Venture Concept #1

Opportunity: 
 If you have sat at home, belly empty and grumbling, so hungry that your stomach is literally screaming for attention then my product is like a match made in heaven. My product the "I'm Hungry" app, of which is available on multiple platforms, is designed directly for college students that live on or near their campus. This service is meant for those who do not have access to a car or reliable transportation to the grocery store but it isn't limited to just them. For instance, if you do have a car but just don't have the energy to get out of bed, trust me I have been there, with a simple click through my app you will have the ingredients needed to make a perfectly nutritious meal. The reason why I am offering this service is because I saw an opportunity. When young adults come to these college campus the excitement of living on your own and finally being away from parent supervision leads them to overlook certain details about being on your own. One detail being that now you are responsible for feeding yourself. When I got to college, I was ill prepared and the first week I was here I ended up getting really sick. Part of the blame I put on not feeding myself the proper nutrients that a growing adult needs. I had no idea what to cook and how to cook it. I have always had the assumption that a hot and ready meal will be ready for me when I get home because that is the luxury I have been living in but when I got to college I was sadly mistaken.
Innovation:
This is where my product comes in.  It is meant for those kids who just don't understand what it means to be a young adult and they need a little help. The service I am offering is an app that would be available across multiple platforms. This app harnesses a plethora of recipes that will list the exact nutritional make up of each ingredient. The consumer will be allowed to search through each and once they find something that is interesting, with a clock of a button, they can have the exact ingredients delivered to their doorstep. How does this happen? This is where the magic happens. This is where an employee of mine will actually go to the grocery store and shop for you. They will pick up the exact ingredients and proportions of each that you list. Then once picked up, they simply drop off your ingredients and you can get to cooking. Now you might be asking how will food being delivered to someone who doesn't know how to cook help them? Easy! Within the app you have the option to read the recipe and it will tell you step by step, with video descriptions, on how to cook each ingredient. With today's increased technological presence this app allows for the simple transition from child to a young adult that can take care of themselves. All you have to do is pay for your groceries through an online portal and then pay the delivery fee, this is the revenue that my company will use to hire drivers and allocate to resources.
 Venture Concept:
Now step back, How does this sound to you? Pretty good huh? Exactly, with this product you won't ever have to wait in the long lines of Publix or have to deal with putting on pants so that you look "appropriate" out in public. Why listen to the nags of others that you are wearing your pj's out in public when you can just stay in and still get food. Additionally, the benefit of ordering groceries instead of ordering fast food or delivery food is endless. To start the health benefit of cooking over eating processed food like burgers will help a college student eat nutritious. Being a college student is tough. Having to deal with juggling your studies and also having a social life can get tricky, so don't let the ease of having fast food get to you because the freshman 15 is real. Instead, order groceries, have ingredients to make a delicious and nutritious meal delivered to you so that you can learn how to cook and how to take care of yourself.  At first this may be a hard task to ask college students but eventually (once the money runs out) I have all the reason to believe that my service will be beneficial. My competitors would be other delivery services such as Domino's or Papa John's but the nutritional value of the products you can by with my service compared to delivery food is very one-sided being groceries having the upper hand.
Three Minor Elements:
1. My  most important resource would be the laziness of college students. Let's be real if you were told that you didn't have to do something you didn't want to do for a small fee you will probably take that offer. This is the case for groceries, no one likes going to the grocery store. It seems you always see someone you know there and you are always bogged down by the long lines.
2. The next thing for my company would be to research into proper transportation for hot and cold items. Currently I would see having a cooler to be our number one tool when transporting ingredients but what if we could deliver things hot too? Say for instance someone orders a steak meal and for them we heat up the steaks, or get them ready. How can we do this? My idea would be to invest in a warmer or an oven like cooler sized instrument that can store food during the transportation to your doorstep.
3. In five years my company has so much potential that it could be a household name when discussing useful apps. One day this service may not be limited to college campuses and perhaps bigger cities and deliver the food to residential neighborhoods. In five years my biggest goal would be to partner with the university to ensure that college students know about my product. I think getting my name out there is my biggest hill I need to climb in order to be successful.

