Assignment 23A- Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1. Since I am a the first entrant proposing this idea, speed to the market.
Valuable: I believe it is incredibly valuable to be first because it gives you the power to make the first decisions, set the standards, and gain market share.
Rare: Since I am the first one doing the idea, it definitely is rare.
Inimitable: This idea could be copied, which is why speed to market is extremely important.
Non-substitute: There is no substitute that I can think of that provides the same benefits as being first to the market.

2. Ability to reason logically rather than emotionally.
Valuable: Incredibly valuable, emotions plague decision making and lead to bad consequences.
Rare: I believe it is rare to find people who do not let their emotions interfere with their rationality.
Inimitable: A person could theoretically think the same way, but it is very hard to start doing so when you are used to using emotion.
Non- substitute: There is no substitute for good old-fashioned logic.

3.  Smaller sized firm which could adapt more easily.
Valuable: I think when competing with larger real-estate firms and brokers, it is incredibly important to be able to move quickly and answer to customer feedback swiftly.
Rare: In Gainesville, it is rare to see a small firm making an impact in the real-estate market.
Inimitable: Any small firm could crop out and start competing, no doubt.
Non-substitute: I guess a large corporation could provide smaller divisions which could act in the same manner, although it would still be difficult.

4. Access to successful real-estate brokers and agents.
Valuable: Real-estate agents and brokers know the most about what customers want in a certain area.
Rare: To ask for feedback from agents and brokers, I do not know how rare it is.
Inimitable: Anyone could create relationships with brokers and agents, but they cannot re-create my specific relationships.
Non-substitute: Creating customer surveys could provide you with customer info.

5. College students from UF and Santa Fe are employees.
Valuable: Since college students are our customer base, it makes sense to employ some that understand the market.
Rare: In Gainesville, I believe it is rare to have only students work for you.
Inimitable: You could hire students, but I plan to hire the best ones that you can not imitate.
Non-substitute: There is no substitute to a knowledgeable work force.

6. Open corporate culture where everyone's opinions matter.
Valuable: Since I believe the best ideas can come from anyone you employ, I believe it is highly valuable to create an open corporate culture.
Rare: Extremely rare, most companies use a formal hierarchy.
Inimitable: This structure can be copied, but people like their power so I dont know how willing they would be.
Non-substitute: Not that I can think of.

7. Social Media Marketing
Valuable: Since everyone's attention is on their phones, social media marketing is the best way to get to them.
Rare: It is not rare to see social media marketing, but it is rare to see it done well and consistently.
Inimitable: Anyone can make social media accounts, so you must be posting the highest quality things.
Non-substitute: Theoretically, you could use traditional marketing, although I do not think it is nearly as effective.

8. Good Written and Oral Communication Skills:
Valuable: To effectively communicate is a highly valuable skill.
Rare: I would say it is not extremely rare but somewhat rare to find people who truly are good communicators.
Inimitable: You can definitely get good communication skills, so it is something you can copy.
Non-substitute: No, there is no substitute for good communication skills.

9. Thorough understanding of the market.
Valuable: To understand your market is everything. It is the starting point for any good business.
Rare: I think these days in Gainesville it is rare for businesses to understand the needs of college students.
Inimitable: Its hard to stay up to date on trends and feedback from students as a larger business.
Non-substitute: No, without an understanding your business will fail.

10. Incentive based pay and benefits
Valuable: I believe if  you tie a persons pay to their performance, they feel more empowered and will do more for the company.
Rare: It is not too rare to see incentive based pay, especially in real-estate.
Inimitable: Easily copied.
Non-substitute: A good salary could provide the same benefits, but you could end up over-paying.

I think my best resource is definitely my speed to market. I believe without speed to market, the whole idea is something that can be copied by a larger firm before I get a chance to really break ground. Since the real-estate market is definitely something slow moving, a firm that enters quickly will probably not truly be affected for quite some time. This gives us the opportunity to start taking customers and market share before anyone else reacts.

Assignment 22A- Elevator Pitch No.3

Yeah, I definitely think practice makes perfect. Last pitch I had feedback that it was much better, so it gave me confidence to keep going and do even better again. This time the pitch was 60 seconds, so I had to speed up and really try not to stumble when making my pitch. I was a bit over the time limit which is something I will have to work on. No feedback was silly, and mostly all were very positive saying I was doing better. I think the exposure effect of being in front of a camera helps a lot in making better pitches. It is crazy how less awkward it feels the 3rd time around. It still feels a bit uncomfortable, but not merely as bad as the first time. 

Assignment 20A- Growing Your Social Capital

Domain Expert: The person I spoke to whom I consider an expert in the real estate domain is my good friends father Marat. Marat owns a real estate company and is a real estate broker so he is very knowledgeable on contracts, business setups, etc. I found him by basically asking my friend if I could speak to him about my entrepreneurial idea and to learn a little bit about the behind of the scenes of the industry. He told me that the idea is solid, but he is worried about how I am going to remain profitable If I am losing months of rent while still maintaining relatively large fixed costs. Additionally, he explained a bit that real estate moves very slowly and to remain patient even if it seems the market is not accepting my product or idea. In exchange I listed respectfully and thanked him, there was no monetary or return expectation necessary. Including Marat in my network as someone I can ask for advice will definitely allow me to gain additional insights and alternative points of view before making large decisions.

