27A

Elon Musk is a very unique individual. There are many people who hate him and many others that think he is a visionary. I was most surprised to learn that other members of his family were also very remarkable people. His mother was a supermodel who has been on the cover of vogue. His father was a pilot and flew Elon and his family around South Africa. An adventurous spirit certainly runs in the family. I most admire Musk’s ability to envision a sustainable future. He has a crazy idea, and then he just makes it happen. He won’t take no for an answer. I least admire Musk’s lack of empathy. He has been known to scream at and degrade his employees. Elon encountered adversity when he went on his honeymoon and a coupe unseated him as the CEO of Zip2. Even after this disappointment he continued to support the company.

Elon has many competencies. To start with, he is a genius. This never hurts when trying to come up with new business ideas. He is good at coding also. What makes him a good businessman is that he envisions the future and then makes his idea a reality and won’t take no for an answer. This is how he has founded all of his companies and it is what makes him an innovator. If I could ask Musk two questions they would be what do you attribute your success to and when did you decide you were going to change the world. he said he has been planning all of this for quite a while. Elon spends an incredible amount of time working. His employees have said that he never thinks any task will take longer to complete than an hour. Based on this information I would guess that Elon Musk believes in hard work.

26A

This semester I am taking financial accounting. I knew going in that it was going to be a difficult class and so from the beginning I kept up with the reading and lectures. I started studying for the first exam a week in advance I did all of the practice questions and everything. During and even after the exam I was confident that I had done well. However, when the scores were posted, I had failed. I was very surprised and disappointed because I had put a lot of hours into this exam. It really felt like all those hours of my time were worth nothing. It was very disheartening.

This experience made me realize that I really needed to step up my game academically. I needed to spend my studying hours more effectively and really maximize my time. For the second exam I studied more and more effectively and raised my score by 20 points.

I think that failure can be a positive thing. My failure with this test helped me improve my study habits. Seeing failure s a chance for improvement can help you become more successful in the future. This class has helped me to see that.

25A

I think that at it’s core, the app that I am offering brings together a niche community. I think that after this app idea I have exhausted the market on dog owners, however, I could expand by offering a similar app to a different community.

Interviews:

Jonah - UF student and dog owner

Jonah thought that I could expand the app that I already have by adding a service component. I could make it into a platform for people to post dog walking and pet sitting ads. I’m not crazy about this idea. Personally because I don’t think that college students really hire pets so those they just get the roommate to watch them for the weekend. I also don’t know if a service like that would affect the brand personality of my app. 

Caroline - UF Student and dog owner

Caroline thought that I could expand into the range of offerings dog products such as toys and leashes. She thought that this would be a good opportunity because the nature of the app gives it plenty of access to dog owners who might be interested in purchasing the products. I’m not crazy about this idea either. Mostly because it is a very different industry. I think it would be better to stick with another app because I already know this industry.

Sean - UF student and dog owner

Sean thought that I could just keep expanding the amount of cities that this app was offered in. I think this is a pretty good idea that would definitely allow for a lot of business growth and even travel opportunities.

New market

I was thinking that I could release a new app to connect people in the niche community of salsa dancing. I spend a lot of time salsa dancing myself and I am always looking for socials to attend as well as other salsa and bachata events. I figure this will be a good niche community to target because it’s one I already know. 

This new app could serve as a place where are all of the salsa events in the area are compiled. This will be a lot better than the current system which is just a bunch of random event postings scattered all over Facebook.

Interviews:

Ryan - gator salsa club member

Ryan thought this app would be a really great service. Like me he is always looking all over Facebook for salsa events. He thought you could even let salsa organizations post their own events and socials.

Kevin - gator salsa club member

Kevin had the idea that this app could become a social media experience in which salsa dancers have a profile and can add people who they’ve met at socials as friends. Then if they ever end up going to the same social again they can be alerted. It would also be a good way to form connections.

I think this new market holds a lot of potential. I really liked Kevin’s idea about the friends and social media. Salsa dancers tend to be very social people so I think they would be interested in an app like this. I think that this new market holds a lot of potential. Even though it is a smaller market than all dog owners, The people involved with salsa dancing tend to be very dedicated to it. I think I would have no problem getting people to use the app because I know a lot of my salsa dancing friends are always looking for events to attend and would love a place where all of these events were compiled for easy perusing. 

