8A – Solving The Problem

My product idea is a type of wearable device to help people struggling with nicotine addiction break free from its grasp, but without supplementing it with the use of just more nicotine. The current solution for this problem is the nicotine patch, which helps users with withdrawal symptoms by supplementing their bodies with nicotine. This helps mainly for people trying to get off cigarettes, but my product also aims to try and get rid of nicotine addiction from new devices such as JUULs, without the use of nicotine. For my idea, the person would wear something, like a patch, but instead of nicotine being used to help fight nicotine addiction, a safe new chemical would be used to alleviate symptoms of withdrawal.

The solution for nicotine addiction shouldn't be introducing more nicotine in a different way than smoking, it should be with something different all together. I am proposing potentially a patch or a stylish bracelet that would work similar to nicotine patches in the sense that wearing one of these products would emit a safe chemical into your body that would help your body fight the withdrawal symptoms experience when you have an addiction and are actively trying to quit. My product would be marketed for that type of audience to major pharmacies such as CVS. I think this product would be successful in the target audience, but the biggest problem would be developing a safe chemical or substance that could be safely introduced to the body and actually help fight nicotine withdrawal. I think something like this is possible someday, and that pharmacies would love to sell something like this on their shelves.

7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Reduction of Nicotine Addiction

• Opportunity: Everyday more and more teens are getting hooked onto nicotine from nicotine based devices, such as a JUUL.
• Who: Teens in college and the next generation of teens who are exposed to other who smoke nicotine
• What: Victims of the addiction to nicotine
• Why: People see other people using nicotine in society and either try it out of curiosity or to fit in
• Testing the Who: Not only do teens have this problem, but older people in society have been afflicted with nicotine addiction. The main "who" of the problem are the people who are exposed to nicotine at an earlier age and can't seem to stop even though they may want to. This may lead to a long lasting nicotine addiction that is very difficult to break and can follow you into adulthood.
• Testing the What: Nicotine has been around in many different forms, such as cigarettes, but now many companies are developing nicotine devices that would get rid of some of the nasty chemicals found in cigarettes for a "safer smoking experience", but this has in turn created a rampant nicotine addiction in a young audience in society.
• Testing the Why: People often get into JUULs now because they know of someone that is using one and often times they do it to fit in social settings. There's no benefit to consuming nicotine and users won't feel anything except a "buzz."
• Interview 1:
• The first person I interviewed was over the phone and she was a nurse whose husband died from lung cancer. Her husband was an avid cigarette smoker and was hooked on nicotine. Granted, any type of smoking isn't good for your lungs, in this case it just happened to be tobacco related. The person I was interviewing was very against nicotine usage and she feels that the whole nicotine addiction is crazy and she is sad that this kind of problem is still prevalent in society. When I asked about past types of devices that have aimed to help people stop smoking such as a nicotine patch, she said that they can help alleviate the withdrawal symptoms victims may experience, but agrees with me that there can be improvements in this area.
• Interview 2:
• In this interview I talked to a neighbor who I know regularly JUULs. I talked to him about my view point and asked him questions regarding the opportunity I believe is present. He agreed that this nicotine addiction thing is definitely a widespread thing, especially on college campuses, but when I asked about if he thought nicotine addiction could be solved by a some device that could be placed on the skin discretely and help fight the addiction without actually containing any nicotine in the device he said no. He believed that while this is a widespread thing, he doesn't see JUULs as a problem because he believed that this was at least safer than smoking cigarettes that are filled with nicotine and other harmful chemicals. His main point was that things could be "worse" than they are now.
• Interview 3:
• This interview I tried to find someone on the other side of the spectrum, and ended up finding a guy who doesn't JUUL or smoke. I talked to him for a while and found out he just didn't want to be addicted to something and on top of that he told me nothing good comes from it. I asked about if thought there was an addiction problem among teens, and he told me that if he went to a lecture and asked everyone there for a JUUL at least one person would say they have one. I asked about my potential product and he mentioned that something like that would be many years away, but he could see the need for it if things continue the way they are right now.
• Interview 4:
• I asked to interview an old teacher from my high school that I am relatively close to via phone call and I just talked over the list of questions and topics I wished to discuss. The response I got back from her is kind of what I expected to see from a teacher. She has first hand experience with a bunch of teens addicted to nicotine. She gave me an example of students she found JUULing in the bathroom. The students could have waited until they got home, but they just had to do it right then and there. When I ran my idea by her, she thought that might be too extreme for young teens, but could see a market for it for older people.
• Interview 5:
• In the last interview I talked to a friend who likes to go out and party. I asked her how often she uses a JUUL, and she says that when she sees one in a social setting she will most likely ask the person using it if she could use it for a second too. She claims that this kind of behavior only happens in social settings and that she doesn't own any nicotine device for her own personal consumption. A big question I asked her was why she decides to JUUL in social settings, but not by herself. She basically said that it's a social norm kind of thing because many people usually have one and because it's around it's hard to avoid it. I ran my idea by her and she said that it would be a good product, but a patch or something like that wouldn't look good out in public.
• Discoveries
• After the interviews I learned that not everyone sees a market for this product. In interview 2 I talked to someone who regularly uses nicotine and he didn't seem to have any problems being on it. I genuinely thought that people who were addicted would all want to get off of it, but that's not the case.
• I also realized that peoples' answers depended on whether or not they were involved with nicotine or knew someone that was involved. Peoples' opinions on my opportunity varied, but it was either you believed this was a problem or you didn't.
• I found out that my product idea may have to be reworked a little because many people wouldn't want to wear an ugly patch. It could possibly be reconstructed into a bracelet, but the technology for this would still have to be invented.

