22A- Elevator Pitch No.3

https://youtu.be/rlAbYk4a5i8

I received some constructive feedback on my last post. The most surprising thing to me was that people had no idea what exactly my service was, so I made sure to be more explicit in this elevator pitch as to what I am selling.

I also followed the recommendation to flip the direction of the camera to get better lighting and to include more specifics as to where and how my business will start and who it will service. I'd appreciate even more constructive feedback to make this pitch the best it can be!

21A- Reading Reflection No. 2

As an innovation academy student, I was naturally drawn to the title "Innovation and Entrepreneurship". This novel by Peter Drucker outlines some interesting ideas that we've explored in class and almost gives a textbook-esque explanation on the big ideas of ENT3003

1) The main argument of this book is essentially that though small and large businesses have certain things in common, a business is not entrepreneurial without innovation. An enterprise must either: bring something new to the table that consumers need, or change perception as to what it is a consumer needs to draw in customers.

2) I believe this book certainly connected and enhanced my understanding of this class. At the first lecture I went to for this class I had tried to find the relationship between entrepreneurship and innovation, as I knew they were somehow related. This book helped solidify my understanding that the two are concurrent with each other, one rarely comes without the other.

3) As an exercise I would use some of the ones we've tried in my innovation academy classes, such as picking a topic of something you want to innovate for, then conducting at least 5 interviews of seasoned people in that field to find what they least like about their line of work, or what is least efficient and then building a business or concept around the information you gathered.

4) My "aha" moment with this book was its discussion of entrepreneurship strategies for once the business is already up and running. It explained how enterprises must remain relevant by paying attention to societal trends, which makes a lot of sense. For example as a kid i vividly remember going to blockbuster almost weekly before they went out of business. The streaming and online rental industries were taking over, however this business did not keep up with societal trends and was thus driven out of business. Entrepreneurs must adapt to stay afloat, it is not simply having a good idea and running with it indefinitely.

19A- Idea Napkin No. 2

1) Me: Brandon McKay, skilled with organizing large amounts of information, and delegating workloads based on assessed individual talents. My related experiences include working as a shift leader at two food-oriented jobs during my time in college and creating an automatic watering system for plants in a class project. I also conducted research in the UF space plants lab where I practice planting seeds in culture

2) Service: My service is going to provide green, local, sustainable food crops to processors, grocery stores and independent businesses by hydroponically growing foods like corn and soy in temperature-controlled skyscrapers. We will begin with businesses, and then after establishing a strong base, may branch out into individual sales. 

3) Who: My service will be similar in clientele to a farm, servicing markets that will sell the product raw and food processing plants that will use it as an ingredient.

4) Why Care: The value of my service is sustainability and propriety. We don't wear out the soil by growing horizontally, nor do we outsource the transportation of crops since it will be sold locally

5) What the others don't have: Other vertical agribusinesses don't have proprietary transportation that will allow for a quicker and easier process to get food from the building to the consumer.

I believe these elements will work together well most specifically my organization skills with what makes the business stand out, since it will require an efficient organized system to assure that transportation of crops is both accurate and prompt. Also, the clientele will contribute to success since its a constant and well-established group of people who will require my services.

From the feedback i received i took away a solid set of skills, all four comments felt that i provided a satisfactory description of my skills, so I updated it with some skills I gaind recently like working in a lab, and changes in cleintele. 

17A- Elevator Pitch No. 2

https://youtu.be/n9iKUQy5B5A

18A- Create a Customer Avatar

Because my product is food-based, I will have a varied customer pool but my most common direct customer will be food store managers, so mostly men and women of middle age.
 Direct Customer:
This is the avatar I created for my direct customer. I made him look like a Publix manager which would be exactly the type of people we would be hoping to sell to. Established supermarket corporations could give a great boost to the new and budding product I'd create. This is Steve, he is 38 years old, drives a silver 2014 Honda Civic, and has two kids. His favorite show is Cops, since he is a virtuous and by-the-book person, which is what led to him getting a job as a manager in the first place. He doesn't tend to follow politics particularly closely aside from the presidential elections every 4 years, but he tries to vote with who he most believes represents him. He does tend to follow sports, where he is a big fan of the home-teams, and even started a "Jersey Jam" where once a season, he allows employees to wear a jersey of their choice under their Publix vest.

I think the main thing I have in common with this customer archetype would be my virtuosity and by-the-book nature. This would help me in appealing to my customer base by approaching them in an organized and uniform fashion that will make transactions between their corporation and mine smooth and painless. I don't think this is a coincidence. Although entrepreneurs are viewed in a spontaneous light, it takes a great deal of organization not just to form a company from an idea, but to also lead a company that has already been established.

