22A – Elevator Pitch No. 3

Reflection on Feedback:
After receiving even more feedback from the second elevator pitch, I tried in this pitch to be more fluent and well-rehearsed. I feel like a was able to accomplish this by putting more effort into remembering key points that i wanted to talk about and also because this is my third time performing this pitch. This was one of the only constructive feedbacks I received, so I tried as best I could to implement it.

What I changed, based off feedback:

What I did was to sound more fluent, with a conversational tone, and to be less choppy. I still kept up the energy and hand gestures, but just incorporate the new things I was working on. I felt like after the third time of performing this pitch it came out a lot more natural because it's been said from my mouth so many times and I just felt comfortable saying what I had to say. I also wrote out a script for my elevator pitch, so that I could work on being able to focus less on what I was saying because I already knew what I wanted to say and focus my attention on grabbing the attention of the audience.

21A – Reading Reflection No. 2

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Scott Adams

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The general theme of the book was basically covering a whole bunch of different points about life and how to be more successful (depending on your own definition of success) in our lives and how our own pre-conceived notions of achieving this thing we all strive for is most likely wrong. For example, he talked about wishing and deciding. Most people wish they were rich and famous, but the people that actually decide that they will become rich and famous are the ones that will most likely be that.

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

As previously mentioned, Adams brings up a point of differentiation between deciding and wishing. I feel that knowing the difference between these two really sets apart a successful entrepreneur from a failure. We are learning to become deciders in ENT 3003, which is the path to success. Entrepreneurs are key examples of people that will decide to become rich or to have a successful business and then make it happen instead of just wishing for things to hopefully swing their way. From all of the assignments we have done in the past we are creating a system of habits and skills that will help us deciders in naturally accomplishing those goals that previously set before us.

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

There's a section in the book where the author makes a point about knowing exactly what he would be doing at 6:20 am on a Saturday in 2017 (book written in 2013). He said that he would be working on a cartoon that he started earlier that week because that's what he always does at that time. He believes in the system of just doing things, so I would create an exercise for this class based on the book for the reader to envision themselves 5 years into the future and write what they think they would be doing on an exact date. This would require a lot of clarity to do, but I feel that entrepreneurs really need to think like this order to succeed in the future.

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

My biggest "aha" moment in the entire book was reading about the differentiation about systems and goals. Scott doesn't believe in the idea of just focusing on goals, but he believes in just focusing in on the process and system and the goal will just naturally follow behind. The systems are daily habits that one creates in order to set themselves up to achieve their goals. This really surprised me because growing up you always hear that you should set big goals in your life and then strive to make those goals, but the author is saying to do it almost in reverse. This kind of perplexed me at first, but in the end I think it makes a lot of sense. For instance, I played baseball growing up and one of my first goals I set for myself when I was little was to hit a home run. I put way too much focus on swinging for the fences and didn't have much success, until I put the work in and focused on the process of hard work and practice that would naturally get me to my goal. Eventually when I was able to free my thoughts from just worrying about the outcome, I actually hit my first home run.

20A – Growing Your Social Capital

Domain Expert
1. Who they are, what their background is:
Sanjay is a pulmonologist from the local hospital from back home.
2. How this person is a “domain expert”:
A pulmonologist is a doctor that specializes in lung health , so I decided that he would be a great expert because the way that nicotine is usually ingested into the body is from smoking, so lung health overall would be affected, and I felt like he would be pretty familiar with the substance because of this.
3. How I found and contacted this person:
I found this doctor because my father is a financial advisor for strictly doctors and he has a good personal connection with his clients and told me to contact Sanjay.
4. Nature of Exchange:
I was given his personal phone number and proceeded to ask questions about the ramifications of smoking cigarettes and using JUULs, and how nicotine plays a role in having people continuously coming back to smoke more. He informed me with valuable information regarding this and personal experience he has had with patients addicted to nicotine.
5. How will including them enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity:
I feel like asking for the opinion of a pulmonologist would really help my case in exploiting my opportunity because if I got the verification from a doctor that my idea could potentially work, then more people would be more inclined to purchase it.

