Final reflection

The experience that stuck with me most was definitely the secret sauce assignment. While I try to be as self-aware as I can, it really stuck with me how differently people (who I knew very well to boot) perceived me. I'm usually trying to spot my own flaws, and in the process I never really paid attention to what my strengths were- which is important, I know now! Everyone should know where their strengths are, and it isn't overindulgent to look into it.

I've definitely become more of an entrepreneur in practice because of this class. I'm definitely guilty of being over-analytical and putting off projects and ambitions because of it- but now I'll at least try to get a prototype out! No use overplanning and burning out.

My advice to someone entering this class would be to take it seriously. This has definitely been one of the most useful classes at UF I've taken so far, but you get out what you put in. It's easy to fake your venture info, but it only hurts you. When you're stressed by your other classes and the last thing you want to do is interview strangers, my advice is: Just do it. Make it a little easier, by sticking to a specific type of student, mutual friends, and even the internet community. But do it.



Have a happy finals week, holidays, and rest of your UF career guys. It's a shame almost all of you guys are online students, you seem really cool. I'll be looking out for your ventures in the future!!

Venture Concept 2

1           Opportunity

The main force creating this opportunity is probably time itself. As time goes on, technology progresses, and with coding technology this is especially true. In 10 years there can be A LOT of progress. It's why un-updated websites from the 2000s look so stale and gross now. Social communities also change regarding their priorities, humors, and wants, and it is absolutely vital for social media creators to take note of this. Due to a neglect in this area, my opportunity has arisen.

Geographically, this market can be located just about anywhere in the world, as it is online. However, I’ve noticed concentrations in the western Unites States and Canada. Demographically, it is majority women who are mostly college-educated. The age range is 18-25 with a few outliers. They are all either artist/writer hobbyists or professionals, and are interested in experiences with their friends.

Currently, I think customers are mostly satisfying their need for a modern platform to chat, write, and draw by using 2-3 different websites and lowering their expectations. In my own experience in the past, this market jumps ship to another social media website within months of a better alternative being released. Usually, the only thing keeping people’s loyalties are their followings that they’ve worked hard to build up..

While more niche, my market is still a few thousand people big, and according to a poll I conducted, seems to be either stagnating or growing. The people in this market spend plenty of discretionary income on fandom and original merchandise, so I know a small monthly membership fee is not unrealistic for their wallets.

The community doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, so I would say that the window of opportunity will last until someone else creates something. I can safely say a year or two at minimum, seeing as I’ve been in this community for years without any alternative offered. My only guess for why nothing has been created is just that most people involved are hobbyists and have schoolwork or full-time work to do, so no one’s taken the plunge in creating something.

2.                  Innovation

My service is on the more continuous or dynamically continuous levels of innovation, as it won’t require much (if any) learning at all beyond getting used to the interface. My market is a tech-savvy one, so a new social media website should feel ideally familiar and intuitive. The most innovative part is who it’s for- all I am really doing is combining the most useful aspects of the 2-3 websites my market frequents as well as adding new features:

• If applicable, a pinterest account can be linked. Someone can view your art on one part of your profile and your quality aesthetic on the other!
• A customizable calendar to set deadlines and alarms to help plan and spur productivity- with a countdown system to put on the pressure ;)
• Customizable color scheme for the website.
• Easy to access tabs on each person's profile to access user-set categories for their art- no outdated, clumpy folders.

To be more specific, my current market uses various combinations of these three websites: DeviantArt, Twitter, and Discord. The reason why my market cannot survive on just one of these alone goes as follows, with each website’s pros and cons:

DeviantArt

+ Capable of hosting artwork, animations, and literature

+ While ill-suited for original content, groups can be hosted here as well

- Outdated chat and social functions make it very hard to meet people

- Groups with decent HTML formatting and organization are charged $60 a year to upkeep.

Twitter

+ Artwork can be posted here, whether finished or in-progress works

+ Very easy to meet and socialize quickly with people through mutual followers and the dashboard feature

+ For professional artists and those who offer commissions and merchandise, Twitter is additionally a great place to advertise themselves.

- Picture quality is iffy, not friendly to different kinds of image formats

- Due to character limit, ‘serious’ conversation regarding roleplaying can’t really be done here- Twitter is just a place for others to keep up with their friend’s lives.

Discord

+ Easy to use and great for creating large chatrooms for roleplaying groups with many members

+ Direct messaging feature

+ 2000 character limit is pretty literature-friendly

+ New and constantly updating

+/- Very controlled audience for who sees your content

- While pictures can be uploaded here, quality is iffy

- Cannot upload animation videos

- Shared artworks are easily lost due to being buried by messages

So, my plan is to combine the positive elements of these three websites to the best of my ability, with a large focus on being art-friendly. I plan to profit by either selling advertising space or by offering premium features for members’ profiles and groups for a low rate of $3.99 a month.

3.                   Venture Concept

As stated prior, I believe it will be customer’s dissatisfaction with what is currently offered that will bring them to my website. I expect switching to take a few months, so the first few months of being up and running will be quite the hustle. All of my established competitors have specific focuses to their websites just like I do, but my main advantage is that my target audience isn’t really interested in them.

