Idea Napkin No. 2

Idea Napkin No. 2

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life? 

To keep it short, I am a transfer student from Miami majoring in finance. Originally, I wanted to become an ophthalmologist and study medicine, though I changed majors after my freshman year of college to pursue a career in either finance or management. Overall, I think my skills tend to be more quantitative, as I have always enjoyed math or analysis types of challenges. I do not have that much experience at UF thus far, although I was a finance intern for a healthcare provider, traveled to Washington, D.C. for an academic seminar focusing in politics this past January, and was president of a disability awareness club at my college while in Miami. In all honesty, I do not intend to go after this business idea, though I do enjoy the process of thorough process of investigation presented in this class. 

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 

At Roommates for Change, we have crafted an online course that focuses on creating positive, healthy, and consistent living habits for college students that live with roommates. Included within the course, students will mainly learn about the different living styles of roommates (both on-campus and off-campus), acquire organizational/social skills, and ultimately learn to peacefully resolve conflicts. Our priority is to address the widespread challenge of roommates not collaborating to clean common areas of the living space – such as the kitchen and living room. We recommend making this course mandatory for freshman and transfer students, although we leave this to the university to decide.

After each of two trial semesters, we will adjust the class based on its effectiveness and reviews written by the teachers and students. This course will be a win-win for students, as they receive applicable life skills and points towards their GPA.


3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common? 

This service will be offered to UF students, and I would be selling this idea to appropriate UF staff who would be able to make this happen. The majority of my customers will be in the 18 to 22-year-old range – as UF would be offering this course to freshman and transfer students. It will be relatively easy for students to achieve an A in the course, and therefore, there is a natural high incentive for freshman to enroll in this class considering their lack of credits. In addition, the course will teach the fundamentals of living with other roommates. Whereas the freshman may not care about peaceful living habits before taking the class, they will at least be exposed to several situations and techniques or strategies for how to resolve issues, which are statistically bound to happen. 

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service.

I believe UF would pay me money for implementation of this course because, as proven throughout my interviews, the majority of students (who live with roommates) experience some type of frustration, anxiety, or anger with other roommates. For a considerable number of students, this is their first time living away from home and are randomly assigned roommates. Thus, by teaching students the fundamentals living with other people, students will experience at least less stress and will be better prepared to resolve internal issues of living with roommates, compared to students who did not take the course. This all works in theory, though it would take (minimally) two semesters to determine if this course positively benefits both UF officials and students. 

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has?

I do not know exactly what sets me apart from everyone else, though I do believe hard work will beat talent in the long run. With talent you specialize in one specific sector of a career or industry, though with consistency and hard work, I can branch out to multiple career or business opportunities and not be limited by talent.


In addition to these five elements, please spend a paragraph evaluating whether you believe these elements fit together or whether there are aspects of your business concept that are weaker / out-of-joint with the others. 

Generally, I do believe these elements fit together to create a business – although this class operates in theory and does not carry all the implications if I were to genuinely go through with this opportunity today. Some aspects of my business (or any business I create) that will be weaker than others is creativity, marketing, and keeping up to date with social trends. Knowing this, I would find people who are in a similar situation (and age) as me, because these people want to prove themselves as much as I do, and therefore will put in the extra work to build their own brand.

For the "feedback memo" -- please summarize at least two main points that you took away from the feedback you received. Also, please describe how you incorporated the feedback into this idea napkin. 

·       Cam shared a great insight on my first idea napkin, commenting that this course should include the difference between living with roommates on-campus as opposed to off-campus. This is interesting because, for most dorms at UF (especially for freshman students), these students do not receive individual rooms but rather one room divided into two or more parts. Not every first-time UF student lives in the same setup, and therefore you must consider every demographic possible to serve all customers exceptionally. In question 2, I edited my prior response and included Cam’s comment within it.

·       Megan included in her comment that this course should be an easy A for students, because otherwise, there will be little incentive for students to enroll in it. Should this course be mandatory or not, it is only one credit and is not intended to swamp students with unnecessary work. Therefore, I decided that there will be a max of 12 assignments (ranging from quizzes, homework, and participation) for this class. Even 12 assignments may sound like a stretch, though this is over 4 months and the assignments themselves will not require much time or mental brainstorming to accomplish. Overall, the goal is simply to make students aware that living with other people comes with responsibilities and respect. I included this in question three.

·       Added a couple key components, the same changes I made in my second elevator pitch video.