Amazon Whisperer

1. Currently, the revenue drivers for my company. "I'm Hungry" is the delivery service fee which covers the labor that is needed to buy the groceries, deliver the groceries, and the costs of delivering the groceries like gas and driver's insurance.
2. A potential product that I can align with my business may be a cooking utensil that makes it easy for college students to prepare meals and perhaps store their meals for further use.
3. I think this will enhance my service because the whole idea of the company is to get students cooking for themselves and be self sufficient instead of always ordering take-out. With this potential cooking utensil that could cook and store the food you make in a manner that is simple enough and time efficient in order to fit into the busy schedule of a college student.
4. The item I found is a cooler shaped product that you plug into an outlet and it heats up your food.
   

Hot Logic 16801060002 Mini-Mac Personal Portable Oven, Green

5. The customer reviews for this product were fantastic. It had 725 reviews on Amazon and still had a 5 star rating. I think that is pretty impressive. What customers raved about the most was the fact that it was a good alternative to using a microwave and it was portable. The biggest complaint people had was that they should make it available in a car port option instead of the traditional outlet plug. 

6. That being said, with a product similar to this I could make it usable in the car, that way a driver could pick up hot items from the grocery store and still deliver this item in the hot package so that the customer doesn't have to worry about it. 

7. I think that this product would make a good addition to my service because I think a big complaint for college students, especially those who live in dorms, is the fact that they can't store food and cook food in efficient ways. With this product you can basically kill two birds with one stone, you have a container that can store foods and transport them, and you also have a device that will heat your food up in this container. 

I had no idea this product even existed and when I did find it on Amazon I was so amazed by it that I had to place an order for one. So currently I am waiting for the shipment to come in and I'm very excited. 

Week 11 Reading Reflection

1. The most surprising part of the reading was all the different types of innovation one could have.
2. With that being said, I also found some of the innovations a tad bit confusing for instance: Architectural innovation.
3. Two questions:
 1. What are your personal tips for inspiring innovation?
 2. What is the most common type of innovation that he uses?
4. I did not disagree with anything the author had to say. I found it to be very informative and interesting.

My Unfair Advantage

1. Optimism:
 My optimism is a great tool for me to use because it means I will look at things positively instead of realizing the negatives in every situation. I find this valuable and in some cases very rare because of how society seems to be very negative about everything. We live in an age of complaining and I think optimism can get us out of that. I don't think optimism can be substituted for something better because there is nothing like being optimistic.
2. Organization:
 I have very good organizational skills which keeps me on top of things and helps me manage my life. This is valuable because it means I won't miss out on opportunities presented to me. Nowadays due to the way technology works it is very easy to be organized and there are other tools you can use if you are not organized. Having a secretary or buying a calendar can help someone be organized.
3. Competitive drive:
 I am a very competitive person and I like to stop at nothing (within reason) to achieve a goal. This is valuable because this means when the going gets tough I will not stop working. Most successful people have this same drive as I do. Competitive drive can be a could trait to copy from your role model. I don't think you can substitute being competitive with anything else.
4. Selflessness:
 I found myself to be very selfless which is valuable because this means I will put others in front of myself. Some people like to fake this trait but there are multiple people that share this trait with me. It isn't hard to copy others and that's why people fake this trait.
5. Laziness:
 At first this doesn't seem like this trait is very good but I find it to be very valuable because it leads me to find easy ways to complete a task. This trait is very rare because there are a lot of people that are lazy. Being lazy is probably the easiest trait to copy from others.
6. Brotherhood:
 Having a brotherhood behind me is one of my most valuable resources because it means I have people that I can count on. This isn't that rare because there are many people who have a support system behind them, mine just comes from my fraternity but others could come from their family, friends or other groups.
7. Location:
 My location is one of the key elements to my delivery service because it is meant for college students. There aren't many cases where the entire city (Gainesville) is absorbed by the college like University of Florida is. This means that the entire city is basically college students and people that work at or for the university. This is a perfect market for my app.
8. People's skill:
 I love to talk to people and I thrive on having small talks with random strangers. This is a valuable resource because it could lead to a good form of advertisement for my company. Nowadays, people are very shy and don't like to branch out and they get by doing this by hiding behind a facade on the Internet.
9. Creativity:
 I find my creativity to be very valuable because it means that I find other ways to work around a problem. I enjoy thinking of things people don't because it seems like most people like to just live off the success of others instead of finding it for yourself. Creativity is very hard to replicate because you either have it or you do not.
10. Leadership:
 I like to lead people but I also like to be led. I find this to be valuable because it means that I am not shy in front of others and it could lead me to being a great manager. Being a leader is hard and for that reason it is rare to find and hard to imitate. Other resources can be used like hiring a board to make decisions.