6A – Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Economic Trend - Trump's corporate tax reform

• Source: https://www.investopedia.com/taxes/trumps-tax-reform-plan-explained/
• I believe that Trump's corporate tax reform can provide an opportunity for new up and coming service businesses because they won't have to be bombarded with heavy amounts of taxes while they're getting their feet off the ground.
• The typical customer of this opportunity would be "mom and paps" kind of stores meaning a store in which you're selling something to a buyer or even a restaurant would benefit from this.
• I think this would be easy to exploit because it's a tax reform that's already been placed, so it's already sitting in your lap.
• I believe I saw this as an opportunity because my dad was actually talking to me about this tax reform and how it doesn't necessarily apply to himself, but it actually helps many of his friends save some money from taxes.

Economic Trend - Fed raising interest rates

• Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/your-money/interest-rates-consumers.html
• I believe that the Fed raising interest rates may seem like it would negatively affect all people, but in fact I see an opportunity for people that own government bonds and people that are considered savers.
• The typical customer as mentioned previously would be bond investors because as the rates go up, so does the interest income meaning more value for them.
• I think this would be easy to exploit because it's not difficult to buy a government bond and hold on to it.
• I believe I saw this opportunity because of my father once again. He has talked to me in the past about rising interest rates from the Fed for a while now and then I was able to piece an opportunity together. The main purpose of the Fed raising interest rates is to slow down inflation and monitor it, but I saw that there had to be a winner in the situation and I found out that bond investor benefited from this economic trend.

Regulatory Change - EPA regulatory changes

• Source: https://www.npr.org/2018/12/11/675477583/trump-epa-proposes-big-changes-to-federal-water-protections
• I believe that EPA regulatory changes that were proposed by the Trump administration causing a rollback of federal water protections provides an opportunity for people who own land to save some money. The regulatory change would allow landowners to decide which water sources on their property were subject to federal regulation.
• The typical customer would be landowners because without as much heavy regulations these owners can build in more types of areas and this in turn helps local economies by providing more jobs.
• I think this would be kind of hard to exploit because there's still regulations in place protecting important areas, but the opportunity is still very much there.
• I saw this opportunity when I saw stuff on social media talking about changes in the EPA and at first I thought that less regulation could be a bad thing, but from a local economy standpoint I was sure that this regulatory change would help.

Regulatory Change - Trump administration reduction of regulatory changes on banks

• Source: https://www.americanbanker.com/news/bank-regulatory-actions-under-trump-fall-to-historic-lows
• I believe that regulatory changes on banks provide an opportunity because if the regulations on banks are lowered then it's easier to borrow money to potentially start a business as an entrepreneur.
• The typical customer would be anyone who couldn't previously borrow money from the bank, but can now and hopefully the people borrowing the money now will be able to positively affect the society and economy around them.
• I think this would be hard to exploit because yes while there are less regulations on the banks, at the end of the day there are still regulations.
• I saw this opportunity when I was researching my first regulatory change and after doing some reading on the topic I believe that this is important because the opportunity applies to many entrepreneurs and this can help many of them out. Since I am learning about entrepreneurship right now I felt this was an important thing to look at.

5A – Identifying Local Opportunities

1.

