Final Reflection

    I had a really great time during the ENT 3003 class. Reflecting back on all the experiences that I had along the way, I think that this class really helped me develop a new way of thinking by exposing me through a variety of different experiences through the assignments. The elevator pitch assignments, the growing your social capital assignment and the reading reflection assignments were some of the experiences that I enjoyed the most. All the assignments designed for the course have worked together in helping me develop an entrepreneurial mindset. The peer reviews have really helped in developing that entrepreneurial mindset. One fun fact that I learnt from the class is that finding an unmet need is actually more difficult that finding the solution to the problem itself. For the students who are going to take this class in the future, I would like to recommend them to treat the assignments as if you working to start your first business rather than just doing for the sake of completion of the assignment. In that way, one can be able to learn a lot of valuable aspects of entrepreneurship.

Venture Concept No.2

Opportunity:

The opportunity that my venture seeks to take advantage of is a result of unmet need of two groups of people. The first being the group of people between the age group of 18 to 21. This consists mostly of undergraduate students. Many undergraduate students, especially out-of-state and international students, do not own a car or do not have access to it due to certain reasons. As a result, they need to rely on other sources for traveling. A majority of car rental companies currently have a minimum age requirement of 21. Due to this, this particular segment of market is left out and cannot access this service as easily.

Furthermore, most car rental companies require the customers to return the back to its original position. Due to this, people who are searching for a mode of transport for one-way trips are also left out. Most common example for such scenario is for a person who travels to airports frequently. Taking a cab every time can become expensive very easily. Another example of such a scenario is when a person needs a vehicle only to reach a place and get back, but would be spending a week or more at the location but won’t be using the vehicle. Under the current terms for car rentals they would still have to pay the rent for the entire duration of their stay.

Both these segments are currently relying on cab services as a solution to the problem. The people in focus over here are currently partly satisfied with their solution in the form of cabs but are very much interested in finding a cheaper and more convenient alternative solution to this problem.

Innovation:

The idea is to create such a car rental service that would combine the current traditional car rental service features with these two new features to create a service that would be able to reach out to a way larger number of people. The proposed car rental service would allow anyone over the age of 18 and with a valid driver’s license to rent a car and would also allow customers to return the car at a different location than the original pick up location along with all the other features offered currently. In order to make one way trips possible through car rentals, the venture would set up stations across all place, from where a car can be picked or dropped. Along with the required cost, to maintain competitive prices, the venture would also earn money from sponsors by advertising on the cars. A good app with a very easy to understand interface would be a major part for interacting with the customers. The cars would be rented based on either per hour or per day cost, with a cap of 180 miles per day after which the user will be charged extra based on the number of miles travelled. There would also be an option to rent the vehicle for a longer duration of time such as weeks or months.

Venture Concept:

The customers aren’t currently quite content with their current solution. They are eagerly looking for a cheaper and more convenient alternative solution to the problem. Rental cars provide far more convenience to travelers than cabs and are also way more cheaper than cabs. Due to this, customers wouldn’t have to face much difficulty in switching to the alternative solution provided by my venture. Even though it might look as if cabs are the competitor that the venture would be facing, other car rental companies would, in my opinion, be the real competitors to face. Pricing would play a very important role in the success of the venture. Since students are a big part of the plan for the venture, maintaining competitive prices would be extremely crucial. If pricing would help in customer decision at face value, good customer experience and good customer support system would form the backbone of the venture. Starting the service from availability in a particular county and then expanding to a state, various states and then finally the entire country would help manage the number of employees required.

The minor three elements:

         1.      Venture’s Unfair Advantage:

I think that the resource that would be the most helpful for me in this venture would be that I am a part of the venture’s target market myself. This would allow me to understand the potential customers and their needs a lot better, and as a result help in providing a better quality of the service. I think that the social capital that I developed during the course of this class can also play the role of providing an unfair advantage to the venture.

         2.      What’s next for the venture?

Since students are a big part of the plan for the venture, adding scooters to the lineup and allowing customers to rent scooters can be a great step in expanding the venture. Rental scooters are already hugely popular in Bangalore, India.

         3.      What’s next for me?

In the next 5 years, I see myself constantly trying to make the experience even more convenient for the customers with this venture. As an entrepreneur, I would like to treat this venture as my foundation and then move on to trying to implement many other business ideas.

Most of the feedback I received was positive and so I only made a very few slight additions to the venture concept.

Reading Reflection No. 3

1) I chose to read “Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson”.
a) The most surprising part of the book for me was his trip to India. I admire Steve Jobs a lot but I never knew about his experience about his trip to India and this was surprising for me since I am from India.
b) The thing that I admire the most about him is how determined he was in life despite all the failures he faced.
c) The thing that I least admire about him is that he didn’t spend much quality time with his family.
d) He did face a lot of adversities and failures in his life. But he wasn’t afraid of failing and tried to improve himself every time.

2) I think that his biggest core competency was that he took risks and challenged his limits.