My top resource is my creativity. My creativity lets me look at things in different ways than the average person. It allows me to use my other skills in the best way possible. For instance because I am creative I can afford to be lazy because I will find easier and more efficient ways to complete something. I thrive on the saying, "Work smarter, not harder".

Growing My Social Capital

A. Domain expert: Paul Kath 

Mr. Kath was my little sister best-friends father. Being her older brother, I was in charge of dropping of my sister at Mr. Kath's home. Because of this, Mr. Kath felt it be safe to leave his number with me in case of emergency. Mr. Kath was the manager of the local Publix back home and could lead to information about sales and the target market.  I contacted Mr. Kath through text message to see if he liked the idea I had. 

B. Market expert : Michael from G2G

 This one seemed a little challenging at first because I did not who I could contact. Then my hunger drove in and I ordered a pizza. Behold an opportunity. I asked the delivery guy what he thinks about delivery services in Gainesville. Then I gave him my pitch.  He gave me his managers number and told me to contact him in order to talk more. With more information about delivery services I will be able to determine which zones are worth limiting my product to 

C. Supplier : Tom Puma

 I met Mr.Puma when I worked for an ice cream shop on Sanibel island. He is a resource supplier for the ice cream shop and would have to contact his supplier to have the proper shipments to our local business. He would come into our shop a lot and would love to make small talk. One day our conversation lasted longer than usual and it ended up in an exchange of contact information. I emailed Mr. Puma because he has the contact between a large supplier, Cisco. 

Reflection: 

 I thought this assignment was worthwhile. The people I contacted were not exactly close to me so it took a lot of confidence to reach for the phone. However the way each contact handled the situation made it seem like this has happened before. It showed me that other people are just as willing to grow their circle as I am. 

Week 10 Reading Reflection

1. I was not too surprised by this week's reading, a lot of the information I have learned from prior classes.
2. Because I have studied financial accounting, I understood the reading.
3. Two questions for the author:
       1.  What is the worst punishment an executive can receive from falsifying records?
       2.  Is it better to do in house accounting or having an outside source control the financial reports.
4. I did not find any disagreements with the reading.

Elevator Pitch #3

1. The pitch.

  
2. A reflection on the feedback you received from your last pitch
 I think the feedback I received was very important to me because it made me realize that I was too broad with my market. Both peers that reviewed my previous pitch agreed that I should really point out that I am aiming to make this a college friendly product and the first of its kind. 
3. What did you change, based on the feedback?
 Based on the feedback, like I said earlier, I focused my pitch around the aspect of the app being dorm friendly. I also tried a different camera angel to get a better look at my stance and professionalism. 

Week 9 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

 I as surprised by how much marketing tools there are in order to perceive your product. I now realize how important it is to know your market and how your market reacts to different headlines and such. 

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

One general concept that I find to be confusing is how people are supposed to know there market before doing any research. How do you get a good idea of your market? 

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

1. What is the most common misused marketing research tool?

2. Can you over market your product?

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

I did not disagree with the author other then the fact that the cent differences really make a difference. From my small shopping experience, whether a product ends in a odd or even number makes no difference as long as the price is right. 