• Title: Class B biosolids: DEP discusses water pollution from human waste spread on farmland (TC Palm)
• https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/indian-river-lagoon/health/2019/01/23/biosolids/2642871002/
• The article mainly discusses how class B biosolids affect farmland and how it pollutes water sources. The beginning of the article talks about how a committee discussed ways to potentially tweak the way biosolids were spread across farmlands, but it appeared not much change was going to happen. The main discussion in the article is kind of talking about the pros and cons of spreading biosolids across farmland.
• The main problem in the article is the harm that spreading biosolids across farmlands may have on nearby water sources if it isn't properly monitored.
• The people this problem would affect would be the farm owners because these owners use these biosolids as a fertilizer for whatever they're growing and if they can't use it then their crops may not grow as well. In addition the environment would be affected by this problem because of the biosolids polluting the water sources around the farmlands. 

2.

• Title: Treasure Coast businesses, agencies help federal workers impacted by shutdown (TC Palm)
• https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/st-lucie-county/2019/01/23/treasure-coast-businesses-agencies-help-federal-workers-hit-shutdown/2656459002/
• The article discusses how local Treasure Coast businesses are helping government workers with their lives following the government shutdown. The article then discusses different examples of this such as Treasure Coast Food Bank reaching out and letting these federal agencies know that their services are open to these government workers that are in a time of need.
• The main problem in this article is the aftermath of the government shutdown and how it's affecting federal workers. The article does talk about many local businesses helping these people in need.
• The people this problem would affect are the people who have no work right now because of the government shutdown. This includes all federal workers and in the end, their families because if a family's only source of income was from government positions, then they're out of luck.

3.

• Title: Red tide, algae blooms: Reducing nutrients is best way to prevent pollution, say DEP, FWC (TC Palm)
• https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/indian-river-lagoon/politics/2019/01/23/red-tide-algal-blooms/2655776002/
• The article discusses red tide and algae blooms and the best ways to reduce these occurrences. The main culprits of the problem are the discharges from Lake Okeechobee that are dumping excess amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus, which are the main factors for these blooms. In addition lawn fertilizer and leaky septic tanks end up putting more nitrogen and phosphorus in the waterways as well. Scientists say red tide occurs naturally, but when it occurs so close the shore it is caused by the excess nutrients discussed earlier. People have had to be medically treated from exposure to red tide and algae blooms which caused people to be nauseous and some people to get feverish.
• The main problem in this article is the higher than natural frequency of red tide and algae blooms caused by the higher levels of nitrogen and phosphorus present in the water mainly from Lake Okeechobee discharges.
• The people this problem would affect would be anyone living near the waterways where the discharge of Lake Okeechobee has affected. In addition, some people's jobs are affected too because if they work along the water where these blooms occur, they may experience sickness and the only way to try and fight this is by wearing a mask.

4.

• Title: Timber industry hit by Hurricane Michael needs years to recover (TC Palm)
• https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/florida/2019/01/22/florida-timber-industry-decade-recover-hurricane-michael/2652536002/
• The article discusses the aftermath of Hurricane Michael destruction on the timber industry in Florida. 1.4 million acres of land had major tree loss, meaning that over 75% of the pine trees in Florida were destroyed. The article further discusses how much money land owners would have to pay per acre just to get rid of the timber that has fallen. In most cases land owners will have to pay roughly $1000 per acre just to get rid of the trees. 
• The main problems in this article are the ridiculous prices to clear trees off peoples' properties and how this negatively affects the timber economy and that it will take many years for it to actually recover. In addition from an environmental point of view, the amount of trees lost from Hurricane Michael will be hard to replant all at once.
• The people this problem would affect are the areas where Hurricane Michael hit the hardest in Florida and companies in the timber industry that just lost a great amount of their trees from a natural disaster.

5.

• Title: Will Florida pass a statewide beach-smoking ban? Indian River wants to be even tougher (TC Palm)
• https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/shaping-our-future/2019/01/22/florida-ban-smoking-beach/2615506002/
• The article discusses how a bill proposed by Senator Joseph Gruters would ban smoking on all Florida beaches. The reason for this is because they want stricter laws in place and their logic is that they've banned smoking in places like restaurants, why can't they implement something like this for Florida beaches. An example given of this is seen in Vero Beach where they passed a resolution to create tobacco free zones at parks and recreational ones, even though there is no enforceable law against it in these areas.
• The main problem in this article is the discussion of banning smoking on the beach and that will affect many people who are avid smokers.
• The people this problem would affect are the people who love to smoke outdoors in public areas because they are mainly limited to doing it outside instead of indoor facilities.

