Growing Your Social Capital

Person 1: George

George is a financial advisor who went to school at Penn State. He studied finance and is similar to me in the fact that he has always had a passion for investing.

George is my "domain expert" because he is in the exact field that I want to be in. He likely has a lot of valuable information about investing and teaching people how to smart with their money.

I found George through my Cousin Chris. I knew my cousin had a past roommate that become a financial advisor so I got George's number through him.

Our exchange took place over text message. I did not need to give him anything in return because he is close with my cousin and was happy with doing me a favor.

George will help my network because I can go to him whenever I have questions about investing or financial advising. He may be able to provide some valuable nuggets of information for my curriculum if I choose to pursue it.

Person 2: Scott

Scott has a website aimed at teaching individuals about investing just like I do. He went to college at Loyola Marymount.

Scott is my "expert" because he is targeting the same market as me. He wants to educate people on how to invest their money.

I found Scott by looking up websites focused on teaching investing and then emailing him.

Our exchange occurred through email. I mentioned that I wanted to connect with him for a college assignment and he was happy to help. He did not expect anything from me.

Scott will help my network because he is in almost the same position as me. I can ask him advice about creating a website and also what methods he uses to teach others about investing.

Person 3: Preston

Preston works for a company that has a paper trading platform. He went to school at NYU.

Preston is my "supplier" because he works for a company that is vital to the success of my curriculum. I would need a reliable website for paper trading and he can offer that.

I found Preston by searching LinkedIn for people that work at a specific company.

Our exchange took place over LinkedIn messaging. Once again he did not expect anything from me because I am just a college student at the moment.

Preston will help my network because if I were to go through with my business plan I would need connections with somebody within a company that offers paper trading.

Reflection
I found this to be a useful exercise because it showed me just how many ways you can connect with like-minded individuals. I used personal connections, Google, and LinkedIn to find these three people. In the future I will continue to use these avenues to get in touch with people that could be potentially helpful to my career. Other networking experiences I've took part in occur in person. This shows that networking over the internet can be equally as effective.

Idea Napkin #2

1. You
I am a senior finance student at the University of Florida. My talents include math, sports, and investing. I have experience as an investor using applications such as Robinhood and Betterment. I enjoy teaching people how to invest and save money. My aspirations include becoming a financial advisor and becoming my own boss. I want to have a family and I would like to live in San Diego or Charleston. If I were to focus on selling an investment curriculum to schools, I would have to put the rest of my life on hold for a while.

2. What are you offering to customers?
I am offering an investing curriculum to highschools and colleges. This will give students a better understanding of investing before they reach adulthood. My curriculum will include an electronic textbook and a paper trading course.

3. Who are you offering it to?
I am offering this product to any highschool or college that does not currently offer a course on investing. These schools all want the best for their students so they will likely be open to adding a practical course to their school system.

4. Why do they care?
These schools care because they want to set their students up for success. Additionally, by giving their students the best chance to be successful, they are indirectly helping themselves by increasing the potential for alumni donations in the future.

5. What are your core competencies?
I think I have found a great opportunity here because of how few schools offer investment courses. I also think I am a hard worker with a good base of knowledge and a passion for my product. This combination puts me in a good position to be successful.

Conclusion
I think all of the elements of my business plan work well together. The only factor that could compromise my plan is whether or not I am willing to pursue this instead of becoming a financial advisor. I am also unsure as to how willing schools will be to adopt my curriculum.

Feedback from last time
- I should offer a way to make the curriculum appeal to more people. The addition of Paper Trading was a good start on this front
- I found a good reason for schools to care about teaching investing. If students make more money after graduation, they are more likely to donate to the school.

Overall there was little negative feedback so this idea napkin is pretty similar to my first one.

Customer Avatar

My customer avatar is a 53 year old school superintendent that drives a black Acura and cares about the prestige of his/her school system. This would be the type of person that I would sell my investment curriculum to. I would envision my customers looking something like this:




He would have 2 kids of his own. His favorite show would be The Wire. He would like reading about history and presidents. His favorite politician would be either Abe Lincoln or JFK. I picture him feeling younger on the inside. He would think of himself in the kid's shoes when making decisions for his school system. He would want to learn about investing as a young adult so he will be very open to buying my curriculum for the betterment of his students.

We both have the best interests of young American students in common. I don't think this is a coincidence because his job is to take care of his students and my job would be to teach students about investing. Although our care for students has to do with our jobs, we both have a legitimate desire to help young people be successful.

Elevator Pitch Part 2

https://youtu.be/nmcFGo6WlVk

The feedback i received from last class included the possibility of adding a paper trading aspect to my investment curriculum. There was no unhelpful or silly feedback. The other feedback I received included approval of my business idea.

I incorporated this paper trading aspect and I also specified that the textbook I would be creating will be an E-book. One thing I still need to work on in my pitch is the placement of my hands, especially at the beginning.

Halfway Reflection

This course has already taught me a great deal about how to become an entrepreneur. Not only in the material I have learned but also the behaviors I have adopted. To keep up with this class, I have gotten into the habit of laying by the pool on Thursday afternoons and grinding out my assignments for the week. I have found it helps me focus and gets my creative juices flowing when I am outside surrounded by nature. I have also found myself looking for "bugs" at times in my daily life. This is a good step in becoming an entrepreneur.

I definitely felt like giving up after missing a noon deadline for the first set of peer reviews. I am used to midnight deadlines so I was devastated when i realized I had missed the assignments and therefore lost 4% of my final grade. There is no worse feeling than inadvertently missing a deadline. However instead of letting that mistake snowball I showed tenacity by making sure I didn't miss another deadline.

