Final Reflection

Putting a lot of work into some of my posts like the first venture concept and forgetting to post the links sticks out to me. I'll remember how embarrassing all my elevator pitches are for years. My most joyous experience was creating my prototypical customer's avatar. I'm proud of developing a feasible idea. I don't think I've developed an entrepreneurial mindset but I have moved closer to doing so. I recommend future students pay attention the lectures to learn about the entrepreneurial process rather than just completing assignments solely. To perform best, they need to do their work on time properly, watch the past lectures and attend their workshop. To foster that mindset, they need to have a goal of where they want to be in the field of entrepreneurship for them to get the most out of this class. 

Venture Concept No. 2

My opportunity is the lack of creativity and variety of coffee and coffee supplements. Busy people in the workforce and school and general coffee lovers who want a large variety in their coffee selections in a centralized location for a reasonable price are who have the need. Places that charge a lot for one cup of coffee and aren't considered worth the buck create this opportunity. This market is all around the world but mostly comprise of ages 16-63 who are working or in school. This coffee with largely cater to students at UF if the store is located in Gainesville. Customers currently get on-the-go coffee from places like Starbucks and buy coffee blends and creamers from local grocery stores. Customers are very loyal to Starbucks despite complaints and are fine with getting their blends from grocery stores. As of right now, this opportunity is very small considering that people aren't actively seeking alternatives to their available options since it works well enough in their opinions. However, there are people who enjoy this idea of a superstore with selections different from the norm. Until big coffee brands start updating their ideas and adding new and creative items to their inventory, this small opportunity will remain.

The innovation is a store that only provides many coffee related items. The purpose of the coffee superstore is to make it easier to find coffee and provide many selections of interest. Since I will be selling many different items and different sizes of the items, there are many different prices I have in mind. The standard 16 ounce coffee blend I will be selling will be $9.99 per container.

My innovation will provide customers a large variety in coffee blends and supplements with accessories that compliment and enhance the drink. There will also be a cafe that provides drinks on-the-go. This collectively will be cheaper than Starbucks drinks and coffee blends at groceries stores. Customers should switch to coffee items from store/cafe to save money while getting great quality coffee that is creative and stimulating. Customers will buy these products because they are cheaper and of more selection. Switching customers over to purchase my product will be hard since people are comfortable with Starbucks and normal store coffee blends. Packaging, your price points, distribution, customer support, the customer experience and the business location mean everything in terms of differentiating me from my competitors. Packaging and the aesthetics of my product are going to be things that I authenticate and I will work to make sure that my customers get the best customer service they can. For the start of the business, the store will have office rooms where the fiscal and product organization will take place. I will hire cashiers, item organizers, store helpers, and people to manage the different departments of the store.

My venture's unfair advantage would be the personality the superstore has, typically a store with a story interests many people.

Another opportunity I have in mind is to create adjustable sun-blockers in cars for shorter drivers. The customer segment would now be roughly ages 16-65 who struggle with the sun still getting in their eyes driving, after the sun-blocker has been pulled down.

In the next 5 years, since I don't plan to be an entrepreneur solely, I would be happy with a small but successful local coffee store in addition to my main career if I have the opportunity to.

Based on my feedback, I have a good idea for my venture concept, giving kids variety. I added to the concept that the coffee will cater to UF students if the store is located here in Gainesville.


This is a picture of a coffee store in Argentina, but my store will be somewhat similar with added inventory and a cafe most likely.

Your Exit Strategy

I plan to start this business small and just see if it progresses and grows. I want to see if it’ll be possible to get a small local venue to start off at and see the business’s progression. This business is not my main priority, so I'll continue it until I no longer have time for it or it just doesn't work out. This strategy seems like the best, because entrepreneurship will be a side hustle for me. Maybe when I am more financially stable and I’ve experienced my main career for long enough, I’ll be able to invest more time and effort into ensuring that this business becomes successful somehow. Since this business isn't my main priority, I haven't given it as much thought as I could have if I was truly serious about it and it was my top priority. I believe it would have more potential if I did plan more for it.  

Celebrating Failure

This semester, I failed to give my classes 100% of my effort. In this class, I forgot a few times to submit homework links to canvas, giving me zeros on assignments that took a lot of time. In my computer programming class, I failed to find a system that helped me learn the content efficiently. I didn't seek out every possible resource to help me, though I tried many different things, and now I haven't had the best performance in the class. From these few but very sorrowful failures, I realized that I need to ensure that every requirement is met for assignments before I rest and that I Computer Science as a career field probably isn't for me. Failure is my absolute worst fear, though a friend that visits too often. It discourages me to the point where I'm ready to just drop out of school. This class hasn't changed my perspective of failure, however, I realize that failure is necessary to learn and grow, so I sometimes take it with a grain of salt.