Market Expert: The person who I chose to be my market expert is actually my brothers friend Chris. Chris is a real estate agent in Miami, having done a considerable amount of deals. He is very knowledgeable on customer needs and wants, and how to market an idea to a customer. I told Chris about my product and he was actually pretty shocked no one else had done it already. In miami, there are a lot more flexible contracts in  terms of renting and he was surprised it was not commonplace in a college town especially. He also indicated the need for me to up my social media game and start creating a personal brand in order to help grow a following and eventually a customer base. In return, I bought him some Chipotle. Keeping him in my network will help a lot with marketing as he is someone who has created a significant following on Instagram himself.

Supply Expert: In terms of suppliers, I spoke to my brothers friend Kevin who is a lawyer who deals mostly with contracts. He supplies a lot of the contracts and negotiating terms for corporate real estate buyers and sellers and for huge condos. I got into contact with him through my brother. He told me there is basically nothing legally tricky about my idea, and its a fairly straight forward solution I can implement as soon as possible. Keeping kevin in my circle will hopefully allow me to get some legal advice if I ever need it in the future.

Reflection: I realized that my social network is not very strong and that my brother actually is a lot better at networking then I am. That being said, this experience definitely showcased to me that I need to get more involved in clubs and organizations to start building my social network myself. Since i never really networked, I dont have any other experiences, yet I can say it was very challenging yet rewarding. There are a lot of people who can give advice, but only a select few who can give truly great advice.

Assignment 21A- Reading Reflection No. 2

Book Title: How To Fail at Everything and Still Win Big:

1. Central Theme: I would argue that this book does not have one general theme, but many different themes. If I had to paint with a broad brush, I would say that the theme I took from the book is that failure is something that should be embraced and seen as a stepping stone to success and the fact that you must do things in your life that maximizes your personal energy. It all starts with yourself, which includes your health, thoughts, etc.

2. I think the book really complemented the idea that failure is inevitable and something we should not look at as a problem, but rather something very attractive. In this course and in the book, the author talks about how things you learn that are seemingly pointless today may actually become incredibly important in the future. It reminds me of the idea where Steve Jobs took a calligraphy course in college that seemingly had nothing to do with computers, but ended up being a competitive advantage for Apple in the future.

3. I think the best exercise the author spoke about  was the difference between systems and goals. I would make an exercise where I would tell students to instead of writing down their goals for their companies, write down what they need to do everyday on a consistent high-level in order to be successful. I would ask them to think about the process rather than the finish line to help with their entrepreneurial ideas.

4. I think the biggest 'aha' moment for me was that it might actually be better to be a jack of all trades. Growing up, I thought it was for sure always better to be the best at one specific, narrow field. This book opened up the idea to me that maybe success is found rather in being above average at a plethora of things instead of being the best at one thing. I think that point really stood out to me personally and really granted insight to me.

Assignment 19A- Idea Napkin No. 2

Who I am: I am a college student who attends the University of Florida. I like to believe my talents include being a logical thinker and ability to grasp information and feedback relatively quickly. My skills include being an innovative thinker and an ability to not get emotional when it comes to anything in business. In regards to my business concept, I see my business playing a huge role in my life. It would allow me to become a customer of my own product, benefiting from the lower costs I want to bring to the market.

What am I offering: My product is a flexible contract which will allow students to not have to pay for summer months rental prices if they do not wish to.

Who I am offering it to: My customers all share one common thing: location. You must live in Gainesville to utilize my product and be a college aged student. Beyond that, there is nothing special or any requirements that you need to utilize my product.

Why they care: They care because they will save money on renting and allow them to have more freedom in how they use their time.

Core competencies: My core competency would be my ability to think differently and challenge traditional thinking. Having that competency allows me to move first, something that is incredibly important in any business endeavor.

I believe all of my elements fit together extremely well. I believe since my concept is relatively simple, its something that is universally appealing. There is nothing that particularly differentiates it or requires a certain customer  type, mostly anyone in Gainesville fits. Since I also have the problem, I understand the why and how my core competencies help my business. Overall, I do think the elements fit together nicely.

Feedback Memo: Two main points I took away are be simple and be fast. In terms of simplicity, I made  sure to make it very easy for anyone to understand my business idea. In terms of speed, I made sure to point out the fact that it is my core competency. Simplicity and speed is what makes my business idea viable and able to be implemented in the market. 

Assignment 16A- Whats your secret sauce?