15A- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Segment: Buyers for personal need

1. Harrison Steele (UF student)

Sabrina Martinez (Santa Fe Student)

Austin Clark (Nursing Student) 

2. Alternative evaluation:

Price point was certainly a factor that couldn't be ignored across all 3 interviews, even though it was no the most important to all 3 interviewees. Sabrina admitted that price, of course, plays a part, but she mainly buys produce based on word of mouth and familiarity since she knows how to cook a set amount of dishes from what she ate growing up. So particular brands already have a foothold on her purchase, and it would likely take her trying the new product and knowing it was solid before switching. Harrison cared most about price since he is going to school mostly on loans and tries to limit where he spends as much as he can to allow himself to pay off some of the loans from his job while still paying living expenses. Austin cared about price to an extent but cares about quantity and quality equally since he prefers to buy in bulk, and of course, wants his food to taste good above all else.

3. How and where do you buy?

All three do most of their shopping at local supermarkets like Publix, super Walmart and Sam's club. Austin said he occasionally buys pre-proportioned meals online that come with the raw materials needed to prepare it. The other two said they were open to other types of purchasing but normal retail is most natural to them. 

4. Harrison considers his purchase solid if he got a good value on the produce, i.e. he used all of the food but still had plenty of money left over to afford the rest of his groceries. Sabrina and Austin cared most about taste, where if the food they made tasted great and they didn't break the bank in the process, they were satisfied.

5. It definitely is evident from these interviews that price matters and it matters a lot since all three mentioned it, and most customers often compare prices when deciding between two similar products.

However, the method was eye-opening for me because I wasn't aware of the pre-proportioned meal process, and definitely think it would be a good idea to capitalize on it. 

6. Conclusions: This segment is a strong hybrid of price and quality. Based on these interviews I should evaluate the price point of hydroponics. Since at face value it will likely be more expensive I will have to accommodate for this likely either through value campaigning of the difference it makes for the environment, or alternative forms of purchasing like partnering with pre-proportioned meal makers, or selling directly to customers in bulk, which is cheaper than retail sale. 

14A- Halfway Reflection

1) I believe this course has helped me develop more discipline as it relates to my studies. This class is worth 4 credits and receiving an A would be great for my GPA, but also the lectures and assignments have been interesting to me, so I have been motivated to complete work in this class more so than a lot of my coursework in college thus far. The assignments are due on a pretty consistent basis so I have a solid schedule of when my work gets done that I rarely stray away from.

2) I haven't really gone through any genuine feelings of wanting to give up or drop this course, but I have had times where I was behind in work and had to consider how I would be able to get all the work done for the due dates and times. What pushed me through was remembering how much this course will help me moving forward and reminding myself that I will only make it through college with concentrated efforts even when it feels easier to allow myself to fail.

3) My tips for future entrepreneurship students are:
-Make outlines:
It's hard to work ahead but it's easy to make outlines. Many of the assignments in this course are step by step or numbered. By outlining these you can prime yourself to work ahead by only having to fill in blanks rather than starting from scratch.
-Challenge yourself:
The guidelines for assignments are pretty broad, so encourage yourself to go beyond the minimum requirements. Write 100 more words than the requirement, watch all of the videos, make the most fleshed-out blog. This always helps you do better grade-wise, but also get in the right mindset of an entrepreneur.
-Go to lecture:
This class is technically entirely online but I advise going to lecture if you are capable of doing so. Interacting with the professor by doing in-class activities and answering questions creates a much more memorable learning experience.

13A- Reading Reflection No. 1

1) Andrew Carnegie- David Nasaw
-What surprised me the most was: His gain of wealth through the now illegal process of insider trading
-The thing I admired most was: Carnegie's advocacy for world peace
-The thing I least admired was: his use of unethical methods like manipulating deals and shares by printing false certificates
-Carnegie encountered adversity and failure when he bought two British patents on new railway making methods that proved to be useless. He lost a great deal of money from this but learned from the mistake and continued with his steel business.

2) Carnegie's Competencies were: a high aptitude for math and an impeccable memory

3) Confusing part: The concept of insider trading was foreign to me at first and took a bit of personal research to wrap my head around.

4) Two questions:
-When did you feel closest to giving up and why didn't you?

-Once you rose to prominence as a tycoon what drove you towards philanthropy?

