28A – Your Exit Strategy -

1. Thinking forward, within the next five years, assuming that I've capitalized on large percentage of the market I'm aiming to market to, I feel that I would definitely sell off my business and look towards other opportunities I can take advantage of. I feel that it's highly doubtful that I might find many individuals that are naturally inclined to run this business the way I envisioned it, and as such, selling off my business even sooner than five years might be the key to succeeding in its growth. 
2. I would take this path due to me feeling that selling off the business to someone who is passionate about such discussion and debate could do a lot more to expand the app and concept beyond what it already is. I feel that my children probably won't be into the concept as much as I am, and it would be nice to branch out into another lucrative opportunity as I can see myself getting bored of being involved with this business in five years.
3. I feel that my exit strategy has affected my decision making process considerably. From the start, I felt that while this idea was lucrative, it just wasn't super feasible and wasn't something I might enjoy working with after a long period of time, especially considering that current interest within this product might only exist due to the heightened political climate within our country at the moment. These concerns all became factors which outlined the planned growth and expansion of this product when it came to working with different debate circles and even thinking towards subsidizing the cost of the product for my users in order to grow my user base initially.

27A – Reading Reflection No. 3 -

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

1. What surprised you the most?
1. Having read the book, what surprised me the most was reading about Elon's work ethic, as many who worked with him tended to note how he never seemed to leave the office, sleeping on couches overnight in order to devote as much time as he could to his job.
2. What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
1. Everyone around Elon noted his drive to succeed and his strength of will when it came to getting things done. He was committed to succeeding wherever he went, something even noted by his first wife, who felt he even treated their marriage as a business, showing how his organization was a key factor when it came to his success.
3. What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
1. One thing I tended to dislike about Elon was how hands on he was as a leader. While stepping in to correct employees is something that one should do, he would go out of his way to correct employees quickly, rudely, and at times, without even telling them. Elon even noted eventually how this behavior was negative, making employees unproductive when it came to getting work done as they would resent him.
4. Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?
1. While developing SpaceX, the program itself saw much difficulty when it came to refining the technology involved in order to develop reusable rockets. Even as those around Elon gave up and found themselves disheartened, he would instead keep positive and work on other projects instead, trying new methods in order to succeed.
5. What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 
1. Elon was super detail oriented and timely. When it came to developing the Tesla Roadster, he would force employees to come in early every day and drove them to slash costs, with Elon playing such a personal role in proceedings that he would correct employees if they put an incorrect figure with a presentation.
6. Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
1.   One part of the reading that I didn't understand was how Elon as a person grew to become so competitive and abrasive to those that he worked with, something that many around him noted and wasn't made clear, even with the description of his childhood. 
7. If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
1. What would be the hardest industry for you to transition into? Mainly due to the fact that with all of Elon's competencies, what would type of industry might he actually find difficult to expand into?
2. While Elon reflected on the presence of apartheid around him a lot during his childhood in South Africa, was he actually active when it came to protesting it? Simply due to the fact that the biography touches on how he was very aware of the social institutions around him. 
8. For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?
1. I feel that Elon valued hard work a lot, as many of his successes can be traced to himself committing so much time and active effort, such as when he slept in his office overnight constantly to be ready and meet deadlines. I definitely share this opinion, as working harder can translate directly to working smarter in a lot of cases, as Elon demonstrated when it came to ensuring the success of his companies.

26A – Celebrating Failure -

1. One example of me failing this semester was in regards to me taking on too much at once. As a student, I have educational and professional goals I'm working to attain, but also do need to work in order to help pay for rent and groceries at the same time. In that regard, my budget required me to work a certain amount of hours each week, something which quickly became tedious due to the copious schedule of classes and extracurricular involvement I'm taking this semester. While I initially assumed that I would be successful in this endeavor, what happened instead was the opposite, as dozens of hours left me tired and exhausted, and I found my grades slipping, stressing me out immensely, and putting me in danger of failing my classes.
2. Having thought about this, I feel that I learned how everyone has limits, and personal issues, combined with school and work is a load that needs to be learned to be balanced, as these things each require time and energy in order to be resolved, and can quickly overwhelm a person, with signs such as one failing to care for themselves being a quick indicator of where things stand in such situations.
3. I feel that I personally don't handle failure well, dwelling on it a fair amount. However, the one thing I do positively is analyze how I could have done better to avoid failing, which is what I feel the best mentality is to have when it comes to dealing with such things. Having taken this class, I feel that the greatest way to minimize regret when it comes to failure is to commit 100% to an effort, as one can feel a lot less bad about failing if they committed everything, and can learn about how to succeed on another attempt of completing a task.

