Assignment 29 - Venture Concept No. 2

Innovation.

My innovation is incrementally groundbreaking, as people think of being fit is part of the lifestyle of the "rich and famous." Many people that have a low income do not see that eating healthy is attainable. My app is setting out to change that. I will have a large database of recipes around the $20 range for 4 servings of food all of which provide nutrition information and take under 30 minutes to make. I will also provide a map feature for users to access healthy take-out or delivery food. This will be able to be organized by location, price, allergens, and calorie level. The app itself I am hoping will only cost $1.99 for users to purchase.

Venture Concept. 

I believe customers will switch to my product because nobody offers the same services for this price, and few diet/lifestyle/health apps cater to those that are looking to remain in a certain budget. It should be an easy switch because they are not committing a large amount of money. Competitors could be programs like WeightWatchers or similar, but their price point is high for consumers in my market. Customer service I'm sure will play a key roll in the app development for bugs, reviews, etc. I am hoping that the price point will help the product distribute itself quickly. The venture, however, will start as me being the only real employee with a team of tech people to help with any app issues and nutrition experts helping me with that aspect of recipes. In addition to having healthy meal options I would like to incorporate some sort of fitness aspect to the app.

The Three Minor Elements.

Besides your actual innovative product, service, or process, what will you have that will make it hard for competitors to copy your success?

Nobody can replicate the experiences that I had in my lifetime. I had difficulty losing weight in high school and felt like I did not have the time and resources. This eventually sprouted a passion for nutrition and healthy, which is how the idea for this app came to be.

What’s next for the venture? 

I have considered adding some at-home or even in the office workout routines to the app for users looking to dive into exercise.

What’s next for you? Assuming you launched, where do you want to be in five years with this venture? Where do you want to be, as an entrepreneur, in the next decade, and how does this first venture help you achieve your vision?

I think that this venture helps me re-focus on my own health and prioritize myself in a way, again. As an entrepreneur I just want to be helping people reach their fitness and health goals. To me this is the stepping stone for that. I would love to eventually get a certification in nutrition and personal training in order to share my knowledge of that as well.

Summary of Feedback.

I, unfortunately, did not receive any comments or feedback on my last venture concept post, so I am not able to provide that information.

How did I change my venture concept?

With this version of my venture concept I decided to add in the fitness feature to my app, which will include possibly a few work outs for our users. I am still trying to figure out for sure how much I want to focus on fitness vs health foods.

Assignment 27 - Reading Reflection No. 3

• For my third and final reading reflection I chose to read something that I knew I would be interested in, so I read Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life by Lisa Chaney. I have always been interested in fashion and the people who create what we wear every day, so this was a natural book selection for me.

• What surprised you the most: Although I have always loved Chanel fashion, I had never questioned how Coco Chanel came to be, and what her early life was like. I was surprised to know that she was basically illiterate, and went through much struggle with her family life growing up. In a way knowing that she went through these things really made me admire her all that much more as a person and a designer.
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire: Like many of the entrepreneurs that we have read about this semester, Coco had an intense drive and would not give up on her dream. I find this extremely admirable and inspirational.
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire: The behaviour that I least liked about Coco Chanel after reading this novel was how she seemed to treat men throughout her lifetime. Often times I feel like men get a bad reputation for using women, but that seems to be exactly what she did with men.
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it: Coco had a very hard life growing up by normal standards. Her mother died when she was very young and her father abandoned her, leaving her to be raised by nuns. She used her charm and beauty as well as knowledge as resources to pull her out of the situation. She had a lot of drive as well, which she definitely needed throughout her life.

• What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?
• I would say that Coco Chanel had many competencies. She always had amazing foresight with fashion, but I think after reading this I would say that she was extremely resourceful and cunning as well.

• Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
• I did not feel like any part of the reading was particularly confusing, but I do question why Coco Chanel pushed her siblings away after losing her parents at such a young age.

• If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
• Coco Chanel clearly led a very interesting and abnormal life in the limelight for a good portion of her life due to her own success. I guess I would ask her if she regrets any part of how she got to where she was? Also, did she ever want to reveal her true self to the world and stop living under a facade? I feel like it must have been exhausting.

• For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur’s opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?
• I think it is clear that Coco Chanel had true ambition and drive with the vision that she had for fashion. I think that to her, hard work would consist of doing whatever it took to reach the goal in mind. I do not necessarily share this same opinion, as I do not agree with certain actions such as using people (such as men) to become more successful.

Assignment 28 - Your Exit Strategy

1) Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. 

I plan to stay with my business venture for a few decades most likely, and maybe even grow from just an app to a brand.

2) Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?

I plan to take this exit strategy because I have a true passion for health and fitness and believe that everyone should have access to living a healthier lifestyle no matter their income, how many hours they work, if they are single, married, etc. I love people improving their lives and how much of a happier person they become because they take matters into their own hands.

