Final Reflection

What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing? For me, my most formative experience was the venture concept. The venture concept assignment made me break down my business into the tiniest details and made me understand it better. My most memorable experience would have to be the elevator pitches, I was never great at speech writing but this exercise made me much more confident. My most joyous moment, to be honest, was finishing this class. I'm most proud of maintaining my grade in this class throughout the semester.

At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset? I see myself as moving closer to becoming a true entrepreneur. This class introduced me to have an entrepreneurial mindset, and I definitely feel that I think about problem-solving more often now. 


What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset? My number one recommendation for this class would be to not get behind with the workload. To perform best in this course, don't leave the work till the day that it is due. To foster this mindset, check canvas every day for new assignments and complete them as soon as possible.

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity

The opportunity I have identified is the unmet need of people between the age of 18-25 or college-age

students that are first-time pet owners. Their unmet need is the need to own a pet. However, they have never

owned a pet before and are usually unaware of the responsibilities required to raise one. The environmental

forces behind this need are the students leaving home and possibly living alone in a new city. This need for

companionship shows through the high adoption rates of college students and return rates. The market is

geographically defined by being the highest rates of pet returns and abandonment being in college towns.

Showing that college students are unaware of the responsibility needed to own a pet. Customers are currently

satisfying the need by adopting pets to fulfill their need but our target is the first time pet owner before they adopt.

I feel that this a fairly large opportunity, and will give the prospective owners the chance to be educated before

adopting. This opportunity will remain open as long as it not addressed. 

Innovation

I believe my service is an incrementally innovative service. My adoption service will be different than

other adoption agencies in that there is an educational service that provides the customer with added

benefits, unlike regular adoption agencies. The program lends the customer an animal as well as an

education class that provides them with all the information needed to effectively raise a pet while

balancing their workload and life. The cost will be 40 dollars for the week that they have the pet. If

the customer determines that they don't want to proceed with owning the animal. They can return the

animal at no additional cost. If they decide to adopt, they will pay the 50 dollar adoption fee.

Venture Concept

My concept will fulfill the opportunity by giving the customer the opportunity to learn about raising an animal effectively while avoiding the requirement of keeping the animal if they so choose. It is a more cost-effective option and time effective than outright adopting a pet and giving it away. I think customers would switch to this method of adoption because they are receiving a multitude of added benefits. It may take some time to gain traction but I think the service will take off in especially college towns across the United States starting with Gainesville. There are no direct competitors offering the same service but the closest competitor would be pet rental services (none of which are located in Gainesville. But pet rental services are strictly for borrowing a pet for a limited amount of time. Keeping the cost to the customer low is critical in a college town market. Customer experience and support are also critical in the exchange and that is why we will have experts in the pet field as volunteers and staff. We will have 8 people as paid staff and the rest being volunteers that have work experience in the pet field to help with training, customer support, and pet care at our facility. We will also have a website that will all pets available for adoption, the eligibility requirements to adopt, as well as educational resources.

My unfair advantage is the low-risk of commitment to the adoption process. Giving customers the flexibility to see if owning a pet is something for them is critical to our venture's success.

2. The feedback I received from the What's Next was very positive and both comments said they would like to see me implement the website change into my new venture concept.

3. I put in the website idea under the venture concept: "We will also have a website that will all pets available for adoption, the eligibility requirements to adopt, as well as educational resources."

Your Exit Strategy

1.) My long term exit strategy would be to build my business up to the point that I can sell it and have enough funds to retire for me and my family. I am willing to work however long I have to, to get the company worth enough to sell. With my business I estimate me working with it for at least 15 years so that's how long I will work to sell it.

2.) I feel that I have chosen this exit strategy because my service is not that revolutionary, and will take time for it to accumulate wealth. I believe with the right management of it, 15 years will be a good amount of time to get it where it needs to be.

3.) I believe that my exit strategy influences the way I look at opportunities. Being that I will be in business for 15 years, I won't want to go after high-risk opportunities to turn a quick risky profit. Going aggressively at new target markets could damage my service if it turns out bad, as my business will be a low-profit business, to begin with. Growth of the business is possible and I could expand my business into new markets, but I won't risk the welfare of my employees and company just to turn a risky profit.

Reading Reflection No.3

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ashlee Vance

1. What surprised me the most was that Elon Musk came from a rather low odds start in South Africa, his family had high IQ and Elon created his first computer program at the age of 8. The thing I most admire about Elon is his work ethic, he was known to work around the clock, oftentimes getting a few hours of sleep in his office only to wake up and continue his work. The thing I least admire about Elon is that he made some dumb decisions with his money, such as the time he bought a Mcclaren sportscar only to crash it and it be uninsured. Elon encountered much adversity in his life, all his businesses have rough spots where he didn't know if they would make it, but his persistence and luck paid off and now he is a great success story.

2. Elon has a master technical mind and can keep up with his engineers are working on, this is a trait that makes him a great leader. His work ethic is also unmatched, as he often sleeps less than 5 hours and works around the clock to meet his goals.

3. One thing I read that confused me was his persistence of moving to Canada to escape the draft in South Africa. I understand that he wanted to leave his apartheid state but why he didn't just move to America in the first place confused me, as he later said that Canada didn't have the opportunity he was seeking.

4.) Two questions I would ask Elon are 1: What keeps you motivated daily? And 2: What is your end goal for your life? I would ask him those questions because I want to know what drives him to work like a madman. Is it for money or fame? Or is it that he just wants the best for humanity?

