30A – Final Reflection

I can't believe we're already at the end. It seems like yesterday I did the Bug List post. Principles of Entrepreneurship was a fun class to have been a part of. Before starting this class, I thought that due to lack of having major experience with entrepreneurship, I wouldn't be able to excel in the profession but this course has opened my eyes to the world of entrepreneurship and how I already hold the skills and creativity necessary to succeed. One of the highs I experienced in this course was reading through all the positive feedback regarding posts about my business opportunity. It showed me that I can seek out an opportunity that will positively benefit others. There were some lows such as rushing to do my Elevator Pitches but they taught me not to wait until the final moments to do important assignments and enhanced my public speaking skills.

The most formative experience that stuck out to me was Pryor's lectures. Very few professors will go out of their way to know their students outside of attending office hours and I liked how Pryor was engaging with his students such as learning students' names who showed up to the live lectures and getting them involved in the discussions. Some of the fun stories he liked to tell such as the prank he was involved in while as a student at OU showed a fun side to him rather than your stereotypical serious college professor. What I am most proud of accomplishing in this class was coming up with a venture that my classmates who did peer reviews and people I interviewed be in support of.

I believe I have developed an entrepreneurial mindset but I still would need to gain some more real-world experience before I can see myself as or say that I'm an entrepreneur. There's a lot more time and opportunity for me to grow and enhance my mindset that will prepare me for real-world experience. With the help of this course, I am ready to take the next step forward to seek out these opportunities to grow.  

One advice I would give to future students taking this class is to use any criticism or feedback you receive and use it to better yourself. The peer reviews and interviews I conducted were great learning experiences that would improve my skills and improve the aspects of my business venture. This will be critical as you further your academic and professional careers.

29A – Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity
With the popularity and increased usage of food delivery services we’re currently seeing, I still see an opportunity for a certain market. This designated market would be for the large-venue events such as sporting events, movie theaters, concerts etc. The opportunity would be a food delivery app for these large-scale venue seating events which would eliminate the issue of long waiting lines for the concession stands or not being able to get in line, so customers don’t miss the event they paid to see. A broad range of people currently has this need because nobody wants to wait in lines for a long period of time at the concessions. My product would most likely be targeted towards the younger generations such as teenagers, college students, and young adults as they are the most familiar and most comfortable with food delivery apps, but all ages could benefit from my product. The window of opportunity will always be open because people value the convenience of ordering comfortably from their seat, so they don’t potentially miss their show, movie, or event.

Innovation
My innovation is taking the simple concept of a food delivery app and making it available for all kinds of public events. When opening the app, the customer will be able to select the location or venue they’re currently attending, view the concession menu, place an order which a worker that’s specifically for the app’s orders will take care of. When selecting their location, customers can input it manually or upload their ticket information by scanning a QR code which entails their seat location and number. Also included in the app will give those with certain disabilities the opportunity to list any specifications with their orders tailored for their specific needs. All orders, no matter how big or small, come with a $1.99 delivery fee. Although the app would be free to download, one of the best ways to make money is marketing, advertising, and sponsorships. In-app banner ads would work best as they don’t obstruct the user’s ability to freely use the app. It would also work best to sell a subscription-based service within the app where the user would be able to opt-in a $10 a month ad-free and delivery fee-free subscription with added bonus exclusive menu options. I would also adopt the GrubHub model of pre-order commissions by charging the stadiums, theaters, and venues I make a deal with a commission fee. All would be able to provide and generate considerate amount of revenue.

Venture Concept
My product is all about providing convenience and enhancing the show viewing experience. The product is able to address and solve the problem of long waits in concession lines and missing shows. Customers would switch to this new product because it takes a pre-existing concept but offers it to market that hasn’t efficiently utilized it. If a customer is attending a sports game, a movie, or some concert and is able to comfortably order something to eat or drink from their seat, they would take advantage of the opportunity because of convenience. The biggest competitors would probably be GrubHub, Uber Eats, Doordash and Postmates. These are the biggest name in the food delivery industry currently. Customers could still opt to order from these services before or after an event rather than eat from concessions because of greater variety of places to eat from and brand prestige but a weakness would be that they don’t offer services for those inside the venues which is where my product would come in to eliminate the issue. Customer support and experience play a big role in my business concept because effective feedback from customers can be used to improve the product and service efficiently to increase support for the product and its usage. With a positive customer experience, the brand’s prestige will increase and would open up opportunities for more commission deals with more venues, stadiums, and arenas. I would organize the business with a minimum of 10-15 workers to start my company. I would need to set up departments each with their own functions. One for workers who specialize with the creation and updating of the app and its features, a marketing staff, and a management staff. The original primary focus in the beginning would be to securing deals with the venues that’ll offer the service and market the app to potential customers. Over time, I would plan on hiring more staff.