3) How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept? For instance, has it influenced how you have identified an opportunity? Has it influenced your growth intentions or how you plan to acquire and use resources?

I believe that my exit strategy and the reason why I came up with ReFresh in the beginning come from the same motive of loving health, and loving to be able to help people. It has definitely affected my vision for the app and how I want to market it.

Assignment 26 - Celebrating Failure

This Spring semester was actually a good semester for me, overall. However, there have been times where I felt like a failure because I did not complete things in the time that I had set out to do them. I also have failed at attending class every day like I set out to do.

Even though my lectures are recorded I find that I learn much better in a classroom environment, so I promised myself that I would attend class every day. I made it about halfway through the semester (which is longer than I've gone in the past), but stopped going right before the midterm to "take study time" and never went back after allowing myself out of the pattern. I had several mornings where I told myself I would wake up and go again, but it just didn't happen. I'm pretty disappointed with myself in this regard, because I know I always make better grades and retain the information better when I am in the actual classroom. Otherwise, I tend to get very distracted and do not focus on the lecture itself.

I am kind of embarrassed about this because I told a few close friends about my goal and I saw me just utterly fail at it. Generally when I fail at something I do get kind of frustrated, but I try not to hold on to that feeling for too long because I know it will do nothing good for me. Overall, I try to move on and just kind of improve myself in the future. So, although I have not yet reached my goal of attending class every day (for my recorded classes), I have made a bit of progress this semester and hope to do even better for Fall 2019.

Assignment 25 - What's Next?

Existing Market.

Step 1: I think that I could expand my venture from what it is when I feel I have enough experience in fitness.

Step 2: I walked around one of my classes and asked a few people (Erin, Samantha, and Rosie) what they thought I should do next after explaining to them my current venture, and all of them actually said that I should include some sort of fitness/exercise regimen if I was interested in expanding my idea. One of the girls also said I should make sure to include vegetarian/vegan options because of the popularity of that lifestyle.

Step 3: I was a bit surprised that everyone came up with the same conclusion that I came to, but I think in some way that is just the next logical step with something that is health related. Rosie leads a women's fitness group here at UF and thought that if I included fitness in the app as well it could be used as a supplement in addition to their weekly group exercises. 

I think to continue my venture I first need to learn more about nutrition and fitness myself, possibly even become certified so that I can best help my clients.

New Market.

Step 1: My new market would be wealthy individuals who are looking for a lifestyle change, or maybe travel a lot for business and need options for healthy eating.

Step 2: To market best to people that are wealthier I could include nutrition information even on air planes. Although I would have to charge them more, I could personalize the service more and even ask them where they are travelling so that I could collect information on the area and provide them with customized information on where the best location to eat would be for their needs.

Step 3: I know several people that are wealthy businessmen thanks to my brother, so I interviewed him and a colleague for this part of the assignment. They both were very interested in the customized health plan and were impressed by the length that I would go to help my clients but mentioned that this information might be difficult to acquire in some areas of the world.

Step 4: I had not thought of the fact that areas like Southeast Asia would have no way of tracking how they made their food, and many restaurants or places to eat would not even have websites or phone numbers to call them. 

I think that my expectations of personalized plans and treatment were correct, but I would need to come up with a better way to successfully create this service for them. I think that this market could be very profitable in the long run, but would have many more expectations from the services that they use and would overall be pickier. 

Assignment 24 - Venture Concept No. 1 - ReFresh

Opportunity. 

There is a need that many people have who have low income or not as much free time to find ways to eat healthier without committing lots of time/money. These people are mostly low-income families, students who frequently having to balance working and school, and working professionals who have long hours at work. Geographically these people can be found all over the country, but especially in areas where the cost of living is normally very high. This opportunity is unfortunately created by the low income to cost of living situations that exist. I do not think something like this currently exists, but people are always trying to find newer and easier ways to lose weight or be healthier, so this satisfies that need. I think that this opportunity will exist as long as we have a large wage gap in this country. 

Innovation.

My innovation is incrementally groundbreaking, as people think of being fit is part of the lifestyle of the "rich and famous." Many people that have a low income do not see that eating healthy is attainable. My app is setting out to change that. I will have a large database of recipes around the $20 range for 4 servings of food all of which provide nutrition information and take under 30 minutes to make. I will also provide a map feature for users to access healthy take-out or delivery food. This will be able to be organized by location, price, allergens, and calorie level. The app itself I am hoping will only cost $1.99 for users to purchase.

Venture Concept. 

I believe customers will switch to my product because nobody offers the same services for this price, and few diet/lifestyle/health apps cater to those that are looking to remain in a certain budget. It should be an easy switch because they are not committing a large amount of money. Competitors could be programs like WeightWatchers or similar, but their price point is high for consumers in my market. Customer service I'm sure will play a key roll in the app development for bugs, reviews, etc. I am hoping that the price point will help the product distribute itself quickly. The venture, however, will start as me being the only real employee with a team of tech people to help with any app issues and nutrition experts helping me with that aspect of recipes.

