28A- Exit Strategy

1) Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. 

Do you intend to sell your business in the next 5 years for a large return? 

I would actively build this vision, launch the concept and perform a SWOT analysis and new business plan after 5 years. At that point, I would evaluate the worth to determine whether I would merge myself into a hands off partnership agreement for a percentage of the company for the next 5 years. Alternatively, I would sell it for a return on the investment I made over the course of the first 5 years.

Do you intend to stay with the business for several decades and retire? 

This type of business would be more of a conceptual business for me where I would place myself in the background of the company as a general partner or silent partner if I continued to stay with the entity after  the first 5 years. I see this as a self generating process of hiring the appropriate people to develop the tech side of the business. Those functions are not in my wheelhouse therefore I would be more of a behind the scene role and consult with companies to sell the service. Depending on the first 5 years, I would consider keeping it over a decade. 

Do you intend to protect the venture as a family business, and pass it down to your children?

I would protect it as a family business, contingent on the longevity of the company.

2) Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?

The trends in Technology are difficult to forecast, it is hard to say if my concept will be beneficial in one market or across several markets over time. I am skeptical about going into business without the tools I will need to be successful. Two heavy stakes require resources of which I am limited to, financials and a programer to develop the service. I chose this concept for purposes of this class with no previous intentions of creating a concept such as the The Waitlist App. 

3) How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept? For instance, has it influenced how you have identified an opportunity? Has it influenced your growth intentions or how you plan to acquire and use resources? 

I would be interested in discussing the possibilities of this concept in a CrowdSource or programmers before I seek an investor. Because the logistics of an app are somewhat unfamiliar to me, I am not at the stage of going all in at this point. I have several business ideas, this is one that I would further research. 

27A- Reading Reflection No. 3

Cover of the book "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson.

Credit

Alessandra Montalto/The New York Times

Q1-  You read about an entrepreneur: 

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, I chose to read the biography of Steve Jobs for a few reasons and am glad that I did. The interest I had in choosing this biography probably had to do with the influence I experienced growing up.  My first computer was an Apple IIe computer back when floppy discs were around. This computer came out in 1983, the year I was born and while the rave was IBM when I was growing up this one was geared towards business, personal and educational uses therefore we had it. Steve Jobs has made one of the largest influential impacts globally that I am familiar with which is why I have been fascinated uniqueness as an entrepreneur. I have watched the movie that came out in 2013 about Steve Jobs and many documentaries but had not read his biography until this class.   

• What surprised you the most? I was surprised to learn that Steve Jobs asked Walter Isaacson to write his biography at a time where he learned he had pancreatic cancer. It was surprising to me that Steve Jobs reached out to Walter Isaacson, author, to write his biography based on previous biographies written by him. Both Albert Eisenstein and Leonardo da Vinci had biographies written by Isaacson before writing about Jobs. I am always interested in learning about the childhood element when it comes to highly successful people. Those who hold some sort fame whether it is an entrepreneur or just someone brilliant, tend to have very interesting upbringings. I was surprised to find out that Steve Jobs was adopted and more so that he knew this at a young age. The coping of that alone as a young child explains a lot about his mind set in his biography. The allusion that he felt as some sort of misfit gave him a tremendous amount of courage to define himself through his uniqueness. The life experiences throughout his biography explain his relentless energy to become something larger than obstacles in front him. 

• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? The fact Steve Jobs started his company out of his garage is pretty admirable to me. Someone who can make something out of nothing is pretty rare and to take it to levels no one would imagine is even more admirable. I also can appreciate how he struggled but never gave up, he faced many adverse realities and finding ways to overcome this made for several ups and downs. As socially unacceptable as dropping out of school has always been, Steve Jobs certainly over achieved in areas most would fear the challenge of. The confidence he exudes in his journey speaks for itself.

• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?  Steve struggled with his identity and the true heritage of his biological parents. He was known for unpredictable interactions with employees and a forceful temper. A few instances in his biography where I least admired his character was how he conducted himself during conflict. Steve Jobs struggled with managing people at times as well as his emotions. Adoption had a profound effect on his emotional self control. His way of dealing with this, was that he only wanted to work with people who demand perfection.

• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?According to the his biography, Steve Jobs faced many adversities through all stages of his life. Several stages of his Apple legacy were adverse challenges, he went into a deep depression in 1985 when the Macintosh office failed. At one point Steve Jobs was fired from Apple in 1985 over a power struggle with the companies board as well as CEO, John Sculley. 

