Idea Napkin No. 1 - A11

1) Who am I?: My name is Santiago Espitia, I'm an international student here in the University of Florida, currently majoring in Business Management. I am a centered, goal-oriented and open-minded person with the capability achieving each goal I pursue with hard work and effort. Some of my talents include my ability to communicate in 2 languages (English and Spanish), I am good at writing and communicating ideas to any kind of public and I'm also really self-confident. I think that the business I'll talk about in this post could be really interesting because it is a different concept that has not been seen here in Florida or even the United States (as it comes from an idea of a foreign country). In this point in my life it will be the first business I'll be in charge of and it seems like an opportunity to learn how real entrepreneurship feels like, learn for mistakes and explore the hard work behind a product.

2) What am I offering?: In this case, the business idea I'll be talking about are the bagged iced-cocktails here in Gainesville, FL. This is a concept that I am taking for a product that is really common in my country (Colombia) and other places in Latin American, called "boli". In this case I'll be mixing it with alcohol to create a new alternative for drinking that is much more fun, different and refreshing than the traditional alternatives that we see in our environment.

3) Who am I offering this product?: It is specially targeted for college students and young adults in the Gainesville area specially how consume alcohol regularly during parties, tailgates or any other kind of reunion that can involve drinking. Off-course my product does not discriminate sex or race but it is intended for people who is over the age of 21 (legal drinking age). Potential customers here in Gainesville are a lot talking into account that a lot of people comes here to study, so the vast majority of people living here are young and interested to live college life, study, but also have fun. The product would work better during the summer and football season (they seem perfect for the tailgates).

4) Why is the product valuable to customers?: I believe that this product gives a lot of value because it is an alternative that has never seen before in the area, also it offers the plus of the ice as a refreshing product to consume during the hot season of the year (which covers a big part of it here in Florida). Also the price would be a determinant factor because its production costs are really low (as it is really straightforward and easy to manufacture) so it will have a relatively low price compared to what we find in the market.

5) What are the core competencies?: Something really valuable of the idea that I have here is that it is a foreign concept that will be introduced as something new for Americans, and something that some Latin Americans would recognize and will like to consume. Also I am Colombian so I know how to manufacture the product and everything I need for it, how to offer it correctly and who to offer it. I believe that all the elements I have described here connect in a really good way and create a business model that is not really difficult to execute because the product is not complex to produce. However, as something new it might take time for the consumers to accomplish to it and start to position it as a top choice.

I consider that this idea has a lot of potential to be a product that all college students in the area will love to consume. Besides that, also the competition in this industry is really hard, products as beer or even the now mainstream Truly and White Claw are dominating the market and are really popular across college students. The companies that produce this products spend a lot of money in marketing and sell a lot basically everywhere not just here in Gainesville but also in the United States. Even do my idea seems good, it is risky and might take some time to get popularity among the targeted segment.

Elevator Pitch - 10A

Testing the Hypothesis Part 2 - 9A

Who: From the bagged iced-cocktails idea, this time I asked to my interviewees for an association of a new way of drinking alcohol and what trends do they see nowadays that can be really similar to the bagged iced-cocktails, a lot of them talked a lot about the Sangria, Truly and White Claw, that are some flavored alcoholic drinks that according to them are really popular right now. Some of the interviewees told me that my product would fall into that category so the competition would be actually really hard because of the popularity of the other brands among college students. However, all the interviewees told me that my product is really different from beer because of the characteristics and the spectrum of the product, while beer can reach a much broader segment of the market, my product would concentrate more on college students and young adults.

What: In this case the need that I target is the lack of alternatives at the moment of drinking, however it is not inciting to consume more alcohol or try to make young people to engage more with it. From my interviews I understand that people sees my product for something more of a hot sunny day, than something that you would consume everyday.

Why: I think that the outsiders need here differs a lot more from the one of the insiders because the product targets more the college students who go to tailgate in a really hot season and would like to enjoy a new fresher way to drink, the outsiders would have the need to see it as something that just won't work because it cannot be applied in a regular basis.

INSIDE THE BOUNDARY

Who: College Students and young adults.
What: A new and fresh way of drinking.
Why: People always have to drink the same things and there is nothing new to try.

OUTSIDE THE BOUNDARY

Who: Older adults who don't drink.
What: A way to incite people to consume more alcohol.
Why: It would not work the rest of the year (because it is a seasonal product.

Solving the problem - 8A

1) As I wrote in my last post, the opportunity here are the bagged-iced cocktails (picture attached) served as a new alternative for enjoyable alcohol consume among young teens/college students here in Gainesville.

