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.