Your Venture's Unfair Advantage 23A

1. My education at UF and learning the different processes to recognize and exploit opportunities.

i) This is a valuable resource as it has helped me to identify opportunities and problems that I would not have need otherwise. This is not rare as many people have a similar education. It is fairly easy to imitate, and education is abundant. There are other substitutes including work experience that could act as education.

2. My social capital specifically focused on the organizations I am connected with in Ocala through the different service projects I have been a part of will be valuable to start the venture locally.

ii) This is a valuable resource since Ocala is a growing community and contains many different organizations that could be interested in participating in this venture. The connections are fairly rare as I know many different people across multiple organization in the community. It is not very hard to imitate as someone could seek to grow those connections if they so desired. The only substitutes for this would be to grow the connections in other cities that could act as a network in a different area that could grow to the Ocala market as well.

3. I have been on 4 different international missions’ trips that have included distributing goods to those in need, so I have experience with this process and how it works.

iii) This is a valuable experience as not many people have been on multiple international service projects, although the experience does not directly relate to my market. This is rare as again not many people have done this. The imitability is not very high, and it would take time and resources to replicate the experiences I have had. It is substitutable in the idea that international work experience could be used as a replacement as well.

4. I have over $10,000 in financial capital in savings that I am continuing to grow in hopes of using that to contribute to starting a venture.

iv) This is not very valuable as $10,000 is not a lot of money in relation to starting a company. It is not rare as many people have money for startups. It is very easy to imitate, and it is easily substitutable through investments and loans.

5. My capabilities involving HR and my experience in that will help me identify key contributors to the organization and help me lead others effectively when needed.

v) This is a valuable resource as HR skills are transferable to many different parts of the organization and starting a venture. It is not very rare as many people have HR experience. It is fairly easy to imitate and can be learned. It is not very easily substituted as HR and people skills must be developed and cultivated to be effective.

6. Technology has paved the way with other services that will make it easier for a concept such as mine to be developed and launched rapidly. This will include app development and communication on the platform.

vi) This is a valuable resource as most people are familiar with how to use technology and the platform will not require a learning curve or user difficulty. This is not a rare resource as it is available to anyone. It is easy to imitate as anyone can use the current state of society as their advantage. It is also easily imitable as there are many different realms that this could be applicable in how technology is used to a company’s advantage.

7. The culture of the organization will be of humility and the joy that comes from helping others. It will be a thriving workplace that others will want to be a part of and will feel fulfilled in their work.

vii) This would be a very valuable resource as millennials especially care about satisfying work and a positive culture. This would be a fairly rare culture in my area as there are not a lot of businesses with that focus currently. This would be imitable in the fact that if a company prioritized this culture and had a business that fostered the culture it could be done. It is not very imitable as culture is a hard thing to fake for long periods of time.

8. The network of the company will grow because of the convenience factor that allows others to contribute to their community in a way that brings them satisfaction while not costing them much of their time.

viii) This platform will be an asset as it provides a better way to do things than ever before. It is rare currently as I have not seen another platform for organizations that would be able to accomplish what this would offer. This would be fairly easy to imitate but it would require a network of companies and organizations willing to work together for the community. This platform would not be easily substitutable and would require someone to copy the platform and the process.

9. The support that I have from extended family and friends that believe in doing good and helping others will be a great resource that will help me start the venture while holding true to the values I want to grow.

ix) This is a valuable resource as I need the support and advice from others as I begin to start a company without prior experience. This is not very rare as other people have teams that can help them as well. This is easily imitable as firms and employees and can be hired instead of friends and family. This is also substitutable for the same reasons.

10. My energy and passion for this concept and helping others combined with a driven work ethic will help me to persevere through adversity and grow this venture doing whatever it takes to succeed.

x) This is something that will be valuable and is necessary to starting any company. It is not very rare as most entrepreneurs possess these traits. Additionally, it is fairly easy to imitate if someone has the passion and drive to make something happen. Conversely, it can be hard to substitute as grit and determination are traits that take perseverance and time to develop.