3) The book was pretty well-written, it explained everything clearly and I didn’t find any part of the book to be particularly confusing.

4) I would like to ask Steve Jobs whether he regretted any decision that he made and about how happy he is about the way Apple is performing currently. After completing the exit strategy assignment, I just got curious if Apple is performing the way Steve envisioned it to be after him.

5) Steve Jobs worked hard throughout his life and so I think he would have been completely favor of it. But he made sure that every he did was used to its maximum potential to achieve success. So, I think that he would have believed that only working hard isn’t enough but one should know how to make best out of every move.

Your Exit Strategy

1) I intend to grow my business with my initial business idea and then sell the business for a large return.

2) I would like to stay connected to a business created by me. But I think that this venture isn’t the one that I would like to continue working with for my entire life. Thus, I would like to sell this business and then start a new business out of the money I receive, a venture that I myself would enjoy contributing my entire life towards. Also, I think that after a certain time, there would be a lot of competitors who would make changes to their current model and start delivering similar services. So, I would like to sell it to one such company as it would also help them expand their service hugely and get much ahead of the competition.

3) I think that my exit strategy did influence my decisions throughout the concept to a certain extent. I mostly focused mostly on the initial set up and only some upgrades in the future but didn’t quite focus on further improving it on a long term basis.

Celebrating Failure

1) One of the failures that I faced this semester was for one of labs for the Programming Fundamentals 2 class. We are supposed to prepare a program based on the given details for each lab and we get around one week’s time for it. For one of those labs, I started working a bit later than usual because I thought that it was going to be easy. I worked on it and had it ready except for when I tried to test it, it wouldn’t work and would return compile errors. I went over the code several times but couldn’t find the mistake. Finally, I decided to rewrite the code entirely from scratch once again. Fortunately, this time it worked, and I was able to submit it successfully on time, but not without stressing my mind out. Later on, when I rechecked the old code, I found out that it was just a small typo error that had caused me this problem.

2) I learned two things from this experience. The first is that I should never procrastinate anything for any reason. The second one is that I should never underestimate anything and nothing in this world actually comes “easy”. I need to work hard and in a timely manner in order to achieve anything.

3) I think that failures are a part and parcel of life and everyone needs to accept it. On a funny side, I think that failures make for a really good success story. When it comes to dealing with failures, I like to react in two ways based on what type of failure it is. If it is that I can still convert into success somewhat like the example above, I will take it up as a challenge and not rest until I have finally found a successful solution. If it is something that can’t be changed such as bad grades on an exam, I get really stressed in such situations. Thus, I like to first calm myself down, listen to some music, watch a good movie and then finally reflect on where I went wrong and practice hard enough that I never repeat that mistake again. For the reading reflection assignment of this class, I read a book about failures and that has helped me a lot.

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity:

The opportunity that my venture seeks to take advantage of is a result of unmet need of two groups of people. The first being the group of people between the age group of 18 to 21. This consists mostly of undergraduate students. Many undergraduate students, especially out-of-state and international students, do not own a car or do not have access to it due to certain reasons. As a result, they need to rely on other sources for traveling. A majority of car rental companies currently have a minimum age requirement of 21. Due to this, this particular segment of market is left out and cannot access this service as easily.

Furthermore, most car rental companies require the customers to return the back to its original position. Due to this, people who are searching for a mode of transport for one-way trips are also left out. Most common example for such scenario is for a person who travels to airports frequently. Taking a cab every time can become expensive very easily. Another example of such a scenario is when a person needs a vehicle only to reach a place and get back, but would be spending a week or more at the location but won’t be using the vehicle. Under the current terms for car rentals they would still have to pay the rent for the entire duration of their stay.

Both these segments are currently relying on cab services as a solution to the problem. The people in focus over here are currently partly satisfied with their solution in the form of cabs but are very much interested in finding a cheaper and more convenient alternative solution to this problem.

Innovation:

The idea is to create such a car rental service that would combine the current traditional car rental service features with these two new features to create a service that would be able to reach out to a way larger number of people. The proposed car rental service would allow anyone over the age of 18 and with a valid driver’s license to rent a car and would also allow customers to return the car at a different location than the original pick up location along with all the other features offered currently. In order to make one way trips possible through car rentals, the venture would set up stations across all place, from where a car can be picked or dropped. Along with the required cost, to maintain competitive prices, the venture would also earn money from sponsors by advertising on the cars.

Venture Concept:

The customers aren’t currently quite content with their current solution. They are eagerly looking for a cheaper and more convenient alternative solution to the problem. Rental cars provide far more convenience to travelers than cabs and are also way more cheaper than cabs. Due to this, customers wouldn’t have to face much difficulty in switching to the alternative solution provided by my venture. Even though it might look as if cabs are the competitor that the venture would be facing, other car rental companies would, in my opinion, be the real competitors to face. Pricing would play a very important role in the success of the venture. Since students are a big part of the plan for the venture, maintaining competitive prices would be extremely crucial. If pricing would help in customer decision at face value, good customer experience and good customer support system would form the backbone of the venture. Starting the service from availability in a particular county and then expanding to a state, various states and finally the entire country would help manage the number of employees required.