Q2- What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 
To be an entrepreneur, the first risk you take is the possibility of failure. This is something that Steve Job was fearless of. His mindset allowed him to find something greater than the problem when things did not go as planned. Steve Jobs dared to do things differently through impressive ambitions. He had difficulty in structured classroom settings, he often rebelled against figures of authority. It is said that this was because he was often bored and was not challenged enough. 

Q3-  Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. 
Where he got the name for Apple was alluded to a story about a day he was at an apple farm and decided to file Apple as the official name for the company.. Reading further into his biography I found another major reason for Apple's name. It had nothing to do with personal preferences or symbolism, it was a clear cut business decision. Apple comes before Atari in the phonebook. Because Steve formerly worked at Atari and wanted his computer company to be seen first by people looking through a phone book directory. 

Q4-  If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

It is interesting to me to understand entrepreneurs frame of mind before taking the risk and after. Because of this, I would ask the following questions:

1. What was the most rewarding experience he had as an entrepreneur and if he could do it all over again what he would do differently?  

2. What advice would he give his children or aspiring entrepreneurs before taking the risk of owning a business and how his decisions impacted his personal life? 

Q5-  For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

In the way of an opinion his was strong. I think for Steve Jobs hard work was and ingrained expectation of his own more that it was an opinion of his. I think to Steve Jobs hard work was a way of life and just the way it was. He expected other people to work hard and did not hesitate to tell them if the were not. Often times other people's opinion of hard work did not meet his expectations. He was a perfectionist, naturally this required hard work. I can relate to this mentality, from a values point of view. Hard work is not easy, those that really want to achieve great things have to have a strong will and desire to work hard.

About Steve Jobs:

Walter Isaacson Talks about Steve Jobs- YouTube Clip

Steve Jobs in a documentary about Apple (1985)- YouTube Clip

26A- Celebrating Failure

1) Tell us about a time this past semester that you failed -- whether in this class, or outside of this class. Don't spare any details! It'd be even better if there was something you tried several times this semester, and failed each time. 

As a working professional, the new norm is to sustain the inundated series of notifications, emails, phone calls, customers interaction, job responsibilities, etc. The common behavior I resort to during constant channels of interruptions is multi- tasking. Although this is successful for the nature of  the workplace and I am very strong in time management as an employee,  applying these strategies to my classes has not served me well. Multi- tasking decreased my attention to note taking which enabled me to be unfamiliar with weekly cupcakes as well as exams in other classes. I failed miserable with my time management this semester. My cupcakes scores were poor, I did not give myself enough time to work on assignments, I missed deadlines and ultimately this has impacted my overall grade.

2) Tell us what you learned from it. 

This semester has taught me the importance of being adaptable. As a 100% online student taking classes full time, maintaining structure is highly important. Very similar to entrepreneurship, managing time is a critical step towards the goal of success for an online program. Rather than harping on the lost time, making up for it and learning how to better prepare myself has been my biggest take away and lesson learned. I also would have liked to have spent more time on the exercises and involvement in this class in particularly. I am naturally interested in entrepreneurial concepts, my time has been limited, fortunately there are little things that I can do to change that and improve my outcomes.

3) Reflect, in general, on what you think about failure. Failure is hard, isn't it? It's embarrassing, sure, but it also means that we have to change something about ourselves. Talk about how you handle failure (emotionally, behaviorally). Finally, talk about how this class has changed your perspective on failure -- are you more likely to take a risk now than you were just a few months ago?

Going into week 10,  I am able to reflect on victories and areas for improvement. This semester has been eventful in more ways than one. Something that helps me see through times when things do not go as anticipated is my perspective. Failure is never fun and often it is humiliating, but  it's how you come back from it that makes it rewarding. If I could do it all over again, I would be more disciplined with my time and worked ahead on assignments to better prepare myself for deadlines. Now, I am better equip for my second semester at UF as an online student with a realistic view on how to best manage my time.

25A- What's Next?

Step 1: Establish an inherit partnership with a franchise group allowing the app to carry services into new demographic reaches with an alliance.

Step 2: Develop new markets, through research and development new markets will be identified for forecasted start up potential. Through my conversations one thing that I would consider adding is the ability to pay your bill from the application with your server at a dining establishment. This would allow the consumer and the wait staff to use mobile devices to complete transactions eliminating multiple computers for restaurants as well as a paperless option.

Step 3: The growth potential would be scalable through the use of social media platforms and behavioral buying algorithms. Technology is at a prime increase in today's economy, the potential is all about details, data and logistics.   

24A- Venture Concept No.1

Name: The Wait List App  "Fast Casual Dining" 

Market: My audience is geared towards community dining customers as well as large and small dining establishments scaling from corporate owned restaurants to mom and pop eateries. Specifically: Franchisers, Restaurants, Service Staff and Community Consumers.