5.) I think Elon views hard work as just a way of life. He wants the best for his companies and has worked so hard for so long that he has just become accustomed to the daily hustle. I personally don't share that opinion, I feel for me to reach that level, I need to have a set goal in mind, which at the moment I don't possess.

Celebrating Failure

1.) Recalling a failure of mine this semester, I can remember failing my first ever exam at UF. Coming from Santa Fe college I thought it prepared me well for UF, so I applied the same studying routine that passed me at SFC with flying colors. This class was a difficult class and it was hard to keep up with the professor in her lectures. My studying was not enough to pass the exam and it was very disheartening.


2.) I learned from this failure that I needed to adjust my studying habits to UF standards. I also learned about resources such as rewatching the recorded lectures to improve my note-taking. As well as obtaining resources like smoking notes and study edge.



3.) I was very disheartened by this failure and it changed my perspective on my study habits. I tend to handle failure pretty well but I do get emotional about it, however, I don't dwell on it and I immediately look forward to what I can change to better next time. This class taught me how to look at failure at a more positive light (that it is a learning experience) and now I 'm more likely to take a risk now and learn from the outcome.

What's Next?

Existing Market

I think the next step for my business venture is the need to create partnerships with existing pet agencies in order to acquire pets that can be adopted.

Customer #1 Said that they would like to see us create a web page that we can post all available pets on as well as who the dog would be a good fit for.

Customer #2 Said they would like to see us branch out into dog rescue programs (the act of actively searching on the streets for rescues). And actively include them in our adoption service for volunteers.

Customer #3 Said they would like it if one of the requirements to adopt an animal from our agency would require some hours of volunteering at our pet adoption facility.

I think that the next step for our business has to be to follow the advice that I have received from the current market customers. Creating a web page for our customers is critical. The web page will grow our exposure and position in the marketplace. I think the customers are onto something in that we have to be proactive about adding as many services to our model as we can.

New Market

I think a good market to get into would be outside of the first time pet owner category, into the pet owner category.

My service could go after pet owners that already own a pet and offer them services such as pet training and owner training.

Customer #1 Said that my company would be able to reach pet owners like him by offering training services and owner services such as education catered to pet owners like him. He said the market is already saturated with these services but it would help fund the main services that I am offering.

Customer #2 Said that my service could add a boost to my main service by pet owners knowing about my company and spreading it by word of mouth.

I learned a lot from this exercise and it was a great process to email different market customers. It was surprising to me that the current market customers were so optimistic about my service. I received valuable feedback that I could implement into my venture. I thought I would have some negative feedback about my idea but to my surprise I received none.

I don't believe reaching out to a new market would be radically changing my company in a positive way. The only benefit of reaching out to this new market would be to improve the sales of my current market, as well as fund it. I don't think it is an attractive idea to reach the new market. I did appreciate the feedback from the new market customers though.

Venture Concept No.1

Opportunity

The opportunity I have identified is the unmet need of people between the age of 18-25 or college-age students that are first-time pet owners. Their unmet need is the need to own a pet. However, they have never owned a pet before and are usually unaware of the responsibilities required to raise one. The environmental forces behind this need are the students leaving home and possibly living alone in a new city. This need for companionship shows through the high adoption rates of college students and return rates. The market is geographically defined by being the highest rates of pet returns and abandonment being in college towns. Showing that college students are unaware of the responsibility needed to own a pet. Customers are currently satisfying the need by adopting pets to fulfill their need but our target is the first time pet owner before they adopt. I feel that this a fairly large opportunity, and will give the prospective owners the chance to be educated before adopting. This opportunity will remain open as long as it not addressed. 

Innovation

I believe my service is an incrementally innovative service. My adoption service will be different than other adoption agencies in that there is an educational service that provides the customer with added benefits, unlike regular adoption agencies. The program lends the customer an animal as well as an education class that provides them with all the information needed to effectively raise a pet while balancing their workload and life. The cost will be 40 dollars for the week that they have the pet. If the customer determines that they don't want to proceed with owning the animal. They can return the animal at no additional cost. If they decide to adopt, they will pay the 50 dollar adoption fee.

Venture Concept

My concept will fulfill the opportunity by giving the customer the opportunity to learn about raising an animal effectively while avoiding the requirement of keeping the animal if they so choose. It is a more cost-effective option and time effective than outright adopting a pet and giving it away. I think customers would switch to this method of adoption because they are receiving a multitude of added benefits. It may take some time to gain traction but I think the service will take off in especially college towns across the United States starting with Gainesville. There are no direct competitors offering the same service but the closest competitor would be pet rental services (none of which are located in Gainesville. But pet rental services are strictly for borrowing a pet for a limited amount of time. Keeping the cost to the customer low is critical in a college town market. Customer experience and support are also critical in the exchange and that is why we will have experts in the pet field as volunteers and staff. We will have 8 people as paid staff and the rest being volunteers that have work experience in the pet field to help with training, customer support, and pet care at our facility.

My unfair advantage is the low-risk of commitment to the adoption process. Giving customers the flexibility to see if owning a pet is something for them is critical to our venture's success.

I believe the next thing my venture has to accomplish is to create partnerships with existing pet agencies.

In five years I would like my company to be successful enough to be self-sufficient and have a good amount of market share in order to grow to different cities in Florida and beyond. As long as I am happy with what I'm doing with my work, I am content.