Step 1. My current service is an alternative WiFi network for the University of Florida campus. It would use a mesh network, so the more people who use it, the bigger and more reliable the network becomes. The next step would be to expand to other college campuses where the WiFi is less than exceptional.
Step 2. Interviews
Step 3. Each college campus has customers that relatively quickly move out of the market. This is countered by a regular influx of new customers. So the primary goal in the existing markets is to keep up an advertising effort to keep new people trying the service. Though the service doesn't directly charge users, it does use advertising which means there needs to be a larger user base to be profitable.
Due to that need for a big audience, expansion to similar markets is a high priority. Fortunately, once the system is up and running there is a low fixed cost. So there will need to be a rapid expansion into other campuses at first to have a feasible user base. After that point is reached, expansion can be a bit more cautious and strategic.
New Market
Step 1. Following our customers as they move out of college and into cities and suburbs could be a new market to get into. By then, more then likely they would have more of an income, which means we could offer new services that would require a subscription.
Step 2. Some of these subscription services could include cloud file storage or cached videos from Netflix. Because these services would be hosted on a local network, their upload and download speeds would be faster. There could also be an ad free version, that would require a small subscription.
Step 3. Interviews
Step 4. Giving insensitive to the new market, such as providing a premium service to most of one area was something that did not occur to me. Due to the nature of the network, it works best with more people on it. So it would make sense to start with as many people as possible, even initially if it was at a lost.
The attractive thing about the new market is that the customers would be more willing to pay for services. The issue with going into to neighborhoods is that people will be moving outside the area much more frequently than compared to college campuses and cites. This makes the network, and the other services it provides, less practical for those people. In the end there would need to be some research before the service could go into different areas outside of campuses.
Hi Matthew!
ReplyDeleteI love your idea! I do think that the wifi here on campus is often times very unreliable. This causes a lot of problems for students when they're doing assignments, quizzes, or really anything that needs the internet. I'm not familiar with a lot of the lingo related to wifi and how you can better it, but this idea would certainly benefit ALL of UF students.
Check out my post if you have time: http://kristianasimon.blogspot.com/2016/04/whats-next-week-12.html
Matthew- this was really interesting. I don't know a whole lot about wifi and how big of a market it is. I do know that I become super frustrated when the wifi crashes, so this could really help! Great work!
ReplyDeleteDude you're my hero. If you could actually make this a thing, I would greatly appreciate it. I hate how terrible the UF wifi is. It takes forever to load and often times just randomly cuts out. I definitely agree that other university campuses could benefit from this as well but I'm not sure how successful it could be outside of college campuses. You'd be competing with large companies like Comcast and ATT. I really like the idea overall and I think it could certainly be profitable and beneficial in the right niche market.
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to mine if you'd like to check it out:
http://kalimcauleyentrepreneur.blogspot.com/2016/04/whats-next.html
Hey Matthew!
ReplyDeletePretty cool concept you have here. I know that the wifi on campus is a growing problem for many students so providing them with another means to get their work done faster is great! The only issues I see would be pricing relative to the students income and cooperation with the university. I am not sure if I am misunderstanding your idea, but it seems like you would be competing with the university to provide internet. If that is the case it might be difficult to get them to cooperate. Also, a lot of students don't have an income or at least not one capable of paying for a premium service such as yours so pricing might be an issue. Otherwise, great job on the post!
Hey Matthew, reading your blog post I really like your idea but I also agree with one of the person’s you interview. He mentioned that you had to provide incentives or a way to get students to switch from UF’s wi-fi to the alternative wi-fi you are trying to create. One of the main things I see with creating an alternative wi-fi is having the right people to work tech support. Unfortunately, I was not able to complete this assignment, here is the link to my blog, feel free to check it out
ReplyDeletehttp://ent1646.blogspot.com
I think this sounds like a cool idea, but unfortunately, I am not too tech savvy so I do not know much about these things. I do think that the University's wi-fi can be unreliable sometimes, but I personally have never really had an issue with it. If this network that you proposed is better, than by all means, I'd rather use it! Unfortunately, I did not make a What's Next post, but I certainly enjoyed reading yours!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really great idea! I'm not exactly sure what a mesh network is or how exactly it works, but from what you explained it sounds awesome! I would definitely check out something like this, since UF wifi can be unreliable. It was especially a problem my freshman year, since I lived in a dorm and the UF wifi was really the only thing I could use. The only issue I could see is the university trying to prevent you with competing against them. However, you should definitely try this idea out! If you'd like to take a look at my blog, you can check it out here: http://nicmcq.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteHi Matthew! I really enjoyed reading through your post and listening to your interviews. I think you asked very thoughtful questions and you definitely got some great feedback! I currently work at the UF Computing Help Desk, which provides customer service to students who use UF Wifi. So I would potentially be one of your competitors haha. However, I do think you have a great idea and I think it would take off, especially if you get as many people as possible to use the network so it would work better. Over all, great job! Check out my blog at http://morganjohnsonblog.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI think you asked some really good questions to the people you interviewed. It was great to hear some of the ideas from different perspectives and I think you have a good opportunity to be successful in opening up your business. You were so fluent in your interviews and got some great responses because of it. You made the people feel comfortable which related in great responses. Great post
ReplyDelete