Service: The link between wait times at sit down dining establishments providing the ultimate concierge service and dining experience for business meetings, lunch breaks, dinner with family, special occasions or just that valuable meal time in general.

Why:  The idea is one that will help restaurants identify foot traffic to increase potential sales with capabilities that will target participating dining establishments, help customers locate time efficient restaurant options and place reservations.This process will deliver increased results and improve bottom lines.

Opportunity: 

This idea behind my solution is one that will be attractive to bottom lines for diners and those who wish to utilize their time going out to eat efficiently. My concept is designed to target app savvy customers looking to eat on the go with options to maximize time vs. money spent on eating out. Have you ever waited forever to get your food and still paid for it? Did you go back? The fast food industry has come a long way in delivery services and certainly has earned some recognition. How is the wait time at dining establishments margin comparing to that? What about the wait time at sit down hot spots for business meetings, your lunch break, dinner with family, special occasions or just in general? These that I have mentioned can range from fast-casual to fine dining establishments and typically have wait times anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour and that is just to be seated at a table, for most businesses this could mean the process is slowing down their sales. Connecting all of the dots, I realized that wait time could be valuable to both customers and restaurants. The solution is not only one that I find useful not only to my unique needs where I've been the server and the customer, it provides a potential solution to help my community and local business small and large manage time and money.

Venture Concept No 1:

My concept offers a time and money solution for the busy customers looking for quick and easy dining without the hassle of waiting and eliminates stress that takes away from the experience.  This is a service concept for customers and restaurants but could also be considered a productivity product in respect to technology. The Wait List App is a cost effective application is built on a preference based interface and demographic data to book  restaurant reservations while increasing restaurant sales. On average parties wait up to 23 minutes before being seated at a restaurant. Doesn’t seem like much, but when calculating that number against a sale, were talking 6.6 hours a week on average. That’s 6.6 hours of potential sales.

Not only will the Wait List App  help people save time, find food and offer convenience. Partnering restaurants will retain per subscriber data while paying a $2.00 referral fee to the Wait List App at the point of sale from a (lead) reservation.

The Wait List app offers a profile for users to best categorizes their wants and pairing with the need. Through this technology service, The Wait List App is the Ultimate Solution for Fast Casual Dining. Features will include the type of dining to locate in a timely manner, with reservation capabilities that include real time text response for:

• Business casual dining
• Family dining
• Budget friendly dining
• Carry out ordering
• Special occasions

The Wait List App is a cost effective solution to the restaurant industry designed  to increase sales and improve the fast casual dining experience. This opportunity is one that could continue to expand through innovative avenues reaching a wide span of markets. The major kickstart expenses would be hiring a programer to build the landscape functionalities. To start the app campaign the employee ratio could be relatively low and facilitated at a satellite office or a small incubator hub. I project the costs to arrive at $75,000.00 for the first year with a return of $200,000.00 in revenues for a market like Gainesville, Fl. These are conservative projections as this is a testing phase of my concept.

23A- Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

10 Resources VRIO Analysis

1. Millennials 

Valuable: This is a valuable resource for promoting and utilizing the on demand service and application because millennial's are considered social influences in the way of apps.
Rare: Not rare, millennial's can be found on college campus and as working professionals.
Imitability: Any metro demographic area.
Organization or substitute: Could be substituted by older ages. 


2. Technology

Valuable: This is a valuable resource because it is a main function of the service.
Rare: Not rare, smart phones and computers are the new wallet.
Imitability: Restaurants already operating with technology would likely not discontinue using it.
Organization or substitute: No substitute.

3. On Demand Reservation

Valuable: This is a valuable resource for time effective dining and increased revenues.
Rare: This is being done by one other company but not highly utilized in Gainesville.
Imitability: It would require the expense of a programmer which makes is less likely to imitate.
Organization or substitute: Like brands.


4. Localization

Valuable: This is a valuable resource because it would only work in certain demographics.
Rare: Rarity is restricted to the demographic radius of dining establishments.
Imitability: Localization can not be imitated.
Organization or substitute: Capable of changing zip code for use of app.

5. POS Integration

Valuable: This is a valuable resource to capitalize on driving restaurant sales.
Rare: This is rare because it reaches out to consumers to drive restaurant traffic from a different medium through data.
Imitability: Other software products can streamline POS.
Organization or substitute: Similar data programs.

6. Brand Awareness

Valuable: This is a valuable resource as a restaurant advertisement channel.
Rare: One other company offers a similar service, ratings are not highly reviewed which gives me competitive advantages.
Imitability: Not many companies are aware of this type of service, this gives me competitive advantage but it may be temporary.
Organization or substitute: Radio, TV, Magazine ads, Social media.