When members purchase a membership, I’d like to send a nice thank-you card to them as a tangible representation of good customer service. The purchase process will be automated through a 3^rd party like paypal and my team and I will be available for emails for questions. My team will ideally consist of me, a coder, a graphic designer, and 1-2 others to help moderate. We will mainly keep in contact through online medias, though if the website becomes profitable enough I would love to consider a small office.

4.                   Three Minor Elements

1.                  My important resource is being part of my own market.

2.                  Perhaps partner with a merchandise-making company to give people the option to turn their art into prints and charms.

3.                  I would like to be able to grow this venture enough so it becomes sustainable in the next 5 years. In the next 10, I’d like to move on to my own artistic endeavors. This will be useful business experience.

Feedback Received

My feedback was all positive! More specifically, I was praised for my passion and knowledge about my venture and the personal touches I wanted to add in. Honestly, I probably should've asked for feedback from the professor, but I was lazy and also a huge coward so there's that Anyway, I decided to mainly fix up the innovation part of my venture concept, since it was brief and not really mentioned by other people. Additionally, I shaved down some of the wordier bits of my venture concept to make room for concise content.

I'm writing this right after my accounting and marketing finals. That should be all the context you need.

My exit strategy

What I ultimately plan to do with my website will partially depend on its success, but it is not something I foresee myself owning for any more than 10 years. In about 5-10 years time after opening, I will probably step down from the role as CEO/owner (a grander term than it really is for a business this small). While I don't want to completely step away from my website, I wouldn't mind simply assuming a smaller role for the sake of maintaining the feel of the website, eventually fading out (unless the website does first). Knowing myself, I come up with new ideas pretty frequently, so I won't want to work on the same project forever.

Honestly, I was in the chunk of people who hadn't even considered an exit strategy for their venture, but I'm glad I see the wisdom in planning one out now. It hasn't really influenced much of my business decisions yet beyond making them feel more real. I suppose I've taken the lifespan of my market into greater consideration.

Reading reflection III

1

You read Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc.
What surprised you the most?

Ray Kroc was all about doing what the opposite of what everyone was doing, and while we'd all like to think we'd be our own people and do the same, I truly don't think I'd make all the same bold decisions as he did. Focusing on growth during tough periods, for example, is definitely something I would think not to do, yet that is exactly what he did. Clearly, I have a lot to learn.

What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

I admired Ray Kroc's tenacity despite starting his work with McDonald's at the age of 52, which is when many people take less risks due to a perceived lack of time and security. He really believed in his vision of success, which I think is due to

What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

I think he made for a horrible family man and let ambition cloud some of his morals, as he sort of ended up taking the McDonald brothers' business from them. Then again, you could also just argue that the brothers weren't savvy enough and deserved to have it taken from them.

Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

When McDonald's had expanded to a second location, Ray Kroc had a hard time getting the french fry recipe down just right. Even after a sanitary, 'perfect' by-the-book procedure, the fries came out "like mush". While they were passable, they weren't up to his standards. First he called the McDonald brothers, and then the source of their potatoes, who figured out that the brothers had unintentionally been curing their potatoes by leaving them outside, which led to unmushy fries. I suppose the moral is to not forget about every step of your process and not be afraid of asking questions.

What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?

I think Ray Kroc was excellent at being proactive and knowing how to spend his time. Several times throughout the book he reinforced and brought home that ultimately, he was a doer, not a planner. I know that over-analysis was also something brought up in class. Extensive planning can be problematic!

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

I didn't get what Ray Kroc meant when he mentioned franchises expiring. While I understood how one store being located too close to the other could mean cannibalizing sales, I'm not really sure what he means with franchises expiring, since McDonald's is still around. Is it just closing stores?

If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

I would ask if he's always been a workaholic, as I was extremely impressed by his past, carrying two jobs with sleepless hours 7 days a week. I can't function without my 8 hours.

I would also ask how he avoided burnout. Over 30 years of sales sounds exhausting.

For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

I can definitely see him as one of those people who say "work smart, not hard" with an almost condescending tone, which he can pull off due to his success. However, I think if he just worked hard all the time, he'd have just burnt out, so I see the merit.

Celebrating failure

I have an easy example of continuous failure: my artwork to-do list! Like everyone reading this blog post, I'm a full-time student, so I try to be responsible and have school be my first priority. While I am taking 17 credits of marketing, stats, accounting, and entrepreneurship, I still somehow find plenty of time to waste. What I'm saying is I have an awful habit of putting things off, and as a result, I finish much less art than I'd have liked to. It hurts my soul.

I think the most bothersome part about this continuous failure is that I know other college students who are also artists and manage to be much more productive than I am. They make it that much harder for me to tell myself I'm 'too exhausted' from school and extracurriculars to draw, since I know they can pull it off, so why can't I? Honestly, that's great peer pressure.

