30A Final reflection

1) From Reading my past posts I realized that my lowest moments where in the beginning when I was still learning how to work my blog and I submitted three assignments the wrong way and got zeros fro them and the high was seeing my progression from my first post to my final post and to see how much more comfortable I have become. 

2) The thing I'm most proud of completing is the class in general. Being able to see how many posts I actually made and to see how they got better as the later post came in was awesome to see and surely something I won't forget anytime soon. 

3)I think I am more an entrepreneur in the way I think now I don't see the negatives in failures anymore only the lessons I learned and the knowledge I gained.

4) I think all students should take this course as it makes you really adapt your mindset  and see things differently. To get your mindset in the entrepreneurship form before this class I would just advise that you never look at anything as a negative and only look at things as positives and see how your viewpoint changes. 

28A Exit Strategy

The exit strategy I plan to make is to sell the company in 10yrs, but still keep stake in it as an investment. I will then use the money I get from selling to pursue more ventures that I can cash out with. This has influenced my decisions greatly as I have not put thought into the long term that much as I plan to sell and have focused on optimizing in the short run. 

29A venture concept 2

             The opportunity that I have focused on is the idea of internet security. As a consumer of the internet myself, I myself see the need for better security as have my friends and acquaintances. This window of opportunity is big and keeps growing as technology keeps evolving to be faster and better. As technology increases, the ways to scam people online gets larger as well, so tech advances and scammers both rise together creating this opportunity. The need for more security when transferring money online is the opportunity. The target consumers are college students between 19 and 25. From personal experience and interviews, I have learned that 90% of students at this age do the majority of their transactions online with apps like cashapp, venmo, apple pay, and more. This window is fully open right now to take advantage will keep being open for the foreseeable future as new tech is made every day. Right now, all these transaction apps have a general security system, but people still get scammed out of their money and information with the rudimentary security.

            The innovation that I am proposing is a third-party app, called AppSafe, that works with the transaction apps as an extra layer of protection. The general transaction apps are more worried about getting their transfer fees than about security, and in contrast my app will be 100% about security. I will have to negotiate with the transaction apps to get them to accept the service and I will only talk with reputable apps. The way I would create profit is that you sign up for my app and make an account and then once you have an account it links to all the accepted transaction apps that I have made a deal with. There will be a monthly fee of $10 to be a member and receive the benefits of my service.

            The reason that people will create on accounts because they aren’t switching from an old provider to a new one this is a totally new product. There are other security apps like MacAfee, but they focus on protection from viruses on a computer. There is no other app that works on your phone and focuses on transaction apps as my does. The only competitors are the transaction apps themselves, but as I will be working with them there are no real competitors. As there is no packaging and selling involved the most important part of the app will be customer support. Customer support is a very important part as the customer needs to know about the security of their sensitive information and money. If my product launched today, In 5 years I would like to have saved up some money from this venture and start a new and bigger one. I would give up the control of the original app but keep stock and royalties and use those to invest in more projects and too start new ones. This venture would be the starting point that launches me to invest in and create many new projects in the future. 
          All the feedback I got on the first Venture concept really just made me want to elongate the what's next section of this. All the feedback was positive and encouraged me to keep up with this venture as it is a good idea and the only main concern is that their will be imitators who try and copy my company.  The only thing I changed from my previous post was that I just bolstered up the ideas I already stated and didn't change too much.

27A Reading

Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The general theme of the book was that there are 2 ways your brain works, System1 and System2, and you need to figure out when to use which one. 

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

This book enhanced this class because it allowed me to see when I was using System1, which is impulsive automatic action, and when I was using System2, a very conscious thoughtful action. It allowed me to go back and see where I may have used the wrong system and learn from it to use the right one in the future. 

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

An exercise I would implement would be a list of five scenarios and you must pick which system you would to use to solve it and you solution and why you picked that system. 

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

The biggest surprise was learning about the two systems which I always knew it was how you think, but the way Mr. Kahneman wrote it made it really surprising because it is such a simple concept blown up. 

26A Celebrating Failure

This past semester I failed by getting a C in Financial Accounting and it really helped me out in the long run. I didn't put the time or give the attention to detail that I needed too to get the grade of A or B that I was looking for but it helped me for the future. It showed me how to really study and how to manage my time better. I am now in Managerial Accounting with an A which shows how I learned from my mistake. I handle failure as a learning opportunity and an opportunity to correct mistakes that you have been making. After taking this class, I am definitely more inclined to take risks as if I fail it will be ok because I will learn from it. 

25A Whats Next

Existing Market- College Students aged 19-25
1. The next move in my venture is to create the actual app and sell it to existing apps like venmo and cashapp.
2a. Roommate 1-  age 20 - Agrees that the next move is to create the app. Also thinks it should be very simple and not that complex and it will be more appealing.
2b. Friend 1 - age 21 - Thinks I should have the design for the app, but meet with the already created apps first to get connections so when my venture is done it will be easier to sell because of the previous connections already made.
2c. Friend 2 -age  20 - Agrees with my roommate about creating the app then meeting developers, but disagrees about the simplicity of it as kids in this age range are very good with technology.
3. These interviews have made me realize that I should make the app first and then bring it to the venmos and cashapps of the world. Also making the app not too simple but not too complex is the biggest concern as too easy will make the app seem obsolete, but too complex and no one will know how to use it.



New Market - Older people aged 60 +
1 The new market that I will be targeting is the older generation around the ages of 60 and up. As older people don't know how to use technology well, this product will help make sure their important bank and money info is safe and secure.
2a. Grandparent 1 - Likes the idea, but doesn't know how applicable it is for people his age because they aren't online a lot and mostly go to the bank and such in person because on lack of technological skills.
2b. Grandparent 2 - Loves the idea because she doesn't really know how to use technology and gets confused by it. Thinks if it is simple and easy to use people in the age range will definitely use it.
3. From this new set of interview it made me realize that the design has to be simple to reach more markets. The original market was split between a complex or simple interface, but it wasn't that important to them as it is to the new market. The most important aspect for this new market is how easy it is to use so I will make my venture very easy to use and accessible to all.

24A Venture Concept 1

Venture Concept

            The opportunity that I have focused on is the idea of internet security. As a consumer of the internet myself, I myself see the need for better security as have my friends and acquaintances. This window of opportunity is big and keeps growing as technology keeps evolving to be faster and better. As technology increases, the ways to scam people online gets larger as well, so tech advances and scammers both rise together creating this opportunity. The need for more security when transferring money online is the opportunity. The target consumers are college students between 19 and 25. From personal experience and interviews, I have learned that 90% of students at this age do the majority of their transactions online with apps like cashapp, venmo, apple pay, and more. This window is fully open right now to take advantage will keep being open for the foreseeable future as new tech is made every day. Right now, all these transaction apps have a general security system, but people still get scammed out of their money and information with the rudimentary security.

            The innovation that I am proposing is a third-party app, called AppSafe,  that works with the transaction apps as an extra layer of protection. The general transaction apps are more worried about getting their transfer fees than about security, and in contrast my app will be 100% about security. I will have to negotiate with the transaction apps to get them to accept the service and I will only talk with reputable apps. The way I would create profit is that you sign up for my app and make an account and then once you have an account it links to all the accepted transaction apps that I have made a deal with. There will be a monthly fee of $10 to be a member and receive the benefits of my service.

            The reason that people will create on accounts because they aren’t switching from an old provider to a new one this is a totally new product. There are other security apps like MacAfee, but they focus on protection from viruses on a computer. There is no other app that works on your phone and focuses on transaction apps as my does. The only competitors are the transaction apps themselves, but as I will be working with them there are no real competitors. As there is no packaging and selling involved the most important part of the app will be customer support. Customer support is a very important part as the customer needs to know about the security of their sensitive information and money. If my product launched today, In 5 years I would like to have saved up some money from this venture and start a new and bigger one. I would give up the control of the original app but keep stock and royalties and use those to invest in more projects and too start new ones. This venture would be the starting point that launches me to invest in and create many new projects in the future.  

