Testing the Hypothesis Part 2

Opportunity: Alachua County has changed the Tobacco law age to 21+. The opportunity that I saw with this recent change is the eventual full-on quitting of nicotine vapes as they are being exposed in a primarily negative light recently and raising the legal age is already a big step forward. I propose a nicotine reward system that will track your nicotine usage like a fitness watch. Each day you will get a certain amount of nicotine hits, but as the days go on you get less and less until you quit altogether.

Who: Some businesses that share a lot in common with my opportunity proposition is other types of nicotine alternatives such as nicotine patches and nicotine gum. Nicorette and Pixotene are just a couple of these companies who are trying to create products to help people quit nicotine. However, these companies differ from my idea because they lack any type of user experience design which will ideally keep consumers more interested and actually quit.

What: This need is more specific to younger kids who are addicted to nicotine because of the recent explosion of nicotine vapes. I am not expecting 30-year-old construction workers to suddenly download an app to quit cigarettes, but I believe that a high school kid who got addicted because of his friends Juul would definitely consider a phone application to help him quit.

Why: While two people who want to quit nicotine have the same end goal, I feel like people who smoke cigarettes and people who vape have different mentalities about nicotine. People who vape do it because they know cigarettes are "bad" for you but they still want the nicotine buzz. Yet, people who smoke cigarettes smoke because they need nicotine, or at least that's how they feel. Someone who knows they might get cancer but chooses to smoke cigarettes anyway is going to handle quitting much differently than someone who hits a mango pod everyday.

Interviews:
1)  Ben, 18, UF freshman: Ben has been at UF for a semester now, having finished up Summer B. He had never had a vape before but ended up buying one over summer. He uses it daily, but is starting to think that he may be wasting his money. He likes the buzz but he just doesn't think its worth the money anymore. Ben said that he would definitely consider downloading an app to help him quit.

2) Lindsay, 20, UF Junior: Lindsay has owned a Juul for 3 years now and is severely addicted to it. She hits it first thing when she wakes up and before she falls asleep. She says that she has never really thought about quitting until recent news about its potential health risks. Lindsay said she was interested in the app and would definitely consider it if she was going to try and quit.

3) John, 19, UF Sophomore: John was a frequent nicotine vaper as a freshman but decided to go cold turkey over summer. Upon coming back to school John had a relapse and started to vape again. When asked about this product John showed interest and joked that if Sims could get him off nicotine it would be way worth it.

4) Anna, 21, UF Senior: Anna has never personally owned a nicotine device but admits that she often asks her friends to let her use theirs. When asked how often she vaped per day, she thought about it for a second and said,"more often than I'd like to admit." Since she doesn't actually own one she had never really considered quitting but thinks that an app interface would be helpful.

5) Paul, 35, Bus Driver: Paul used to be a heavy smoker, but when Juul first started to advertise their product he got a vape as a means to stop smoking cigarettes. He said that it was hard at first but that he thinks he has made a big improvement since. As a cigarette smoker he said he would never use an app, but now that he's been able to get himself off of cigarettes he would definitely consider it as a means to go nicotine free.

Solving the Problem

The problem that I will be addressing is the Tobacco age law that I raised in one of my prior blog posts. The opportunity that I saw with this recent change is the eventual full-on quitting of nicotine vapes as they are being exposed in a primarily negative light recently and raising the legal age is already a big step forward. I propose a nicotine reward system that will track your nicotine usage like a fitness watch. Each day you will get a certain amount of nicotine hits, but as the days go on you get less and less until you quit altogether.

The point of the app is that it will bother you if you go over your daily nicotine usage and complement you if you do well. It will be very similar to the water drinking app that "waters your plant" every time you drink water. This generation loves simulated worlds like that that are obviously fake but are stimulated by our own actions in the real world. I think this could help people quit using nicotine vapes in the future.

Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Economic

Homelessness - There is an opportunity, especially in Gainesville, to help the economic issue of homelessness in and around Alachua County. I discovered this opportunity by living in Gainesville and seeing a large number of homeless people walking around with their backpacks and also through some research on specific statistics and such.

As of 2018, there were 641 documented homeless people on the streets and shelters of Alachua County. Of these 641 homeless, 450 of them were living on the streets and 191 were living in shelters. It is absurd that way over half of the total homeless people in Alachua County are on the streets, unhelped by homeless shelters.

The cost of a single apartment in Gainesville is $800. This is a high cost for these people. If more apartments could follow the pricing of complexes such as Arbor House and Sunrise Apartments, who charge $400 a month, there would be more of an opportunity for these people to get up on their feet, but these places only have about 30 units available.

A prototypical customer is most definitely a person who is currently homeless and looking for housing. I think this opportunity is moderately difficult to accomplish as it takes a lot of effort from the community. I personally saw this opportunity because of how often I travel around Gainesville and seeing all these homeless people, each in their own completely unique situation, trying to get by, it just makes me want to help out.

