Week 8 Reading Reflection

What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? What stood out the most as different from your expectations?

The biggest surprise for me was the part about the myths of venture capital because I believed many of those myths were true. For example, I would have expected the majority of funding for a entrepreneurs start up to be from venture capital, but that is actually just a myth.

Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

The most confusing part of this chapter was when the author discussed the notification and non-notification plans. I understand that this applies to when using accounts receivable as collateral, but it still confuses me.

If I were able to ask the author two questions, these would be them:

1. Why would a company choose to work with private placements?
2. What exactly is a venture capitalist and why do they exist?

Was there anything you thought was wrong that the author said? Where do you disagree with them? How?

I think the first thing that sticks out to me is the different myths that were disproved. I agree with all of them, which is that the venture capitalist doesn't want to own the business. The reason I disagree is that shows like Sharktank show that investors are looking to become at least part equity-owners and to have a say in the decisions.

Half-Way Reflection

Being tenacious is one of the important characteristics of Entrepreneurs. They do not care if they fail, they are confident that they will succeed in the near future, despite their current circumstances.

1. Tenaciousness is a skill

In order to keep up with the demands of the schedule for this class, I have had to set up a calendar and stick to it, or else I wouldn't be able to complete all the activities on time, and unfortunately I haven't done a great job at this. Moving forward, I hope to learn how to use my calendar to my advantage, and not my demise. Often I put off everything and do not use these deadlines to my advantage, but I am slowly learning how to develop this skill.

2. Tenaciousness is also about attitude

Every time I see a video assignment that I am supposed to work on, I look at it and feel like giving up. But in reality, this is a class I need in order to graduate and this thought has pushed me to be tenacious and dedicated to my work and my education. I feel like over the last few months, I have learned how to give up activities for my responsibilities, like I haven't had to in the past, which has been great at pushing me toward being an entrepreneur. There are so many deadlines for this class and experiencing the defeat of not abiding by them has pushed me into a more tenacious mindset. 

3. Three tips

- Do not just write everything in your calendar. Set individual deadlines for each part of the assignment. This way, you will not be forced to turn in a poor assignment, right before the deadline assigned. 

- Do not be a YES man. What I mean by this is that, sometimes it is better to say no to one thing in order to finish the responsibilities you have. As college students, it is very easy for me to say YES to every person or opportunity that is pulling me in one direction.

- Do not expect to be perfect and; expect to fail. If you always believe you will do everything exactly as assigned, the first time, you will eventually fail and this will often take away opportunities for success in all your classes. Expect failure and try to minimize those occurrences.

Week 7 Reading Reflections

The first thing that I noticed that surprised me were how they targeted people through advertising. They didn't just put people in their advertisements using their products; they put in people who customers would want to look like or be. These people were supposed to be like their customers or be for people looking to change to more desired features. You can see this type of advertising specifically with make-up and night attire advertisements, that highlight the female body.

The thing that confused me the most was most of the graphs and diagrams, specifically the Gravity of Decision Spectrum. I didn't really understand the variables they used and how they related.

If I could ask the writer two questions, they would be:

1. How do you determine which market to target that will make the most revenue and what tactics are used to determine this?
2. Are you truly able to obtain a market share in every type of market or must you choose a few selected markets?

The author seems to be focusing on how the culture we live in is dynamic and never stops changing. I believe he is completely correct about how our market is and doesn't say anything that I question or disagree with.

Elevator Pitch #2

Most of the feedback I received was positive and made me think my idea was implementable in the future if I chose to pursue it. The feedback that I mainly received was about my focus on the UF student community. Something I didn't think about that someone mentioned was that its often not easy to just build a new garage for more cars.

The first change I implemented in this pitch was that I didn't mention the health benefits because students mainly care more about the service and less about the health benefits. The second change I made was that I continued to highlight the service, but I shifted my focus more to the UF student community than to the city of Gainesville like I did in my last pitch.