23A Venture Advantage

1. Charisma - Important, rare, imitable to an extent, cannot be replaced
2.  Accessibility - Important, common, imitable
3. Online Knowledge - Important, common, imitable, cannot be replaced
4. Simple Design - Important, very common, can be replaced, imitable
5. Connections - Very Important, somewhat rare, cannot be replaced
6. Marketing skills - important, semi-common, cannot be replaced
7. Time management - very Important, somewhat common, can be replaced 
8. Work ethic - Important, semi-common, imitable, can be replaced
9. Organization - Important, common, imitable, can be replaced. 
10. Ability to adapt - Extremely Important, rare to have, not imitable, cannot be replaced

I think that my ability to adapt is the most important resource that I posses. It is a very hard attribute to recreate and I don't think many people have this skill. The market and the world is constantly changing and evolving and if you can't keep up and change with it, you will get left behind. 

Elevator pitch 3

All the feedback I received on my 2nd video was all positive so I used the same video because there were no critiques. The 2nd video I thought perfected all the critiques I recieved on the first one, mainly to describe cashapp and venmo more thoroughly.

21A Reading 2

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Scott Adams

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The general theme about this book is that in your failures you learn valuable lessons that help you succeed later on. 

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

This book connected with ENT because there are so many elevator pitch and idea napkin assignments and they pair well with the book, because you do them multiple times and they get better and better as you learn from your mistakes and update your assignments. 

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

It would be to pick a pivotal failure in your life and describe it. After that, find something you learned from it and explain how it helped you later on in the future.   

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

The biggest surprise for me from this book was all the different perspectives you can look at one situation from. It showed that every single failure is also a learning opportunity that you should use to grow and it really made me think on my own past failures. 

20A Growing Social Capital

1) One person must be a domain expert in your industry. 

Ricki Diaz - 20yr old - Works for the twenty app on promoting so he knows how to get in contact with app owners which is crucial for my service. He is my friend that is how I know him. I asked him how he got in contact with the twenty app and how he negotiated with them which is useful information I need. 

2) One person must be an expert on your market. 

Sean Connolly- 20yr old - Another one of my friends who is a computer science major and I asked him about making a software for my service that will work on apps. This conversation as my service works on apps and it gave me some insight on the technical side. 

3) One person must be an important supplier to your industry. 

Max Fernandez - 20 yr old - My roommate who works in the service industry. I talked to him about how he interacts with customers and what the customer wants. This conversation helped me figure out how to find out what the customers want and how to display my service to them. 

Finally: Reflect. 

 This experience will help me a lot as I have learned how to strategically network. It helped me find the best way to network when I use networking in the future. This was different than other networking I had done in the past as I strategically made connections other then them coming by chance.

19A Idea Napkin 2

1. You My experience goes perfectly as I grew up with the internet and have seen it grow and evolve. I go on the internet everyday and have seen my some of the people who I know get scammed online and once that happens there isn't much you can do, so finding a way to prevent it would be ideal. This would play a role in my life because the world is becoming more and more technological and this would go hand in hand with that.

2. What are you offering to customers?  My app would provide a little extra security and peace of mind to customers. It would make sure all transactions between consumers, on apps such as venmo and cashapp, would be fully secured and make sure they wont get scammed.

3.  Who are you offering it to? The specified group that this app would be for is those who use online transactions a lot, and I know as a college student myself that college students is a big demographic that would be targeted.

4.Why do they care? Consumers care because the majority of them don't understand how the internet works exactly and if they get scammed there is nothing they can really do about it so why not prevent it by downloading my app as an extra security blanket to protect their money and vital information. Only younger kids know how to use the internet well and while many college students have a good understanding of the internet they may still get scammed.

