Elevator Pitch No. 3

There were a couple things that stood out to me from the comments on my last elevator pitch. I needed to help explain how terrible ProctorU exams are because the investors that I would be speaking to may have never taken an online exam. I also needed to try and remove the filler words in my pitch and make it flow together a little better.

My Secret Sauce

1) Describe five ways in which you think you have human capital that is truly unique.
I am an extremely dedicated person, once I set my mind so something, I don't stop until it's done. I am also an extremely caring person and I feel like that helps me build lasting relationships with people. I feel like I am also pretty smart and I excel in the classroom. I am very perseverant and try to overcome all obstacles that are in my way. I also think that I have a very entrepreneurial mindset. 

2) Interview the five people who know you the best.



My key takeaways from these interviews is that people think that I am a very hard-worker and that people can depend on me to get the job done. Most people also believe that I am a pretty caring person. 



3) Reflect on the differences.
I think that the people that I interviewed described me almost exactly as I would describe myself. For the most part, they all agreed that I was a very hard-worker and that I was very dedicated to what I do. There are not that many differences to how I see myself and to how others see me. I think that it is a very beneficial thing to not have clouded vision of yourself. 

Week 9 Reading Reflection

What surprised me about this reading was how the author explained how recently, marketers changed their focus and made their marketing efforts more customer-oriented. That surprised me because it got me thinking: what was their focus before? The marketing strategy that confused me was how some marketers believe that penny differences in prices attract customers. I have never even noticed how prestigious items end in an even number while commonly available goods end in an odd number. A question I would ask the author is: why haven't marketers always focused on the consumer, why is it just recently that they did? Another question I would ask is: does he really believe that penny differences in prices attract customers? I didn't really disagree with anything the author wrote, I just question a couple things.

Idea Napkin No. 2

My name is Tristan Whittingham and I am an extremely motivated individual and one day I would like to open my own stock brokerage firm. If this business concept were to materialize, it could give me the startup money that I would need to eventually open my own firm. My business concept is a proctoring service which could be an alternative to ProctorU, I could start it, and eventually sell it in order to follow my dreams.

Online students at the University of Florida have to take their exams online as well, on an online proctor service where there is a proctor watching your every move and can be very nerve-racking. My business idea would solve this problem and would allow online students to meet up with a proctor in whichever city there are in, in order to take a pen and paper exam, like they are accustomed to doing.This process would be much like taking an ACT or SAT test, you select the location, date, and time that you would be willing to the exam. The proctors would then score the exams themselves and send the results to the professor. My customers would be any online student at any university in the United States that does not feel comfortable taking an exam via ProctorU. Taking a pen and paper exam is what most students are used to and prefer, so this alternative to ProctorU could allow students to do better on exams. I am a hard-worker and I believe I can make anything successful if I put my mind to it. I believe these concepts fit together nicely and would allow for a very profitable business.

I did not change this post much from my original napkin idea. I did include a couple sentences that made the process easier to understand by referencing the SAT and ACT testing procedure. The comments I received mainly focused on how students love this idea because they despise ProctorU exams. I can't really say 5 things that I took away from the comments because there were only two changes that people recommended, and I implemented those into this post. 

Half-Way Reflection

1. This class is not all that difficult but you get out what you put in to it. So I've learned to keep pushing when I'm tired and don't want to finish a reading, or when I don't feel like doing an assignment. I also want to graduate and get an A in this class, so it's not hard to be tenacious when it is required.
2. I feel like I've developed a tenacious attitude through the various assignment that we've had to do even when I felt uncomfortable doing them or just plain did not want to do them. I feel like giving up every time I have to read the text book, but I always finish the readings.
3.  Three tips I would give are 1) Create a schedule and stick to it. 2) Be organized. 3) Always be confident in your abilities to complete an assignment even when you feel uncomfortable.

Week 8 Reading Reflection

I found the use of the term "angel investors" to be pretty surprising and  pretty funny too actually. I think most of the chapter was actually pretty confusing because he used to many terms that I was unfamiliar with. A question I would ask is, what is the best way to get people to invest in your company. I would also ask if he recommends debt or equity financing. I do not disagree with anything he said.

Free Money

I went outside of my apartment and spoke to the first two people I found. I just asked them if they wanted a dollar because who wouldn't want free money. I did not think that anyone would actually take the dollar.

 Giving away the dollar was harder than I expected because I find it hard to speak to random people. I thought that no one would accept the dollar, but everyone that I offered a dollar to took it.