Market Expert
1. Who they are, what their background is:
Joe is a current student at UF, who is majoring in marketing and is currently in a Fraternity on campus.
2. How this person is a “market expert”:
He really encompasses a large portion of my market, that being college kids, and people who tend to party also are more likely to be exposed to more nicotine devices when going out.
3. How I found and contacted this person:
I met Joe in one of my classes and we became acquainted through a group project. I then decided to ask him if he would be okay with answering some questions.
4. Nature of Exchange:
I talked to him in class and asked if it was okay to give him a mini interview before class started. I proceeded to talk to him about the amount of nicotine usage that goes on at parties and such, as well as some other questions regarding the topic.
5. How will including them enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity:
Including him would enhance my ability to exploit my opportunity because he is around a lot more people who use nicotine devices than I am, so he knows their tendencies a little more than I do, and can give me an insight into that type of consumer. Also, he gave the feedback that the wearable device that I am aiming to produce might not be the coolest thing to wear in his opinion, but the effect of it would definitely help out some people that he knows.

Industry Supplier
1. Who they are, what their background is:
Kathy works at a CVS pharmacy back home and is a friend of my mother.
2. How this person is a “industry supplier”:
She is an industry supplier because she handles many different types of medicine and treatments that are either prescribed or can be bought off the shelf. I feel this is an important person to contact because one of the main places I want my product to be sold at are pharmacies and she would know if this type of product actually belongs there or not.
3. How I found and contacted this person:
I asked my mother if she knew anyone that worked in a pharmacy and she told me about her friend from her spinning class that actually works at a local CVS. She gave me Kathy's phone number and then I proceeded to contact her.
4. Nature of Exchange:
I first introduced myself and then gave a pitch of my idea to see if she would potentially stock something like that on her shelves. She told me that she personally didn't have the power to do it, but she said she could definitely see a product like this on the shelves of the pharmacy.
5. How will including them enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity:
It's very important to include Kathy in order to exploit my opportunity because if she didn't think that my opportunity was worth putting on the shelves then my idea wouldn't be able to move in the direction that I previously planned.

Reflection
Targeted marketing is definitely the most challenging part for me in terms of thinking about exploiting my opportunity. It took a long time tracking people down that would fit the certain criteria asked for, but I feel like this better prepares us for future opportunities when this type of networking is important. This will shape the way participate in future networking events because I learned that meeting as many different and unique people can open up many doors for you, even though they may not be apparent just yet. This kind of went differently than other networking experiences I've had because I normally don't target specific people when at certain events other than the normal big faces that everyone is trying to get a conversation with. After doing this assignment, I learned that networking for a purpose and that picking more unique people to talk to rather than just who everyone else is trying to talk to may be more beneficial for yourself and your opportunity. All in all, talking to the people discussed in the assignment was difficult because I had to track them down, and then when I proceeded to the interview I wasn't really prepared to speak about my product in such a specific way to appeal to these experts in my field because it was my first time. I gained a great deal of knowledge though about targeted marketing and I really think it helped better my mindset about my idea.

19A – Idea Napkin No. 2

1. I am Jayson Prasad, and I am a freshman currently attending the University of Florida. I would say that i am talented as in a social aspect, as in I can hold a conversation and communicate my ideas very clearly in an interaction with another person. This would be a very viable skill to have when running a business because if you're pitching your idea to potential crowd funders or investors, you have to be able to sell your idea and convince them to put their assets into your business. I aspire to become financially stable one day and not have to worry about whether or not money will be an issue for me. Regarding my business, I see this playing a big part in my life at first because this will be my first business I built off the ground, so there will always be a value of importance on it, unless it falls flat on its face.

2. I am still offering the ability to help people with nicotine withdrawals with a wearable device that will help fight these withdrawal symptoms, without the use of nicotine. The only change I have made regarding my product has been the idea of making the device into a necklace on top of the original idea of it being a bracelet. I feel like this solves the unmet need of people not being able to break free of the curse of nicotine addiction when they get hooked on it. Granted the user would have to come to the conclusion that they are hooked, but when they do my product will be the best way to assist this need.