25A – What’s Next? -

• Existing Market - 
• Having spent a lot of time researching my product, the next step is to expand, this expansion can be measured through either attempting to produce a measurable decline of activity on existing platforms, and expanding to other debate topics, such as legal and international law debate forums.
• A lot of this expansion would be dictated by customer feedback and the success of the initial forum.
• Interview #1:
• Having spoken to this interviewee at length about my product and what it offered, they additionally suggested looking into other forums of debate that I might be able to capitalize on, saying that legislative debate was a niche topic that not many might immediately leap on to.
• Interview #2: 
• Having spoken to this interviewee at length, I reached out to them about my product, explaining what it offered and how it worked. They mentioned that while my pricing model seemed rather fair, I should look into finding ways to remove ads completely, as some users might find that they take away form the user experience.
• Interview #3:
• After speaking to this interviewee and being quizzed about my target demographic, they suggested looking into the demographics I was neglecting, such as those between the age of 30 and 60, who themselves may not be involved in the debate process, who might exist right now as an untapped revenue stream.
• Resulting Plan:
• Based on the varying feedback I received from my existing market, going forward, I will attempt to do the following:
• Focus on developing different forums for different levels of debate.
• Reevaluate my pricing model and find ways to boost revenue while still enticing customers.
• Reached out to untapped demographics who might have an interest, such as parents and those between the age of 40 and 60 who may not have the time or energy to search forums.
• Following up with all of these changes should definitely yield a lot of success when it comes to capitalizing on existing markets and boosting my revenue, enough to boost my advertising budget in order to entice bigger contributors to my product, which in turn can yield more control of the market to my product.
• New Market - 
• New Market: 
• Parents who may not have time to invest into researching legislative issues, especially those that are relevant to the areas they live in. (e.g. local policy).
• How my venture concept will create value for my new market: 
• Having personally witnessed how local governments can pass ordinances that can affect school bus zoning, as well as personal life, (such as when the city of Gainesville passed an ordinance that banned single-use plastics a few months ago), this app can educate parents on local happenings that affect them and have them engage more within the local voting process for a demographic that might not have the time or energy to devote themselves to learning about local policy changes without directly getting involved in the process.
• Interview 1:
• My first interviewee consisted of a parent, who after I took the time to explain my product and what it aimed to do, empathized a lot and felt that they could definitely make use of it. After giving them examples of local issues that have been made into policy in the past, they admitted that they would like to be more involved when it comes to community issues and believed that my app might help them accomplish this.
• Interview 2:
• For this interview, I spoke to one of my neighbors, who is a realtor. Having been active in community affairs for the last few years, they agreed wholeheartedly when it came to my app, and felt that it might do a lot of good when it came to educating people about local ordinances and policy changes that might affect them.
• Interview 3:
• For this third interview, I spoke to an older parent, who with kids being older, also had more time to spare when it came to being involved in local affairs. After explaining my app and its purpose, they felt like it was a great idea, conceding that it was difficult to hear about local public policy issues and changes from a distance, which this app might be able to make a lot easier.
• Reflection - 
• Having previously glossed over this demographic due to my research indicating that young people aged 18-30 were active in the political process, along with those over 65, I feel that developing a forum that might cater to this range of people and their unique concerns might help me corner a demographic that might have been previously ignored. 
• Most of my interviewees conceded that they could be a lot more involved when it came to lobbying for local issues, and those that didn't, felt they should after being given examples of local ordinances that were controversial once passed, indicating that there might be strong interest in this product out there. Additionally, a similar pricing plan like the one for my existing market might work for this demographic as well, especially since they might be more likely to have more disposable income they can play around with.