The main problem that I saw when doing the analysis in the last post was that people perceived that it would work in tailgates and similar kinds of parties but not in clubs, basically because it is not as practical as drinking from a cup, and if it melts, it could be messy and uncomfortable. The solution that I see for this problem is that for selling them on clubs, they must be offered in a quantity of maybe 6-10 so you can order sort of a cooler full of the iced cocktails. In this way the product will be kept in it best shape and be comfortable to consume in the club without the need of having it always in your hand or have to consume it as fast as possible.

Testing the hypothesis, Part 1 - 7A

1)

Opportunity: Sell iced cocktails (in zipped bags, image attached) as an alternative to consume in parties, tailgates, etc.

2)

Who: College students/ young adults who consume alcohol.

What: Need to find an alternative and enjoyable-low cost alternative at the moment of consuming alcohol.

Why: People only drink normal cocktails in clubs that sometimes are expensive (for the amount of alcohol you get) or consume just regular alcohol. This alternative is a new concept here in Gainesville that can be of the interest of a lot of students.

3)

Testing the who: Potential customers for this product are young people or college students who drink and are interested to try something new. There is a lot of people who like to drink normal cocktails in bars and club and would not want to try this alternative. Maybe the product can get the attention of more adults on a scenery as going to the beach or tailgate.

Testing the what: Maybe a drawback could be that drinking from a cup is more practical that getting an iced cocktail from a zipped bag because it is much easy. Also it can be kind of messy to consume the iced cocktail and a little unpractical to consume if it melts in the bag. Also it is an uncommon product that here in America might be seen as different, so maybe it would not convince people as much of buying it.

Testing the why: For some teens/young adults drinking is only to get tipsy and enjoy the moment, not for the enjoyment of the drink. Also nowadays people like the practical things, and in terms of alcohol having you Cranberry Vodka, the beer or any other standard cocktail in a club always seems as the best option because of how easy it is to consume and how famous those products are, sometimes people just don't want to try new things because they are happy with what they have right now.

4)

I interviewed students who consume alcohol, then I introduced the product and asked questions about how did it look at first sight, what flavors (cocktails) would they like to consume, if they will like to try it, if they will consume it in clubs, tailgates or parties in general, and if they would recommend to any friends. From this questions I understood that it must me really difficult to market a new product and position it. All of the people that I interviewed told me that they would give it a try, however they told me that they would still prefer normal cocktails or normal alcoholic beverages because they have always done that. Also the vast majority of people told me that they believe that for a scenery as tailgates it would be really cool, basically because it would be like "an ice cream with alcohol" as one of them said. They also think that it doesn't look so practical for consuming at a club.

5) 

From this exercise I started to appreciate more how companies do to introduce an uncommon product. I see that my opportunity could actually work, but in less environments than I thought. Although, a lot of people looked at it as something really cool that they would give a try to, the feedback at the end is really positive. Now I understand that this product could be something more seasonal and could sell really good during football season because of the tailgates and the weather that comes with the season. I believe that my opportunity can actually work and if it is well received among the students, it could even get really famous.

Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory trends - A6

Economic trends: Vainilla price in the U.S is rising.

Link: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/09/15/757899271/photos-vanilla-boom-is-making-people-crazy-rich-and-jittery-in-madagascar

• I believe these could be an opportunity for retailing the Vainilla bean or any other processed product that uses it as raw material.
• Typical customers could be organizations that need Vainilla in their products or ultimate consumers of Vainilla derived products.
• This opportunity could be possible if you are willing to import Vainilla from Madagascar or other country and if you want to invest money on processing Vainilla.
• I think I saw this opportunity because I have always thought about importing coffee to the United States because of the lack of good coffee, so the Vainilla business relates somehow to this.
• I think it is relatively difficult to exploit because of the import proccess and how expensive it could be to bring Vainilla beans to America.

Economic trends: Cars cost rising.

Link: https://www.foxbusiness.com/industrials/vehicle-cost-rising-tariffs-problem-why

• I believe this could be an opportunity for anyone who wants to sell their car because they can get the most benefit possible, or want to start a car dealership.
• Typical customers are literally everywhere, people is always looking to buy a car.
• This opportunity will be possible if you are willing to sell your car or if you can offer good deals to others for selling theirs.
• I saw this opportunity because my roommate wants to buy a car and we saw that right now prices are rising.
• I think that this opportunity is relatively difficult because of the amount of competitors in the market (for the car dealership), but for only selling your own car it seems pretty easy.

Regulatory changes: EPA Revokes water protection regulations.

Link: https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2019-09-12/the-latest-farmers-praise-trumps-plan-to-revoke-water-rule

• I believe this is an opportunity for farmers to use certain fertilizers for their crops that they couldn't use before because of the regulation.
• Typical customers will be the farmers who will buy the fertilizers.
• This opportunity will be possible if farmers are willing to damage water systems and the environment in order to get more production of crops.
• I saw this opportunity thinking about the ethical dilemma of acting for your own benefit or for the benefit of the society.
• This opportunity is relatively easy to accomplish because of the absence of the regulation that allows to use products in crops, it would only be matter to buy the fertilizers.