I chose these questions mostly out of curiosity for some of the personal fuel behind Carnegie's public decisions

5) Opinion of hard work: I believe Carnegie believes in the idea of well-positioned hard work. as a former accountant and railroad manager, he likely experienced a lot of tough work without particularly large yields but by channeling his talents into the right areas he saw great success. I share this idea, recognizing the need for hard work to get anywhere significant but also working smarter and not harder so your efforts aren't wasted in areas they're not needed

12A- Figuring out Buyer Behavior No.1

1) Segment: Restaurant owners

2) Pita Pit Manager: Austin Sharp
    Chipotle Manager: Dave Shield
    Bento Cafe Manager: Jon Chesney

3)Need Awareness: The most common thread between all of these managers was the times in which their need is most apparent. When food products are out of season is when their need is most apparent, not only because of cost differences, but also the dwindling supply of the food product itself.

4) Information Search: The interviewees often did not have a clear exact action as to how they respond to this need. Som instruct employees to be more sparing with scarce foods, others continue business as usual and try to suggest other items to customers if they run out.

5) Report:
What I learned from these interviews is that there is a particular need for businesses when food is out of season. My business can capitalize on this need since hydroponic growing with temperature control can allow me to put out the same number of crops year long. In response to this need for restaurants, we can ramp up production of out of season crops to ensure that there is high demand for whatever is coming out of the vertical farm.

6) Conclude:
Restaurant owners won't make up the entirety of my clientele but by specifically targeting this need by focusing production on out-of-season crops, I can acutely increase the profits of my business.

11A- Idea Napkin No. 1

1) Me: Brandon McKay, skilled with organizing large amounts of information, and delegating workloads based on assessed individual talents. My related experiences include working as a shift leader at two food-oriented jobs during my time in college and creating an automatic watering system for plants in a class project

2) Service: My service is going to provide green, local, sustainable food crops to processors, grocery stores and independent businesses by hydroponically growing foods like corn and soy in temperature-controlled skyscrapers.

3) Who: My service will be similar in clientele to a farm, servicing markets that will sell the product raw and food processing plants that will use it as an ingredient.

4) Why Care: The value of my service is sustainability and propriety. We don't wear out the soil by growing horizontally, nor do we outsource the transportation of crops since it will be sold locally

5) What the others don't have: Other vertical agribusinesses don't have proprietary transportation that will allow for a quicker and easier process to get food from the building to the consumer.

I believe these elements will work together well most specifically my organization skills with what makes the business stand out, since it will require an efficient organized system to assure that transportation of crops is both accurate and prompt. Also, the clientele will contribute to success since its a constant and well-established group of people who will require my services.

10A- Elevator Pitch 1

https://youtu.be/2Hbkiw4VWmI

9A-Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

1st Interview: James Cowan (Business Admin Major)

2nd Interview: Casey Witte: (Business Major)

3rd Interview: Haley Kairab (Poli-Sci Major)

4th Interview: Marissa Rivers (Advertising Major)

5th Interview: Kristen Torres (Journalism Major)

For the second iteration of the interview process I tried to seek out majors that would relate to my idea, so business and advertising majors who may be doing work with similar companies in the future and then a poli-sci and journalism major who are going to be record keepers and proponents of the trends and regulatory practices that affect my idea.

Who?

Although prospects of new types of food production affect everyone, the individuals most seriously impacted by my idea would be businesses like grocery markets, food processing plants, and other individuals or organization that purchase large quantities of raw food product.

What?

my idea is rooted in a rising acute need for space-efficient food production and transportation services. This differs from farming services that solely supply food and agricultural services

Why?

The needs of those inside my boundary are different because we live on a planet that does not have unlimited space for agricultural use and quickly wears out soil when trying to meet the current demand for food.

         

	Inside the boundary	Outside the boundary
Who?	Retail businesses, Food processing, wholesale clubs	Other types of businesses, farmers
What	Space efficient food production and transportation	Livestock raising or long-distance transportation (for now)
Why	Limited space for agricultural services	Lack of combination of vertical agriculture and local transportation

8A-Solving The Problem

Vertical Agriculture and Delivery Services:

This entrepreneurship idea would be a product-service mix that can capitalize on increasing food prices due to climate change. It incorporates two of the major issues that corn and soybean production are facing in the status quo: Transportation, and Formation.

The modern-day developed country like the United States or Brazil have the vast majority of the population concentrated in heavily populated urban areas. The world is so concentrated this way that the entirety of the human race could fit shoulder-to-shoulder in the state of Connecticut. Things like waste disposal and food production often take place far outside these dense urban areas. My product/service, however, will make it so that some of the food we eat can join us in our tightly packed cities. How? Through the same way we fit people in cities: by building upwards instead of outwards. Hydroponics would allow for corn and soybean Production in indoor temperature-controlled buildings. These buildings would be in urban areas slashing transportation costs. The cost of hydroponic growing could be Balanced out by this and increasing prices due to global warming which reduce the current supply and increase the demand.