I've learned to stop being such a perfectionist, which is in part thanks to this class. I think it has helped with its mentality of getting a concept out as soon as you can, versus spending lots of time, effort, and money on a concept that might be outdated or backfire. I believe that's a great mentality to have with art as well!

what's next

Existing Market

Regarding what would be next, I assumed consumers would want the ability to make merchandise of the art they post to my website such as stickers, prints, and charms. It's definitely something they buy on their own time, and it's a feature my competitors offer, so why wouldn't they be interested in it?

However, I was met with a more lukewarm response than anticipated. The reason was that typically, when artists want to make merchandise, they keep that in mind from the very beginning when creating a piece. I was told by one of my interviewees that they often forget art websites even offer the feature, so it makes for an ineffective afterthought with little point. I myself have never utilized it, but figured others did. In the end, what I was encouraged to continue focusing on was having an aesthetically pleasing website. These ARE artists, after all!

New Market

For my new market, I identified my competitors as my new market. Many websites have applets and plugins available on the Google app store to help enhance them to consumer's niche needs. So, I would change my product from a website to an app that would help website users better organize the content they were seeing.

When I interviewed my intended market, I was surprised at the approval I was met with. As it turns out for one of the websites in my market, something similar has actually already been done for that websites' chatrooms by a user of the website, which made the formatting much nicer to look at as well as adding additional features for those who wanted them. However, this route seems less profitable, as I know many applet makers run on donations alone, even if it's a smaller project.

Venture Concept 1- OChacon.com

1           Opportunity

The main force creating this opportunity is probably time itself. As time goes on, technology progresses, and with coding technology this is especially true. In 10 years there can be A LOT of progress. It is why un-updated websites from the 2000s look so stale and gross now. Social communities also change regarding their priorities, humors, and wants, and it is absolutely vital for social media creators to take note of this. Due to a neglect in this area, my opportunity has arisen.

Geographically, this market can be located just about anywhere in the world, as it is online. However, I’ve noticed concentrations in the western Unites States and Canada. Demographically, it is majority women who are mostly college-educated. The age range is 18-25 with a few outliers. They are all either artist/writer hobbyists or professionals, and are interested in experiences with their friends.

Currently, I think customers are mostly satisfying their need for a modern platform to chat, write, and draw by using a cocktail of 2-3 different websites and lowering their expectations as a way of coping. Due to these lowered expectations, I’d say they’re none too loyal. In my own experience in the past, this market jumps ship to another social media website within months of a better alternative being released. Usually, the only thing keeping people’s loyalties are their followings that they’ve worked hard to build up, but even then it isn’t always enough.

This market I am targeting, while more niche, I would still comfortably say is a few thousand people big, and according to a poll I conducted, seems to be either stagnating or growing. The people in this market spend plenty of discretionary income on fandom and original merchandise, so I know a small monthly membership fee is not unrealistic.

The community doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, so I would say that the window of opportunity will last until someone else creates something. I can safely say a year or two at minimum, seeing as I’ve been in this community for years without any alternative offered. My only guess for why nothing has been created is just that most people involved are hobbyists and have schoolwork or full-time work to do, so no one’s taken the plunge in creating something.

2.                  Innovation

My service is on the more continuous or dynamically continuous levels of innovation, as it won’t require much (if any) learning at all beyond getting used to the interface. My market is a more tech-savvy one, so a new social media website should feel ideally familiar and intuitive. The most innovative part is who it’s for- all I am really doing is combining the most useful aspects of the 2-3 websites my market frequents.

To be more specific, my current market uses various combinations of these three websites: DeviantArt, Twitter, and Discord. The reason why my market cannot survive on just one of these alone goes as follows, with each website’s pros and cons:

DeviantArt

+ Capable of hosting artwork, animations, and literature

+ While ill-suited for original content, groups can be hosted here as well

- Outdated chat and social functions make it very hard to meet people

- Groups with decent HTML formatting and organization are charged $60 a year to upkeep.

Twitter

+ Artwork can be posted here, whether finished or in-progress works

+ Very easy to meet and socialize quickly with people through mutual followers and the dashboard feature

+ For professional artists and those who offer commissions and merchandise, Twitter is additionally a great place to advertise themselves.

- Picture quality is iffy, not friendly to different kinds of image formats

- Due to character limit, ‘serious’ conversation regarding roleplaying can’t really be done here- Twitter is just a place for others to keep up with their friend’s lives.

Discord

+ Easy to use and great for creating large chatrooms for roleplaying groups with many members

+ Direct messaging feature

+ 2000 character limit is pretty literature-friendly

+ New and constantly updating

+/- Very controlled audience for who sees your content

- While pictures can be uploaded here, quality is iffy

- Cannot upload animation videos

- Shared artworks are easily lost due to being buried by messages

So, my plan is to combine the positive elements of these three websites to the best of my ability, with a large focus on being art-friendly. I plan to profit by either selling advertising space or by offering premium features for members’ profiles and groups for a low rate of $3.99 a month.

3.                   Venture Concept

As stated prior, I believe it will be customer’s dissatisfaction with what is currently offered that will bring them to my website. I expect switching to take a few months, so the first few months of being up and running will be quite the hustle. All of my established competitors have specific focuses to their websites just like I do, but my main advantage is that my target audience isn’t really interested in them.