The minor three elements:

         1.      Venture’s Unfair Advantage:

I think that the resource that would be the most helpful for me in this venture would be that I am a part of the venture’s target market myself. This would allow me to understand the potential customers and their needs a lot better, and as a result help in providing a better quality of the service. I think that the social capital that I developed during the course of this class can also play the role of providing an unfair advantage to the venture.

         2.      What’s next for the venture?

Since students are a big part of the plan for the venture, adding scooters to the lineup and allowing customers to rent scooters can be a great step in expanding the venture. Rental scooters are already hugely popular in Bangalore, India.

         3.      What’s next for me?

In the next 5 years, I see myself constantly trying to make the experience even more convenient with this venture. As an entrepreneur, I would like to treat this venture as my foundation and then move on to trying to implement many other business ideas.

What's Next?

Existing Market:

I think that one possible way to expand my venture in the existing market is to include an option for customers to be able to rent cars. I think that, since students make a big part of my target audience, scooters would be a great option for them. A lot of students prefer to travel with scooters due to ease of commuting with a scooter. Surprisingly, when I was explaining about my venture to one of my friends, he too mentioned how adding scooters could be a great option to expand it. Scooter rentals are hugely popular in Bangalore, India.

New Market:

Introducing my venture to a completely new market could be possible by allowing Uber and Snap drivers to rent cars from my company to earn money. But they would have different term and conditions and would have to pay a slightly higher price to make up for commercial use. This would allow drivers to start making money without owning a car and hence attracting customers in that market segment. I think that this market segment would also be just as exciting as the existing one.

Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

10 resources that make my business successful.

     1.      Social capital to act as supplier and market expert.

a)      How is it valuable? It will help a lot in the actual execution process of the business idea.

b)     Rare? A little rare.

c)      Imitable? Yes

d)     Substitutable? No

     2.      People who said that they would be interested in my service.

a)      How is it valuable? It forms a initial group of customers to start of the business with.

b)     Rare? No

c)      Imitable? Yes

d)     Substitutable? No

     3.      Knowing my market well.

a)      How is it valuable? Knowing the market and its demands would help in providing a better suited service for that specific market.

b)     Rare? A little rare

c)      Imitable? Yes

d)     Substitutable? No

     4.      Experience about managing a business learnt from my dad.

a)      How is it valuable?

b)     Rare? No

c)      Imitable? Yes, by getting to know someone who manages a business.

d)     Substitutable? No

     5.      Technological knowledge due to my Computer Science major.

a)      How is it valuable? It can help in creating app and web platforms for the expansion of the venture.

b)     Rare? No

c)      Imitable? Yes

d)     Substitutable? Yes

     6.      Advantage of being a part of the group of prototypical customers myself.

a)      How is it valuable? It helps in knowing what exactly the customers are looking for in the product/service.

b)     Rare? A little rare

c)      Imitable? No

d)     Substitutable? Yes, up to a certain extent, by knowing people who are a part of that group.

     7.      Surrounded by successful business-minded people.

a)      How is it valuable? It influences you think like them and head towards success.

b)     Rare? No

c)      Imitable? Yes

d)     Substitutable? No

     8.      People who would help me to advertise about my service.

a)      How is it valuable? Advertising would help to reach out to a greater number of customers.

b)     Rare? No

c)      Imitable? Yes

d)     Substitutable? Yes, by paying people/companies for advertisement.

     9.      Determination and never give up attitude.

a)      How is it valuable? It is helpful to keep going during bad phases.

b)     Rare? No

c)      Imitable? Yes

d)     Substitutable? No

    10.   Constant hunger to improve myself.

a)      How is it valuable? To keep up the entrepreneurial spirit.

b)     Rare? No

c)      Imitable? Yes

d)     Substitutable? No

I think that my best resource would be being a part of my target market myself. It would help me understand my customers and their needs a lot better and as a result, provide better service.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

The Pitch:

https://youtu.be/EBM_N8SNSUM

A reflection on the feedback you received from your last pitch:

Though most of the feedback that I received from my previous elevator pitch was positive, I asked some of my other friends and also some people that I met for the social capital assignment to help me out in being able to improve my pitch. One of the feedbacks I received was that I didn’t concentrate on my other feature for car rental service as much as the first one. The others were basically based on what were the parts that liked out of both the previous pitches.

What did you change based on the feedback:

Based on the feedback, I talked a bit more about my second feature as well to keep a balance between both the feature of my business idea. Then, I listened to everyone’s feedback and combined the best parts of the previous two pitches together to form a better overall pitch.

Reading Reflection No. 2

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Scott Adams

What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The book emphasized on how even failures play a crucial role in the journey to success. The book teaches to accept failures similar to success and try and come out of failures a s a better version of ourselves each time.