4A – Forming An Opportunity Belief

Beginning Point

I believe there's an opportunity present for a product that helps alleviate people who are addicted to nicotine products. Smoking nicotine related products such as the popular. JUUL have made it easy for teens to become hooked on nicotine because it is mainly used in a lot of social settings in high school and college. E-cigarettes were created mainly to help people get off real cigarettes because it's supposed to be better than the actual thing. While this has helped in some cases, it also introduced our generation of teens to something that can be highly addictive. I believe there's a need for a product that will help people get themselves off of nicotine devices, so they don't have to worry as much about future health repercussions from it. Nicotine patches have been the answer for the nicotine addiction for a long time, I think that we should try and help eliminate a person's need for it all together. I think instead of solving the addiction with what's causing the addiction, there's a 75% chance that a product similar to a nicotine patch could be created without introducing more nicotine into the body and that this could be achieved realistically. 

56 year old man who hasn't personally experienced nicotine addiction, but knows a family member had it

I asked the older gentleman if he smokes anything with nicotine in it. The man replied with a no, but I further continued my interview with him. I asked him next when he became aware of nicotine addiction. He responded by saying that this problem was around even before I was born. A question I was planning on asking, but couldn't was how they were addressing the nicotine problem, but I felt it was kind of a bad question in this case. Instead I asked if anyone in his family was ever addicted to nicotine and he said that his sister was and that it became apart of her everyday life, that's how bad it got. I then asked him if my potential idea for a patch that would help fight this addiction that doesn't introduce nicotine to the body would be a good idea and he responded by saying that it was a nice start to something that could be eventually made, but he also said that developing a patch like this is years away from becoming reality.

19 year old girl who was introduced to nicotine in college

I interviewed one of my neighbors that I know uses a nicotine device in order to interview someone who personally uses these types of products. I asked how often she uses her device and she responded by saying that she uses it in social setting only. I then asked if she feels like she is addicted to nicotine and she said that she can go a while without using a JUUL (nicotine device), but after a certain time frame she begins to feel a craving for it that won't go away until she uses one. I asked how long she has been somewhat addicted to nicotine and she said she was introduced to it once she got to college and has been using one ever since. I brought up my idea to her about a patch that doesn't contain nicotine and would help control these cravings that she was having and her response was that she didn't believe there could be a patch that could do that and that she wouldn't want to wear a patch anyway because it would look bad

18 year old boy who was introduced to nicotine in high school and owns a JUUL

I interviewed another one of my neighbors who I know owns a JUUL. The first question I asked was how often he uses his JUUL and he said that he hits it very frequently throughout the day, everyday of the week. I had a feeling after hearing this that he was definitely addicted to nicotine, but I still proceeded to ask him he felt he was addicted to nicotine and he just nodded and said yes. I asked how long he's owned a JUUL before and he said that during his senior year of high school and he bought one because he had friends that used one too. I then asked him if my idea for a patch that could help with addiction without containing nicotine would be a good idea and he said absolutely and that he would probably buy a product like that to help him out because he also said that it's almost a necessity for him to use that in order to go about his day.

Reflection

Through these interviews I learned that there's definitely an opportunity for a product like this and a market of people that this would apply to, but as the first man I interviewed mentioned, it would take many years to actually develop a patch that could effectively work to reduce nicotine addiction. Honestly, the most surprising thing I learned was how many people in our generation actually use nicotine devices. They're everywhere and from my two interviews each person knew another handful of people that owned these devices such as a JUUL.

Summary

To summarize, my interviews with the three people proved very insightful to my potential idea. My opportunity belief didn't actually change too much besides the fact that I see there's even more potential for this product because there's a multitude of people that are using nicotine products in this generation because it's almost seen as a social norm to own a nicotine device. I also believe that my opportunity belief is still fully there after my interviews. In addition I believe my new opportunity is more accurate because I was able to actually get more feedback from potential customers and that means a ton when trying to develop a new product. Finally, I believe that entrepreneurs should definitely adapt their opportunities based on feedback to a certain extent. It's your product at the end of the day, so it should reflect the vision you had in mind, but the trade off is that in the end of the day you're selling a product designed for a need and it also has to fit the vision of those potential people buying the product.

3A - Your Entrepreneurship Story

My entrepreneurship story started a long time when I was a child. My dad was my inspiration for it all because he's a financial entrepreneur himself. My dad was always home for my sister and I growing up because he worked from the house and looking back it made me want to be able to stay home with my future family and still be the boss of your own company. My dad wouldn't ever admit it, but getting his company off the ground was a struggle for him and my mom because there was never that much money for him, but both my parents tried their best to shield that fact from us and honestly growing up I never felt a thing from their financial hardship. Eventually he got the business going after many years of perseverance and I feel that all successful entrepreneurs have had to go through some financial hardship in order to achieve their goals. This whole situation inspired me to potentially become an entrepreneur myself because to this day I am lucky enough that even though my dad is super busy with work now, he still works from home mostly to spend time with his family, and I strive to have that balance one day in the future.