7. Cellular Networking

Valuable: This is a valuable resource to ensure GPS capabilities.
Rare: Most millennial's have cellular service.
Imitability: You either have service or you don't.
Organization or substitute:  High speed Internet.

8. Restaurant Partnerships

Valuable: This is a valuable resource to generate the service, the restaurant is what pays the margin.
Rare: There are several restaurants and franchises in the area. 
Imitability: This would not affect the business.
Organization or substitute:  No substitute as of now.

9. Transportation

Valuable: This is valuable for consumers to utilize features of the app and arrive at their reservation.
Rare: Public transportation and independent transportation is available in the demographic area.
Imitability: Walking, biking or skating.
Organization or substitute: Not that I am aware of.

10. Population

Valuable: Without a population we have no consumers to reach.
Rare: Currently Gainesville has a significant population. 
Imitability: Can not imitate.
Organization or substitute:  Can not substitute.


Top Resource: My greatest resource is On Demand Service for dining reservations, or number 3. This is the uniqueness that sets us apart as this is not a function that is highly used at restaurants in the area at this time. Although, I was a bit disappointed to find the concept does already exist it is a concept worth testing to evaluate the weight of venture potential.

22A- Elevator Pitch No.3

I. Elevator Pitch No. 3 - Watch Here      VS.        Elevator Pitch No. 2 - Watch Here

II. My last elevator pitch did not provide me with feedback from my group. A reason for that could be that I posted the video link at the foot of my blog under feedback reflecting elevator pitch No. 1. Posting a link at the top would have been easier for my audience to click on the link.

III. Because third time is a charm, I worked on presenting in a dynamic fashion. Instead of providing direct information I tried implementing a captive approach to reach my audience. The variation of this style may appeal to my tech and programming audience where my previous pitch would likely appeal to my business student or investor audience. That said, let me know what you think in your peer reviews, Pitch No. 3 - Click Here.

 

21A- Reading Reflection No. 2

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

I. General theme or argument: The framework is built on basic concepts of two different mindsets. The concept she tests through experiments argues weather or not both intelligence and personality are developed entities that can grow and improve rather than fixed. The author basis her theories from a discovery that in a strange way, children loved failure.

II. ENT 3003 connections and enhanced learnings: The book starts with stories about beliefs, and exploring where they came from through influences and ways the beliefs impact many of the major decisions we make in our lives. This is very similar to the exercises we practice in this course. 

III. Designing a class exercise based on the book: Each chapter from this book ends with a lesson, based on the research and discussion. I think an exercise that would be neat for the class would be in the section about intellectual properties. The exercise would include a questionare testing the ability to identify the value of ones individual intellectual property by evaluating a worth to it from a business prespective. This would give students a chance to build awareness of intellectual values and how to protect them as well as market them.

IIII. Surprise and aha moment: I was surprised to learn that the IQ test wasn't actually invented to determine intelligence, instead it was designed to help kids in public schools get back on track when experiencing difficulties.  It was interesting to me to understand the psychology behind success and how much young children liked failure.

20A- Growing Social Capital

I. Domain Expert: I contacted a former manager at a restaurant that I worked at and thought there are some competitors worth researching.

II. Market Expert: A computer science student, suggested that I see what patents are out there for similar products to evaluate market competitiveness.

III. Industry Supplier: In this portion, I spoke with a front of the house coordinator for a restaurant who is familiar with their vendors to understand how partnerships are acquired. I also was able to learn about software capabilities restaurants use moderately according to current industry trends.

Overall, the feedback was helpful to determine areas that I would need to continue to research for the future of this concept. I found a few apps similar to mine for example Open Table and another company in California that provides a similar concept and ironically uses a similar name to the one I have thought of. This is an important factor to consider and further research. It also brings more thought in considering a new name to uniquely establish in a new market.

19A – Idea Napkin No. 2

As a business student and professional seeking ways to make a difference in the community and external markets, my goal is to eliminate seating wait times at fast casual dining establishments. Which is why I have developed the The Wait List App, my concept offers on demand table reservations adding through a time efficient table seating process, designed to  increase sales.

The Wait List App is a dual sided application linking customers to restaurants through reservations within a 5 minute arrival time. The Wait List App is free for subscribers. I've created this cost effective application on a preference based interface and demographic data to book restaurant reservations while increasing restaurant sales.

Most restaurants look to local radio stations for advertisement, the average benchmark for these sources of ads in addition to a 30 - 60 second air time range anywhere for $3.00- $500.00. When you compare that to a $30.00 meal and the number of times the ad airs, conversion rates are
significantly low.