Three tips to next year's students:

• Do not purposely skip assignments. It is very easy to excel in this class if you keep up with all of the work. If you skip assignments you are not only building bad habits but you aren't leaving yourself room for mistakes (like missing a deadline accidentally).

• Do not overthink your ideas. The point of this class is to flesh out your thoughts, there is no right or wrong. Completely open yourself up and allow your ideas to run free.

• If you actually want to be an entrepreneur, adopt the things you learn immediately. Start making your own bug lists, writing out potential business plans, and interviewing potential customers. If you aren't willing to start practicing those things outside of class, it is unlikely that you will make it as an entrepreneur.

Reading Reflection No. 1

I read Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

What surprised you the most?

I was the most surprised by the fact that Steve Jobs became a billionaire through Pixar not Apple. Steve bought 80% of Pixar shares for 5 million dollars. The company then had an IPO after the hit movie Toy Story came out and he made over a hundred million dollars. Most people assume he accumulated all of his wealth through Apple.

What do you admire the most?

I most admire Steve Jobs for his incredible work ethic. He would work tirelessly to continue building his brand and expanding his products. He also had great leadership abilities. He had a way of inspiring his team to work overtime on things such as fonts for the Macintosh computer.

What do you admire the least?

I do not admire admire Steve Jobs for his selfishness. Although his partner had a MAJOR role in Apples success, Steve Jobs gets 95% of the credit for it. Many people do not even know who who Steve Wozniak is even though he was responsible for a lot of the coding and technical work behind Apple's products.

Did he face adversity?

Steve Jobs faced adversity many times throughout his career at Apple. Aside from having multiple product failures, he was ousted from the company in 1985. After working on a few other projects he ended up back at Apple and continued to grow the company to where it is today.

What Competencies did he exhibit?

Two of Steve Job's biggest competencies were his dedication and leadership. Although some say he was demeaning at times as a leader, it proved to be successful. I do not believe he had malicious intent with his leadership, it seemed like more of tough love to continue progress on his product.

Was there a part of the book that was confusing?

I am confused as to why Steve Wozniak did not get more credit. Without his brains, Apple would have never taken off. I feel like he should have gotten more recognition for his work within Apple. 

Two Questions for Steve Jobs:

• At what age did you know you wanted to become an entrepreneur?
• If you could go back to 1980 would you do anything differently with your company?

What was his opinion on hard work?

It is clear that Steve Jobs was a big believer in working hard. Apple was basically what he lived and breathed for decades. Without his dedication, we would not be walking around with iPhones today. His work ethic is very admirable and is a good template for young entrepreneurs.  

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Segment
College students that want to learn about investing

Need Awareness
The three people that I interviewed said they become more aware of the need to learn about investing the older they get. When they were in high school they rarely thought about investing because their parents handles most of their finances. As they get closer to graduating college, they feel that a base knowledge of investing would be beneficial because they would feel comfortable investing their money once they get a steady stream of income. One said he realizes the need to learn about investing whenever he checks his bank account.

Information Search
The first thing the interviewees do when they become aware of their need is tell themselves they will learn about it in the future or that they will start investing soon. It is difficult for them to teach themselves a complex topic like investing with their busy college schedules. One of the interviewees said he has done some research on it but has not gotten to the point where he would be comfortable investing. He said the first thing he searched in google was "how do i start investing". None of the interviewees have asked family about this need but they have asked me about it.

This tells me that although these people are aware of their need to learn about investing before fully transitioning into adulthood, they have not been proactive in teaching themselves. A course offered in school would alleviate this need to self-teach. This segment is definitely self-aware of the need to learn about investing.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1. You
My name is Sean Cole. I am a finance student at the University of Florida. My talents include basketball, football, darts, video games, and managing money. I have over two years of experience with investing using tools like Betterment and Robinhood. I also have a website aimed at teaching people how to invest. My aspirations include becoming a financial advisor and being my own boss. I want a family and I want to live comfortably in either New Jersey or South Carolina. If I were to execute this business plan to sell an investing curriculum to schools, it would be a side job or I would do it before getting a job as a financial advisor.

2. What are you offering to customers?
My business plan is to create a curriculum about investing that I can sell to high schools and colleges. This would include the creation of an investing textbook with the help of experienced investors and equity professors. I would also add a paper trading aspect to the curriculum (idea courtesy of one of our fellow classmates who recommended that). This curriculum would give students a solid base of knowledge to begin investing.

3. Who are you offering it to? 
My customers for this idea would include high schools and colleges that do not currently offer investment courses. These schools have a few things in common. School's are full of students who want to learn more useful things. The combination of students wanting to learn about investing and school's tendency to take their students opinion into account creates a good opportunity for my business plan.

4. Why do they care?
High schools and colleges will care about my product because it puts their students in a better place after graduation. Aside from the fact that caring about others is the right thing to do, there is another reason why this may be enticing for educational institutions. If the school's alumni are proficient in the principles of investing it will likely lead to those alumni becoming financially stable. More financially stable alumni will result in more donations to the school so it will be beneficial for the schools to offer investment classes.

5. What are your core competencies?
Investment curriculum has been implemented in a very limited amount of schools. I am very passionate about the benefits of investing and I also have an entrepreneurial mindset. This combination puts me in a good position to pioneer this area of education, although it will not be without it's challenges.

Conclusion
I feel that most aspects of my business plan gel together well. The only doubts i have about my business plan is how willing schools will be to adopt this curriculum and when I will have time to work on this plan. If I were to focus completely on this idea I would have to push back my aspirations of becoming a financial advisor. Even if I were to do this, the success of my plan would be contingent on the openness of school's to change their course offerings.