How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT3003?

One of the ideas in the book that I think is similar to the learnings from the class is that success is a cumulative outcome of numerous small efforts, which include all the ups and down, combined together rather than just planning a business idea and then becoming successful the very next day.

If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would the exercise involve?

If I had to design an exercise for the class, I would like to assign a task that would be close to almost impossible to complete. This is because the actual exercise would begin after the task where students would be asked to reflect back on their experience when they were working on the task and they would have to discuss about what they discovered about themselves while doing that task and how they can improve themselves to be a better version of themselves.

What was your biggest surprise or ‘aha’ moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

I think the biggest surprise for me was the book’s take on being selfish. It talks about how being selfish in aright manner can actually help one achieve wonders.

Growing your Social Capital

1. Ranjeet Suthar

He works for a car rental company in India. He fills up the slot of domain expert since he has experience about how a company similar to my business idea runs. Before I came to USA, me and my friends had rented a car from their company a couple of times for trips and that’s where I met him. He helped me get a rental car for a cheaper price during my second visit and just asked me to contact him whenever I or any of my friends or relatives need a rental car. Rental car companies aren’t quite as popular in most parts of India as they are in the USA. Thus, his experience can be precious since he knows how to manage such a company with minimum resources to maximum profit.

2. Travis

He is a graduate student who has done research on companies trying to sell products/services targeted for college students. He fills up the slot of market expert. He also coincidently happens to be a out-of-state student which is a major part of my potential customers. I met him through one of my other graduate friend at the cricket club at UF. He can help me analyze a good strategy to sell a service to college students.

3. Venkatesh

He owns a car dealership and fills up the role of the supplier. He is a relative of one of my good friends and I got in contact with him through that friend and contacted him saying that I need his help for a college assignment. He said he would be happy to help in any way possible and that if I ever go on to actually implement my business idea on a large scale, in exchange of putting advertisement about his business on the rental cars, he would be happy to sell the cars for a cheaper price along with paying a reasonable amount for advertising.



This activity has helped me develop better confidence at communicating. Most of my networking experience in the past had been majorly with people of my own age. So this was a new and really good experience for me.

Idea Napkin No. 2

You: My name is Tarang Kirit Donga. I am a freshman at University of Florida majoring in Computer Science. I like to challenge myself and learn new things. I wish to start a business of my own. If I were to start a business on my business concept, I see it as forming a foundation to the pathway towards achieving more ambitious goals.

What are you offering to customers?: A car rental service that allows anyone over the age of 18 and with a valid drivers license to use rental cars. It also provides the customers an option to drop the car at a different location rather than returning it at the same location, enabling the customers to use rental cars for one-way trips.

Who are you offering it to?: The service is meant for anyone who wants to use a rental car. But the special features offered are targeted to expand the market to especially include customers between age of 18 and 21 as well as people who want to use rental cars for one-way trips.

Why do they care?: College students make a huge part of the segment that either doesn’t own a car or doesn’t have access to it due to certain reasons such as being an international or out-of-state student. There aren’t enough options in the market for rental cars for college students. Due to this college students are forced to go for other expensive or inconvenient options. Also, most other companies don’t allow customers to return the car at a different location restricting them only to round trips. Thus, by including these features in my service, this particular segment would be easily attracted to the business idea.

What are your core competencies?: I think that my never give up attitude can help me a long way in my business plan. Also, my service offers two important features that a lot of people want to have to be able to take better advantage of car rental services.

I believe that these 5 elements fit together for my business idea. I also think that improving on these elements could lead to a better solution.

Most of the feedback I received was positive. In this post I tried to try and learn why more people would actually care about my business idea and also self-evaluated myself to find out some core competencies.

Create a Customer Avatar

The prototypical customers for the business idea consist of anyone who wants to use a rental car. But what makes the business idea special is the inclusion of people between age of 18-21 and people looking to use rental cars for one-way trip alongside others in the group of the potential customers. Most of the prototypical customers either do not own a car or do not have access to their due to certain reasons. This business idea would especially attract undergraduate out of state and international students as customers for this service. Each college student has their own variety of taste in the choices they make especially because they do not all belong from the same region. Also, people who would like to use rental cars for one-way trips include people who fly frequently as taking a cab to airport every time can be quite expensive.

I myself can be considered as a part of this prototypical customer set because I am an international undergraduate student. So most of the things mentioned above apply to me as well.

Elevator Pitch 2

1) Elevator Pitch 2:

https://youtu.be/ZpDbSxiAejc

2) A reflection on the feedback you received from your last pitch:

Most of the feedback that I received on my previous elevator pitch post was positive and praised the potential of the business idea proposed through the elevator pitch. Some of my friends suggested to make some different versions of the pitch outside my comfort zone and to try and test those out to see if they work. I tried doing a bit of that in this pitch.

3) What did you change, based on the feedback?