My Secret Sauce

Describe five ways in which you think you have human capital that is truly unique
1. I have no problem looking back on a situation and making it clear that I was in the wrong but then laughing at my flaws. 
2.  I liked to look at small details within a situation because I like to use my detective and reasoning skills to infer more information.
3. I love to be sarcastic because I think satire is one of the best forms of communication ever used. 
4. I grew up in a large family that has created this sense of competitiveness in me.
5. I differ in sorts that I think I do some of my best writing in high pressure situations. 

 Interview the five people who know you the best.

1. The first interviewer was my little sister, Angela. My key takeaway from this interview is that she thinks I am a great person to be around because I am optimistic but goofy about it.
2. The second interview was with my girlfriend. Gillian pointed out that I liked to look at the small details of things because of my business minded brain. 
3. The third interview is with my little brother, Kenny. Kenny thinks what makes me stand out is that I do not mind being the odd man out. 
4. The forth interview is with my other little brother, Kyle. Kyle says plainly that I stand out because I like to put my life on hold in order to better someone else's. 
5. The fifth interview is with my mother. The key points that my mother pointed out was that I had a kind personality and that I have no problem helping others. 

Reflect on the differences
After talking to my family members and my girlfriend it makes me happy to know that my closest people all think highly of me. I liked the fact that my girlfriend, arguable the closest person to me knows that I like to point out things others don't realize. I think my family as a whole would agree with my points that I made and you can roughly see that through the interviews. If I were to redo my previous list I don't think I would change a thing because what my family said reflected these points. 

Idea Napkin #2

1. My name is Kevin Leddy. I have many talents that include being able to work in a team environment while also be able to take a lead role in a particular group. I am very easy to have a conversation with meaning I will be very approachable in terms of asking for instructions from my team members.  I think this business would help me make an impact for students here at the University of Florida which I find to be key for my time here. Not to long ago I had no desire to make myself be healthy but with a new attitude adjustment I was able to realize that cooking healthy alternatives is not too hard or expensive. This is what I want to broadcast to the masses through my product.
2. The product that I want to make is an app that is called "I'm Hungry" within this app that would be available to Apple and Android products, a student would be able to search through a wide variety of recipes from beginner to advanced recipes in terms of instructions. The special thing about this app is if you were to want to make one of these recipes, you would simply click a button and type in your information to have the groceries delivered to your address in Gainesville. We would also have a program that would allow for a weekly menu plan that will outline what you should be eating and with a click of a button you can receive them. 
3. I am offering this app to students in Gainesville because of the problems with parking, it would be very beneficial for students to leave their cars at home. However this eliminates the ease of getting food. But with "I'm Hungry" you can have your food delivered to you.
4. I think this product would be valuable because their are a lot of students that do not bring their car to campus (who live on campus) and have to resort to eating at the dinning halls or fast food but eating out can get very unhealthy. So to solve this, they can have their groceries delivered to them and a way to teach them how to make good meals.
5. I think that what sets us apart from any ordinary delivery business is that with a regular food delivery the food you are getting are unhealthy and usually expensive. College students are poor so a cheap alternative to this while also giving them the education on how to cook can be beneficial to many.

In final analysis, I think that all the elements of my business do work very well. I think that there is a huge need for a clean food delivery alternative in the Gainesville area and with the aspects of this service, these needs can be solved. I think the huge dependency on cell phones also increases the chance for success of my business idea.

After reading my feedback I am pleased to know that my peers think highly of my idea. Some things that I got from reading the feedback was that the portion about being a healthy alternative to delivery should be a focal point in my business idea. I also was shown that there is already software that allows for a weekly recipe to be sent to customers. One of my peers like the fact that my company would help solve what she is also trying to solve: parking on campus. All in all, I enjoyed reading my feedback because it allowed me to reorganize my business plan in order to truly cater towards the market I am going for. One benefit of having my peers read over my work is that they are also the main market for my company.