5. What are your core competencies? There are a lot of apps that have security measures to help protect there customers, but that is not there main concern. My apps main concern is security and that is all the energy is focused on. 

I think all these elements fit together to strengthen my business. They all are kinda saying the same thing, but they are just reinforcing the point and because they are all similar I believe they are all equally as good and there are no weak points.

Feedback Memo - All the feedback i got was positive and I had no negative feedback on my first post so I used the same one because if its not broken you don't fix it. All the feedback said was that is was a great idea and that emphasizing that the older generation don't know how to use technology as well were my best points so I added a little bit there just to over emphasize those points. 

18A custom avatar

My avatar of my buyer is supposed to represent the demographic of kids 18-25 college students. I chose this demographic because it is what I know best as I fall in its boundaries and also that is the type of buyers my product is aiming to sell too. I know that kids this age use technology for transactions and an extra layer of protection to their transactions would be very attractive to them.  I made the avatar look kinda like me and the kids I know because that is who Im trying to sell too mostly.

17A elevator pitch 2

What I learned from my last video and the comments I received was that I needed to be more enthusiastic and should show how apps like cashapp or venmo work which is what I incorporated into my new video.

16A Secret Sauce

1. Personablity- I think personability is a great quality that entrepreneurs need. Being able to talk to people and make connections is a great help as you can't do everything by yourself and i think this is a good trait I have.
2. Innovation- The ability to think outside the box is a great skill as not everything always go to plan and finding innovative solutions is essential in keeping a business alive.
3. Adaptability - The ability to adapt to different situations is crucial to success. Everything is constantly changing and if you can't change and adapt with it you are behind.
4. Customer Relations - I all the jobs I have worked at I worked at the front and had to deal with customers face to face. I feel that this background helps me understand the customer better and have a good perspective on how to reach them.
5. Level Headed - Being level headed is a great asset to have as making decisions based on emotion usually leads to bad results. By not using emotion and being level headed, decisions can be made better and smarter.

I had issues uploading the audio as they wouldn't load up to this post but here is the summary of them:
All of the 5 people I interviewed about myself agreed that level headedness is the trait most applied to myself as they all mentioned it about my. The most controversial skill was customer relations because I worked in restaurants and not as a conventional "salesman" and the idea of me having this quality was split 3 to 2 that its not a good trait of mine. Some traits that I didn't specifically outline that they told me is confidence and trustworthiness. These are both great traits for business as both make people trust and invest in you as a person and your ideas.

These interviews have definitely made me reflect about my personal qualities. If I had to go back and redo my list I would take out number 4 and number 2 and replace them with confidence and trustworthiness. I would take out 4 because my interviews sided against it and 2 because it is almost the same as 3.

15A Buyer Behavior 2

For my three interviews I interviewed three of my friends ,who are all roommates, who I had not previously interviewed. The most important question I asked was what amount of money would you pay for the security app I am proposing. The answers varying from $5 a month to $10 a month. This feedback makes me think the prime price point would be about $7 a month. All the people interviewed liked the idea of purchasing this service online or in an app as as add on rather than going to a store and paying to get the app installed into your phone. The post-purchase evaluation of the of the interview I took revealed that a good post-purchase attitude is how well the app protects their info. If no issues are shown with security, the post-purchase behavior will always be regarded as positive.

14A halfway Reflection

1. The behaviors that I have developed that helped me the most in this class are consistency and scheduling. Taking an online class means you must look at canvas pretty much every day so you must consistently look at canvas. Before this class, when i had online classes I would check canvas like once a week and miss many assignments. The second most important skill is scheduling. If you consistently check canvas you will know when all your assignments are due and you must schedule time to get these assignments done. By combining these two skills you will be very successful in this course.
2. I don't know if I ever felt like giving up, but a couple times I had to use tenacity to finish an assignment when I really just wanted to quit and not do it and just go out and party with my friends. It would be around 10 at night and I would be ready to go out and then see that I had a blog post or a blog comment due and I had to use tenacity to wait 15min and finish my assignment before I went out because that 15 to 20 extra minutes of going out is not worth getting a 0.
3. The three tips that I have for upcoming students is get your work done early and be proactive about it and you won't have to worry about this class at all, if you feel like not doing an assignment do it because these assignments don't take that long and they also help with your writing and thinking skills, and lastly, be tenacious and push through every assignment with your best foot forward because the assignments build upon each other and if you start out weak its going to be harder for you with the later assignments.



