Assignment 14 - Halfway Reflection

      1).  For the assignments in this class you definitely need some sort of time management skill and persistence to keep track and complete all the weekly assignments and lectures.

      2). There have been times where I felt like not doing some of the assignments, but what has kept me going is knowing that at the end of the course when I receive a good grade it will have been all worth it. This class has definitely given me a sort of tenacious attitude during the past 2 months. This has developed from just the consistency of assignments and lectures every week that makes you develop this sort of mindset.

       3). 3 tips that I would offer to next semester’s students are: 1. Just stick with it, there are going to be times when you do not want to do assignments, but keep grinding because you will be a lot happier if you do. 2. Work ahead of schedule, there are going to be times when random situations pop up so work head of schedule so you can still complete the assignments and tend to the situation. 3. Lastly, I would say you get out of this class what you put into it.

         

Assignment 13 - Reading Reflection

      1). The entrepreneur that I read about was Steve Jobs. What surprised me about Jobs was that he was so against going anywhere other than Reed college, his adoptive parents wanted him to attend another institution such as Berkley. He was the kind of person that was set on his own aspirations and would not let anything hinder him from that. What I admired about Steve Jobs is that he talked about his displeasure for those that value money as utmost importance. What I admired the least about Steve Jobs is his arrogance that caused many of his coworkers to dislike him when he was at his job at Atari. Steve Jobs encounter a lot of adversity in his life, most significantly he was removed early on from his own company, Apple. He overcame this by working his way back into the company and succeeding in directing the company.

    

      2). The most significant competencies that I noticed Jobs exhibited that I think contributed to his success was obviously his own skill and knowledge with computers along with his arrogance, his willingness to try new things and risks, and his determination.

      3). What was confusing about the reading was the beginning part of his life and figuring out how Jobs was shaped early on to make him the innovator he was.

      4). I would ask Jobs how he thinks how much a person’s early experiences in life shape them to the person they are? I would ask him this because it seems like Jobs went through a lot of ups and downs that you would not expect of such a successful business innovator. I would also ask Jobs what quality or qualities of his he thought attributed most towards his success? I would ask Jobs this because he was quite a unique person that thought differently than the normal stereotypical successful businessman.

      5). I think Jobs’ opinion of hard work would be that it is necessary to be successful and I share that opinion as success does not come over night it comes after years and years of persistence and dedication.

Assignment 12 - Buyer Behavior

Segment: The segment I am targeting is the sport gambler consumer.

Interview: I interviewed 3 individuals, all relatively avid sport gamblers. Interviewee one was a 26 year old male that said he participates in sport gambling “probably about 5 nights a week.” Interviewee two was a 41 year old male that said he participates in sports gambling by betting “usually 3-5 nights a week, but it definitely changes depending on the kinds of games that night.” Interviewee three was a 21 year old male that said he participates in sport gambling “periodically, some weeks it’s a lot more than others, where some weeks it is not all”

Need awareness: I would say all 3 of the these individuals have the need for it, but the degree of the need varies. Interviewee three was more new onto the sports scene and gambled at sporadic periods of time, which is really common among new gamblers. The other 2 interviewees were not as new, but still have the need for my service as they said they bet based off feel of who they think will win or how many points they will score. Also all 3 interviewees said that they usually bet different amounts each time based off how they feel the game is going to go.

Info search: Both interviewee one and interviewee three said they had seen on Instagram a few different sport gambling accounts and sometimes they will scroll through the comments to see what people are thinking for the game. Interviewee two said he asks his friends that are also into sports gambling and sports in general what they think. All 3 interviewees said they use sites like ESPN as sources of sports knowledge to help them decide who to gamble on.

Conclusion: I think this segment of consumers typically recognize they have a need for my service, but they just go research and see what ESPN experts and their friends have to say. They said it would be helpful if they had a service like mine that would compact proven data of past matchups and styles of play, combined with knowledgeable experts to help determine what will happen.

Assignment 11 - Idea Napkin

You: Some of my talents of mine are that I am creative, a positive thinker, I persevere well, and I can adapt to situations quickly. Some of my skills and experiences are that I have good customer service skills and have a deep understanding and knowledge of the sports world. These stem from my experiences of working at a retail sporting goods store for about 2 years, and playing and watching a multitude of sports since I was young. Personally, my aspirations are to become an athletic director at a university. Regarding my business concept, if I were to start it and pursue it deeply it would take up a huge role in my life as for it to become successful, I would have to devote a lot of time towards it.

What: I am offering consumers a service that will help them make smarter gambling choices that will hopefully allow them to make more money by winning more of their bets at a higher accuracy rate.