24A – Venture Concept No. 1 - PoliPeer -

The Opportunity:  

Over the last decade, the number of Americans who professed that they believed that cable news got the "facts straight" has declined, falling from 55 to 37 percent, with criticism from students across the nation focusing on the fact that many sources that exist online regarding legislative discussion tend to hold political bias. In recent years, research has uncovered how a growing population of young people has become more active, finding that more have registered to vote and be active within the political process. These demographic changes and growing interest within the political process has led to a broad opportunity window, as students aged 18-30 across the nation seek objective sources that can discuss legislation from viewpoints clearly labelled from the side of the political spectrum that they come from. This problem particularly exists for young people involved in model government programs, majoring in political science or pre-law tracks, or even political junkies who crave objective sources for information regarding legislative issues. While there are forums that exist on the internet, including but not limited to the likes of Reddit, Quora Digest, and Google results, many of these forums simply aren't geared for this specific type of research, or are non-objective, creating a clear window of opportunity that can be focused on.

The Innovation:

Having analyzed this problem from a variety of different angles, my solution exists in the form of PoliPeer, an app that for a small fee every month, will allow for verified contributors who identify from various angles of the political spectrum to post about legislative info and perspectives that speak either for or against proposed legislation. The fee for the app itself will be small, about $5 a month, and will be inconsequential for someone who spends time doing legislative research for a specific program they might be involved in. Results through this app can be displayed different ways, mainly laying out the objective wording of legislation, and allowing readers to flip to sections that have been contributed to. The verification of said contributors can be done through either requiring proof of a degree relevant to the topic one has chosen to contribute to, and truthful vetting of one's political affiliation in order to keep the side organized, clearly written, and unbiased so as to not confuse readers. Within the United States, additionally, where senior citizens are the most prolific voters, this app can also be adapted and designed to be friendly for older users in order to allow them to also contribute or use it to educate themselves on certain issues, thereby solving a broad issue by aiming to educate large swathes of the electorate. The small fee will also be partially subsidized by allowing for app advertisements, which in themselves can bring in a large amount of revenue that can go towards improving the user experience and keeping costs low, this way fostering an accessible educational model that can generate revenue.

The Venture Concept:
Among the interviews I conducted, many of my specific demographic reported the large amount of difficulty when it came to finding unbiased sources that were easy to digest and also were clearly labelled as holding a bias. This app can solve all of those issues via providing a brand new platform to share ideas that has no competitor that successfully meets the needs of such a broad audience, as sites such as Reddit and Quora Digest have already proved themselves to be fragmented and difficult to navigate when it comes to debate over legislative issues, with my site containing the necessary infrastructure that encourages such discussion. My price point is small enough to be rationalized, as my target demographic might already pay hundreds of dollars a year for the use of streaming services, many of which individually may already be more expensive than my product. One benefit of having an app such as this would be the fact that many might choose to volunteer themselves to be moderators, with only some maintenance being required in order to keep the site up and running, thereby encouraging a small team size that keeps costs low. This product can be successful due to the fact that it's designed specifically around a customer issue, with many of its users already having been left dissatisfied from existing forums on the internet, thereby ensuring its success.

The Three Minor Elements: 

I feel like having researched this opportunity, the greatest resource I have is my social network, with experience when it comes to mentoring students and aiding them in the development of their own legal writing and legislative research skills, I've already developed a broad test audience that might be receptive to my product. Another large factor within my social network is the broad list of educators and professionals who work in these fields and can work to give suggestions and provide feedback on my product. These connections have been built over years, and are difficult to replicate without investing time, giving me a clear advantage over my competitors.

When it comes to thinking forward, I feel that many other opportunities for similar styles of forums exist out there. I feel that monitoring current forums might lead to indicators of other forums that can similarly be tackled by my model, with debates over legal policies currently in place across the United States being another issue that might be cornered, catering to attorneys who might desire a solution in that regard, or debate about international policy, which could also be another market niche that might be cornered.