This product/service can produce primarily corn and soybeans, but feasibly could produce other crops as well to sell to distributors and wholesale, while also providing cheap delivery services that can stay in the urban areas that need the products the most.

6A-Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Part 1) The Opportunities:

Economic Trends:
1. Climate change causing increasing food prices:
Increases in global temperatures result in an increase in most food costs as corn and soybean yields are drastically reduced when the temperature exceeds 84° Fahrenheit
a) The balance
b) Higher food prices will increase demand
c) Most consumers would be affected, most particularly restaurants and places that purchase large amounts of food
d) This would be an easy opportunity to exploit as this affects all people who consume food of this type

My biotech experience allowed me to see this opportunity based on my knowledge of how the food industry has incorporated corn or soybeans in most things you can find on a supermarket shelf.

2. Leveling Interest rates:
The Federal Reserve has kept inflation at its 2% target and has elected not to raise rates until 2021
a) The federal reserve
b) Lower interest rates mean more loans can be taken out and repaid
c) Entrepreneurs and small business owners benefit most from this
d) loans are a constant need for the economic world and thus this would ve an easy opportunity to exploit

As a student with debt to the federal government myself, my college experience allowed me to have a personal connection to this opportunity.

Regulatory Trends:
1. Medicinal Marijuana
a) 2016 referendum
b) Medicinal use in many states has led to recreational legalization
c) Medical patients and potential recreational users are the Prototypical customers
d) This opportunity may be more difficult to exploit since only medicinal is currently legal

My experience in researching marijuana laws for debate has allowed me to notice the short following recreational legalization that often follows medicinal legalization

2. Small business organization act of 2019
a) congress.gov
b) Re-organizing small businesses, making it easier to repay debt will allow for current small businesses to thrive and more small businesses to be created
c) Entrepreneurs and small-business owners are the prototypical customers
d) This would likely be easy to exploit since most small businesses are in debt

I often hear much of how small businesses stimulate the economy, so the limited economics knowledge I have brought me to believe in this opportunity.

4A- Forming an opportunity belief

 My Belief:
Many students deal with financial insecurity during the first couple of weeks while they are waiting for their financial aid to be disbursed.

A prototypical customer with this issue would be a student at the University of Florida who depends on financial aid to afford living expenses and college expenses during their time here.

Iteration No. 1: Antonio Nazario
Nature of need: Financial aid money for necessities like textbooks can't be satisfied until after disbursement
All the time? or Sometimes?: This problem only affects them during the beginning of a semester in which they are taking classes
How long?: They've been aware of this problem since spring of their freshman year when they began taking degree-seeking classes
When aware?: a year ago
How are you addressing?: They addressed this problem by borrowing money from their parents with the intent to pay them back when the financial aid is disbursed
Are you satisfied?: They felt dissatisfied with this method because it puts an extra financial strain on their parents at the beginning of every semester

Iteration No. 2: Kelsey Malles
Nature of need: Because they have Florida prepaid, their financial aid goes toward paying their rent and gas to get to and from work
All the time? or Sometimes?: This only affects them at the beginning of each semester
How long?: They've known about this issue since high school when their older sibling faced the same issue
When aware?: 4 years ago
How are you addressing?: They often must empty their work paycheck to cover these expenses as they come until financial aid meets them where they are at
Are you satisfied?: They felt dissatisfied with this method because it leaves no margin for error and nothing to fall back on if there is an unexpected emergency expense.

Iteration No. 3: Dean Mangione
Nature of need: Their apartment complex often requires two very close by rent payments, on the move-in day and the first of the next month which is often just over two weeks away causing a great financial strain at the start of the semester.
All the time? or Sometimes?: Only at the beginning of each semester
How long?: Since last semester
When aware?: 9 months ago
How are you addressing?: They borrow money from a friend and pay them back
Are you satisfied?: Not really, they do not like being in debt to people, even for short periods of time

Reflection:
I learned that though this opportunity does affect plenty of students in often similar ways, it is strictly during the beginning of each semester when this problem is prevalent, and nearly non-existent afterwards, until the beginning of the next semester. The most surprising thing to me about this opportunity was the multitude of ways people address the issue personally.

Summary:
Though my belief is still true, and I believe has been made more accurate by backing it with personal student testimony, there isn't that much opportunity since it only occurs during a small period of time. If there were to be some type of solution to this problem, like a cheap loan service that allows students to acquire immediate needs while they await financial aid, it would have to be paired with something else that would allow it to make money for the rest of the year where this is not a problem, or find another monetary related issue to keep it afloat the rest of the year. Entrepreneurs should absolutely mold their ideas to customer need since their primary job is to serve the customer. Their ideas should be malleable in the first place so that they can meet customer need without changing the intent of their idea, that way they can "stay firn" without denying the customer.