When members purchase a membership, I’d like to send a nice thank-you card to them as a tangible representation of good customer service. The purchase process will be automated through a 3^rd party like paypal and my team and I will be available for emails for questions. My team will ideally consist of me, a coder, a graphic designer, and 1-2 others to help moderate. We will mainly keep in contact through online medias, though if the website becomes profitable enough I would love to consider a small office.

4.                   Three Minor Elements

1.                  My important resource is being part of my own market.

2.                  Perhaps partner with a merchandise-making company to give people the option to turn their art into prints and charms.

3.                  I would like to be able to grow this venture enough so it becomes sustainable in the next 5 years. In the next 10, I’d like to move on to my own artistic endeavors. This will be useful business experience.

unfair advantage

1. Connections to coders

Valuable: Coding a website is the most important material for my website.
Rare: It's only really rare among people who don't know anyone in the computer science crowd. Online, this isn't really rare.
Inimitable: Pretty tough, as coding websites takes considerable experience.
Non-substitutable: Could substitute coding lessons.

2. An audience

Valuable: They'll help spread the word about my website when it goes up.
Rare: Building a following while being well-liked and reputable isn't as easy as it seems!
Inimitable: Very few could.
Non-substitutable: No one else in my market is trying to make something like this, so no.

3. Connections to artists

Valuable: Graphic design know-how is imperative to a nice-looking website that people will want to use.
Rare: Most people aren't artists, so pretty rare.
Inimitable: Art takes years to learn and finesse.
Non-substitutable: I have my own art skills I could use instead.

4. My own artistic skills

Valuable: Using my own skills may not save time, but it will save some money.
Rare: Again, most people aren't artists so fairly rare.
Inimitable: I have my own style and aesthetic, so I'll say yes.
Non-substitutable: There are other artists out there.

5. Being a part of my own market

Valuable: I have years of knowledge and experience that you just can't buy. A fantastic advantage against outsiders thinking of entering.
Rare: It's a niche community, so yes.
Inimitable: Anyone else in this community has similar experiences.
Non-substitutable: Most people in this community are artists or in STEM, so I'm sort of alone as a business major.

6. Accounting knowledge

Valuable: Essential to maintaining a business
Rare: Most artists probably haven't taken an accounting class.
Inimitable: However, anyone can.
Non-substitutable: Could hire an accountant.

7. Bright future $$$

Valuable: Money is vital to starting a business.
Rare: It's a very common scholarship in Florida.
Inimitable: There are many others with the same level of BF as me.
Non-substitutable: And there are many other scholarships and ways to make money.

8. Being a UF student

Valuable: We're a top 10 public university, and the best in Florida, which gives me a pretty good education.
Rare: 50,000 students go here, but I wouldn't say we're common.
Inimitable: The quality makes my degree on the more difficult side to imitate
Non-substitutable: 

9. My empathy

Valuable: Vital for making sales, networking, and maintaining a good corporate culture.
Rare: Not everyone has it, but not rare.
Inimitable: I've been told I'm extremely empathetic and relatable, so if it sticks out to people then I must be above average.
Non-substitutable: Can't substitute ingenuity! 

10. My energy

Valuable: Being motivated is the easiest way to get things done.
Rare: Not really.
Inimitable: Being genuine and energetic is pretty hard to fake.
Non-substitutable: Can substitute with a strong work ethic and self-discipline at the cost of some fun.

I'd say my most valuable resource is #5, being a part of my own market. It's got the best VRIN analysis out of all of these, as it's the hardest to imitate and really can't be substituted. People could be interviewed, but I think it's hard to grasp some things without experiencing them for yourself (like college).

the final pitch

The feedback that stood out to me most last time was positive reception on my updated hook, so I kept that in there! Otherwise, besides shortening my pitch for the sake of timing, for this elevator pitch I focused on presentation. I noticed in my past pitches that I moved around a lot and constantly had my eyebrows stuck in this weird surprised state, and while the assignment encourages you to be energetic, that probably doesn't coincide with being obnoxious. This third time around I was a lot comfier in front of the camera, and I think it shows.

Reading reflection II

I chose to read Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Dr. Carol S. Dweck.

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

In each chapter, Dr. Dweck compares two mindsets: Growth and fixed. At first, I thought it was going to be 8 chapters of her preaching how the growth mindset was better because being open-minded and learning from you failures is vital to success and all that jazz, but I was wrong. She realistically explains how each can lead to both success and failure in their own right, though inevitably growth mindsets are the way to go.

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

In chapter 4, the author talks about what makes the mindset of a 'champion'. It's in a sports context, but it heavily reminded me of entrepreneurship. It's all about how those with growth mindsets find success in doing their best and find setbacks motivating. Entrepreneurship is all about coming up with hundreds, if not thousands of ideas that will ultimately fail, but not letting that deter you.

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

It would involve enforcing a growth mindset by both reflecting on past failures or setbacks that you moved on from as well as anticipating any possible failures in the future. It's grim, but important to prepare for the worst.

