since I may need to present to students to try to get them to use the app, or clubs/bars to get them to work with me.

·      this is not particularly rare, anyone who has had experience with presenting could do this.

·      This can also be imitable, again through experience with presenting.

·      This is somewhat non-substitutable, I could get someone to do it for me with good presentation skills, but since it is my app I would want to be the one doing the presenting.

9.     People person: I have always loved being around and working with others. Creating an app that allows me to do this is, will allow me to showcase this skill.

·      This is valuable because once this app is created, the next step would be outreach which means I would have to interact with many different people.

·      I think this is somewhat rare, simply because not everyone is a people person, some people may like to not interact with other people whenever possible.

·      This is something that can be imitated, of course there are other people and students out there that like to interact and be around people on a regular basis.

·      This could be substituted by another person with these same skills.

10.  Personality: I have a very outgoing personality, which could help me when reaching out to students and businesses.

·      This is valuable because not everyone has an outgoing personality, for someone who is a bit more shy and reserved it could be hard for them to put themselves out there when marketing the app to students and businesses.

·      This is somewhat rare just because some people may be more outgoing and some may be the opposite.

·      This is imitable, of course I am not the only person in the world or at UF with an outgoing personality.

·      This could be substituted by another outgoing person.

I would say that my top resource would have to be students in sororities and fraternities that I am friends with. This is more important than the other listed resources because these are exactly the type of students I want to use the app. There are hundreds of students in each fraternity and sorority, if I could get at least some of those students to talk about the app during chapter, or just tell their friend about it, would be a huge help when it comes to marketing the product.