5A-Identifying Local Opportunities

For this assignment, I chose the Independent Florida Alligator as my local newspaper:

1) City Commission repeals plastic ban, raises GRU rates

- https://www.alligator.org/news/city-commission-repeals-plastic-ban-raises-gru-rates/article_cbb76770-d5e3-11e9-9a5e-2fe54a48b3cd.html

-This article tells the story of companies like Publix fighting back against the plastic bans that the city of Gainesville recently enacted, to preserve company practices.

-The problem in this article is two-ways, corporations would suffer greatly in profits by having to give up single-use plastics, but single-use plastics create obscene amounts of waste that take far too long to break down.

-The main people who suffer from these actions are waste management employees who have to find new ways to deal with the material found in almost every waste bin that takes millions of years to decompose.

2) UF student organizations hold Dorian donation drives

-https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-student-organizations-hold-dorian-donation-drives/article_c8ced48a-d5d4-11e9-8353-6352507f35e4.html

-This article goes into detail as to the student organizations of UF that are holding drives to gather materials to aid in the areas more seriously affected by the most recent tropical system to pass through the Atlantic

-The problem in this article is the destruction caused by the hurricane which in island nations like the Bahamas has left little in its wake, causing mass displacement and a lack of security for food and water.

-The main people who suffer from this issue are citizens of places like the Bahamas, The Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and other Caribbean destinations that took the full force of Hurricane Dorian.

3) UF to add external email banner to protect students and faculty

-https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-to-add-external-email-banner-to-protect-students-and/article_eb58c5b6-d443-11e9-af6a-6f3dca9b5792.html

-This article describes the measures being taken by UF faculty to protect students from spam and phishing emails intended to steal their passwords and private information.

-The problem is external sources trying, and sometimes succeeding in acquiring confidential student information that can be used for things like identity theft and privacy invasion.

-Students are most often the targets and victims of this issue which has prompted the university to add extra precautions to prevent students from facing this problem.

4) Students and activists make posters ahead of blue light protest on Fraternity Row

-https://www.alligator.org/news/students-and-activists-make-posters-ahead-of-blue-light-protest/article_6c882e9c-d4e9-11e9-a8c9-83afa3c1f69c.html

-This article brings attention to the upcoming protests students plan to engage in this coming Tuesday to advocate for blue lights on fraternity row.

-The problem here is ensuring that students have access to emergency service in a pinch on all corners of campus, and a highly inhabited are of campus is entirely devoid of them.

-The ones affected by this issue is truly all UF students and those in need of help that may pass through this area, but most specifically fraternity members and sorority members that may frequent this area.

5) Biker caught stealing plants from Satchel's Pizza

-https://www.alligator.org/news/biker-caught-stealing-plants-from-satchel-s-pizza/article_f8110938-d5c1-11e9-b240-63c79cc54825.html

-This article describes the plight of a local pizza shop to stop current and prevent future burglaries.

-The problem in this article is the repeated theft of property from Satchel's pizza by an unknown biker.

-Satchel's pizza is the most affected, however, if this thief isn't apprhended it may lead to future theft that will affect other nearby businesses.

3A My Entrepreneurship Story

One of my most memorable exposures to entrepreneurship was one of the experiences that truly solidified my certainty in what I want to pursue as a career. When I was a sophomore in high school, I attended a career-centered camp called the National Student Leadership Conference, a 9-day camp held at the University of California at Berkeley. My career path for this camp was Biotechnology, and the experience was life-changing to me. We spent day after day engaging in small scale biotech activities, talking to workers in Biotech upstarts in the Bay Area, and ,most impactful to me, participating in leadership workshops where we learned about our personality types, how to work well with others and how to be leaders in our own individual ways in whatever career path we choose.
The honest reason I enrolled in ENT3003 is that it is a part of my course load as an Innovation Academy Student. However, one of the major reasons I selected the UF IA over my other college acceptances (and one of the main reasons I have an interest in this class) is my career path of Biotechnology is an emerging field with the potential to solve biological problems that we have viewed as immutable for centuries, and having innovative and entrepreneurial mindsets I believe will be invaluable in pursuing success in this new field.  I hope to gain the tools of an entrepreneurial mindset, most importantly perseverance and learning how to handle the workplace issues I will surely face in the future.

Intro Blog Post

I'm excited to learn new things in principles of Entrepreneurship!