4) 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?

The most eye-opening thing I read was about how we are conditioned in school to believe we are 'smart' in subjects we pick up quickly and 'dumb' in subjects that take longer to learn. Praising children's intelligence harms their motivation and performance. They'll associate victory with being smart and failure with being dumb, which could ultimately make failing a much more traumatic process than it needs to be. Growing up as a perfectionist, it's almost sad how true this is! I'm still trying to unlearn my association between failure and being seen as a fool.

Growing your social capital

1. Domain Expert: François Chollet

Chollet is the creator of Wysp, an art community that focuses on practice improvement. She is my domain expert since I also want to create an art website with strong community features, albeit with a different focus. I found Wysp via a blog post, and found Chollet's contact info on Wysp's FAQ page. Since Chollet appears to be a normal young person just like you and me, in my email I basically asked about things I was worried about concerning my own project- getting the word out, unexpected challenges, and how she created the website. Additionally, I noticed there are no ads on Wysp, and there doesn't seem to be a paid membership system, so I was curious about where Wysp created revenue. Having her in my network will add a nice sense of camaraderie as well as a possible mentor- small website moderators have to stick together!

2. Market Expert: Silvia Barnett

Silvia is a digital artist who's been in the artist roleplaying community for over five years, so she's representative of my market. Since I'm in the same community, we met through there and have been friends for a few years now. I chose to contact her through a freeware application, Discord, since that's where we usually chat to keep things casual.

In my message to Silvia, I asked her mostly about her views on how big my market is and what kind of features should be free versus premium on my website. Having her in my network will be helpful since she is deeply rooted within it and has a large reach of her own. She could help me spread the word about my website.

3. Important Supplier: Allison Zhao

Zhao is a freelance coder who works with clients in building websites and small video games. When your service is a website, coding and technical help are the most important supplies. I found Zhao through a tweet advertising her coding commission services. When I contacted her through Twitter, I basically described my website idea to her in hopes of getting suggestions and a quote. The more you know! Having this person in my network is vital for my website's creation due to her expertise.

Reflection

I can see that networking is super vital, as I've been told since I was a freshman at UF. They give you the info and boosts that classes and money can't buy, and I wouldn't doubt if they were the gap between some businesses succeeding and failing.

napone naptwo napred napblue

1) You. 

I am a 3rd year marketing student. Since I'm not too experienced in that field, most of my wisdom in life thus far has come from communicating with large groups of artists online. Despite these not being in person, I've actually gained a surprising amount of people and leadership skills from this.

As for aspirations, I would love to tie my business major into an art-related industry. Video games need marketers, too! I'd like to get some experience with a large firm before starting my own projects and ideas, such as this one!

2) What are you offering to customers? 

I am offering a new, modern, socially acceptable website for artists to gather on and use as a form of social media as well as a platform for their creative endeavors. All in one place that was meant for them. (Some social media websites such as Twitter and Tumblr can be difficult to post artwork on due to quality, size, and file restrictions.)

3) Who are you offering it to? 

Young, tech-savvy artists who carefully craft their online image as a way of personal branding.

4) Why do they care?

Again, personal branding. My only competitor is considered outdated, corrupt, and known for being home to niche, socially unacceptable artwork. A good chunk of my market use their art as a source of income and get work through the internet, so having pretty profile pages on shiny new websites matters to them.

5) What are your core competencies?

To reflect on last week's assignment, I'm really good at relating to people, as well as possessing leadership skills and innovative tendencies. Thus, being a part of my own market gives me maximum relatability. #likeliterally #canteven

she reflec

Basically, I think I can make something people want due to my own insight. Due to this product being for a niche audience, I believe that gives this product strength, as the whole 'one size fits all' marketing scheme went out of fashion a while ago. As for the pieces fitting together, I feel that I could still make my market stronger. It consists of both hobbyist artists as well as professionals, but I'm not sure which one there is more of. This could potentially matter, as hobbyists tend to be much more casual.

Feedback

One of the main pieces of feedback that I got stated that catering to the digital artist community is a smart idea. Honestly, since so few people do, I can't help but agree! It's part of the reason that drove me to do this business idea for this class. I mentioned the niche audience thing earlier.

In my first idea napkin, I stated that switching costs would be my greatest challenge. However, after interviewing several people and learning that many are already pretty fed up with my main competitor, DeviantArt, I think people would be more than willing to switch to a new website, especially if it's pretty and easy to use. To get there, I'm gonna need some more coding knowledge beyond HTML and Java, though.

Custom avatar

When I picture my prototypical customer, I immediately imagine a college student who spends their weekends drawing and being on the internet. They're probably more meme-savvy than most of their peers and extremely liberal. In their spare time, they like to watch anime, read webcomics and manga, and visit cute cafes (especially ones with boba tea!) Racially diverse as this is an international crowd, with especially strong presence among the Asian-American and Asian communities. Very artsy people who would probably pick Gravity Falls over Riverdale. They are probably well-versed with the [toxic] fan culture of Tumblr that they regrettably spent years of their early teens on, and have written or read fanfiction. Dungeons and Dragons are a familiar topic, though not all have tried it before.