Five Ways I believe I am different:
1. My ability to reason rationally and not let my emotions over-ride my logic.
2. My ability to work harder than everyone around me when I am passionate about something.
3. Accepting when I dont know something, and learning from others.
4. Constantly trying to grow and get better, not letting myself get content with average or whats good now.
5. Constantly searching the market and staying in tune with customer feedback.

1st interview: The 1st interviewee describes my ability to search my environment effectively. Additionally, he describes my ability to expose weaknesses for the better. 

2nd Interview: The second person describes my grit and persistence. They ultimately describe that I do not like giving up, and will try until I succeed. 

3rd Interview: The 3rd person describes my ability to use logic and reasoning. Essentially stating I know how to find solutions to problems. 

4th Interview: The fourth person states I am an effective team builder. I know how to get people together for the greater good. 

5th Interview: The last person states I am good at responding in critical situations. I know how to respond swiftly and appropriately. 

I believe the way others see me and the way I see myself are very accurate. I think I am a persistent, hard working person who likes to rely on logical solutions. I believe the interviews emphasize that well. I would not make any corrections to my list as I believe they were very closely aligned to what was stated. I am actually very happy that the self awareness that I have actually aligns with people's beliefs about me. If there was a large difference, that would be a problem. In terms of weaknesses, I think it is important to note that no one should I had a great ability to connect or create interpersonal relationships. Thats something that I also notice within myself and know that I have to fix in order to be truly an effective leader. 

Assignment 18A- Create a Customer Avatar

My prototypical customer is a college student that attends the University of Florida or  Santa Fe and is between the age of 18 and 25. They are not taking summer classes and do not live in Gainesville. They want to live off-campus but are worried about paying for summer months. They are definitely financially responsible and sensible, looking for the best options for themselves. They are not a part of a fraternity or sorority where they are given housing either. They would prefer to leave Gainesville during the summer and go home to be with their family, but feel bad about paying for something they don't use. I definitely fall into the prototypical customer because I first identified my own unmet need before coming up with this idea. It is definitely not a coincidence that this is occurs. Since my idea is not a specific product or tangible good, it does not require a very specific customer type. What that means is that almost all student who attend university in Gainesville suffer with these problems, creating a great base of potential customers and high demand.

Assignment 17A- Elevator Pitch No.2

I thought the feedback that was most useful was to speak a little longer because my last pitch was a little too short. Also, people tended to like the tone I used and how it sounded, so i tried to keep that stable as well. Most of the feedback I assumed was very positive, so I tried to just repeat what I did but make sure I hit the time requirement. None of the feedback was silly thankfully so everything was constructive. I think this time it felt a little more natural, and hopefully will continue to get better and better.

Assignment 15A- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Alternative Evaluation: According to my interviews with Gainesville Students who lease off campus housing, price and location are the two most important aspects when deciding where to live. Usually, there is a tradeoff in Gainesville between being closer to the school and having to pay more money to rent. Depending on the students budget and specific desires, the student would go online and find options suitable to their search criteria. Once, that has been done, they look at peer reviews and ask friends and family for advice. There has been numerous times people have liked a property but because their friends told them it was not a great place to live, they never looked back. Your property must be appropriately priced, not too far from the school, and have positive word of mouth.

How/ Where you buy: This process is relatively uniform for everyone. If you wanted to sign a lease, you would go to the leasing office, tour the place, and then sign a contract. Most likely, the price would be non-negotiable, especially for places that are commonly sought after in the area.

Post- Purchase: Most of the time when students lease housing, they don't necessarily look for the positives of the home, only that there are not any negatives. For example, if your neighbors are quiet, the internet is reliable, and maintenance is quick and efficient, you could live in a low quality home and still be very happy with your purchase. Whats most important for college students is that everything works, and when they do have a problem, it is resolved in a timely manner.

Conclusion: In conclusion, students look for appropriately priced, relatively close schools with a positive word of mouth. Almost all students use leasing offices to sign a contract for a 12 month lease. As long as the students get what they were promised and do not get bothered excessively, they believe their purchase was a good one.

Assignment 14A- Halfway Reflection

1. Competency: What most helps to keep up with the course is to dedicate time out of your day to work on it. Mostly, I tell myself on Thursday I am going to give myself a few hours to complete the assignments I must get done. When something becomes a habit, it becomes less about forcing yourself to do it because you become used to it. That's why the first few weeks of school are the most difficult because you do not have the habits in place.

2. Attitude: I do not remember the last time I felt like giving up if i were to be truthful. I always believe that with time and hard work you can become good at anything you put your mind to. That belief and attitude has served me well because when others want to quit, I see that I am close to getting over the learning curve. I believe my grandparents instilled a tenacious attitude into me growing up because I always saw them working hard and fighting for what they believe in. As immigrants who came to this country with nothing, they did anything they could to succeed and would not allow themselves to give up as they knew they had a family to support.

3. Three tips:
1. Believe you can always get better if you work harder.
2. Put things in context. When you feel like giving up, think about how lucky you are to have the opportunities awarded to you.
3. Understand that giving up is your choice and can lead to serious consequences.