Thinking forward, I firmly believe that the success of this app can be measured by the decline of other forums. By monitoring activity on already existing forums, a measurable growth in my app revenue versus a decline in other forums indicates a broader market share, something that as an entrepreneur, indicates the success of my product while also ensuring that my personal goal of educating people is achieved.

23A – Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

1. My experience doing legal research - 
1. Valuable - Knowing what resources already exist out there.
2. Rare - Unless you're someone that actively researches legislation, you'll find yourself struggling to find good ones.
3. Inimitable - It took me two years of involvement to finally get comfortable with the process of legislative research, something that isn't easily replicable for a first time researcher.
4. Non-substitutable - Unless you know someone that has the same skill set and experience with this problem as me, you'll find yourself hard pressed to find someone developing a solution among similar lines.
2. My experience with model government - 
1. Valuable - Knowing a demographic out there that exists nationally and can be marketed to.
2. Rare - Unless you're directly involved within these kinds of programs, you won't be able to someone my age directly struggling with this issue.
3. Inimitable - While doing research for my model government club, I was directly exposed to this issue and had to find a solution for it, giving me an excellent student perspective of this issue.
4. Non-substitutable - My teaching experience for such model government organizations, I feel, is more broadly applicable than a student perspective.
3.  My Social Network of Computer Science and IT students/graduates -
1. Valuable - Having a group of people that can be actively consulted when it comes to the implementation of new ideas within our product.
2. Rare - It's easy to have ideas, but to have a possible network of people out there who can implement them makes it much easier to get ideas up in the air.
3. Inimitable - It's very difficult to actively network and put together a group with similar experience who can be actively consulted for free.
4. Non-substitutable - A consultation group such as this one is invaluable, as my network would be more than happy to provide feedback about the implementation of ideas such as the ones I have.
4. My experience volunteering with and leading model government programs - 
1. Valuable - Knowing the struggles that students have when it comes to researching legislative issues and finding unbiased sources.
2. Rare - It's very difficult to have experience or exposure to such a broad audience who might be able to provide good feedback on your ideas.
3. Inimitable - Everyone has a different learning style, and having a large test audience isn't easy to replicate and can provide some insight on what ideas might work best for audiences.
4. Non-substitutable - Having a perspective that comes from actually teaching students is very eye-opening when it comes to developing a solution for them, providing a basis for this opportunity itself.
5. Financial Capital - 
1. Valuable - Capital in such regard can be used to hire more experts who can pitch in on development, or hire developers that can actually start working on a tangible product.
2. Rare - If the average entrepreneur has $10,000 to use, I have much less than that, making my capital not quite exceedingly rare.
3. Inimitable - Most, if not all, entrepreneurs should have at least the same amount of savings I do.
4. Non-substitutable - Money can't replace a good social network of developers or test audiences to see if consumers might enjoy this product.
6. Location - 
1. Valuable - Being in the city with the highest ranked law school within the state has a huge benefit in terms of allowing me a broad audience who might be receptive towards my product.
2. Rare - Another entrepreneur with such a product would find it exceedingly difficult to have such a test audience if they weren't based in Gainesville.
3. Inimitable - Another entrepreneur with a similar idea might be able to develop a similar audience if they lived near a law school as well.
4. Non-substitutable - While I have other test audiences to draw from, law school students are typically older and as such might have a different level of need, providing a different sample audience that can't be substituted.
7. Experience with developing positive organization culture - 
1. Valuable - It's easy to hire people, but encouraging growth and productivity is exceedingly difficult if you've never done it before, with two years of working at Universal having taught me in depth about how levels within an organization work and how that bureaucracy that fosters growth.
2. Rare - Not many might have worked in such a company that has such a structure.
3. Inimitable - Other entrepreneurs may have better experiences working within law firms or actually business based internships.
4. Non-substitutable  - While this skill is useful to have, it might be easier to simply hire someone with more experience when it comes to structuring organizations and promoting culture.
8. My connections with education experts and teachers - 
1. Valuable - It's exceedingly valuable to have the broad insight of educators and graduates who've spent years working with students and knowing what suggestions to my product might be the most useful.
2. Rare - Not many entrepreneurs have as much of a social network of educators, who themselves have experience working with local governments and civic education.
3. Inimitable - Given enough time, one might be able to develop a similar network of people, but it isn't something that's easy to develop.
4. Non-substitutable  - It's exceedingly valuable to have such a group of people to reach out to for advice, and can help develop my idea further, which can't really be substituted for anything besides more feedback from students.
9. My communication skills - 
1. Valuable - I consider myself to be a person that finds it very easy to approach and talk to new people, something that can make it much easier to grow and develop my organization.
2. Rare - Not many people have this same skill, making it even more valuable today.
3. Inimitable - I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs might naturally have this skill or be able to develop it as they continue to work.
4. Non-substitutable  - I feel that communication skills can be substituted for having a broader social network, as it won't have to be relied on as much to approach people this way.
10. My Work Ethic - 
1. Valuable - Many entrepreneurs have ideas, but it's difficult to find the motivation or drive to succeed that makes them happen.
2. Rare - This isn't necessarily rare, but it's something that is difficult to develop and isn't easy to find within a lot of people.
3. Inimitable - I feel that this trait is very difficult to replicate, as someone has to take time to develop a strong work ethic.
4. Non-substitutable - I feel that this can't really be replaced by anything, as while an entrepreneur can have a broad social network or financial capital, someone can't really be successful with those without a strong work ethic to make things come together.

