What's Next

Existing Market 

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.

My Secret Sauce

1. Describe in five ways which my human capital is unique.

My time management and organization skills are big assets in my daily life. Beyond my engineering classwork, I am an officer for two different clubs (one that I founded), all of which requires a large amount of time. I plan my schedule factoring in spontaneous meet ups with friends and other unforeseen events, giving me time to complete everything I need.

When I become interested in something, I can spend large portions of my free time just learning about it. This quality of being passionately analytical, means that strive to know as much as I can about every aspect of something. How it works, why it's designed this way, etc. Which can lead to a better understanding of other things as well.

There are not many things that I can just pick up without much effort. This means I've developed a very good work ethic over time. If I want to do well on a class or give a good presentation, I know how hard I need to strive to accomplish the task.

If I feel that myself or someone near me is doing something wrong, I stop it. Though this can cause issues with certain people, overall I think it has a positive impact with myself and the people around me. Adherence to my personal ethics mean that I try to be  the best person I can to make other people's lives better, which I feel is an important endeavor.

Finally, I believe that I have a good leadership style. Most of it was developed during my years of Boy Scouts, where I served several terms in charge of the whole troop as well as worked my way towards Eagle Scout. This is continued today where I am a leader in my student organizations. As a leader, I feel my duty it to raise other people to their potential. It's about getting others to want to accomplish a goal, often by being the example others look towards.

2. Interview five people

My friend thought being analytical was a very strong trait I possess. I tend to dive into things ("nerd stuff" as she calls it) and try to understand everything I can about it.

My mom said I has a strong moral compass, as well as a drive to get stuff done. Particularly breaking a project into parts to make it more manageable. 

My dad also commented on my adherence to rules, though it can be a hindrance at times. Like my mom, he mentioned I do try to work ahead intelligently. He also commented on me diving into things I'm enthusiastic about to understand them, better.

This friend mentioned that I tend to focus more on work and getting it done compared to many others. He also said (alluding to my "obsession" with Star Wars), that I do tend to learn a lot about what interest me. 

They also mention that I tend to have a good work ethic. And like the others before, that I do get visibly passionate about things that interest me. 

3. Reflection

Based of these responses I do think people have similar thought about me. Particularly about being passionate about things (like Star Wars). I agree with what everyone said, even when certain traits, such as being a rule follower, can be bad. I don't think I would change much about my original list except maybe reordering them to more accurately reflect the most common traits people mentioned.

The Twenty Percent

1. I talked to a founder of Study Edge, who was able to give brief responses to my questions.

Who do you think your target customers are? 

UF students. All of them that are taking 1 of our 25 classes.

Where do you find your customers? 

All over campus. mainly word of mouth.

What are your customer's demographics? 

College freshman to juniors.

What kinds of media do your customers consume?

All kinds.

What are your customers' problems? 

Don’t’ like staring at textbooks or getting bad grades.

What are your customers currently doing to fix their problems? 

Studying, cheating (Hopefully not though), going to study edge, paying for private tutors.

How big, on a scale of 1-10, is this problem in your customers' lives? 

7 maybe.

What are some of the bigger problems your customers are dealing with? 

See above.

Do your customers have a budget allocated to fix these problem?

Not exactly. I doubt college students budget for tutoring.

2. Recordings

3. I think the entrepreneur does understand the problems of his customers. All people I interviewed were or had taken classes that study edge was offered. The two who did not use it felt that they didn't need it, were cost sensitive, or that the existing options (TAs and professors) would be fine. For students who feel any of those ways, it would be hard to get them to use any sort of extra tutoring. The person who was using it certainly seemed happy with the product, and said he uses it whenever he can.