It was hard for me to choose on specific resource that is the most valuable. I think that a lot of them are imitable and I do not have a specific ability that sets me apart. However, I do believe that the most important resource is the convenience of the platform that will allow others to be involved quickly and easily and grow the network with relative ease. I think that this resource will be key to protect and something that will be important to the success of the organization.

Elevator Pitch 3 Elevator 22A

The feedback I got from the last one was all over all very positive. The main feedback I got liked the additional part about revenue. I made sure to include the same revenue ideas and tried to improve on the overall quality of the post. I found that the feedback from the last post helped me to feel more confident in the pitch.
I found that I was much more comfortable in my second and third and elevator pitches. Having it memorized completely definitely helped as well as being more comfortable talking in the camera. I think that completing the elevator pitch assignments were very beneficial to me. 

Reading Reflection No. 2 21A

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

By Carol S. Dweck Ph. D.

1. What was the general theme or argument of the book? The book essentially addresses two main mindsets that people have. Either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset will ultimately determine how you react to situations in your life. There are several main keys to each and throughout the book Dweck shows the long-term effectiveness of the growth mindset versus the safe and controlling fixed mindset. Essentially, a fixed mindset creates a desire to look smart and avoid challenges that could prove difficult or create opportunities for failure. In contrast, the growth mindset creates a desire to learn and embrace challenges. Failures are then only seen as failures if it returns you to a fixed mindset that avoids them. By embracing challenges and seeking to learn from them and from the success of others, it opens many new opportunities to learn and grow.

2. The biggest thing that this book helped in force that this class has taught is to be open to failure and to not shy away from challenges and risks. I do not like failure and have done everything I could to avoid that. I like to be successful, but I have now realized that part of that process is learning from failure. This book and the class have enforced this idea and I will seek to change my mindset to be growth minded and not adverse to learning from my failures and other successes.

3. There are some great exercises that were talked about in the book, but there is a different one that would be a great exercise to drive these points home. Each person in class would have to talk to a young elementary age child about their struggles and their successes and walk them through how to think about that from a growth mindset. This would be a great way to see the growth mindset in a simpler way that makes it obvious to us how effective it would be in our lives and tougher scenarios as well. It also helps us to realize the folly of the fixed mind set in our own lives whenever we can see from a child’s perspective the proper mindset in each situation.

4. The biggest surprise in the book was when she took a whole chapter to discuss the mindset and how it affects athletes in different sports. I love sports and have played many of them since I was a child. It was very interesting to hear how despite the different talent levels; it has been shown that those with a growth mindset typically can develop the skill with greater consistency even if lacking in some natural talent. She even discussed famous people such as Billy Beane and Pedro Martinez that struggled with the fixed mindset. Whenever people run into a roadblock in athletics, they either train harder and learn from the struggle or begin to lose hope and become distracted. Also, how they handle success is a key factor whether they are puffed up when they succeed or taught to handle success with humility. Many of these things are developed throughout adolescence and helps shape them as they become collegiate and professional athletes. It was a very interesting chapter and really helped explain the mindset in ways that were clear and decisive to me.

Growing Your Social Capital 20A

1. Dwayne  Durham, the founder and president of the Marion County Salvation Army.

2. This is acting as the domain expert in my assignment.

3. I found the person through the local website and exploring the board of directors and contact page. This allowed me to send a contact request to the board. I also looked on Hoovers for more specific contact info but did not find anything better than the website had to offer.

4. I explained my position in the email and provided a short description of my idea. I asked for any feedback on the idea and if they would be willing to hear my elevator pitch or idea write up which I would provide if allowed.

5. This person would be a valuable contact due to the influence and experience he has from leading the local organization for many years as well as being able to change processes and make changes. He also could have valuable insight to the product idea and offer feedback regarding improvement.



1. Carlos Tobon is the Vice President of Interfaith Marion County.

2. This is acting as the expert on my market since they deal specifically with growing their influence in the Marion County Florida area.