The Three Minor Elements
The most important part of my product is getting as many venues, stadiums, and arenas to offer the service. Not only would my app be available at their events, but I would be securing commission deals to make money. To sell my product, I would have to be able to persuade these venues about my product and all of its features that’ll add to show-watching or game-day experience. What’s next for the venture is that I would want to expand the product and make it a nationwide brand for majority of stadiums, theaters, and venues across the United States to offer. I would also like to expand the app globally as other countries would benefit from my product as well. In 5 years, I want the company to be financially well-off so I can explore other business ventures.

2) Summary: I received great feedback from the 2 people who commented on my First Venture Concept blog post. The aspects about my Venture Concept they liked was the addition of in-app purchases, ads, and subscriptions. They agreed that they would be smart ways to generate revenue. They also mentioned how I was able to differentiate myself from my competitors. I didn't receive any negative feedback or feedback to improve my venture concept so I decided to leave it how it is. 

(I created a prototype-logo of my app idea Seat Eats in the shape of an iPhone app icon)

27A – Reading Reflection No. 3

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

1) You read about an entrepreneur 

What surprised me the most about Elon Musk before reading this biography was that he started an online bank which would later merge into what is now PayPal. What I admire the most about Elon Musk is that despite the setbacks he went through such as when he was close to bankruptcy with Tesla, he never gave up. The thing I admire least about Elon Musk is his overly optimistic promises. For example, by the time a deadline has arrived, his product isn't ready yet or the numbers aren't what he promised. I believe this causes him to push his employees to work even harder and might cause them to resent him. I would definitely say that Elon does encounter adversity. It wasn’t easy for him when making the decision to move from South Africa to Canada especially when he grew up during the period of apartheid and at the defiance of his father.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

            The competency that I noticed that Elon possessed was persistence. No matter how difficult things became, he never gave up and kept on going until he achieved his goal. During the early developments of PayPal, Elon had to work tirelessly every day and week. Even to the point, he would sleep at where he worked.

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

            One thing that confused me about Elon is the fact he is overly optimistic about his plans. Usually, most people learn their mistakes after the first time they make it, but this isn't the case for Elon, but I guess that’s just a part of his persistent behavior.

4) If I had to ask Musk two questions, they would be:

1.  Was the creation of SpaceX due to some dream or aspiration you had as a kid or was it because of  wanting to compete with other aerospace companies?

2.  You cut yourself off from your father because he wasn't a good person, will you ever regret this decision?

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

            What I believe Elon's idea of hard work would probably be non-stop grinding and putting in the work, no matter how hard or how much, in order to achieve results.

28A – Your Exit Strategy

Sometime after at least 10 years of being with my business and if the business is financially well-off, my intentions would be to sell it. The reason I selected this particular exit strategy is because I don't want to stick with the same venture throughout my career. I would want to pursue other small ventures so I can have some variety in my career rather than be some entrepreneurial one-hit wonder. I also don't want to work too hard for the rest of my life so after I sell the business and after possibly pursuing other small ventures, the end goal would be to retire and live out the rest of my life as happily as possible. I don’t think my exiting strategy has affected the decisions I made in my business concept because I would want to focus on what I'm doing currently rather than look into the future. 

26A – Celebrating Failure

1) A time I failed this semester was planning to work ahead in this class and not sticking to it. At the beginning of the semester, I said to myself that the first assignments I would get done and over with at the beginning of the week so I can focus on more rigorous assignments for other courses would be in this class. However, I’ve typically put off doing the assignments until later or just before the due date. Waiting until later to do the assignments has made it more stressful on my school work a lot more than it should be. It’s even affected my sleep schedule to an extent because I once put off doing my second Elevator Pitch until filming it at around 2 in the morning, hours before the deadline.