I changed up the introductory part a bit to make it more catchy in order to be able to try and attract more customers. I focused on just one segment of the market rather than the entire market. I still think that this is not the best I can do and hope to improve a lot with practice and do even better for the third elevator pitch.

What's Your Secret Sauce?

1. Own Assessment:

a) Hardworking: I am of a belief that there are no shortcuts in life and that in order to achieve anything one needs to work hard.

b) Determination: I am a kind of person who once decides to achieve something, then I won’t ever give up till I am successful in achieve it.

c) I enjoy challenges: I don’t know why but I have always loved putting myself in challenging situations. It gives me a kind of “kick” in being able to face those successfully or at least learn something new from it.

d) Leadership skills: I am big believer of team-work and have a good experience in leading groups of people. I am able to develop a sort of connection between me and other members of the group which helps in building trust.

e) Eager to learn new things: I love to learn new things or develop new skills. My good grasping power helps me in being able to do so easily.



2. Five Interviews:

a) https://soundcloud.com/tarang-donga/mudra-limbasia/s-pZv7A

The audio clip is by my cousin Mudra. She talks about my determination and desire to learn new things about technology.

b) https://soundcloud.com/tarang-donga/tanay-shetty/s-u3BGn

The audio clip is by my friend Tanay. He talks about my determination, my ability to improve myself even through hardships and that I like challenging myself.

c) https://soundcloud.com/tarang-donga/new-recording-11/s-ywGs2

The audio clip is by my friend Aadesh. He talks about my commitment and how I always give my best whenever I commit to something.

d) https://soundcloud.com/tarang-donga/toshi-nandan-reddy-chinatala/s-64ciu

The audio clip is by my friend Toshi. He talks about my hardworking and punctual nature.

e) https://soundcloud.com/tarang-donga/prajwal-patil/s-WJDY7

The audio clip is by my friend Prajwal. He talks about how I am good at learning new things.

3. I completely agree with the observations made by other people about me. Most of the observations made by me and other people are similar.

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Begin with alternative evaluation:

The people I had interviewed were all undergraduate international students at University of Florida. Due to this, there is currently just one company located in the vicinity of the campus that offers car rentals to students under the age of 21. So, all 3 of them were forced to lean towards it for getting rental cars. But they said that if there were more options, they would like to compare the price and features that the companies offer.

How/where do they buy?:

They used the free app provided by the company to use the service.

Post-purchase evaluation:

The price that they paid, the quality of the car that was allotted for them to use and ease of being able to contact the company for any inquiries were some of the major factors the students considered when thinking about the purchase.

Report the findings:

All three of the people I interviewed were below 21 years of age and thus were restricted to use the services offered by just one company. Due to this, they don’t really have anything to compare it with apart from the way that they themselves would like it to be. And all of them mentioned that they would like to have the option to drop the car at a different location as this would help in enhancing their experience vastly.

Draw conclusions:

I think that this particular segment gives a lot of importance to price and the features offered by the company while evaluating their purchase.

Halfway Reflection

1) I think that the biggest thing that has helped me in the class is not treating the assignments as an assignment but imagining them to be as me explaining about my idea to a friend. Also managing the class schedule such that I can treat the class as a way to relax my mind from my regular computer science major curriculum has helped me vastly.

2) I have felt like giving up quite a few times in the past. But the constant urge to compete against my own previous self and improve myself keeps me determined to continue. Luckily, I haven’t experienced any such situation in the last two months.

3) Tips

a) Assign a fixed weekly schedule for the class and follow it.

b) Take notes while watching the lectures for the cupcake.

c) Choose a business idea that you actually believe in for working on during the course.

d) Get any doubts that you might have cleared off.

Reading Reflection 1

1) I chose to read “Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s” about Ray Kroc

a) What surprised me the most was that he didn’t enjoy school and that he spent most of his life for a paper cup company.

b) What I admire about him is that even though he was quite old, he decided to start a new chapter in his life by purchasing McDonald’s whereas other people might have planned for retirement instead.

c) The thing that I least admire about him is how he didn’t prioritize his family and the way he managed his relationship with his family.

d) He faced a lot of adversities in his life. In his early days playing piano was his only source of income and then he had issues relating to the paper cup company and Multimixer.

2) He had really good observation skills and had great commitment.

3) I think that the deal about the paper cup company getting 60% of Multimixer was a bit confusing.

4) I would like to ask him if he regretted any of the decisions he made and also how he stayed motivated to continue what he was doing during adversities. I think that answers to these questions really help shape the character of an entrepreneur and so I would like to know the answer to these questions.

5) I think that he believed in consistently putting in efforts and working hard and I completely agree with his opinion on this.

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Segment: For this particular assignment, I chose a segment of international students at University of Florida who had encountered a need to use rental cars in the past.

Being international students, none of them had their own vehicles with them.