24A

Dogs love other dogs. For most dogs it is fundamental to their health and well-being to have interactions with other dogs on a regular basis. Unfortunately there are many people in Gainesville who only have one dog. I am one of these people and I am always thinking of ways to improve the quality of life of my dog. I wish there was a way for us to meet fellow dogs and dog owners in our neighborhood. That’s how I got the idea from my app. This app will allow you to locate and meet up with fellow dog owners in your neighborhood. I think this is a fairly new opportunity since as a society we are really just getting started in the way that we interact with apps and use them in our every day life. The market for this product is limited demographically to people who own dogs. Geographically, I would probably start off the app only in Gainesville because it is a community I am familiar with and it would be easier to increase awareness for my product in a small community that I have prior knowledge of. If the app ended up being a success in Gainesville then I could likely expand its range to other towns in Florida and maybe even across the country. I think that customers are currently satisfying this need by playing with their dogs and going to the dog park. However, this is not an ideal substitute because playing with your dog is not the same as letting him or her interact with another dog. And there are many dogs that don’t do well at the dog park and find it stressful. Also dog parks often transmit diseases, and in my experience, fleas.

My app would function almost like a platonic dog tinder. It would show you profiles of dogs and owners that live in your area and allow you to swipe left or right depending on if you think they would be a good match for you and your dog. It would be a free service available to anyone with a smart phone and would make revenue off of ads on the app. I believe that it would greatly benefit the dog owner community by bringing together the people and dogs of a neighborhood.

I think people would switch to this product because it is clearly better than just going to the dog park and hoping that someone is there. It is also better than having your dog just be sad lonely in your apartment by themselves. I think the biggest hurdle in getting people to switch to my app would be getting enough people to use it initially. I don’t think there are any direct competitors to this app because it would be a new service and because all of the revenue would be made off of ads. Customer support would be very important to this app. It would require constant monitoring to make sure that people aren’t misusing the app or using it for illegal purposes. I think that the biggest financial hurdle in making this app a reality would be the cost of designing the app as well as initial advertising costs to increase awareness of the product. After that, there would be few costs associated with running it. It also would not need many employees. Just enough to monitor the online environment. 

I think the most important resource to this app would be the online community fostered on it. If people are making friends in improving their lives on this app then they will be loyal to it. These type of connections are very valuable and are not easily imitated or substituted.

If I were to go forward with this app idea and try to make it into a reality I think the next step would be trying to find an app designer who could meet my needs for this app.

Assuming that I did launch this app, in five years I would really like to have expanded it to many cities. I’m not sure this is the venture I’d like to put the rest of my life into so I may have handed over control of many of its aspects so that I could focus on a different business. 

23A

Resource list:

Me – I think my passion for the product is valuable. I guess I am rare and inimitable. However I am substitutable for another driven dog loving person.

A user friendly app – an easy to use app is very valuable. It isn’t rare since most apps aim to be user friendly. It can be copied or substituted since there are many designs for a user friendly app.

Knowledge of the target market – I have knowledge of the target market of this product. I see them every week at the dog park. This knowledge is very valuable. I wouldn’t say it is rare but not every person knows the dog owning community as well as I do. It could be copied by someone else. However there is no substitute for this market.

Knowledge of Gainesville – knowledge of the city one is operating their business in is invaluable. It isn’t rare since many of gainesvilles residents know a lot about it. it is easily copied or substituted.

Cheap advertising in the form of fliers at dog parks – this is valuable because it will cut costs. It is rare to be able to reach such a large amount of your target market with a few well placed fliers. It is not easily copied by most businesses.

Advertising revenue – revenue is valuable. It isn’t rare and its easily copied and substitutable.

Verification safety features – these are valuable because they provide customers with safety online. Many apps have verification features so they aren’t rare. They are imitable and substitutable.

Connections to ACHS – this is valuable and semi rare. It is not easily imitable or substitutable.

Money – this is valuable but not rare. It is completely imitable and substitutable.

An online community – An online community is extremely valuable. It is semi rare because not all apps have one. It isn’t easily imitable or substitutable.

I think that the online community might be the most valuable resource. If people are making friends and connections through the use of my app then they will be more likely to keep using it. A loyal online community would provide a great base for my business idea.