Through this assignment, it's especially evident that I fit right into this demographic. Since I'm also an artist who can be kind of a shut-in compared to most people my age, there is no coincidence here.

and the krabby patty secret formula is

Five ways that make my human capital unique:

1. My sense of humor. It's always been a useful way to make friends, diffuse situations, and add entertainment value to my life.
2. Ability to relate. Empathy? I attempt to be open-minded and understand everyone's viewpoint in attempt to be humble. People behave a certain way for a reason, and usually it isn't because they're crazy.
3. Creativity. Even if some people find me weird because of my ideas, I choose to embrace them anyway and just go to town with my passions or ideas. Being a normie won't get you anywhere in entrepreneurship, where you're supposed to not be like everyone else.
4. Genuineness. I honestly don't have much of a filter and am pretty transparent, which makes it hard to feign excitement or affection for someone. I've learned to mend this by thinking more positive thoughts in general, but my passion for something always shines through because of this. I definitely try to come off as someone with no ulterior motives.
5.  Optimism. I've come to realize that focusing on the negatives hurts my productivity, so I try to focus on the best in people and my situation (while taking note of anything problematic so it doesn't harm me in the future) to keep a genuine persona.

I recorded these interviews using the voice memo app or another recording website, so I had to upload these as audio posts onto my ancient Tumblr account.

Erica Audio

I'm a good listener with an "otherworldly" sense of humor. When she comes to me to talk about something, she ends up laughing about her problems and always feels better. Erica also said I'm a strong, empathetic person who can pick herself up from rejection and throw herself at the next hurdle in life. Also, she thinks I have good time management (I'm so flattered my god

Chase Audio

I'm a good, empathetic leader that he thinks of as a role model (awww!!!!). I'm a quick learner, people-oriented, and pleasant to be around. I am articulate and good at relating to others, creating a positive atmosphere. This boy called me the life of the party!!

Dipa Audio

I find unique, innovative ways to connect with people online. I have artistic talent and am very good at finding opportunities and making them my own, putting my own twist on things. I am also very good at reading people and understanding them at a quick rate, and good at maintaining my emotions and mental health.

Mom Audio

I am a perfectionist with a passion for the arts. I'm a good listener and helpful friend. I enjoy doing difficult things for the sake of a challenge, and will not relent or give up.

Dad Audio

I love my family and am a good worker who will finish the job. I am also determined and passionate, but to a fault; if I'm not excited about something, my motivation and productivity are zilch.

Conclusion

I was so flattered by all of these interviews! I personally don't see myself as someone with a strong will or heavy determination since I'm not personally satisfied with my productivity, but it appears that others don't share that viewpoint at all. In my teens, I used to be very shy and quiet, so I'm happy to hear that people now think of me as more of a leader and someone who can thrive in center stage. I can't say all of these are completely correct, but I'm okay with that, since I know I can't stop hustling. Reflecting back on my first list, based off my interviews I'd maybe make things sound more strong-willed. Apparently.

the SECOND elevator pitch

I just can't catch a break with these video thumbnails.

Anyway! The thing I'm most concerned about regarding my pitches are making them comprehensible for everyone to be able to understand, so I updated some of my content to reflect my frustrations in a more humorous, relatable way. I updated my hook and closing to make them less clunky, and generally just tried to present this in a more natural manner. My feedback from my first elevator pitch was mostly positive, I was surprised that the pitch came through to people at all.

Reading reflection I

The book I chose to read was The Wright Brothers by David McCullough.

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

• What surprised you the most?

I didn't realize that Orville and Wilbur Wright were in their 40s when they had their breakthrough flight and lived at home until they were in their 30s! That's usually what we call manchildren.

• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

Their teamwork. As someone who had a project fail due to my partner falling through, I deeply admire the bond of the brothers.

• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

While firm believers in their own product, it led to some arrogance. After their success, one of their plane models was malfunctioning and resulted in the death of several soldiers, but the brothers blamed it on pilot incompetency. Tt took multiple deaths for them to admit it was a mistake on their part.

• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

Yes. After the success at Kitty Hawk, the brothers attempted to sell their idea to the US government, but they weren't interested. Thus, the Wright brothers took their idea to France, where it was much better received and the US finally took interest after that.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

The two had already run a successful newspaper, print shop, and bike shop. They'd already demonstrated competency in entrepreneurship by the time they were making flying machines.

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

I wish the McCullough had included more in the reading about the brothers' childhood. They evidently had a strong bond with their father and their sister, and I would've liked to learn more about the roots. How a family was alright with letting their children live with them well into their 30s demands an explanation!!

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

Why did the deadly aspect of flight motivate you to to work on your own dangerous machines? Have you always been thrill seekers? Maybe I'm just lame, but you can't capitalize on your success if you're dead.
How did you stay motivated when even your own country wasn't interested in your success? Did you imagine there to be a market for flying machines? I imagine paying the bills was an important priority.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

Neither of them married and they were constantly stressed, so I imagine that their opinion of hard work was simply being a good, old-fashioned workaholic. While I strive to better my work ethic and I don't mind my projects infringing on relationships, I draw the line at risking my health. You only get one body!