Regulatory changes: Trump Administration to impose a ban over e-cigarettes.

Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/11/trump-to-consider-e-cigarette-policy-amid-outbreak-of-lung-disease.html

• The opportunity here will be for other cigarette companies that are loosing customers due to the trend of e-cigarettes.
• Typical customers will be cigarette consumers, and e-cigarettes consumers that could go back to smoking cigarettes.
• This opportunity will be possible if Trump imposes the ban. Some cigarette manufacturers will do really good with less competitors in the market.
• The achievement of the opportunity here depends on the regulation. If Trump imposes a ban it could be pretty easy for some cigarette manufactures to come back to compete.

Identifying local opportunities - A5

Article 1 - Vaping-linked lung problems surface Florida

Link: https://www.gainesville.com/news/20190910/vaping-linked-lung-problems-surface-in-florida

This article talks about the outburst of the e-cigarettes and how the vaping trend is starting to cause VAPI's (Vaping Associated Pulmonary injury) among American teenagers especially. While e-cigarette's manufactures say that their product is aimed for adults, statistics show that in the United States "the e-cigarette use among high school students grew 900% between 2011 and 2015" (U.S Surgeon Medical Report, 2016). Also according to the Bureau of Tobacco Free Florida, 25% of the high school students in Florida reported the use of vaping devices. The problem here is that this VAPI's have potentially affected 405 people in 33 states, including Florida, and caused already five deaths. This clearly a huge threat for the health of several teenagers in the United States and also represents a problem for the producers of e-cigarettes because of the impact that this outcomes could generate on their sales, and the legal inconveniences that they could represent.

Article 2 - A tasty warm up at Gainesville's new Cheesecake Factory

Link: https://www.gainesville.com/news/20190910/vaping-linked-lung-problems-surface-in-florida

The article talks about the new Cheesecake Factory opened here in Gainesville, located in Butler Plaza. The famous restaurant will open its doors to the Gainesville citizens next Tuesday, September 17th. It will have over 300 employees and will have capacity for almost 300 people. I think that the opening of this restaurant represents development for the Gainesville are and will increase the competitions among the restaurant in the area. I believe that the opening of this restaurant is something really good, but it could represent some problem for the famous restaurants of the area, especially the ones located in Butler Plaza, such as Friday's, Olive Garden or Longhorn Steakhouse because of the increase of the competition.

Article 3 - More than 630,000 pounds of trash collected in Alachua County

Link: https://www.alligator.org/news/more-than-pounds-of-trash-collected-in-alachua-county/article_5b3aabfe-d2a2-11e9-993a-0b4d415f115d.html

A local non-profit called 'Keep Alachua County Clean' reported the collection of 630,809 pounds of trash through Alachua County between 2018 and 2019. From those 630,809 pounds of trash, 431,551 pounds were recycled. Keep Alachua County Clean counts with almost 20,000 volunteers that help all over the Alachua County. I believe the problem here is the amount of trash that are going to the streets and are contaminating our area (specifically). Even do they collected a lot of trash, it is still a lot of it out there every single day, affecting our community and our planet. However, this initiative is really good and demonstrates how we can help the community and how much trash that we throw away can actually be recycled.

Article 4 - North Central Florida in new storm's forecast cone

Link: https://www.gainesville.com/news/20190912/north-central-florida-in-new-storms-forecast-cone

There are high chances that a tropical cyclone will form near South Florida this weekend. It's been said that if the tropical storm forms it will be called 'Humberto' and it could reach winds of over 50 mph with a possible path that includes Hollywood, Jacksonville and west to Tallahassee. Off-course the problem here is that this storm could affect the citizens of Florida if the storm leads to an outage of electricity or any other damages.

Article 5 - UF rises to No. 7 among top public schools in new ranking

Link: https://mycbs4.com/news/local/uf-rises-to-no-7-among-top-public-schools-in-new-rankings

As we all might know, the University of Florida has risen to number 7 in the 2020 U.S News and World Report Top Public Schools Ranking. This is the third consecutive year on the list as a top 10 public school. UF also remained as the most highly ranked university in Florida nationally at 34 at is in the only one in the top 10 for public schools. The "problem" would only be for the other schools of the state that are not brighting as much as UF does, and this off-course could lead to more students wanting to come to UF and a rise in the demand for our school. However, this rise on demand could make the admissions process more difficult for a lot of students who want to come to UF. GO GATORS!!

Opportunity belief - A4

1) Belief: I have the belief that providing a service to complete small tasks that can take some time for you (like a delivery service works, but not only for delivering food) could help a lot of people here in Gainesville who have really crowded schedules.

