22A – Elevator Pitch No. 3

Here is my third elevator pitch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s75mDm5ojw

The thing I changed about my video based on the feedback I received was to try and look more directly into the camera, to make it feel as if I am talking directly to the person who is watching. Other than that, my last pitch was rather well-received.

23A – Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

I am looking to start an affordable vegan fast food restaurant. My current idea for the name of this restaurant is VeGreens.

My Venture's Unfair Advantages

1. I am a vegan my self.
This is valuable. It is not rare. It is not inimitable. However, it is non-substitutable.
Being a vegan and starting this business means that I am also a customer, before anything else. I can relate directly to how my customers feel, and it will be clear that I believe in what my business is all about.

2. I am charismatic, socially and within professional scenarios.
This is valuable. It is not rare. It is not inimitable. It is not non-substitutable.

3. I have Justin Milliken (the manager of Grill Fresh on 13th Street, who was also an executive sous chef and restaurant business consultant for 10 years) in my network.
His expertise is valuable. It is rare. It is not inimitable. It is not non-substitutable.

4. I have graphic design skills, so I will not have to outsource and pay extra to get logos and other multimedia design projects done.
Valuable: Yes
Rare: No
Inimitable: No
Non-Substitutable: Yes, as it will cut initial marketing costs by a decent amount.

5. As of 2018, there are no vegan fast-food restaurants in Gainesville. (No competition in my specific field.)
Valuable: Yes
Rare: Yes
Inimitable: Yes?
Non-Substitutable: Yes

6. The food will be affordable. We would seek to have the same rates of a McDonalds' or a Wendy's, among other places.
Valuable: Yes
Rare: Yes
Inimitable: No
Non-Substitutable: Yes

7. I have Jennifer Gallot in my network, who is a very avid cook and is also vegan. She would most likely handle the cooking for the test runs of our product up until the restaurant is actually profiting by a significant margin and we can get other cooks in.
Valuable: Yes
Rare: Yes
Inimitable: No
Non-Substitutable: No

8. Our menu is "friendly", meaning that vegans and non-vegans can come in and see things that don't look too out of the norm. There will be simple items like burgers and fries, for example.
Valuable: Yes
Rare: Yes
Inimitable: No
Non-Substitutable: Yes (Essential to a fast-food restaurant.)

9. I have a skilled web designer and programmer named Clooney Ferdinand in my network.
Valuable: Yes
Rare: No
Inimitable: No
Non-Substitutable: No

10. I run all the social media pages for the company I work with, so I have experience handling social media promotion in a professional setting.
Valuable: Yes
Rare: No
Inimitable: No
Non-Substitutable: No

There are a few of my resources that are very important here. I would say the top three would be that the food is friendly, affordable, and that there isn't any competition at the moment. However, the top resource would definitely be the lack of competition in the field, at least in Gainesville. A vegan fast food restaurant is very uncharted territory, since the vegan population is just now become a significant enough number for there to be a market for something like this.

20A – Growing Your Social Capital

My goal is to open a vegan fast food restaurant that provides relatively cheap, yet high quality food.
Here are the results of my networking.


1) DOMAIN EXPERT IN INDUSTRY
I spoke to the manager of a restaurant called Grill Fresh on 17th Street. They provide rather quick bowls of food by giving the customer one of a few size options and allowing them to choose what they want to go into their bowl. The manager's name was Jason Milliken. He had been with the Grill Fresh company for about 10 years, and also doubles as a business consultant specializing in starting restaurants. He is very much an expert on how this runs and, although the restaurant does not exclusively serve vegan food, he has made the choice to actively accommodate vegans as well.
I walked in and spoke to him. He was rather friendly when I told him what I was doing, and didn't actually want anything in return. He explained to me that I would be in a very good position to try to create a restaurant like this because of the current "trend toward healthy eating". He explained that within the past couple of years, demand for healthier (and often more plant-based) food options has skyrocketed. Keeping Jason in my network will give me access to someone who has a lot more experience than I do with the restaurant business, and it also gives me the opportunity to bring him in as a consultant possibly.