Figuring out buyer behavior II

For my project, a website, the way I'd be making money is with premium memberships that charge a small monthly fee. The current largest website for artists, DeviantArt, also offers premium memberships, so I interviewed people who decided to purchase those.

Interview Summary

These purchases have all done online with a credit card, through DeviantArt's website. Of the different packages available, two of my interviewees went for a 3 month premium membership vs. the 1, 6, or 12 month options available (the third did one month). Their primary reasoning is that longer memberships were offered at a cheaper rate, like buying groceries in bulk. 

Besides buying their own domain for a website, there really aren't any other art-sharing websites that offer premium features, and none that are social.

The interviewee that bought the one month membership was only interested in the premium feature of changing their username, but did not buy again since they didn't think it was worth it. One interviewee was a professional artist, and valued the premium coding options to make their profile page more visually attractive and inviting. The last interviewee valued the additional organizing functions they could use for their group.

Conclusion

Once again, everything is about the aesthetics! While DeviantArt is extremely outdated, I think they use it in their favor. Taking advantage that they're the only major art website, they know people will pay in order to use modern coding, so why go ahead and update the website for everyone?

Halfway Reflection

ENT3003 is not necessarily difficult, but the workload can be tough to keep with on top of your other courses. I feel that the most important behavior is to simply accept and enjoy this course- it makes the workload feel far less strenuous, which it definitely CAN be after this hurricane Irma hustle. Don't fight it, the deadlines are non-negotiable anyway. ENT is easy to enjoy in my opinion, as the lectures are entertaining and you learn extremely applicable skills.

After hurricane Irma, we went from having 2 assignments due per week to 3 assignments due per week. The first two weeks were especially difficult to get used to, and I actually just skipped one of the assignments because I couldn't handle the workload. Now, on the last week of 3 assignments being due, I am handling it fine. I developed tenacity through good planning. Instead of not looking at the assignment until Friday afternoon, I now prepare for them throughout the week. I may not be directly working and typing out these assignments, but they're on my mind. So, by the time Friday rolls around, I already know what to do and it becomes fairly straightforward.

So you don't become a sad kermit, here are my three tips:

1. Watch the lectures and take notes. Go to the live lectures if you can. Learn!

2. Take the assignments seriously. You're going to put a lot of work into your desired project, so if you hate it this will be like pulling teeth. 

3. Use a calendar to keep track of all your work.

12A- Figuring out buyer behavior

Segment: The online roleplaying community of artists

For my segment, I've chosen online artists in the 18-30 range, mostly college-educated females who roleplay online. After running some casual polls on Twitter, I gathered that 69% have been in the community for over 4 years, 40% perceived the community as growing larger, and 68% desired a place where they could post art, chat, and roleplay, like the website I'm trying to create.

My Findings

Those who voted 'yes' on my poll asking if they were interested in my product ended up being the ones I interviewed, since I knew they would have an unmet need. What I found is people are primarily dissatisfied with the outdated features of the website they currently use to post art on, Deviantart, and they are reminded of this when the website fails them with technical issues. Because the website is over 15 years old and many are longtime users, they know at this point there's not much to really google- there is no hope. So, they take to complaining to friends and followers on social media. After a few years, DeviantArt added a function that allowed users to post drafted artwork onto a cloud server. It uses newer HTML coding, but when the user chooses to upload their draft, it gets converted to the old, ugly HTML the main site uses, leading to hair-pullingly ugly formatting.

Conclusions

Because my segment is young and millennial, they're interested in ethical, modern, visually appealing platforms, and what they've been given to work with is certainly not that. If I choose to move forward with my website, I'm 99% sure I'll need to consult with a graphic designer and programmer ( I actually already know a few in this community already!) to help not make this website an ugly baby. If I do end up charging for premium memberships, I believe allowing attractive customization options for one's profile will definitely sell.

Noteworthy Napkin

I've always been the visionary/day dreaming type, and I love to share my thoughts with other people. I think aloud. I'm strong in the arts, and I aspire to combine my career with them someday. This is what I hope to do with my website, targeted at young digital artists. My demographic is 18-25, majority female women. The career range is varied, though a good portion are in the arts. They all draw as a hobby, though, and are usually involved in fandom culture.

Because this is a website, members can join for free. I may make a premium option, though, allowing more features and customization to those who pay a reasonable monthly fee. I believe selling advertising spaces would be pretty easy, since any nerdy/artsy company would find a fantastic audience within my demographic. 

I feel really lucky that I've found this niche audience. It's been neglected by most major art websites, so by catering specifically to them and ONLY to them I already have set myself apart.