Public Transportation - As a UF student I have seen an opportunity for a more affordable way of transporting yourself and others to and from the various bars in and around the UF campus. The current primary transportation is Uber or Lyft drivers. While this is a solution to drunk driving it is not a solution for my wallet. These drives cost about $8 a pop and that will soon add up when you consider going there and back and who knows where else.

While UF has a "later Gator" bus that runs late at night, this bus only runs through UF campus and not really where the bars are. I believe that an additional bus route that sweeps up and down Univesity Ave. would be very beneficial to the students of UF, the prototypical consumer for this opportunity.

I saw this opportunity because I am a college student who occasionally goes out and I know exactly how devastating it is to realize just how much money you've spent on Uber rides that night.

Regulatory Changes

Tobacco Law - Recently, Alachua County changed its tobacco policy to the age limit of 21+ instead of 18+. It is fairly assumable that the reason for this policy change was because of the recent trend in disposable nicotine vapes. Nationally, there has been a lot of concern for these vapes as their health effects are fairly unknown, but the companies distributing them are making so much money that they could care less.

The fact that Alachua County has actually passed a policy change like this gives hope to the opportunity of getting rid of nicotine vapes. If more effort could be put into advertisements around campus promoting anti-vape, spreading the message around, giving out statistics and unknown facts. It really is an epidemic, kids are getting their hands on these vapes at a younger and younger age and getting addicted to nicotine.

I think this opportunity is fairly difficult to accomplish as college kids love their vapes, but with enough effort, I think it could be manageable to effectively decrease the number of people who vape. I saw this opportunity because I quit nicotine fairly recently due to the negative things I've been hearing in the news and I think its something more people need to do.

Spotify - While this may seem like a strange opportunity I believe that Spotify is wasting a huge opportunity of making their music platform more social and interactive. Currently, Spotify is leading Apple Music with 100 million streamers worldwide compared to Apple Music's 60 million.

While Spotify already has the social aspect of finding friends and being able to see what they are listening to, I believe that they should go the next step to making a feed of music that you've listened to and what your friends are listening to. Also, comments should be implemented so that you can complement your friend's music taste.

Music is such an important thing to so many people, I think that it should be way more common for people to share songs with one another, rather than having to creep on a person's profile. Lately, I feel like mainstream music has reached a point that if you put music on that isn't "mainstream" people will look at you weird and ask you to change it. No one should be shamed for not listening to RapCaviar 24/7. People should be proud of the music they listen to and I think that a culture of sharing music would greatly improve people's outlook on uncommon genres.

The prototypical customer for this opportunity is high school kids to young adults fresh out of college. Spotify is a fairly new app that mainly youth are using and I think that it would be younger people who would implement the improved sharing aspect of the app.

Local Opportunity

1) UF student reported she was raped in Jennings Hall, UPD says
https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-student-reported-she-was-raped-in-jennings-hall-upd/article_03622c12-d41f-11e9-9b96-9fab926c54c5.html 
A UF male went into a girl's dorm room in the middle of the night and tried to get her to have sex with him against her will.
The problem presented in this story is how easy it is to infiltrate dorms.
UF as a college needs to deal with this problem, it is unacceptable for girls to be scared of sleeping in their own dorm.
2) Delta Chi fraternity suspended from UF after pledge nearly died
https://www.alligator.org/news/delta-chi-fraternity-suspended-from-uf-after-pledge-nearly-died/article_d9812b16-b0b9-11e8-b2cd-9b5123778d9b.html
The Delta Chi Fraternity at UF has been suspended for four years do to an incident regarding a pledge being sent to the hospital and nearly dying.
The problem presented in the story is the issue of hazing in fraternities, specifically the use of alcohol in hazing.
UF as a college needed to address this and that is exactly what they did. A four year ban is huge for a fraternity and will definitely get the point across.
3)‘Turlington Dancer’ arrested for trespassing
https://www.alligator.org/news/turlington-dancer-arrested-for-trespassing/article_10753712-afd3-11e8-a413-b3da3f06ab17.html 
Local resident Dennis Kane was found trespassing on campus dancing and throwing peace signs at passer-bys. Dennis Kane has been banned from campus several times and was well aware of his trespassing.
The problem presented in the story is that the UF campus is very open and easy to get on to, offering minimal security from trespasser like Dennis Kane.
This is a problem that needs to be dealt with by UPD. While they did arrest him, with someone who has been banned several times they need to be more on their game with recognizing and arrestimg him.
4) ‘We’ve had enough.’: Students organize protest on Fraternity Drive
https://www.alligator.org/news/we-ve-had-enough-students-organize-protest-on-fraternity-drive/article_699fab64-d107-11e9-b2c2-b38c5b626004.html
The blue light emergency phones are very commonly seen all over UF campus, except for Fraternity Row. Recently there has been a major effort in trying to get an emergency blue light built on Fraternity Row.
The problem presented is that there are no blue lights on Fraternity Row but there should be one available on all locations of campus so that everyone can be/feel safe.
This is an issue that needs to be addressed by SGA. Last semester they failed to pass a resolution to get one built, we'll see what happens this semester.
5) UF resident assistant charged with battery released as 'high-achieving' student leader
https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-resident-assistant-charged-with-battery-released-as-high-achieving/article_22218abc-d2bc-11e9-b6c8-576af09c51cc.html
21 year-old resident assistant Ian Milaski was just recently released from jail after being arrested for sexual battery. The police say that Milaski is 'high-achieving leader' and released him with a reduced jail-bond.
The problem presented is that Milaski is clearly not a "high-achieving leader" but is being let off the hook because UF gave him a job that he did not deserve.
This is an issue that needs to be addressed by the UF Housing adminsistration. When selecting Residential Assistants they need to be absolutely certain that they are hiring students who are exemplary and not anyone who would do anything such as attempt sexual assault.