The Wait List App revenues come from cost per reservation ratios on the conversion service and is charged to participating restaurant as a referral fee.This fee provides the host with valuable data and free subscription to the subscriber costing the host an almost nothing flat rate of $2.00 in the transaction factored out of check out. Future visits allocate percentages through weekly specials through the use of The Wait List App.

Let me know how my concept can help your network through" The Ultimate Solution for Fast Casual Dining".

18A- Customer Avatar

"Ultimate Solution for Fast Casual Dining"

Tech Concept: Is a unilateral design reaching both individuals (subscribers) and businesses (hosts) joining as a dual sided marketplace of individuals as the (demand) and restaurant businesses as the (supply). In this assignment, the avatar represents the individual (subscriber). The avatar is a working professional or student not isolated to a specific gender or a particular race with access to smart phone or app store for user subscription localization.

Market: The avatar is most likely to live in a metro or suburb demographic area within a proximity of 10 mile radius to dining establishments. Vision for markets launching the app must be in populated areas with capabilities of reaching both restaurants and individuals throughout cities in the US. 

Local Market: Narrowing down the population for this assignment, the avatar can be pin pointed in the local market of Gainesville, Florida residing within a 10 mile radius of the University of Florida. 

Social Influence: Avatars are active users in the following social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pandora Radio, SoundCloud, YouTube, AmazonPrime, GooglePlay or iTunes.

App Familiarity: Avatars feel comfortable using  the following services. Apple Pay, Venmo, Mint.com, Amazon.com, Google Maps, Siri, Google Talk, Cortana or Alexa. 

Age Range: Avatars are young professionals to seasoned professionals, ranging from ages 20 to mid or late 50's.

Interests: Podcasts, economic trends, deals, time efficiency, budgeting, career, education, NPR, 92.5, 95.3, 105.3, Aldi Super Market, Trader Joes, iPod's, satellite radio, Google or Apple music.

Transportation: Economy cars, european cars or scooters. 

Dining Preferences: Call ahead seating, reservations, quick service, business meetings, luncheons, networking, family, dating, special occasions.

Avatar Profiles

"Reservations Made Easy" 

  

"Ultimate Solution for Fast Casual Dining"

What do I have in common? Most things I do have in common with the avatar, however, I may not be as likely to be found on every social medium. What I have in common that aligns most with the avatar is the need for time efficiency, interests in economic trends and ways to save money. Although several apps go unrecognized, this idea is one that I felt many could benefit from in man market populations focusing on both restaurants needs and individual needs.

Do I think this is a coincidence? I do not think this is a coincidence, time and money are both highly valued resources limited by external controls that we face day to day in our individual lives and schedules. The concept came to me as I evaluated time and money solutions for areas of my own through the first few assignments of this class. Experimenting with this idea through the series of assignments in this class has given me an opportunity to understand my vision for the concept. I am confident that there are many like minded individuals out there who may face a common need but not have experimented with the idea and possible future venture concept.  

17A – Elevator Pitch No. 2

Feedback / Reflection- Pitch No 1:  Reflecting is part of perfecting and my first elevator pitch gave me plenty of room to do this. Based on viewer feedback the most important aspects that stood out to me had to do with not being comfortable. I appeared as unnatural, my eye contact was not 100% engaging the audience and my conversation was bulleted. To improve I have refined my pitch and hopefully my audience will agree.


Feedback / Changes Made -Pitch No. 1: Instead of listing the features of the app, I introduced a few new statistics. I found that comparing similar advertising costs would provide a realistic image for how my concept brings competitive advantages. I mentioned that radio advertising is sold in 30 to 60 second spots costing businesses and restaurants as little as $3 or as much as $500 per ad and air time. Another comparison I mention is cost per call on advertising from a call list. Though many restaurants do not need this as a metric, the length of time a host may spend on the phone to take a reservation or to-go order can back up the waiting process for un- attended customers coming in looking to be seated at a table. In this process of evaluating my pitch, I decided to change my advertising incentive for partnering "hosts" or what are considered restaurants in my concept. I found that charging $2.00 per reservation and offering this service as an on demand referral app for restaurants would leverage my app from a different angle. Now, when a subscriber or ( individual ) makes a reservation, $2.00 of the dining bill pays for the referral by the host which begins the customers subscription. Worst case scenario, in this design the reservation cancels and the $2.00 pays for a new advertising channel for the next dinner special inviting the individual back. Without this tool, a restaurant may never be introduced to this customer.

Watch Elevator Pitch No. 2 - Click Here