2) MARKET EXPERT
I spoke to a gentleman who works as a server and cashier at a vegan ice cream and dessert shop called Karma Cream. His name is Alec Carver and he has been working there for a year. He is also attempting to start his own small vegan eatery. For this contact, I also simply just walked in and approached him. He was willing to help, and talked to me as we bought desserts (which I would imagine would constitute his return favor). He thought that creating a sort of vegan restaurant that could mirror something like McDonald's or Wendy's for vegans would be a fantastic idea. He told me that the menu and location would be very important factors in the success of the business. He told me that, at Karma Cream, they often have non-vegan being brought in by vegans to give the vegan ice cream a try. He felt that the secret to having this be successful in a restaurant would be to have a menu that looks friendly and familiar to even someone who isn't vegan. Almost everybody likes a burger and some fries! Keeping him in my network means that I get to have someone who gets to see and analyze the way vegans and non-vegans interact with a vegan-dominated eatery.

3)SUPPLIER
I spoke to a lady who works as a sales assistant at a food supplying company called J&J Family of Farms. Her name was Marisella Russell and she has worked with them for a few years now. I found this contact through Grill Fresh. Grill Fresh has a list of their suppliers listed in the restaurant, in an attempt to keep a sort of transparency about where their food comes from. I found her contact information on the website and called her. There was really no favor expected in return. I just asked her for her thoughts and she gave them to me. She felt that it was a very strong idea and she has also observed the shift in demand from meat to produce happen rather quickly over the past couple of years. Keeping her in my network means that I get to have the experience of someone who deals with supplying companies directly in my corner, and she may even be able to give me help/insight when I am trying to handle my own supplying for this restaurant. 



REFLECT
This experience taught me how difficult it is as an entrepreneur to go out and acquire these resources from different companies and people. It was a very good experience though. It showed me the importance of actually getting out there and trying to establish relationships in the business world.

21A – Reading Reflection No. 2

I chose to read Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking Fast and Slow"


1) The general theme/argument of this book was that people, for the most part, think in two different systems. System one is the system of thought that works automatically, and is more closely related to things that you "instinctively" know. This system is the "fast" system. This system makes sense of things as quickly as possible, and doesn't use much critical thinking. System two is the system that actually uses mental effort for the activities/occurrences that require it. This one is more related to things like concentration and thoughtful choice. This book spends time explaining the contrast of these two systems and how they work together in our daily lives. It also breaks down how sometimes these systems may hinder our decisions and judgments.
2) This book connected to what we're learning in ENT3003 because it made me step out of my own bubble of thought. According to the book, since System One is the one most often used, we make fast judgments that are filled with fallacies and biases. With entrepreneurship, since we are trying to basically bring life to an idea, I feel like I need to use System Two a bit more and be more analytical about my ideas and choices as it relates to the customer, rather than just assuming something is good/marketable because it is marketable to me.
3) If I had to design an exercise for this class based on the book, I would make students actively use system one and two in maybe 4 or 5 scenarios where, they could look at an idea or product and write down their first notion about it. Afterward, I would have them research more information about the subject and try to point out their own bias about it that created their preconceived notion.
4)Honestly, the entire book was an "a-ha" moment. It was very insightful and I think it made me more cautious. I think something that stuck out to me was the over-optimism bias. I feel like I have this constant swinging back and forth between being over-optimistic with ideas and then being crushed when they don't work out, or being over-pessimistic and assuming that I will crash and burn, ultimately hurting my confidence and security in my choice and decisions.

19A – Idea Napkin No. 2

(Unfortunately, I did not receive any feedback, so I did not know what to change about my original idea napkin.)


Me – My name is Joshua Shane Philoctete. I am a talented artist and musician. I have engineering experience, specifically with prototype design, which gives me an edge in problem-solving. I also have experience with graphic design, which means that I could essential handle my own visuals/social media images/logos. As far as my aspirations, I would like to be a successful musician and artist, and have that lead to me building my own artistic brand. I would also very much like to open an all-vegetarian and vegan fast food chain.