3. I am offering this product mainly to people with this addiction which can honestly range from high school students to grown adults. In college especially, nicotine devices are everywhere and most people you turn to own one. I feel like especially from my past interviews this would be the typical demographic for my product due to the rise of this highly addictive substance and because some teenagers may not understand the repercussions of using nicotine.

4. I feel that these people will actually pay money for my product because there isn't anything on the market as helpful as my product at helping people get over their withdrawal symptoms. Although some may argue that there are nicotine patches and other products circulating around the market right now, but they all still contain nicotine and will only relieve the symptoms of withdrawal and not actually help you get off nicotine. My product doesn't contain any addictive substances and is safe for human consumption, so I feel people would turn to my product over other alternatives.

5. What sets me apart from everyone is the fact that my product does more for the user than the current competitor, nicotine patches. As previously stated, nicotine patches contain nicotine and will only subsidize your craving for nicotine with more nicotine entering your body, but through a different method. My product is able to help stop these withdrawal symptoms and not inject you with more nicotine, thus making it easier for people to quit using nicotine in general.

Overall I believe that all parts of my business concept fit really well together. This is due to that fact that my product is now designed directly given from feedback I received from interviews and I continuously try to improve it from the feedback given. The only part I feel is a little out of place may be the initial purpose of my product, which was to help relieve people of nicotine withdrawal symptoms, but as I am describing what I actually want from the product, I feel that I am really trying to help people get off nicotine as a whole due to the fact that the wearable doesn't have any nicotine in it. This would in turn relieve people of their symptoms, but then also help people quit as well.

Feedback Memo:
From the feedback received, I personally believed that I was heading in the right direction, but I should focus on more of a specific audience instead of just saying it was for anyone who used nicotine. This is true in a sense, so I tried to market it more towards people in school and the younger audience that needs help more I feel. Also, I tried to make the product more appealing by creating a necklace that would do the same thing as the bracelet because not everyone would prefer to wear a bracelet over a necklace.

18A – Create a Customer Avatar

My product targets mainly big pharmacies that can sell these products on their shelves to the potential consumer. My avatar is an 18 year old male that goes to UCF, a big school in central Florida. He grew up with a difficult childhood. Having divorced parents and having to split time between them. Regardless of this, he was able to go to a college he really wanted to go to. He didn't find it hard at all to make a bunch of friends and loved going out on weekends. From going out, he picked up a new habit of smoking a JUUL. Although this is the case, he drives his 2010 blue Mazda 3 to and from class and still tries his best in class. During class he usually ends up watching Netflix and specifically his favorite show, That 70's Show. Because his parents neglected him during his childhood he felt that whatever he does has no consequence. He always loves to go out and and can sometimes neglect his school work because of it.

I am similar to my avatar in many ways and I definitely don't think this is a coincidence. I created a character that had an amazing goal of going to a college that he really wanted to go to and I can really relate to that. Also, when I got to college I loved finding new people to hangout with and going out on weekends, just like the avatar I created. I feel like subconsciously when people have to create physical representations of a person they tend to get ideas from their own life and put that into their creation. I came up with this idea because I see nicotine addiction growing before my very own eyes and I feel like some people just need some help with their addiction.

17A – Elevator Pitch No. 2

Reflection on Feedback: I took the feedback from my peers and tried to implement a few minor changes that I hope are noticeable in this second try at my elevator pitch. The most useful tip I received from my peers was that in the first pitch I looked a little too stiff and almost robotic in a sense. I tried to lighten myself up and be more human in this pitch.

What I changed, based off feedback: What I did was that I tried to seem less like a robot. I did this just by calming myself down and trying to pretend that I am just having a normal conversation with someone, instead of just oddly speaking to the camera. I felt way more confident speaking and I feel like it flowed just a little bit better and I look more natural while I am talking. In addition, I also added some of what was said during the pitch. I felt that describing a little more in-depth about how I was planning on raising money for the company was really important in order to guide the potential consumers/investors towards benefiting my company financially. Finally, I feel like I stuttered a little on my words in this go, but I feel like it was important to upload this take because it felt the most real to me, rather than talking extra slow and potentially boring the listener. I now have an idea on how I need to improve for the next go at my elevator pitch.