Interview Summary: Surprisingly, all three of them had different reasons for their need. The first person was a freshman student. He uses a rental car every weekend for grocery shopping. The problem he faces is that there is just one car rental company that offers rental car at age of 18 and the location for that company which is nearest to him has just one vehicle at the location. So, most of the times, the car is being used by someone else and so he has to wait for a long time. The second person got aware of this need while his stay at Gainesville over the winter break. He was staying back at UF over the winter break. He saw this as an opportunity to explore around and so decided to have a visit to Orlando. The two options he had were rental cars and cab. The cab costs him approximately $135 just for one-way trip. So he decided to search for rental car options. But as mentioned earlier, there is just one option for people below age of 21 around UF. But that company requires the person to return the car back to its original place and this wasn’t viable for him. That’s because under this scheme, he would have to pay the rent for his entire duration of trip, which in this case was around 7-8 days, even if he was actually going to be driving the car for just a total of around 4-5 hours for travelling from Gainesville to Orlando and back. The third person had a similar issue. He had to go to Orlando airport to take a flight back to his home. He would have preferred a rental car because of a cheaper price than cab, but the company required him to return the car back to its original place which wasn’t possible in this case. Although all three of them had different issues for the need, all three of them resorted to internet search for information search but couldn’t find any fitting solution.

One important thing I found out from the interviews is that internet would be vital to spread this business concept since people mostly look for this solution through internet search.

Idea Napkin No. 1

You: My name is Tarang Kirit Donga. I am a freshman at University of Florida majoring in Computer Science. I like to challenge myself and learn new things. I wish to start a business of my own. If I were to start a business on my business concept, I see it as a forming a foundation to the pathway towards achieving more ambitious goals.

What are you offering to customers?: A car rental service that allows anyone over the age of 18 and with a valid drivers license to use rental cars. It also provides the customers an option to drop the car at a different location rather than returning it at the same location, enabling the customers to use rental cars for one-way trips.

Who are you offering it to?: To anyone who wants to use a rental car. But the special features offered are targeted for customers between age of 18 and 21 as well as people who want to use rental cars for one-way trips.

Why do they care?: There aren’t enough options in the market for rental cars for college students. Most out-of-state and international students as well as a lot of in-state students don’t have their own cars in colleges. Also, most other companies don’t allow customers to return the car at a different location restricting them only to round trips.

What are your core competencies?: It offers two important features that a lot of people want to have to be able to take better advantage of car rental services.

I believe that these 5 elements fit together for my business idea. I also think that improving on these elements could lead to a better solution.

Elevator Pitch No. 1

https://youtu.be/vo_Ioq_89jA

Testing the Hypothesis Part 2

From the interviews conducted, I got to know that a bunch of people prefer rental car over cabs because it is cheaper and also provides them with more flexibility in the sense of going off-route and stopping at different places in the middle of the journey. One particular student that I interviewed put forward a good point that he is forced to resort to cabs because he hasn't received his driver's license yet.

Who: A lot of college students have their own car. They wouldn’t be the primary focus as the customers for the car rental service. There might be certain cases when they might need to use a rental car but for the most part, they might not be interested in the service.

What: People who can’t drive a car would not be interested in this service. They would still prefer cabs over other services.

Why: One of the students I interviewed brought up a very good point. He said that he chooses rental cars because they are cheaper than cabs. But at times, he prefers cabs when he needs to get some other work done because he doesn’t need to drive and so he can get his work done while traveling.

Inside the boundary	Outside the boundary
Who is in? Students, and other people between the age of 18 and 21 who want to use rental cars. People who are looking for car rental services for one-way trips. People who are looking for cheaper alternatives to cabs.	Who is not? People who can’t drive. People who own a car themselves.
What the need is? People below the age 21 not having enough options for car rental services that allow them to drop the car at a different location than the pick-up location.	What the need is not? Providing an alternative for cabs with equal convenience.
Why the need exists? The need exists because a lot of people aren’t able to take advantage of the current car rental services due to the current restrictions placed by a lot of companies such as age limit of 21 and needing to return the car back to its original position.	Alternative Explanations Due to the minimum age of 21 required by a lot of car rental companies, college students aren’t able to use their services. The companies that allow people above age 18 to use rented cars, need them to return the car back to its original position. Due to this, they aren’t able to use it for one-way trips.

Solving the Problem

The opportunity selected is that people, especially young students, are not satisfied by the current car rental services. This is majorly because of 2 major features that a lot of people want to have for their car rental service. The first one being that most of the car rental services offered by different companies have a minimum age requirement of 21. The other one is that these services require people to return the rented car back to its original position after use.

The solution to this problem can be obtained by providing a car rental service that provide cars on rent to anyone with a valid drivers license. This would also help the business by being able to provide service to larger share of the market. The car rental service would also allow the customers to return the car at a different location than the pick-up location. However, the customers can be tempted to return the car back to its original location by providing them discounts for doing so. Also, for some extra revenue, the cars can display advertisements of other companies.