 

13A Reading Reflection 1

1. The most surprising thing about Phil Knight is how he made his connections in Japan, how he just called up Onitsuka and just talked to him made up a company name and started his business of it is super interesting and inspiring. The thing I admire most about Phil Knight is his ability to adapt to every situation that hit him and keep moving on with his final goal, and the thing I least admired about him was how he lied about having an East Coast Office before he got exclusive distribution from Tiger shoes because even though it worked out in the end, it was dishonest and a straight up lie. Phil Knight experienced much adversity and how he reacted to it makes me look at my own adversity and how I react to it. He mat have changed up his lan many ties due to this adversity, but his end goal was always clear in his head and he was going to get there.
2. The competencies that Phil Knight showed are great tenacity to push through hardship which made him one of the most successful entrepreneurs ever.
3. The part of the reading that was confusing to me was the part where Mr. Knight kept sending mail to Onitsuka and wouldn't get a response for months. Its understandable because this was taking place in the 1960s, but i just can't relate to this part because phones and communication is such a big part of the business world today that its just hard to put yourself in his shoes at this position in time.
4. The two questions that I would ask Phil Knight is how did he keep his optimism after facing adversity after adversity and how good did it feel when he finally broke through and made it and I would ask these because after reading about all the setbacks he experienced I don't know if I could have kept going like he did and how great it felt once he broke through would just be inspiring to hear how it felt.
5. I think Phil Knight's opinion of hard work is a little bit different than mine as he grew up in a different era where hard work was thought of differently because they didn't have the technology that we have today. But I think i could impress him all the same and meet his expectations of hard work if it came to that

12A Buyer Behavior

The segment that I found I am targeting is people from around 18 to 30 who use online transactions on a daily basis. The three people I interviewed are my roommates who are 19, 19, and 20  and use either venmo or cashapp everyday. I started out asking if they think there is a need for more security online on a scale of 1-10, 10 being yes 1 being no, and they all answered 6,8,9 respectively. After that I asked them was have they ever been scammed online and all said yes. After that I asked if they would pay a monthly fee, I said $5 a month, to have someone making sure that there money and information to be secure, and they all agreed again. After conducting these interviews I believe that there is a market for this and it is a need that can be fulfilled.

11A Napkin 1

1. You My experience goes perfectly as I grew up with the internet and have seen it grow and evolve. I go on the internet everyday and have seen my some of the people who I know get scammed online and once that happens there isn't much you can do, so finding a way to prevent it would be ideal. This would play a role in my life because the world is becoming more and more technological and this would go hand in hand with that.

2. What are you offering to customers?  My app would provide a little extra security and peace of mind to customers. It would make sure all transactions between consumers, on apps such as venmo and cashapp, would be fully secured and make sure they wont get scammed.

3.  Who are you offering it to? The specified group that this app would be for is those who use online transactions a lot, and I know as a college student myself that college students is a big demographic that would be targeted.

4.Why do they care? Consumers care because the majority of them don't understand how the internet works exactly and if they get scammed there is nothing they can really do about it so why not prevent it by downloading my app as an extra security blanket to protect their money and vital information. 

5. What are your core competencies? There are a lot of apps that have security measures to help protect there customers, but that is not there main concern. My apps main concern is security and that is all the energy is focused on. 

I think all these elements fit together to strengthen my business. They all are kinda saying the same thing, but they are just reinforcing the point and because they are all similar I believe they are all equally as good andthere are no weak points.

10A elevator pitch 1