2) Description: I consider that this need comes from the crowded schedules that sometimes students and adults here in Gainesville for example can have, juggling work, school and even time for self-care in things like going to the gym takes a lot of time of the day. The need exactly is having no time to do simple important stuff like buying groceries, picking up documents, repair your computer or phone, and many other simple but important things that sometimes we just don't really destine time.

3) Questions: Basically when I talked to people about this need, I asked questions about how much time they dedicate to simple things (as the ones I mentioned above), if they studied, worked, or both, if they had other responsibilities besides school, how much time they dedicated to study, if they considered they have a lot of free time, how many times per week they used to go to the gym and exercise or practice any kind of sport, how much they value time and how much they organized their time, if they would like if someone could do some of the small tasks for them and off-course if they where willing to pay for a service like this.

My overall results where quite interesting. I talked to some undergraduate students and the most of them told me that they work and study at the same time, and at the end of the they they ended up not really having a lot of free time for themselves. I can say that a lot of people told me that they are not really organized with their time and that they basically just do what they have to, go to their lectures at x time and go to their shift at x time, x times per week. Also a big part of them told me that they study quite every day but much less on weekends. When I asked about the alternative that I proposed, almost everyone told me that it seems like a nice idea. However , some wondered about the price, and how depending on that factor, it would be beneficial for them to pay for something that at the end of the day they must do and also do often.

People starts having the need of saving time when they gain certain grade of independency, like when students move for college and live alone, being responsible of their own needs and tasks. As it is popularly said, "time is gold" and through our whole lives we need to certainly manage it and use it correctly in order to succeed on whatever we want. Also I notice that for some people there are simple tasks that are really simple to accomplish because they might live close to a grocery store, there are some efficient food delivery services, and sometimes people just do not want to spent the money because they believe it is lazy to not do these simple things.

4) Reflect & Summarize: When talking to people about time management I realize that here in America the vast majority of people has really busy schedules, and that trying to succeed in life is truly connected with the way we manage time. After this exercise I feel that I value more some hours that I waste some times watching TV or procrastinating, because there is some people out there of my age that some days do not even have time for themselves. Now I believe that my opportunity is actually pretty realistic while at the beginning it thought it was kind of crazy to think that people would pay for such simple stuff, but guess what, a lot of them value time so much that they would pay for actually having some more time in their day. However, for this opportunity to be real it will require a lot of people working to do the tasks, and also a price that could make the business profitable and at the same time be acceptable for customers.

I believe it is good for entrepreneurs to look into potential customers before putting any money or taking action, because this would give you feedback that would help you to understand what your project needs and what is society expecting. I think that by understanding customers needs and expectation it is easier to design a product because you already have an idea of what people prefer and what they just would not even think about buying.

Entrepreneurship Story - A3

In my personal case, I have been exposed to entrepreneurship my whole life because of my parents. Back in Colombia when I was 3-4 years old my parents where full-time employees in their respective areas of expertise. My mother is a Systems Engineer and my father is an Architect, my parents always had the idea to have their own business in order to provide to the family they had and to accomplish their personal goals. They wanted to start what is called in Colombia an institution of education for work and human development (basically a College), where they offer certain technical programs (A.A here in America). My parents where not from wealthy families, so they basically had no capital to start. My grandmother trusted my parents and their project and she sold the house that she inherited from her father in order to give them the start up capital, that was in that time (year 2003-2004) almost 100 million pesos (25,000 dollars), which in that time in Colombia was quite a big amount of money. It was really risky to give that money only trusting in your son in a business that you won't know if would actually work, because if it didn't you would have lost your own house. However, this was the best investment that she could have done in her whole life.

Growing up I saw year by year how my parents work long days and nights in order to keep up with the business, get more programs approved, more quality certifications and off-course more students. I have to say that there where days where I didn't even see my parents because when they came home late at night I was already asleep, or weekends where they had to be in the business, and also times where the business was not at is best and it required more dedication. However, all the sacrifices that my parents did where worth. Nowadays they have the best technical institution of the Colombian Caribbean that generates development for the region, with currently around 4500 students enrolled. The institution has also several quality certifications, and has even been awarded nationally and internationally. What they started with 25,000 dollars is now worth almost 2.5 million dollars, which has allow our family to live in the best conditions. It has also allowed them to repay my grandmother for her trust, and it has let me to come to study to the United States and strive for a good career.

I enrolled this class and i'm also pursuing a minor in entrepreneurship because I have always been interested in the topic. More than seeking to be the next Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, I would like to understand the real life. day to day entrepreneurship that is in our society generating supporting the economy and giving opportunities to a lot of people. Also I believe it is a class that can help to get a good dynamic about ideas, problem solving and even inspiration to try to create value from any idea you have.