Who: Sport consumers that either enjoy gambling, looking at gambling predictions, or want to start sport gambling. I will mostly target the newer sport gamblers as they are the ones with the highest need of my service. All my consumers share the fact that they are sport consumers that would like to benefit monetarily by gambling.

Why: Consumers will care about my service as sport gambling is very annoying on one’s own as sports can be very hard to predict especially if someone is not knowledgeable about the sports world. Also, new gamblers probably do not know how to properly bet at a safe and consistent rate compared to just betting sporadic amounts of money based off feel.

What: What I have that other companies do not is that I will add in a brief trial period that will hopefully get the consumer interested in only my service particularly. This is different from most sport gambling consulting companies as they either do not offer trials or they will give out a reduced fee for certain picks.

I think that there is definitely room for improvement in my business concept. I think what makes it weaker is that for my stated competency that makes my company stand out, I stated that I would start a free trial period that most companies do not have. What makes this seem weak to me is that this is something that can be easily copied by other companies if others notice that it is working well for my company. Business is a copycat world and it is not like I can patent or copyright a free trial system.

Assignment 10 - Elevator Pitch

Assigment 10 - Elevator Pitch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyqHxcpTpBM

Assignment 9 - Continuing Your Opportunity Reach

Continuing Your Opportunity Reach

For this assignment, I interviewed 5 of my fraternity brothers, who are avid sport consumers and would be an ideal target market for my opportunity. From the interviews I conducted I drew the following conclusions:

Who: There are some similar companies that produce media content that shares a lot with the opportunity that I have to aid new coming sport gamblers with their decisions. These companies fall outside the boundary of my opportunity as they mostly just target the general sport consumer rather than the new sport gambling consumers.

What: The point in which the need differs from another need is the point where the consumer no longer has the need to use the services to make money off sport gambling. My opportunity only services the need for sport gamblers, especially the new ones that are coming onto the scene without any experience or relative knowledge.

Why: The underlying cause for the generic sport consumer is that they have a need for sport content because of their high level of interest in sports. The underlying cause for those that are inside the opportunity’s boundary is that they have a need to win their bets and make a profit on their gambles. Also, the sport gambling need exist even more now due to new legislation passing it in several states.

Inside the Boundary	Outside the Boundary
New consumers with the need for sport gambling help	Regular sport and sport media consumer
The need for sport gambling advice, data to make smarter decisions	The need is not just the basic sport media and content for the average sport consumer
The consumers want to make a profit off sporting events, also the need exists due to recent legislation passing sport gambling in several states	The outside need exists due to one’s interest on sport and love for the sport and its media

Assignment 8 - Solving The Problem

The opportunity that I intend to solve is the opportunity of new sports gambling consumers needing advice, statistics, and expertise to help them make sports gambling decisions because of the new legislation legalizing sports gambling in several states. My solution to this opportunity is to provide a service that provides these new consumers with the knowledge they need to make smart sports gambling decisions. This service would contain notable statistics on previous matchups and similar ones that could help a new sports gambler make an educated decision on where they place their bets. My service would also contain background information regarding not only team analytics but players as well that could predict or imply a projected performance for our consumers. With the new legislation passing, there will be more people gaining interest in the sports gambling world. With new consumers coming into the field, they will have a need for advice on which bets to place.

Assignment 7 - Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

I believe there is an opportunity to provide new sports gambling consumers with a service to help meet their need of expert sports knowledge and notable trends in sporting games due to the new legislation legalizing sports gambling in select states.

The who: new sports gambling consumers

The what: these new consumers have a need for expert sport knowledge and notable trends of sporting events to help them predict an outcome

The why: new legislation deeming the legality of sports gambling to be determined at the state level, and other states legalizing sports gambling

Those that have this need are new incoming sports gambling consumers. With the new legislation legalizing sports gambling in several states, there should be an influx of new sports gambling consumers. I don’t believe there are any others who have this need besides the basic sports gambling consumer, as everyone in my current ‘who’ shares the need.

The boundaries of the need are that the need is strictly limited to the new sports gambling consumers as the old ones already have obtained knowledge, so their need wouldn’t be as strong. The need also does not extend to all sports consumers as well, just the ones that have an interest in sports gambling.

The why I identified was that legislation was recently passed legalizing sports gambling in several states. This why does not hold true for everyone of the interested sports gambling consumers as it is limited to only the consumers that live in those legal states.

While conducting interviews to gauge interests and opinions on this opportunity I interviewed 5 of my roommates that watch sports heavily. After conducting my interviews I found out that the need for my opportunity is a bit more isolated than I had previously thought. My interviewees all said that the need for my opportunity is limited to mostly new sports gambling consumers and that the already active ones would not see the need for my opportunity.