2) What I learned was how any bit of procrastination or poor time-management in this course can affect you. If I plan something in the beginning, I have to stick to it or else it messes with the flow of my work. I learned that if I stuck to my original goal of working ahead, it’ll make it easier on myself and don’t have to stress to rush doing the assignments.

3) Failure can be tough to deal with. Nobody wants to admit that they failed at something or deal with the embarrassing aspects of it. To me, failure is when you are unable to attain some sort of goal that you previously set to achieve. It can be failing a test you were sure you would do good on or forgetting to do your assignments on time. I originally would get embarrassed to talk about certain failures because of how others would perceive of me, but this class has changed my perspective of failure and to use it as a learning experience to better yourself. Instead of focusing on the negatives, look at what went wrong so you can improve on it to make sure the same mistake doesn’t happen again. As the age-old phrase goes, “failure builds character”. I would say I am more likely to take a risk now then I would have been in the past. 

25A – What’s Next?

Existing Market. 

Step 1: What I think is next for my venture is to develop the product to offer any additional uses than just simply a food delivery app for public events.

Step 2: I interviewed three customers who are already a part of my target market and asked them what they believe is next for my venture. The first customer told me I should be working on contacting the owners of sports stadiums, movie theaters, and arenas to ensure securing the deals necessary that they sponsor the use of my app so that it’s available at their venues. The second customer told me to focus on marketing efforts and getting a lot of customer support for my product. The third customer said I should offer my product’s services to private events as well. She mentioned how last summer when she went to her older sister’s wedding, due to the amount of people who went, the lines for food and drinks at the banquet were often long and a lot of the popular foods were wiped quickly before her and any younger kids go to get any. She would like to see how this product could expand to private events that use public seating or venues.

Step 3: What I think makes the most sense for my Seat-Eats venture is making sure it continues to expand. Expansion occurs not only with my product and its services but also my market and my company’s staff. I would want my product to always offer the best services possible that ensures customer satisfaction. I want my customer’s needs to be a massive priority and if those needs are not being met, my product has to always be able to be updated and adapt with any major feedback received. I want my product to be available to as many potential customers as possible. To accomplish this, the first customers of public venue events would likely come sporting events, and then eventually to movie theaters, stadiums and arenas for non-sporting events like concerts and festivals. Then, possibly expand the product to other markets who could benefit from its services.

Expanding the company’s staff and instituting an organizational structure is also important for the future. I would need to set up different departments each with their own functions. A tech department that specializes with the app’s software and customer tech support, a marketing department, a sales and finance department, and operations management department. I would want an organizational culture that prioritizes hard work but also has fun, loves their job, and has a passion for our company’s mission and what we want to accomplish. I never want to have a culture where people are miserable at their job or we’re not living up to our expectations, communication and feedback is important just as it is with customers.

New Market.

Steps 1 & 2: Customer 3 from my existing market gave me a great idea of a new market I could target with my product. The new market would be for private events. A private event may be subjective but the vision I’m seeing with this would be for events such as weddings, ceremonies, banquets, and school functions such as homecoming and prom. How this can create value was described by that customer’s experience at her sister’s wedding where they were way too many people making the lines too long and eventually some of the food eventually ran out. Same can be said for the other described events where the lines were too long because there were too many people, so they don’t get their food, similar at public events like football games and movies. If my product was available at private events, this issue would be eliminated as they can order from their food at their seat or table.

Step 3: The two people I interviewed were the parents of an old classmate of mine. His parents were managers of one of the local country clubs in our hometown that was a popular venue for private events such proms and wedding banquets. I asked them about my product and how it can help customers like them, and they were in favor of my idea. They told me about how this product could’ve helped an issue they had last year when one of the proms they held had an issue with the food banquet and catering where some students complained about long waits for their food, their food would get delivered to different students’ tables, and how badly it was managed. They would use my product if it were expanded to private event venues. After hearing their feedback, I think it would be smart to enter this market.