Testing the Hypothesis Part 1

I feel that there is an opportunity to improve the current car rental services in the USA. Most of the car rental services offered by different companies have a minimum age requirement of 21. This means that, under this restriction, the business misses out on earning profits from college students. The reason for this is that companies don’t trust young drivers enough. Very few car rental services provide cars on rent at age of 18. But these services are missing out on another opportunity. These services require people to return the rented car back to its original position after use. Allowing people to pick a car from a different location and dropping it off at a different location would increase the size of market for the companies by allowing people interested in one-way trips to access their services. Having both of these features together would attract a lot of college students to be their customers by meeting their needs. The reason for lack of companies who provide both these features together in their services is due to lack of resources and not being quite as widespread.

Who: Students and other people looking to use car rental services for one-way trips.

What: Car rental companies aren’t able to meet the needs of a lot of customers who want to use their services.

Why: Companies lacking resources and not being quite as widespread.

Hypothesis: People, especially young students, are not satisfied by the current car rental services.

Testing the Who: It can be any other person who is below the age of 21 or needs a rental car for one-way trips.

Testing the What: A lot of people, especially college students, are preferring to use cabs because a lot of car rental services are not able to provide features that they are looking for.

Testing the Why: Companies lacking resources and not being quite as widespread. There are a variety of different companies offering car rental services and thus they are not able to earn enough resources to provide extra features for their customers.

Summary of the interviews: All the students I interviewed were below the age of 21 and thus were forced to be able to use car rental service from just one company. All of them had several cases where they would have liked to be able to return a car at a different location. There were two out-of-state students and an international student that I interviewed. They take a flight to go back home during the breaks and prefer car rental services over cabs because of the convenience factor and also because it is cheaper. But the problem they face is that the car rental service requires them to return the car back to its original position. Due to this, sometimes they have to ask some of their friends to drive them to the airport and then return the car back or else they end up taking a cab. They would love to have a car rental service in which they can drop the car at the airport itself. Another scenario brought up by a student where this feature would have been really helpful was in a situation where you need to go to place and will be returning after about a week. Under current restrictions, renting a car would mean paying rent for the entire week even if you drove for just 3 hours for traveling.

After the interviews, I was able to understand different views that people have n why they require a particular feature to meet their needs.

Identifying opportunities in economic and regulatory trends

Economic Trends:

Private payrolls soar in January, the best monthly gain in nearly 5 years

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/05/adp-moodys-private-payrolls-january-2019.html

I think that an opportunity exists in here because the article mentions that the record-high numbers could possibly be an indication for a recession. One can take advantage of this opportunity because it would mean a comparatively less competitive market.

Prototypical Customer: Anyone targeted by the specific company.

I think this is a difficult opportunity to exploit since you could become a part of the recession as well.

Weekly mortgage refinance applications spike 15% as interest rates plunge to lowest in nearly 4 years

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/05/weekly-mortgage-refinance-applications-jump-15percent.html

I believe that an opportunity exists in this case because of the extremely low interest rates.

Prototypical Customer: Any person who wants to mortgage property.

I think it wouldn’t be too difficult to take advantage of this opportunity because of availability of a large share of the market.

Regulatory Changes:

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in the European Union

Source: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7671-regulatory-issues-changes.html

I believe that an opportunity exists by helping companies to implement better data protection security measures.

Prototypical Customers: Companies which would be affected by stricter data protection regulations.

I think that it would be a bit difficult to exploit this opportunity since one would require good knowledge about the subject and also needs to be able to bring it to the notice of various companies.

China to cut tariffs in half on $75 billion of U.S. goods

Source: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-to-cut-tariffs-in-half-on-75-billion-of-us-goods-2020-02-05?mod=home-page

I think there is an opportunity to enter a market with the biggest population in the world by taking advantage of low tariffs.

Prototypical Customers: Buyers of the commodities included in the list of goods for which the tariffs are being reduced.

I think that it isn’t difficult to take advantage of this opportunity because of reduced expenses due to tariff cuts.

Identifying Local Opportunities

1. UF Sailing Team’s equipment damaged by high winds.

https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-sailing-team-s-equipment-damaged-by-high-winds/article_dbe2b252-42d6-11ea-ba7b-6741d053fad8.html

The article mentions that the UF sailing team’s equipment got damaged and how they are depending on alumni and other people to donate money to be able to buy new equipment.

The problem: The UF sailing team needs to buy new equipment which could cost up to $100,000.

Who has the problem: The UF sailing team.



2. UF Health monitors rumors of coronavirus spreading to Gainesville.

https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-health-monitors-rumors-of-coronavirus-spreading-to-gainesville/article_69a9b1a0-426c-11ea-86b2-87354e5a2a4e.html

The article mentions about how a message on a popular Chinese messaging group, WeChat, is spreading rumors that some student’s parents travelled from China to Gainesville.

The problem: It creates fear amongst the mind of people and if the rumor is true then everyone in Gainesville could be at risk to being exposed to the coronavirus.

Who has the problem: All the people in Gainesville.