3. I found this person through Hoover and also through their website. It listed the Board of Directors for Interfaith as well as how to contact them.

4. I explained my position in the email and provided a short description of my idea. I asked for any feedback on the idea and if they would be willing to hear my elevator pitch or idea write up which I would provide if allowed.

5. This person would be a valuable contact due to the influence and experience he has from leading the local organization and being very involved in Marion County Specifically. He also could have valuable insight to the product idea and offer feedback regarding improvement. I am hoping that his contact would really help me grow my idea in the local community.



1. Frances Thompson is listed as a local manager at the Winn-Dixie in Ocala.

2. This is acting as the important supplier to the industry as the manager of a grocery store could help influence what decisions are made in regard to the donation of goods.

3. I found this person through the Hoover data base and Frances was listed as a contact of the organization.

4. I explained my position as a student and the idea for the organization. I also asked how they distribute donations and if this would be something that could potentially help them spread their donations. I also asked for feed back and if they would like to hear the elevator pitch or the idea write up.

5. This would be a great contact to have as Winn-Dixie is a large grocery store chain. This person could help provide insight into their process of how they donate excess food items and help connect with various supermarkets in the area.



I think this experience of networking was good for me. I have not even finished the wright up for this assignment and the president of the local salvation army emailed me saying he would like to call and talk to me later to hear more about this idea. This is both nerve wracking and interesting to be able to hear real feedback from someone in a position of influence. I was surprised at how effective contacting these people was and will help encourage me to be more willing to do that in the future. I would say the experience differed because I was reaching out to specific people electronically rather than just trying to walk in somewhere and hope to talk to the right person. So far this seems to be more effective.

Idea Napkin 2 19A

1. Who are you? I am a 20-year-old college student who is in my junior year of studies at the University of Florida. My talents generally revolve around interpersonal skills. I pride myself in my social awareness and the ability to connect and lead individuals. My position at my current job is a recruiter for a staffing company. What this means is that every day I go to work my job is to talk to applicants all day long and sell them on the value of our process as well as simultaneously determining if this is a person, I think we should hire or not. There is a lot going on in just a few short minutes and I am learning how to best effectively communicate and discern information in a timely manner. My aspirations are to start a company that can help other people and be self-sustaining. I want to be able to do something with my life that I can be passionate about and something that makes a lasting difference. If I were to start this company, I would pour all my skills and energy into developing relationships with nonprofit organizations and creating a network base with which to launch my platform. I would be creative in solving problems and be extremely open to feedback as the goal is to ultimately help as many people as possible and help to eliminate waste.

2. What are you offering to customers? The service that I would be launching would be a social platform that connects businesses and people with donations to the nonprofit organization that needs them. The main key that would set us apart from the way things are done now is a streamlined process that allows for more donations to be given in a less amount of time and effort for all involved. The process would allow the people with donations to take a picture of the donation and post it to the platform. This allows the nonprofits seeking donations to then be alerted of a new donation and to then go and pick it up. Instead of just one organization having the opportunity to receive the goods, it now alerts all of them involved and creates a better chance that the donation will be picked up and not wasted. This creates a better process for the organizations that now do not have to call the companies to ask about donations and it allows the people donating the goods to simply take a picture and post the goods without having to directly contact anyone.

3. Who are you offering it to? There are three major groups that it would be offered it to. First it would be the average person that may have some perishable or nonperishable items that they would like to offer up for donation and to picked up. The second major group is the businesses. This includes both restaurants and supermarkets. These companies often have waste and can then alert the organizations that they have goods available for pick up. This could be a huge factor for many businesses as they can then advertise that they support the local community and are a member of the organization. Many people are more likely to spend money with an organization that helps others rather than one that does not. Lastly this will also be for the nonprofit organizations that collecting the donations. This will provide a necessary streamlined platform for them with which they can accept more donations for those in need.