Reflection: I was surprised to know that my original idea can be tailored into smaller, private event venues. I didn’t consider them in my original concept because I assumed because their private, they have their own specialized workers, caters, and food delivery services so my product wouldn’t be of need in that market. From my interviews, I learned that my assumptions were wrong and this market experiences the same issues that public venues are experiencing.

            This market does appear to be as attractive as my existing market. I do believe it can be exploited but regarding seat specifications with this market will be a lot more challenging than with public venues. With stadiums and movie theaters, you can provide ticket information with a designated, previously chosen seat to deliver the food to but there’s rarely any designated seating with private events. The best way to incorporate designated seating to know where the workers would have to deliver food to would be to add a feature for the customers to sign in from what seat or table they are at.

23A – Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

Resources
1. Responsibility: Taking responsibility for not only yourself but for others isn’t difficult to imitate or rare but how it’s managed and acted upon can differ tremendously. Responsibility is valuable because those who display greater roles of responsibility when pursuing an idea or business opportunity will generally have a better competitive advantage than those who don’t display responsible characteristics.  

2. Connections: Connections are valuable because they can help further the progress of your business idea. Connections as well as networking is rare to an extent. While one person knows certain individuals, others don’t know. Many people can also gain the same connections but it’s how you utilize them is what makes the difference. Have them know you instead of you knowing them. It can’t be easily imitable because each individual is treated differently when meeting someone. Connections are not substitutable because not every connection offers the same benefits that you’re hoping for.

3. Digital Skills: Digital skills are valuable in today’s society as computers have become critical to our everyday lives. Digital skills such as programming, adobe software, coding, marketing etc. are not rare as they are many different resources online that can teach you to acquire these skills. Digital skills are not easy to copy because don’t happen naturally, it comes from extensive learning and practice. You either have what it takes, or you don’t.

4. Passionate: Being passionate about your idea is very important and valuable to have. If you or your staff are all not passionate or all in about an idea, it will not achieve the level of success that you want it to. Passion is not rare and can be imitated but not everyone shares the same passions or goals.

5. Funding: Funding is a valuable and critical component when starting a business. Funding for your project or idea is what gives it the life to become a real opportunity. Funding is not rare, and can’t particularly be copied as there are many different ways to secure funding such as from investing, crowdfunding, fundraisers, loans etc.

6. Experience: Experience is a valuable asset to have because the more experience you hold in your expertise or area of specialization, the more likely you are to succeed and get ahead with your business idea. Subjectively, experience is rare because while one person may have experience in certain things, another person may not. Experience can vary between different people which means it can be imitated for some people, but also can’t for others. It can be substituted, you either have experience or you don’t.

7. Brand: Establishing a brand is very valuable because it can get your name out there and influence others to have a favorable opinion of your product. There are many different kinds of brands that exist, which doesn’t make it rare. They can’t be exactly copied because you can’t steal somebody else’s idea and make it your own. However, inspiration can be drawn from other ideas and brands. Brands can be substituted. You can substitute brands you want to purchase clothes from, substitute brands you want to eat food from, or even substitute brands to shop at.

8. Problem-solving: Problem-solving is valuable to have when starting a business because it’s the core of your business’ mission, what issue is your company trying to tackle and how will you fix it. Problem-solving skills aren’t rare because anybody can solve a problem or issue in their own way. It can be imitated to an extent and if one person has trouble with problem-solving, they can be substituted for someone who doesn’t have any trouble.

 
9. Customer feedback: Feedback is valuable to have because you’re given an insight from your customer about what you’re doing is efficient or what needs to be improved on. Feedback is rare because not all businesses prioritize customer feedback or improve their product based on feedback. Feedback implementation is not hard to imitate. Substitutes for feedback do exist such as third-party service review websites.

  
10. Teamwork: Teamwork is valuable to have in order to be successful and progress with your business opportunity. Effective teamwork is rare to a degree because while anyone can put a team together for a project, how they work together and without any issues can vary. Effective teamwork can't be imitated unless the team works well together and is under great leadership.

I think my top resource is connections. After using the VRIN Analysis, my connections resource provides the best benefits and a leg-up against the competition. When pursuing a business opportunity, who you know can help you progress far ahead and help you meet the right people to sell your product to.