3. After class registration glitch, UF student starts petition to fix ONE.UF

https://www.alligator.org/news/after-class-registration-glitch-uf-student-starts-petition-to-fix/article_d31b0248-fc34-11e9-b37c-abc426085d16.html

The article mentions about a glitch that a lot of students faced due to heavy network flow while registering for classes.

The problem: The registration process got delayed for a lot of students due to a technical glitch.

Who has the problem: Everyone who faced the glitch.



4. UF 10-year development plan leaves graduate students worried about housing.

https://www.alligator.org/news/uf--year-development-plan-leaves-graduate-students-worried-about/article_178d6bb4-e669-11e9-817c-7fc72c249881.html

The article discusses about how UF isn’t working towards improving graduate and family housing but rather replace some part of it with playgrounds.

The problem: UF not focusing enough on graduate housing.

Who has the problem: Graduate students looking to get on-campus housing.



5. UF requires health insurance, but do students want that?

https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-requires-health-insurance-but-do-students-want-that/article_3f77d344-3907-11ea-bf77-abcfeab20e68.html

The article discusses how UF requires its students to have health insurance even though the government doesn’t require it by law and how many students are not happy with it.

The problem: Expensive health insurance rates add to the cost of attending the college for students.

Who has the problem: A lot of students at UF.

Forming An Opportunity Belief

Beginning point: I believe there is an opportunity to take advantage of the problem that there is no place to get food near the Lakeside Residential Complex.

Description of the belief: Lakeside Residential Complex is an on-campus apartment-style living option for undergraduate students at UF consisting of 5 buildings. It is located on the far west side of the campus. Both the dining halls at UF are located far from lakeside complex. Several other food places run by Aramark are located far from lakeside complex. The eastern part of the campus has some restaurants nearby on the main street, but that is not the case for the western part. Due to this, people living in lakeside don’t have any place nearby to get food. Thus, I believe there is an opportunity to solve this need. The southwest recreation center and some graduate housing options are also located near lakeside complex that can possibly take advantage of opening up of a dining hall or a restaurant nearby. I think that I am around 75% sure about an opportunity existing in this case.

Prototypical customer 1: A freshman student currently living at lakeside complex.

Q. What do you think about the eating options around the lakeside complex?

Ans. I find it very frustrating that there are no options for getting food nearby. The dining halls are located far from lakeside and so it is not convenient for me to travel to the dining halls thrice a day to get food every time.

Q. How do you currently handle this need?

Ans. I have milk and cereals in the morning and have lunch while I am on campus on weekdays. But for dinner and weekends, I often see myself having frozen food or mac and cheese, which is not healthy.

Q. Are you satisfied with the current solution?

Ans. No, I think that not having proper food options nearby gets quite frustrating sometimes.

Q. What do you think can be done to solve this problem?

Ans. I think that having a dining hall a bit closer or at least a fast-food restaurant nearby would really help a lot

Prototypical customer 2: A junior year student living at lakeside complex.

Q. What do you think about the eating options around the lakeside complex?

Ans. I think that the dining halls are a bit too far and there aren’t really any other options nearby because all other options are located near the Reitz Union and the Hub which are in the central part of the campus.

Q. How do you currently handle this need?

Ans. I actually enjoy cooking food. So, I mostly cook food myself. On some days, if I feel like eating outside, I drive to some restaurant and have food there.

Q. Are you satisfied with the current solution?

Ans. For the most part, yes. But I do think that having an option get food from close by would be nice, especially during the time of exams. During exams, I don’t have enough time to cook and there aren’t enough parking spots at lakeside so if I take my car out and it gets taken by someone else, I might have to wait to get another parking spot.

Q. If a dining hall or some other food place open up nearby, how often do you see yourself going there?

Ans. I think at least around 4-5 times a month and more during exams if it is within walking distance.

Prototypical customer 3: A student who is planning to live at lakeside complex next semester onwards.

Q. What do you think about the eating options around the lakeside complex?

Ans. I haven’t seen much into detail about it yet. But I have heard from some of my friends that it is one of the problems they face here.

Q. How do you currently handle this need?

Ans. Currently, my dorm is right next to one of the dining halls. So, I have my food there every day.

Q. Do you think this will affect you when you move here?

Ans. As I mentioned earlier, I live right next to the dining hall currently. So, I think that could be a big challenge for me to stay at a location that is far away from the dining halls. I hope to find a solution for it before I move there next semester.

Reflection: I found out that a lot of people face a similar need especially because they are college students. I think that there definitely is an opportunity that exists here. The most surprising thing that I found out during the interview is that a lot of students choose lakeside complex because it is very close to the gym and also because it is apartment styled.

Summary: I still think that my original opportunity exists. The assignment surely helped me to judge the extent of the opportunity far more accurately by knowing the opinions of other people. I think that adapting according to the needs of the market and potential customers is very important for entrepreneurs and should not be replaced by staying firm in most cases.