4. Why do they care? Most people want to limit waste and help other people. However, we all live in a busy world and don’t have the time to drive to different organizations to deliver our goods. Customers of this startup will be happy to hear that they have a streamlined process with which to help others and our environment by limiting waste through a platform that requires minimal time and effort. Organizations could pay fees to advertise and request certain goods while other companies may be inclined to advertise their green initiatives on the site that attracts socially conscious customers. Businesses are frequently looking for ways to be considered an organization that cares about the community. This also gives them opportunity to advertise on the sight and expound upon their initiatives to help the community and create a greener world.

5. What are your core competencies? The reason I am the right person for this start up is twofold. I have the social competencies necessary to network and create a community of people with which to launch this endeavor. I also have traveled on 4 different international humanitarian missions’ trips and have participated in many events in the local community geared towards helping people. I have demonstrated a willingness and energy to help others by sacrificing time and significant amounts of my own money up to this point for other people. I will be creative in marketing this idea and will sell the idea to businesses that want to be a community leader and as people that care about the environment and limiting waste.

In conclusion, I do believe that these elements fit together well together but there are some glaring holes to the idea as well. The main reason that it would be difficult for me to start this is that I do not have any experience developing an app or online platform for which this could operate from. Additionally, I do not have any experience running an organization or how to start something from the ground up. I do have some weaknesses regarding social capital. I do not have many contacts in the realm of business or large nonprofit organizations that would want to join to help get the operation up and running. This is a potential problem and it would be something that I need to be intentional about growing.  I believe that the need exists, and that the startup idea can satisfy the need. I think that my passion and experience in helping others could be valuable to creating the company. Also, my experience in networking and interviewing people at my job would be helpful for getting the start up off the ground. I am concerned with how to develop the idea into a mobile platform for easy and convenient use. There are still some roadblocks to launching this but several of the components I feel are in place.

There were two main pieces of feedback that I received and implemented. The main thing I implemented regarding the idea was from a comment I received about how businesses could use this as a marketing piece. It is true that companies want to be a part of something that helps others and that they can promote as part of their community initiative. I included multiple explanations in the revised post that help explain that and how I will use it to my advantage. The other thing I changed was the feedback that Dr Pryor has given in class about being open about your weaknesses. I thought more about the deficiencies I have that would limit me from starting this venture and recorded those in my conclusion as well. This allowed me to think more about where I need to improve and what I can do to help limit those deficiencies moving forward.

Elevator Pitch 2 17A

The only feedback I received from my last elevator pitch was to include some ideas about how to create revenue to be self sustaining as well as changing my question away from asking how to create revenue. I did both of these thing and I think it helped make for a more complete elevator pitch. I included ideas for selling advertisements and boosted posts for requesting goods, as well as changing the question to a call for action for everyone to help.

https://youtu.be/8mKUP3gjrPU

Create a Customer Avatar 18A

The prototypical person that would donate goods for an organization would be a middle aged, middle class person that is involved in the community. When I think about someone that wants to help limit waste while helping others I generally think about people who work a standard white collar job, have a couple kids and are about more than just getting by in life. For example, the avatar is a middle school teacher who has two kids that still live at home. She drives a minivan to take her kids and their friends around to different activities like soccer practice or Sunday school. She volunteers at some after school programs and she also is involved in church. She likes to donate their excess goods to others at Church but generally ends up throwing things away when she gets too busy. She prefers to see her items go to help people in the local community and cares more about giving things to help them rather than making a few bucks selling the goods. She is conscious about the environment and separates recyclables at her home. Her personal hobbies include gardening and reading historical fiction novels about ancient civilization. She is tech savvy and uses her smart for more and more activities like communicating with her students and their parents. She likes to be a good role model for the kids she has influence over and is always looking for opportunities to make a difference anywhere she can.

The biggest things that I have in common with my customer avatar would be a desire to help others and be a good role model to those around me. This "customer" is always looking for more ways to help others and that is something that I try to do as well. Additionally, she cares about youth and wants to set a good example for them as I strive to do as well. I do not think these things are a coincidence because it helps shape the way we view things and brings a stronger desire to help others in need when we can.