Opportunity Belief

1) I believe that we have the oppurtunity to greatly improve the state of our bus transit system. So many underclassmen come to UF without a car or a scooter and are forced to rely on a mediocre bussing service to get them to class.
2) The unmet need is quality transportation to help kids get to class on time. UF just became the number 7 Public University in the nation yet we have a transportation service that constantly makes kids wait longer for the busses because the app glitches up or they miss the bus and have to walk in 90 degree heat.
3-a) The first person that I interviewed for this oppurtunity belief was a UF freshman, Patrick Bateman. Patrick is new to UF, of course he's a freshman, and relies on the bus system to get to class. Patrick lives in Springs Complex, so he has about a 15 minute walk to the Hub if he doesn't make the bus. He said to me that often times the busses will sync up so that two busses are going past the same stop within minutes of each other, leaving a 20 minute wait time for them to come all the way back around instead of 5-10 minutes for the next bus. Patrick said that he hates walking in this Florida heat but if he misses the bus then he sometimes has to since he doesn't want to be late.
3-b) The next person I interviewed was a sophomore named Susan Collins. Susan said that last year she had a terrible experiece with the bussing system, finding herself often tardy when going to class. She said that to solve her problem she got a scooter as her means of transportation. Since she's gotten her scooter she said that life has been way easier. She doesn't have to put 20 minutes of planning ahead of time to make it to class, instead she just hops on her scooter and gets there with minimal problems.
3-c) The last person I interviewed for this was a current senior at UF, Casey Martin. Casey said that during her three years at this university she's never seen a big improvement with the way the busses are run. She said that sometimes they run well and other times they run terribly and that's just the way it goes. Casey said that while she's been at UF she's always had a scooter and so was never super reliant on the system, but regardless said she's heard of bad experiences from her friends and such. Casey is extremely happy of the fact that she's always had a scooter for herself.
4) I learned that there is an overall dislike for the UF bussing system. While the complaints are not resoundingly negative, the little things that RTS continues to not do well with builds up and creates a generally negative view of the bus services. I learned that having a scooter on campus is the most convenient method of transportation for a college student. I think that our school needs to address these issues but at the same time I do not think that they are going to.
5) Overall, the bus system needs to update and imporve their phone app to make it more accurate instead of causing kids to wait for 5-10 minutes at a time. Another thing that needs to be done is time management. Drivers need to be better at taking their breaks so that they don't mess up the whole system just because they want a smoke break. I think that my oppurtunity is still there, I don't think it will go away until someone does something about it. I think that my oppurtuity was a little understated originally and is actually bigger than it seems. I think its important to take feedback into consideration as consumers are the ones providing money and services and they need to be satisified.

My Entrepreneurship Story

When I was a freshman in high school my brother, who was a junior at the time, decided that he was going to try and start selling cans of Coca-Cola for a value slightly less than the vending machines. This went on for about two or three weeks until an administrative staff member told him to stop. After being asked to stop my brother decided to switch from cans of coke to Hi-Chew candy. The Hi-Chew candy was much easier to sell as it wasn't as big and bulky as cans of coke and it was more popular because there were no vending machines on campus that sold Hi-Chew. This continued for maybe a month until my brother got tired of it, as he wasn't really making much of a profit, and so he stopped his entrepreneurship endeavors.

I enrolled in this class because I am very interested in starting a business of my own. This summer some friends and I decided that we wanted to start our own clothing company by making designs and putting them on T-shirts. We spent all summer working on designs until we were just recently able to purchase our own screen printing press for the shirts and are currently working on the physical production of the shirts. So, what I am hoping to get out of this class is a feel for how to start and build your own company, specifically with the use of social media.