Entrepreneurship Blog

1) What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing? I think that there are two things that have stuck the most out for me in this course, the first one was our first big assignment: coming up with a business idea. Coming up with an app to reduce food waste was, I have to say, my proudest accomplishment. As I’ve said several times, helping our planet and feeling that responsibility to do something has been ingrained in me since I was a child. Having been able to come up with a business idea that centers around that concept was extremely gratifying and I truly believe that I will move forward and try to perfect this idea with the help of my uncle. The second experience, which was mostly formative, was reaching out to my uncle. I learned a lot from him and realized that I didn’t have to go too far to find someone w...

OPPORTUNITY ·       Food waste is not a new problem, however there has not been a solution to it. Other than articles written on how to be more conscious about food purchases, nothing has been implemented to truly target and help minimize the issue. ·       The heart of the issue is that people tend to forget food they have bought which then ends up expiring and going bad before they can use it. ·       A study in 2017 by the Natural Resource Defense Council showed that an average of  3.5 pounds of food per person  was wasted at home every week across the three most populated cities in the United States. ·       Food waste is a problem that costs the average family of four at least $1,500 per year. And it results in massive amounts of wasted water, landfill use, climate pollution and other environmental damage. ·       The market consists of t...

1)     Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. Do you intend to sell your business in the next 5 years for a large return? Do you intend to stay with the business for several decades and retire? Do you intend to protect the venture as a family business, and pass it down to your children? This business I believe to be more of a personal venture, rather than a professional one. My intentions would be to stay with the business and hopefully see the impact I intend for it to make. I made it free because for me this business was made primarily to create an external impact not for my own benefit. 2)     Why have you selected this particular exit strategy? I selected this particular exit strategy because I want to see how my app will take form and serve as a change and relief for the food waste issue. I would like to be part of the growth and improvement of the app and maybe even be able to learn from it. 3)     How do you think your e...

Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky 1)     What was the general theme or argument of the book? The book basically brings about the argument that if individuals engage with collaborative activities during their free time, rather than consumptive ones, then a lot of value could be created. 2)     How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003? I remember in class that we were told to try to think from a customer’s perspective; meaning that we should try to think about what a consumer’s needs and wants are. At one point in the book Shirley talks about how sometimes instead of thinking this way, people think of the explicit characteristics of a product/service which blinds them from understanding what the customer actually wants the product/service for. 3)     If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve? I think it would be...

1)     Tell us about a time this past semester that you failed -- whether in this class, or outside of this class. Don't spare any details! It'd be even better if there was something you tried several times this semester and failed each time.  ·       I had heard that Marketing was not as easy as people suspected it to be, so I came into the class being mentally prepared for it to be more difficult than I had originally suspected. However, I was not prepared for failing to meet my own expectations. ·       I had expected for the class to require more of my time and effort, so I was prepared to accept that I would need to study more in order to keep an acceptable grade in the class. I always try to aim for an A, and when that’s not what I get, I’m usually disappointed in myself. However, I also came into the class being prepared to possibly get a low B, which I believed to be the lowest grade I’d allow myself to g...

Existing Market.  Since my venture has a very straightforward structure it was a bit difficult for me to think about what else to incorporate into it. I then thought that perhaps there could be a way of tracking how much progress a user has made; this is something that could be done that I have not planned on doing. In other words, the app could track how much food and money the user has saved. The way it would work would be that the user would be asked – once the expiration date for the item arrives- whether or not they used the item or not. Depending on what they respond, the app will track how much they have saved, in terms of food and money. New Market. I was thinking of adding an extra feature to my venture which would open it up for B2B. I had been planning on incorporating a shopping service within the app. I would like to team up with food/grocery delivery service apps so that when the expiration date is approaching for a food item, the user will automatically be giv...

OPPORTUNITY ·       Food waste is not a new problem, however there has not been a solution to it. Other than articles written on how to be more conscious about food purchases, nothing has been implemented to truly target and help minimize the issue. ·       The heart of the issue is that people tend to forget food they have bought which then ends up expiring and going bad before they can use it. ·       A study in 2017 by the Natural Resource Defense Council showed that an average of  3.5 pounds of food per person  was wasted at home every week across the three most populated cities in the United States. ·       Food waste is a problem that costs the average family of four at least $1,500 per year. And it results in massive amounts of wasted water, landfill use, climate pollution and other environmental damage. ·       The market consists of t...

1.      Spectrum of Audience: Valuable: Since my idea has the potential of reaching a wide variety of people it will help get many to use it Rare: It is not rare, since many other products are also used by a wide variety of people Inimitable: It is easy for an app to apply to a wide range of people. Non-substitutable: This is not the only app that can reach a big audience. 2.      Uniqueness of App: Valuable: It is valuable because it is something that almost all people struggle with but have not known how to deal with. Rare: This app would be the first of its kind in the market Inimitable: I believe that the concept of my app could be easy to replicate. Non-substitutable: I have not seen a product/app in the market that offers a simple yet versatile solution to this problem. In fact, I haven’t seen anything that helps people tackle this problem other than tips written in articles. 3.      Close Relatio...

1. Link:   https://youtu.be/ORVbgYcqPag 2. Reflection: After reading my second set of feedback I knew that the facts had to stay in, as they were doing their job of grabbing people's attention. I stayed consistent with dressing formally and I also made sure to explain exactly how the app works.  3. Now having done it three times I definitely feel like it flows better. I definitely feel more comfortable in front of the camera and I can say that I feel more confident in delivering the pitch to an audience.

Mindset: The New  Psychology  of Success by Carol Dweck 1)     What was the general theme or argument of the book? The theme of the book is that there are two different types of mindsets: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. A fixed mindset sees effort and failure as negative, while the growth mindset sees effort as an admirable trait and failure as a learning opportunity. 2)     How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003? I felt like it connected with what I am learning in class relating to receiving feedback. You can either receive feedback with a positive attitude and see how it will help you grow and improve, or you can receive it with a negative attitude and feel upset that what you did was perhaps not good enough. I also feel like the concept of the book enhanced what I am learning in class because as we have seen, entrepreneurship is not for the weak. Entrepreneurs are resilie...

1)     Describe five ways in which you think you have human capital that is truly unique.    1)     Ability to get along with others. Unlike many people I know, I don’t have a group of friends that I stick with but rather I am friends with several different people and consider myself to be a very open and inclusive person. It’s really easy for me to get along with others, kids, teens, young adults, middle aged people…it doesn’t matter who you are, what you look like, where you are from or how different you are from me, I love meeting new people and creating new relationships. 2)     Organized. Sometimes too much. I have calendars everywhere, about 3 in my room, not including my agenda and the one on my phone. I love planning my days, even to the minute if I can. I try to be as organized as possible with my work so I’m not stressing out last minute and so I can be ahead. 3)     Integrity. My values are what I...