Assignment 20A - Growing Your Social Capital

Domain:

1) Who they are and what their background is.

Jerry, professor at Florida State College of Jacksonville for 20+ years.

2) How they are a Domain expert. 

Since my business has to deal with cirriculum, I figured talking to a professor who works with students and changing cirriculum would be beneficial.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I live near where his campus is located so I had emailed him because I knew of the college and had taken dual enrollment classes from him. 

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

I explained my product and sent over my recorded video of my elevator pitch then preceded to ask questions about how teachers deal with new cirriculum and how stressed his freshmen level students seem to be. It was a good conversation and he was intrigued by my idea. 

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

The perspective of a teacher with a lot of experience will help me better tune my plan and pitch for when I would be approaching colleges about adopting my cirriculum. Because the one thing I had previously stated was missing was networking with admininstrators and teachers who work in a college or university. 

Market :

1) Who they are and what their background is.

Stephanie, a college freshman at UF studying biology.

2) How they are a Market expert.

I couldnt find someone who was doing research relating to my business so I found someone who fits my ideal student, a college freshman living away from home for the first time.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

She lives in my dorm building and I just approached her in the dorm common area. 

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

I told her about my assignment and project and gave her my elevator pitch. She was very receptive to the idea and told me she has faced issues tha would be helped in my business. It was a productive and casual conversation that built my confidence in my product.

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

Having someone from my target market range can give me good insight into what people would wan out of my business and if I need any questions answered, I now have her in my network of people who like my product. 

Industry:

1) Who they are and what their background is.

An employee at study edge. (for privacy reasons, they asked not to be named)

2) How they are an Industry expert.

They work in the field of giving out materials and instruction to students which I feel can corolate to my business of a new cirriculum.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I have a study edge membership and when I was picking up a packet I started a converstaion with them at the front desk.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

It was a shorter exchange because they were working but it wasnt a busy time. I explained the class I was in and gave them my elevator pitch on the spot. We had a casual converstaion about how the number of freshmen who sign up for study edge gets larger every year, she said it could be due to increasing amounts of stress on the students. 

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

Having a connection with an established company like study edge, who is very well reviewed, will allow me to have a network of diverse yet smart people to ask about how best to have a teacher deliver the course or help with the presentation of the cirriculum. 

Reflect:

I found this hard, because when you limit yourself to a target audience, your options become smaller and considring my product does not have any known alterantives, I found it even more challenging. In future networking events, I will definatley try and plan better considering two of my three interviews were on the spot and not planned. I was intimidated giving my elevator pitch on the spot with no planning but it helped me come out of my comfort zone which is always good because I will definatley be doing more networking in the future.