Week 8 Reading Reflection

1) I'm surprised that there has been $37 billion dollars raised in IPO's. That seems like a massive sum of money.
2) I was confused by the private placements. Is this just raising money through a couple of wealthy investors?
3) How many people end up actually dealing with rule 506? Additionally, how many people are sophisticated investors out of all investors?
4) I disagree that Muslims are driven to terrorism by a lack of enconomic opportunity. I think it's driven by an intense religious fervor.

Halfway reflection week 8

1) I have learned a lot about being bold in the face of adversity. Pretty much every assignment has been hard, and the skill I've learned to be necessary is that you must dare to ask awkward questions. 

2) I feel like during the free money excersize I felt so awkward that I thought about skipping the assignment. I was able to persevere by reminding myself that many people will have to do similar tasks that are just as uncomfortable. 

3) I think that the traits I want to encourage people in is to start to ask more tough questions before the class begins, to anticipate being pushed, and to use other people in the class and their ideas to your advantage. 

Free Money

I will ask some individuals as they walk by while I eat dinner and I will ask some people in a coffee shop.
I will approach people at random, which should give me a better view of the general market.
I think the best way to start the conversation is to be direct. There's a chance people will stop if you just offer free money.
My plan is to just follow through however they respond. I think it will be hard to say no to free money.
I think I will give away at least 3 dollars.

My predictions ended up being correct, that on the whole people were relatively willing to accept free money. They thought it was strange and they didn't understand why, but they weren't so unwilling that they didn't take the money.

Week 7 Reading Reflection

1) I was surprised to hear just how driven we are by demographics. I always thought the research would be based on many other things, but it would appear that it was all solely based on demographics for a long time.
2) It's confusing how we can be so broad in the way we segment our buying market. Do we really just fall into a couple categories?  I feel like we should be able to segment with a fine tooth comb, why would we really want to put people into a couple categories? How do we cater to big groups?
3) I would ask the author where he first saw flaws in the way that society was segmenting the market. At what point did he realize that the way it was being split up wasn't working?
4) I don't think there are as many issues with the demographic method of splitting up the market as the author does.

Elevator Pitch No. 2

2) I think the best advice I got was to consider the fact that different pricing platforms can be really helpful. I think we all need to remember that the price is always relative, how much you are compared to your other services and competitors matters a lot more than the number itself.
3) I capitalize on that here by making my pricing less than competitors. Nobody will mind doing the extra work themselves, and I think people would pay less for it. That's going to be my selling point and that's how I implemented my last comments.

Customer interviews no 3

My interview style was similar, and my questions were similar. The people I interviewed were still young and typically in college. I feel that they are still my target market and still gave me the best view of who I want the opinion of. My results were different, because when everything was written out the idea seemed less appealing.

Week 6 reading reflection

1) I was surprised by how the whole idea is totally driven by the need for a large profit margin. The whole time I was reading I was wondering how this applies to industry's that operate with a relatively low profit margin, and work mostly with a large number of sales model.
2) I'm confused as to how the threat from new people entering the market once the key players in the industry are established. Do new people continue to enter markets even once the markets are well established and grounded?
3) I would ask the author about his personal experience running a company. Are all of these thoughts from 3rd party analysis on his part looking in at other companies? What would people actually running the companies say about the major threats?
4) I didn't have many major disagreements, but in many cases I don't believe the buyer has lots of bargaining power. Once a price has been established, it often is accepted and remains concrete.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1) My names William. I've got experience working in sales and finance, but few entrepreneurial ventures. I am a strong written and spoken communicator, and I am a firm believer that you must have confidence in yourself before you can swing an idea. My aspiration is for there to be an affordable way to get people to a great place to study. I think this could have the opportunity to spread to many campuses, with a huge customer bank at every school.

2) I'm offering customers a service to take them to and from the library at all hours for a monthly fee. They will never have to worry about parking, walking to their cars late at night, or having money to pay a cab.

3) I'm offering this to students who have a need to get to and from places at an affordable price. I think that plenty of students need a ride to the library, including people without their own cars, scooters in winter, or people who can't get decent parking.

4) People care because its a recognized need. Nobody needs to be explained to that parking at the most demanded building at large universities can be difficult.

5) My core competency is that I will charge a monthly fee. Many people will forget to turn off the service, and many people will forget to turn it off. Many people won't use the service, or may leave it running for all of college. The core competency is that most people will keep it running and perhaps not even use it all the time.

I think all of these items line up relatively well. I think it's important to remember that no plan is foolproof and things don't always line up perfectly. I think that this is an important service offered at a pretty good price, and it's going to be different from Uber because it's not a pay per use. It's a monthly subscription, and you can use it as many times or as few times as you would like.

Interviewing customers no. 2

1) For this time, I understood that fine tuning my opportunity must start with coming up with a more specific questions that will prevent me a clearer view of my opportunity. Last time I asked if people were willing to pay to park, but this time I asked a more specific question.
2) I found that interviewing people who actually go to Starbucks will offer me a much clearer picture of the market I'm looking to capitalize on.
3) Tweaking my interview questions meant getting more specific. Last time I asked for vague answers, but this time I asked for quantifiable answers.
4) My discussion with my interviewees was pretty similar to my one before, with the same twinge of anxiety on my part. This time I was a little more bold.
5) I'm starting to wonder how I take the information from these interviews and put them into worthwhile ventures that make this all a bit simpler. It's hard to turn these interviews into actual actionable information.

6) I would say that the three tips are 1) don't be afraid to interview students, they really are in no hurry and do this occasionally 2) find a place where there is a concentration of people that you need information from 3) head into the interviews with questions that will leave you with something actionable.

Week 5 Reading Reflection

1) The most surprising thing in the reading was how far in the future entrepreneurs have to look ahead and how long it can take to develop a product. I was shocked that in 1982 the demand for a cell phone was only 400,000, compared to the extreme demand for smart phones there is now.
2) I'm confused by the idea of a product not being available at the time the venture begins. How would you begin a venture without the finished product?
3) Is there a perfect time to launch your venture? What does the process of getting a proprietary permit look like? How long would it take?
4) I did not find anything in the text I disagreed with.

Elevator Pitch No. 1

My problem is that we all too often need a ride to our library of choice and it's just too difficult to get there. Sometimes there's no parking, sometimes the weather is awful, and sometimes it's just too darn cold. My solution is that we offer a monthly fee for rides to the library that you can use as many or as few times a month as you want. The name of my service is Lib Rides.