Reading Reflection No.3

    The theme of this book is to explain different ways of thinking and approaching problems, which can be and is applied to how entrepreneurs determine and make smart and efficient business moves.  Kahneman specifically focused on the two systems, fast thinking and slow thinking (their importance in situations) that are used to further explain the other themes: human irrationality, where rationality and intelligence are differentiated and how they differ in terms of decision making and overconfidence, that mentions confidence in relation to decision making. This book coincides with this entrepreneurship course as we learn how to approach different situations from an entrepreneurial mindset and standpoint. An exercise I’d design for the class would be for the students to be given a certain situation and use the tips from the book to work through them. The biggest surprise I got from this book was how it was directly related to entrepreneurship, but I understood the implications of the book in relation to the course.  

What’s Next?

In terms of where I am right now, making an official business plan and seeking out investors is what's next on the agenda.

Based on my interviews and my own thoughts, I'm going to give my opportunity more thought and do more research to see how plausible this idea truly is. I agree with doing this before I go on to a later stage of this process in order verify if this is opportunity is truly worth the time or if I should start over again. Once I figure this out, I can then put together an adequate business plan and find people who are willing to invest in my business.

In order to solidify my plan, I will interview some more people in my customer segment and get their thoughts. I will talk to more people with experience in entrepreneurship for advice and tips moving forward. I'm hoping most believe in this idea like I do so that I can continue moving forward with it.

A different market for me to target would be businesses, B2B. Companies may want to be in affiliation with a certain coffee company to keep staff awake and energized throughout the long work days, so I can sell my products to them in bulk so they can have to readily make.

Based on the interviews, I learned that this market doesn't necessarily have a demand for affiliation with a coffee company, though one said he wouldn't be opposed to the idea. My assumptions weren't necessarily correct. This market is not as attractive as my existing one.

Venture Concept No. 1

My opportunity is the lack of creativity and variety of coffee and coffee supplements. Busy people in the workforce and school and general coffee lovers who want a large variety in their coffee selections in a centralized location for a reasonable price are who have the need. Places that charge a lot for one cup of coffee and aren't considered worth the buck create this opportunity. This market is all around the world but mostly comprise of ages 16-63 who are working or in school. Customers currently get on-the-go coffee from places like Starbucks and buy coffee blends and creamers from local grocery stores. Customers are very loyal to Starbucks despite complaints and are fine with getting their blends from grocery stores. As of right now, this opportunity is very small considering that people aren't actively seeking alternatives to their available options since it works well enough in their opinions. However, there are people who enjoy this idea of a superstore with selections different from the norm. Until big coffee brands start updating their ideas and adding new and creative items to their inventory, this small opportunity will remain.

The innovation is a store that only provides many coffee related items. The purpose of the coffee superstore is to make it easier to find coffee and provide many selections of interest. Since I will be selling many different items and different sizes of the items, there are many different prices I have in mind. The standard 16 ounce coffee blend I will be selling will be $9.99 per container.

My innovation will provide customers a large variety in coffee blends and supplements with accessories that compliment and enhance the drink. There will also be a cafe that provides drinks on-the-go. This collectively will be cheaper than Starbucks drinks and coffee blends at groceries stores. Customers should switch to coffee items from store/cafe to save money while getting great quality coffee that is creative and stimulating. Customers will buy these products because they are cheaper and of more selection. Switching customers over to purchase my product will be hard since people are comfortable with Starbucks and normal store coffee blends. Packaging, your price points, distribution, customer support, the customer experience and the business location mean everything in terms of differentiating me from my competitors. Packaging and the aesthetics of my product are going to be things that I authenticate and I will work to make sure that my customers get the best customer service they can. For the start of the business, the store will have office rooms where the fiscal and product organization will take place. I will hire cashiers, item organizers, store helpers, and people to manage the different departments of the store.

My venture's unfair advantage would be the personality the superstore has, typically a store with a story interests many people.

Another opportunity I have in mind is to create adjustable sun-blockers in cars for shorter drivers. The customer segment would now be roughly ages 16-65 who struggle with the sun still getting in their eyes driving, after the sun-blocker has been pulled down.

In the next 5 years, since I don't plan to be an entrepreneur solely, I would be happy with a small but successful local coffee store in addition to my main career if I have the opportunity to.

Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

I possess:

• A mentor who can help me with this business process- valuable
• A potential supplier- valuable
• Someone who can help me with customer segments- valuable
• Someone who could potentially get me connections to people on the corporate level of this industry- valuable
• Adaptability- valuable
• Resilience- valuable
• Perseverance- valuable
• Compassion- valuable
• Creativity- valuable, rare in terms of my competition
• Empathy- valuable

Each resource is valuable because each can be applied to the entrepreneurial job but none of these have the other factors making none of these resources above the other one.