• My Top Resource:
• My most valuable asset has to be my connections with education experts and teachers, along with that experience teaching students when it comes to legal research. I feel that my idea is super feasible and can be done without consulting developers first, but feel that those two resources for feedback are the only two things that can lead to excellent feedback that can only refine my product to be better than it is as new ideas are implemented.

22A – Elevator Pitch No. 3 -

Link to Pitch: https://youtu.be/u12ehmqTEXE

1.  A reflection on the feedback you received from your last pitch. - 
1. Having gone back and evaluated the feedback I received on my last pitch, I found that the real feedback was for the tone of my pitch, which was mentioned to be "on point" with my feelings towards the product, something I completely agreed with. I felt that looking over my last pitch, that tone could still be improved upon, and I spent some extra time practicing my script and making sure my tone and demeanor were improved upon in order to better convey the feelings I had about my product, while also ensuring my customers felt the right way about it.
2. What did you change, based off the feedback?
1. Based off the feedback, I went back and reevaluated my tone, making myself sound much more engaged, and also using different tones when it came to talking about aspects of my product, such as the subscription based feature. I also decided to reframe my argument for my consumer, suggesting that using my product might have multiple benefits, such as educating one's community while also allowing them to stay safe from the effects of biased resources, both being changes that I felt benefited my pitch overall. Additionally, I tried to incorporate more dynamic wording and rephrased my opening so the "audience hook" felt more apparent compared to my previous version, a difference that was very apparent. I felt that overall, these small changes to the wording were more natural than they previously were due to the amount of time I've spent revising my pitch, showing a clear benefit to the revision process that I've used up until now. I feel that if I were asked to go back and deliver this pitch in person, or alternatively, were asked to give a new pitch, I would be a lot more comfortable doing so based off my experience creating this pitch.

21A – Reading Reflection No. 2 -

Book Selected: The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users, by Guy Kawasaki

1.) What was the general theme or argument of the book?
The main theme of the book centered around discussions of various social media platforms, along with how to leverage each of these platforms depending on the type of profile a user was aiming to promote, whether it was a business or personal profile, with tips to refine one's profile or content in order to attract larger following bases or engage with audiences better.

2.) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?
Over the time I've spent within this course, our discussions have touched upon the utilization of one's social capital, as well as branding techniques when it comes to identifying one's main consumer audience. I felt that the section that covered increasing consumer awareness through social media was super relevant to what this course had to offer, and how graphics are key to pitching to potential consumers who might not want to read lengthy posts about what a business offers.

3.) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?
If I had to design an exercise based off this book, I would definitely have it center around having participants focus around branding. I would have participants focus around getting better profile pictures and redefining their content to give a clear and unified idea of them as people. I would make the exercise long, in order to have students report back any boost in following they might have recorded after implementing the book's suggestions, or have them ask their fellow students whether their changes made their pages more appealing.