Idea Napkin No.1

You: My name is Walter Huffstutler and I am a third-year, Sports Management major at the University of Florida. I am from Lakeland, FL and now live in Gainesville, FL. I love sports and have been blessed to be pretty athletic. I played basketball, football, and baseball in high school. I am heavily involved in a Christian organization, CRU, and have served as the prayer team leader for that organization this year and even traveled to Paris to be a missionary my freshman year. I love to travel and enjoy new places around Florida and the rest of the World. I love to listen and go to concerts and hear music from different bands, especially at High Dive. As I have mentioned, I aspire to work with the YMCA in the future and have secured an internship with them for next spring. In regards to my business idea, I am excited to start a reusable bicycle company so that transportation can be more readily available, to increase sustainable living, and to promote health. If I were to start this business, I would love to move it to whatever city I move to in hopes of creating an environmentally-friendly, healthy community for all residents.

Offering to Customers: As a college student, we often are in sticky situations where we do not have transportation or the scooter or car we own is in the shop. With this being such a common need for students, we are going to be providing a bike system that will have stations set up around the campus. Students will be allowed to rent these bikes and return them at any station around campus for a certain price, which will help them with their immediate need of transportation. Our bike system will be set up so that students can use these bikes whenever and all they have to do is swipe their debit card and they have unlimited access to anywhere in the city. Another idea would be that we could create certain bikes with heavy-duty baskets on the back so that students can put their groceries in them if they wanted to use our bikes for that purpose. 

Audience Offered to: Our local Gainesville audience would be primarily students as they are more often the people in need of quick transportation. These students would generally be between 18 and 21 years of age and be pursuing their bachelors degree at the University of Florida. Generally, our product is marketable to people that do not have an operable scooter or car. These students all have stressful lives and tend to very busy people. Most of our audience would be for people who live on campus or very close to campus. 

Why Care: The reason students will choose to use our service is that so often students are stuck walking from Heavener Hall to Hume or from their dorm to the commuter lot. These students would greatly benefit from the saved time using a bike. Another reason they would use our service is that the only transportation that can be rented is the Zip Cars and they are so expensive and are not feasible for parking in most places that students need to go. Students also will pay money for this service because it promotes a healthier life and an environmentally sustainable life. 

Core Competencies: The reason that our business could be so successful is that this is a need for our community and their is no one currently in the market for satisfying this need. For example, we would be the only bike system on campus that would provide instant traveling ability. Our business model competes with that of Zip Car, Taxis, and Uber, but the significance of our brand is that we provide instant access to bikes when students want them and they do not have to wait thirty minutes for a bus or Uber. 

Evaluation: I believe these elements all fit together. I currently exist in this need and their is nothing able to satisfy this need if you are not blessed to have a car or scooter or bike and need to get across campus in ten minutes. Because of my personal knowledge of this issue, I know this solution would be appealing to myself. I have friends that have expressed this need to be fixed by the university and I believe other students would jump at this opportunity and that they would value the saved time they would be receiving, as well as, the promotion of living a healthier, more environmentally-friendly life.

Week 5 Reading Reflection

One of the things that surprised me the most was how Moonlight U.S.A decided to expand into the United States and that as an entrepreneur, we have to make decisions that can provide innovative opportunities to grow and make more revenue. I didn't even think about how just bringing your company to a new country can grow opportunities so much.

The book lists many questions that entrepreneurs must answer before starting a business, which include employee turnover, target sales, and delivery times. Something that really confuses me is how an entrepreneur is supposed to know those things before he opens the business in the early stages.

I have many questions that I would love to ask this author. My first question would be whether or not be started his own company. My next question is: if so, how did he figure out all those questions I spoke of earlier before starting that business. I believe he would give me some insight into having and entrepreneurial mindset.

There wasn't anything in this chapter that I disagreed with, but I was surprised by some of the examples he used to show the difficulty and fun of a start up venture.

Elevator Pitch No. 1

Hey All,



The name of my company is Ez2Bike and we will be promoting reusable bikes for the community that help with transportation around the city. This will help with environmental issues that excess cars produce and will help to minimize traffic. With so many students being forced to live off-campus, there is a huge issue in our community with transportation. Some people are blessed to have a car, scooter, and bike, but most of us are not. With this in mind, I believe it is important to fix this problem. We all have experienced that horrible moment when you can't find a spot and your class or exam starts in ten minutes, and this is something that must be fixed. My solution is that we implement a pay-as-you-go biking system that will allow for the reuse of bikes in order to transport to your class quickly. Theses biking stations will be set up all over the city so that you can return a bike at any of the stations and this will really help out the college community.

What we need now are investors, willing to help fund this idea. Please check out the video below for my details: