Final Reflection

1) Read through your blog from this semester. Recall all of the experiences you've had a long the way -- the highs, the lows -- the fun moments, and the moments of drudgery, and even the moments of dread.

Honestly I would say that there were highs and lows in that some exercises were great others like reading seemed to drudge on. My biggest dread was all the recording people. I understand why we did it but a lot of people don't feel comfortable with it.

2) What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?

My most formative experience would have to be the aforementioned recording people but my most joyous I would say was coming up with the idea itself.

3) At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. And we repeated the mantra -- I am an entrepreneur. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?

I don't see myself as an entrepreneur. I think I learned skills that are required to be one but just because of this class I don't think I just magically became one. I do think I moved closer though.

4) What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?

Do the assignments no matter how shitty they may seem. They do help you grow even though they are so out there. I would throw out preconceived notions and step out of your comfort zone. 

Week 15 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

I was surprised that India still has indentured servitude still not so much the $1 a day but the slavery part.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

Are they just international or local I was confused on the business model until later on in the article. 

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

What is SKS and why is it important?

How does a business even get into micro financing in other countries?

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

Nothing really seemed wrong because he was talking about his story. 

Elevator Pitch No. 4

I just shortened my pitch because all the feedback was either tell more about the features or shorten it because the last was 1:15.

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity. 

My opportunity is two fold in that the potential customers are consumers and business. The customer side deals with the unsatisfactory commitment to customer service they feel and the anger they have when shipping and/or receiving packages in the mail whether via family, friends, or businesses.  The second side is the businesses themselves like the shipping companies but also amazon and other companies. The shipping companies benefit from the added customer service and the "last mile" as well as the B2B exchange. 

Ideally; geographically the territory is open because uses ships everywhere so does UPS and Fedex so therefore our clientele could be limitless in potential. Realistically we would start small and then scale so start with one company and then use our proof of concept to roll out to the others. The current satisfaction is based on what each company offers. There is no universal standard you expect better quality from the private companies but at a much higher cost sometimes. This opportunity as previously mentioned is enormous in a potential aspect because almost everyone as some point ships things and every business does as well. I believe this window of opportunity will be open until there is a radical shift in the way we send mail whether it be much faster or what have you. 

Innovation. 

The innovation in my company is incremental but necessary and crucial. It doesn't radically change the entire landscape of shipping but companies always strive to help their last mile and bottom line numbers which this does exactly so. Essentially this is a two way app on the customer side they create an account, set up personal info and can combine any shipping companies in their area i.e. ups, uses, fedex, dhl etc. They can see the price comparisons for each company when they go to ship things and even print labels from their phone/computer. They also can put any tracking number and do anything from their end on the receiving side like specify where to drop off, change of address etc. 

On the business side they don't have to worry about customer complaints and issues as far as once things have been shipped we become a middle man for them to free up some crucial time and more importantly less lines in store. We deal with the complaints as well as relay things over to the companies. As far as pricing goes we would charge a monthly fee depending on how much people ship starting at $5 up to $50 for ebay people but also offer discounted shipping for each tier to entice them. The business side I am not 100% sure as to pricing because I do not know that area as well.

Venture Concept. 

The reason I see people wanting this product on the consumer side is personally for me and many other people who ship things on a semi regular basis there is damage as well as lost items and so on. I personally see photos sent in the mail with do not bend all over it and they bend them in half to jam into a mailbox. Those kind of things will be addressed and stopped through this to help the shipping companies offer better customer service as well. Switching to this is very easy because one of our core competencies is convenience of the app. A lot of the ancillary questions regarding this would be specific to a product but as a service based company we would have to roll it out and then see where people have the most complaints and adjust that way. 

Secret Sauce: I think that once we get going and the first to market by the time people get into the large shipping companies we would be established and hard to undercut us. 

Next Steps: I think a secondary service is for local shipping instead of driving to drop something off or spend a stupid amount of money and take 3 days to go an hour we would offer almost an Uber of sorts for shipping.

Me: If this was a real venture within five to ten years I would want to see myself working with every American shipping company and shifting to international as well and learning how to better suit those clients. 

I had overall positive feedback the few negative feedbacks were mainly about fleshing it out and continuing on the idea. Everything else was just expanding on the app more so it works better and is easier for novice shippers. I didn't change anything but I spent more time developing the product. 

Very Short Interview, Part 2

I think the first interview went well overall. It was very informative and looking back on it a lot of the stuff he discussed was brought up during our class this semester.

1. What do you believe makes your company different/better then others?
I believe that we offer a wide variety of coffees that are completely organic and cheaper then other places because we get it directly from the farmers.

2. How do you feel your company does at attracting new customers?
If I were to rank it on a scale of 1-10 I would say 7 because we do get good referrals but we have a limited budget so we can't advertise like we want to. 

3. How realistic is it to start a company on your own?
Honestly it is a lot more difficult then I thought. Not so much the initial idea but the logistics of everything. It was hard managing the money and buying inventory and all of the start up costs without having the personal monetary backing. 

I think that I am slightly more comfortable interviewing him. I knew him before and I was always good at presentations so it wasn't a big difference. They felt that I did good before and just as well now.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

The five important practices to innovative organizations was very interesting. Some were obvious but the not punishing failures is key.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

Corporate venturing and strategic entrepreneurship seem to be very close I want to know more of the difference.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

Are there specific companies and examples that you can show the 5 important innovative practices?

Is ecopreneurship a realistic goal in the aspect of starting a business focusing on that?

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

Don't kill a project. That is too general a term whereas you fall into the sunk cost fallacy.

Google Gold

1) A discussion of your general approach and strategy to search engine optimiation (SEO). What were some of the activities you did for each blog post to pursue SEO? 

Honestly I didn't think explicitly about this aspect of it even though we talked about it. I tried to use shipping and my business name as often as possible in order to portray a sense of continuity.

2) What were your keywords. How did you select those keywords? Did you change or refine your keywords through the semester?

My main keywords were shipping, Shiphappens, USPS. I chose those because they apply directly to my business either through a service competitors or my company. 

3) How did you use social media to enhance your SEO efforts? What your your surprises or general impression of using social media to improve your blog's profile? Was social media generally receptive of your blog, or did it get ignored?

I didn't do any of these things because I wasn't really looking to draw people to look t my class blog honestly this isn't a viable business at this time. 

4) What was your most "viral" post? In other words, which post obtained the most traffic? Why do you think?

My most looked at post was my first idea napkin. I am honestly not sure why that got more then my second idea napkin though.

5) Finally, did you make it to the first page of Google results for your keywords? If not, what page of results did you make it to?

Week 13 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

The whole idea of business and venture capitalists is entertaining and interesting to me.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

Book value always confuses me because I feel like that is just a group of people deciding oh that is worth this amount it isn't a real amount. 

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

What part of the due diligence outline would you consider the most important part??

Is there a shorter checklist when acquiring a business?

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

I think that he underestimates people's emotions. He is like oh just don't be emotional about it and sell it but I know people who own businesses unless they have the money already and its just fun they will get attached.