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?
I personally found it surprising that the author has us, the readers, at one point evaluate our basic knowledge, having us pronounce several terms or names to show us how commonly many people mispronounce such things, and the negative or uninformed connotation it brings when one looks uninformed on social media. Tips within this section also talked about proper language usage, and avoiding buying followers, which surprised me, but made sense as the author talked about truly engaging with one's real audience, rather than "building" one, all concepts I had never truly considered before reading this book, but made sense once explained.

20A – Growing Your Social Capital -

• Domain Expert - 
• Who Are They?
• Christina Wiley, Executive Director, Florida YMCA Youth in Government. Christina is a UF Alumni, as well as a Harvard Graduate School Alumni, with her work focusing on broadening civic engagement within students across the sunshine state, with her leadership position allowing her tons of experience and access to educational tools, much like the one I'm developing.
• How I found this person - 
• I found Christina through volunteering with the same program that inspired me to focus on this opportunity.
• Nature of the exchange - 
• I've volunteered hundreds of hours with this organization in the past, and Christina's experience is top notch, having worked under her directly, with her helping mentor me as an undergraduate student since she also attended UF.
• Benefit - 
• I asked Christina to look over my opportunity and evaluate it. As someone who also studied political science and now overlooks a model government program, she admitted that a resource such as mine might be invaluable for students within her program, who often struggle when it comes to completing genuine research for model government bills. She felt it would definitely be beneficial, as looking over my revised idea napkin helped her get a complete idea of what my product aimed for, and if it were to take off, she most definitely might be able to help me promote it to potential users.
• Market Expert - 
• Who Are They?
• My marketing expert is Lily Tysinger. A political science graduate whose experience lies in government work, having worked for the state legislature for a number of years and now an executive program director at Florida YMCA Youth in Government. Lily's experience when it comes to working directly with voters and civic education made her an excellent choice for networking, as my product aims to directly help educate the electorate, something that she would appreciate.
• How I found this person?
• I met Lily through volunteering at this same organization directly under her. 
• Nature of the exchange?
• I've put in hundreds of hours volunteering for the Y, and Lily was more than happy to see my idea pitch and provide feedback.
• Benefit?
• Lily's extensive experience working for the state legislature has given her a large breadth of experience when it comes to knowing the electorate. Having given her a chance to evaluate my product, she admitted that it would be beneficial for those interesting in learning more about legislative issues, as uneducated electors are something that she feels very strongly about, with my focus on letting my product clearly identify a piece of legislation's strong and weak points being something that caught her interest.

• Industry Supplier - 
• Who Are They?
• My industry supplier is Alex Whiteside, a Front End Team Lead at Even Financial, with experience in programming, marketing design, and in academia, the government, along with corporate and start-ups.
• How I found this person - 
• I met Alex through volunteering with the Y, as despite his job taking him across the globe, he still returns to volunteer for and contribute heavily to the organization, allowing me to get in touch with him.
• Nature of the exchange - 
• Having spent a week earlier this year working directly alongside Alex and getting to know him, he was more than happy to evaluate my product idea and review my idea napkin, as well as provide feedback.
• Benefit - 
• Alex's experience in programming, along with design and marketing allowed him to truly evaluate my idea and the feasibility of implementing it. Alex admitted that it wouldn't be terribly difficult to set up an app and website that mete the requirements of what I was looking for, but admitted that generating a revenue stream would be rather difficult, considering what I was thinking about doing and the associated costs. Alex could also potentially be contracted to help create my product later on, as his experience in various sectors could allow us to further refine my app and make it even better for consumers.
• Reflection:
• At the start of this assignment, I honestly truly doubted that I might be able to find people who might be able to help me with the idea I had in mind, but found it easier once I truly went back and evaluated my connections. I feel that if I were asked to go and network even more, I would feel a lot more confident, as my experts were all super approachable and easy to talk to, something which I didn't expect. Through completing this assignment, I also felt that I developed a taste for networking, as it was truly enjoyable meeting all of these knowledgeable people and hearing their opinions and evaluations of my product, as they all worked in related fields.