Venture Concept No.2 - Assignment 29A

1)

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.

2)

Summary of Feedback:

I have received some great feedback about this app throughout the many different interviews I have completed with people for differing assignments in this class. The main feedback I received was the focus on the marketing of the concept. Everyone seemed to like the concept itself and said they would use the app when it comes out. So the concept itself seems good so focusing on getting the word out there with my connections in Greek life and in multiple student organizations. The other feedback I received was just to make sure all of the aspects I want to include in the app can be included, like being able to correctly and accurately get the sizes of the lines and best times to go. I did not really get any feedback about what I can change in the app, which I think it good, I can just focus on improving the aspects that will be included in the app.

3)

Change in Venture Concept:

While above, I kept everything the same, I did improve on the venture concept a little. While I did not necessarily change anything, I would want to add to my venture concept. I would want to put more of a focus on getting the word out about the app, so that when it is finally created I already have people eager and ready to use it. With my connections to different people in different sororities and fraternities, marketing to them would be my first step. If I can get my friend to tell other in the sororities and fraternities about the app or even allow me to come and speak about the app it will allow me to easily reach hundreds of students quickly. This would be much more efficient than say sitting in Turlington and trying to get people to hear me out about my app, I know from experience that is mostly a waste of time and it would not allow me to reach as nearly as many people as I can through different channels, like using my connections in sororities and fraternities. I am also very involved in different organizations in the business school so I can use those as platforms to talk about the app and maybe tape into new connections of people who are not in sororities or fraternities.

4)

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