The Three Minor Elements.

Besides your actual innovative product, service, or process, what will you have that will make it hard for competitors to copy your success?

Nobody can replicate the experiences that I had in my lifetime. I had difficulty losing weight in high school and felt like I did not have the time and resources. This eventually sprouted a passion for nutrition and healthy, which is how the idea for this app came to be.

What’s next for the venture? 

I have considered adding some at-home or even in the office workout routines to the app for users looking to dive into exercise.

What’s next for you? Assuming you launched, where do you want to be in five years with this venture? Where do you want to be, as an entrepreneur, in the next decade, and how does this first venture help you achieve your vision?

I think that this venture helps me re-focus on my own health and prioritize myself in a way, again. As an entrepreneur I just want to be helping people reach their fitness and health goals. To me this is the stepping stone for that. I would love to eventually get a certification in nutrition and personal training in order to share my knowledge of that as well.

Assignment 23 - Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1. Uniqueness of venture idea: Although there are many apps that cater to health and budgeting, I have not yet found an app that attempts to help users that way that my venture does.
• Valuable: I think that this is valuable as it would the targeting a need that consumers do not have filled yet.
• Rare: It is rare for now.
• Inimitable: I am sure that someone else could think of a similar concept or copy mine in the future.
• Non-substitutable: There are plenty of other unique ideas out there that I'm sure would have similar pros and cons.
2. Social capital: Personal relationship with other people interested in promoting health and wellness.
• Valuable: I think that this is beyond valuable because they would be able to help me market my idea and spread the word of my app.
• Rare: Many people in the world have connections, it's not rare in-and-of itself. 
• Inimitable: Although my personal relationships cannot be copied plenty of people have other connections to friends/acquaintances that could benefit them similarly.
• Non-substitutable: I could get the word out in other ways.
3. Capabilities: I started out school going to culinary school, with a focus in nutrition.
• Valuable: Extremely valuable at coming up with cheap, tasty recipes for my app.
• Rare: Others do go to culinary school, but I think it does give me an edge for my app.
• Inimitable: Could be imitated, but would lack the same passion I have for food.
• Non-substitutable: General knowledge of food cannot substitute formal education.
4. Social capital: Contact with plenty of people that would be in my target market
• Valuable: I need to know what my customers want within the app, and how I can improve - so, very.
• Rare: Not very.
• Inimitable: Nobody can imitate the relationships that I have, but plenty of people have contact with college students and low-income households that would be using my service.
• Non-substitutable: Nothing can be substituted for direct contact with the market. 
5. Social capital: Several of my friends have degrees in nutrition.
• Valuable: For the recipes I post I would easily be able to check with them about nutrition content and overall health, along with calories.
• Rare: Not as rare for a college student, many of my friends are various majors.
• Inimitable: Many people possess degrees in nutrition.
• Non-substitutable: I could check nutrition facts for recipes online, but probably not overall health. Health is more than just calories.
6. Human capital: Experience: In high school I used to be very overweight, so I understand to some extent the struggle to be healthy.
• Valuable: Very. Many fitness/health gurus have never been seriously overweight or lacking funds and therefore many plans do not cater to people with these struggles.
• Rare: Somewhat. We are the most obese country.
• Inimitable: Many people are overweight, but fewer people remain consistent after weight loss.
• Non-substitutable: I think this is probably my most useful and non-substitutable resource.
7. Social capital: Several family member that I have work in app development and with computers. 
• Valuable: Very, they can help me design the app itself.
• Rare: Somewhat, the majority of people have not designed an app before.
• Inimitable: This familial relationship cannot be imitated.
• Non-substitutable: I could hire someone to help me with app design.
8. Social capital: I have been raised around people that created their own businesses and are entrepreneurs.
• Valuable: This made me realize how hard creating a start-up can be, but it also helped me see that it's the long-run that matters more. The results could be worth it for an idea that is well executed!
• Rare: Not extremely.
• Inimitable: Many people have created start-ups, so this is inimitable.
• Non-substitutable: This gives me insight that no other resource could.
9. Human capital: I am generally a pretty creative, visual person which I believe could benefit my app in the long run appearance-wise.
• Valuable: Very, some apps can be very unprofessional/unattractive.
• Rare: Not necessarily.
• Inimitable: Many people are creative and have beautiful apps.
• Non-substitutable: You cannot force or fake having and eye for when something is visually appealing. Some people do not have this quality.
10. Financial capital: In a way, because the app will be so accessible to many people at its low price point.
• Valuable: Many people believe they do not have access to a way to become healthier due to budget/time.
• Rare: Yes.
• Inimitable: It could be imitated in the future.
• Non-substitutable: This is the primary draw that I provide for consumers to use my app, so I do not think it is substitutable. 

I think my human resource of experience is the most valuable resource that I have because it allows me to empathize with my consumers and view things from their perspective as they go down their road towards healthier living.