As discussed previously, my dad was my biggest inspiration, so in trying to follow in his footsteps I enrolled in this class in order to expand my knowledge on the topic. I hope to be able to learn how to identify problems in the world and try to fix them. Another role model for me was Steve Jobs. He created the first Apple computers in his childhood home garage, which goes to show that the greatest of things might be found in the most unexpected places. This story further inspired me to enroll in this class so I can learn more about being an entrepreneur.

2A - Bug List

1. Phone charger cords always seem to break
Why it exists: Companies like Apple don't seem to put in the proper attention in creating longer lasting phone cords. Honestly, Apple most likely does this in order to get customers to spend more money on buying phone chargers.

2. Spam emails always cluttering up my inbox
Why it exists: Many spam emails are put in the spam folder, but many make it through to your real inbox. Spam exists mainly for advertising or for malicious scams.

3. Leaves and tree debris always fall down onto my car when it's parked in front of my apartment building leaving it looking disgusting all the time
Why it exists: This year the apartment managers decided to plant two new trees right where my assigned parking spot is.

4. There's usually not any parking spots on campus by my classes
Why it exists: UF didn't create enough parking spots to accommodate for everyone, which is understandable due to the lack of space for more parking garages and lots.

5. The people living next to me are always super loud and I can hear everything they say
Why it exists: The material the walls are made out of and potentially how thick the walls between the rooms contribute to this problem.

6. Sprinklers leaving water droplets on your car that end up drying up and leaving spots
Why it exists: Sometimes there are only parking spots next to active sprinklers and the sprinklers are there to keep the grass and landscape healthy and alive.

7. Forgetting sunglasses at home
Why it exists: Humans can just forget things because it's in our nature

8. My room gets super hot sometimes
Why it exists: Sometimes the air conditioning goes out for extended periods of time and all cold air gets out.

9. The line at bars and clubs are super long
Why it exists: They're popular locations to spend free time with friends and there's a limit to how many people can be at the venue at one time.

10. My sink water smells really bad
Why it exists: The water source is most likely from a well, or some other reason

11. Having to take most exams online at UF
Why it exists: It's easier to administer to a larger group of people during a specific time frame if it's don't online, but personally I prefer pencil and paper exams.

12. Using multiple key cards just to enter your apartment building
Why it exists: This is a safety precaution, so people can't break into the building as easily.

13. Too much homework during the school week
Why it exists: It's very helpful in facilitating information outside of class, but sometimes teachers may assign too much on top of other classes doing the same thing.

14. The bus app for UF sometimes incorrectly displays the bus location
Why it exists: Sometimes the bus will show that it's approaching the bus stop, but instead it'll skip right over because of the delay in the app and the actual location of the bus is two stops ahead.

15. My phone is usually almost dead towards the end of the day
Why it exists: I am usually on my phone a decent amount throughout the day, and most of my applications kill my battery life. Also, it's challenging to find a place to charge your phone throughout the day.

16. Overlapping in-person exams
Why it exists: UF has to fit in many different types of exams throughout the school year and sometimes the only available slots for the particular exam just happen to overlap on the same day.

17. There's some really bad stains on my old favorite shirt
Why it exists: Some things that cause stains on clothing is just impossible to get out once the stain has formed.

18. UF has some dead zones for cell reception
Why it exists: The company that provides service for me most likely doesn't have a cell tower near Gainesville.

19. Sometimes my power in my room randomly flickers on and off
Why it exists: This probably happens because of power surges or just the electric company having a temporary hiccup.

20. There's trash throughout the hallways of my apartment complex
Why it exists: People just throw their garbage on the floor and there's no garbage can or janitor to help with the mitigation of trash.


Reflection: I found this assignment somewhat challenging and definitely time consuming. This assignment causes you to think more like an entrepreneur and I haven't had any practice doing this before hand. It took a long time for me to actually come up with 20 different examples. Throughout the assignment I found out that these "bugs" were things that I have thought about in the past, but haven't done anything about. Usually I would just accept the problem and move on, but now after doing this assignment and actually pondering about why these things happen, I learned that I can actually play a part in creating a solution or a better way of fixing these "bugs." In the end, I actually ended up enjoying this assignment because it helped me tap into my inner entrepreneur and it made me think about why these "bugs" happen in my everyday life.

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