The website I'm working on is for an audience that I've been apart of since I was 15. This community has literally helped shape who I've become, so I feel strongly about this. Since giving back to the community is definitely one of my motivations, the making money aspect of this is a bit weak compared to the other elements. Setting this website apart from other alternatives and having its appeal outweigh switching costs will also be my greatest struggle.

last ditch elevator pitch

*Disclaimer: That is a belted dress.

after multiple exams and quizzes this week, i was unable to find the willpower to drag myself outside to film this. sry dr. pryor

My phone ran out of storage so you guys are lucky enough to witness awkward closeups, stumbling over my own words, and the world's most punchable video thumbnail.


transcript if u dont wanna see my face:

We spend precious time on hobbies because like loreal, we know they're worth it. Artists, of all people, are well-aware of how valuable their time is. So why do they continue wasting it?

As technology progresses, digital art has emerged as a cost-efficient medium for visual artists. Similar to the art galleries you see downtown, websites dedicated to sharing art have popped up online.

We're going to get nerdy. In their spare time, artists come together online and work on original concepts of fictional worlds, stories, and characters, which is called roleplaying. Basically, it's as if Game of Thrones was a collaborative effort. A a LOT of time and effort goes into this- but here's the issue. These art-sharing websites wasn't really made for this.

The ability to group artwork with a common theme does exist- but they were made for sharing fanart and not original concepts. The websites are also often outdated, barely work on mobile, and make users pay to use modern coding for their profile pages. Due to this, roleplayers end up switching between 2-3 different websites, resulting in wasted time that could be spent creating.

My solution is to make a website for the roleplay community that is modern and effectively serves as one, singular place to properly share info, concept art, and possess solid social features as well, such as chatroom and direct messaging functions.

Would you be interested in checking out our kickstarter?

9A- Testing the hypothesis II

From my interviews, those who fell outside the boundary were those with a well-established presence on several social media websites and were not interested in moving to a brand new 'fad' website to rebuild their base. Others were afraid of a smaller community bringing tightly-knit cliques along with it, and had already gotten used to user-unfriendly DeviantArt and did not want to give up its varied selection. Getting stuck in one's ways was by far the biggest reason for lack of interest. Older artists who had already been in the community for a decade or so could feel themselves slowly phasing out, and were therefore not interested in the hustle and bustle of a new community.

Inside the Boundary	Outside the Boundary
Who is in:  Artists looking for one place to do their roleplaying, art-posting, and communicating with other artists.	Who is not: Older and/or well-established Artists
What the need is: One website for artists to keep track of everything related to their original characters, concepts, and collabs.	What the need is not: A place for artist cliques to dominate.
Why the need exists:  There is  no central place for all these things, so artists are forced to jump between 2-4 websites for all their socializing and art-posting needs.	Alternative explanations: Some people have simply become creatures of habit.

8A- Solving the Problem

Disclaimer: I've been set on this idea since assignment 4, so most of this is just a better-worded rehash. My solution is a service- a website.

Background Knowledge for Normies (you)
_______________________________________

Thousands of young artists around the world come together online and participate in role-playing and world development (think Dungeons and Dragons-style character creation, not the kinky stuff). For many, they've been involved in the community for years, and it's their primary hobby. Since it is more of a niche, there currently isn't a website that exists that explicitly provides roleplayers a place for them to both post art and communicate in an effective enough manner that doesn't send them running back to Twitter. Since an option like this does not currently exist, they resort to using more than one site, which contributes to my belief that there is a need for one website to rule them all.


The Service
_______________________________________

My solution to this issue- artists who put so much work into concept art and collaborative work but have no one place to really do so- is to simply make a proper website for artists to post their character, concept, and collaborative artwork. It will be modern and give users several customization options for their posts, allowing full HTML and CSS compatibility.

7A- Testing the hypothesis I

Hypothesis

Western digital artists do not have a preferable social media website to post and share their original character-related art online with other artists, due to outdated and fading websites monopolizing the demographic and promised alternatives failing as a result of unrelated issues (financial reasons, poor management).

This need is basically only possessed by digital artists who create original content related to character design, world-building, and other concept art, ESPECIALLY if this work is collaborative with others.

Many social media websites such as Tumblr and Twitter are useful for an artist via gaining an audience for advertising and networking. However, they are both poor for keeping track of the flow of art and information between groups of artists in one centralized place. Neither of these websites are ideal for posting art in the first place, either, and challenge artists with quality restrictions.

On the primary art-sharing website, DeviantArt, art can easily be shared, though the community has been in decline of both quantity and quality. Groups also exist for different users to add and share their art to, which works fine, but communication methods are outdated and faulty. As a result, artists turn to other social media to communicate with, such as Twitter and Discord. 

Basically, those who work on collaborative storytelling and world-building need something more to help them communicate their ideas in the same place where they share high-quality art. 

For some, the hierarchy of needs between an up-to-date website, a quality place to post art, and a solid social media can vary. My goal is to just make a modern, attractive website with a solid organization and chat function for artists.

________________________________________________

Post-interviews

After interviewing some artists online who partake in collaborative storytelling, I have gathered that most are concerned with a modern website and a place where they can both communicate efficiently and post art in, though there was clear emphasis on the communication and modern aspects. In the past, potential websites just like this that have popped up had hundreds of people flock and move almost immediately, even while still in beta testing. It gives me confidence that there is a definite audience for my idea.