My Unfair Advantage

10 Resources my venture has:
1. Customer base
-Many students dislike ProctorU, and which would create a large customer base. This resource is not inimitable by ProctorU, but it could be by other proctor companies.
2. Human capital
-Very easy to find potential employees, because this job is very relaxed compared to others. Somewhat inimitable.
3. Financial capital
-If I were to start this I could take out a loan. Very imitable.
4. Hard-working culture
-This company would be regarded as a very hard-working company, and always on top of their work. Imitable.
5. Friendly atmosphere
-The proctors would be extremely friendly to the customers.  Imitable.
6. Easy to get in contact with
-The customers would have the personal numbers of the employees and therefore could reach them at anytime.  Somewhat imitable.
7.  Management practices
-Management would mirror the great management practices of some of the top firms in the world. Imitable.
8. Research
-This company would research what environments students prefer to take tests in and would allow those students to take them there. Somewhat imitable.
9. Affordable prices - for the University
-This company's services would be cheaper than the services of ProctorU. Imitable.
10. Experienced workers
-It is very easy to find potential employees who have either proctored a test, or taught a class before.  Imitable.

The top resource in this business would be the access to the customer base, because so many students dislike ProctorU. All of these resources could potentially be imitable. But once this company is already running, it would be difficult for other companies to take the customers that it would already have, because this would be the first of its kind.

Week 10 Reading Reflection

Nothing was really surprising to me about this reading because I am a finance major and I have already taken courses on this subject. I didn't find any part of this reading confusing, but I can see how someone who hasn't taken a finance course would be confused. I would ask the author if a finance major has an easier path to become an entrepreneur than people who don't major in finance. I would also ask what the easiest way to gain capital to begin a business is. I do not disagree with anything he said.

Growing my Social Capital

Domain Expert
The domain expert I spoke to was Andrew Dubbaneh. He is a TA for a business class that I am taking and he proctors the tests. I just emailed him about my business idea. He has proctored actual exams so he can give some more insight as to how the process goes.

Market Expert
The market expert I spoke to was Chris, a tutor or "study expert" at Study Edge. He tutors some of the classes that I am currently taking. My business is a proctoring company, and a tutor is the only thing that is somewhat close to a proctor. He just let me talk to him about my business idea. He can help me reach out to more people that I couldn't reach out to alone.

Supplier
My business idea doesn't really require any supplies. So the closest thing that I can think of is actual proctors who would supply their time. I spoke to another TA in one of my classes, Kamil. I emailed him as well. He currently is in the proctoring business because he proctors some business class tests.


This experience allowed me to reach out to people that I normally would not have. It allowed me to gain a little more insight into the proctoring business.

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.