2.     What I’m Offering – The product/service I am offering to customers is a vegetarian/vegan fast food restaurant.

3.     Who I’m Offering it to – I want to create this sort of fast food vegetarian/vegan restaurant for the vegans and vegetarians ( in Gainesville, for example) who don’t have time to meal prep all their food and don’t want to have to shell out lots of money on eating out, as well as for people who just want to try eating plant-based.

4.     Why do they care? – Customers will pay lots of money for this sort of fast food restaurant because as the number of plant-based eaters grows in society, the lack of easy places to grab food that doesn’t ruin the wallet is becoming more and more of a problem.

5.     Core Competencies –  I am a plant-based eater. So this problem applies to me as well, which means I have first-hand knowledge of how this problem affects my customers. I also have very strong people skills and customer service skills in general, so I am very good at identifying an individual’s problem at its core and coming up with an efficient solution that leaves them happy. This would work out very well in a restaurant scenario.

The overall goal is to make vegan eating easier. Personally, it sucks not being able to go to places like McDonalds or Wendy's because there's nothing for me there. I want plant-based eaters to have a place like this of their own.


Again, I feel like all of the elements of my business plan blend well together. I would say the only element of my business plan that is lacking is me. I don't have much business or marketing experience, so I will need to acquire this as I go along. I am quick-witted and charismatic though, so I believe that I can still handle whatever may come my way/

16A –What’s Your Secret Sauce?

5 Things That Make Me Different

1. Artistic - I am an artist and musician and this gives me a few very good ways to display and convey the ideas that I have in my head.
2. Open-Mindedness - I am a rather open-minded person, and I usually approach things with a genuine curiosity before creating a personal opinion.
3. Charismatic - People tend to be drawn to me. I usually pull attention in different situations.
4. Compassionate - I am a rather compassionate person, and it is visible. As such, people can often see that I genuinely have the best intentions for them and it helps me better persuade people and offer solutions to problems.
5. Detail-Oriented - I am a very clean and neat person, and tend to try and make sure things are right down to the smallest of details.

Reflection:

As it turns out, I am actually very well-liked by the people close to me. They all had rather positive things to say, and a general idea among them was that I am knowledgeable and charismatic. One quality that someone mentioned that I think is really important is that I am someone who is genuinely curious, specifically when it comes to people's positions and ideologies, which means that I can relate to people who's positions I do not share or people who come from completely different walks of life than I do.

17A – Elevator Pitch No. 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxd01ZCYm3U

What I changed about this elevator pitch, based on the feedback I received in my previous elevator pitch, was adding actual statistics into this one. Adding statistics of vegans and vegetarians in the U.S. helped me develop a better picture of how much potential my idea had. This suggestion was really the only feedback that I received, so I didn't change anything else.

18A – Create a Customer Avatar

My customer is a regular college student. He's 21 years old, a junior political science student, and really lazy. He could cook for himself, but he doesn't because it's too much work. He mostly eats out, and since he's vegan, he burns through a lot of cash way too fast. He gets up in the morning, goes to the gym, showers, and then rushes off to class. He has three classes back to back on different parts of campus and usually doesn't eat until 6PM because he doesn't have time to stop anywhere. My customer is an artist and musician, and he reads a lot of history articles.  He's also really passionate about spreading the benefits of a vegan lifestyle to everyone he knows.

My customer and I share the fact that we are both too lazy too cook food for ourselves, and spend WAY too much money on fast food. I am also an artist and musician. We are also both vegan. The only real differences here are the life specifics.

15A - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No.2

1.     I spoke to a vegan who is already a college graduate. The work mostly from home, so their life isn’t as fast-paced. This person’s main alternative to not being able to find quick and inexpensive ready-made food was simply meal-prepping. They do their meal prepping each week on Sunday, for the entire week, because they are also on a specific diet for their fitness goals. The buy all of their ingredients at local supermarkets, and since cooking tends to be more efficient and cheaper than eating out, this easily becomes the best alternative for them (the only other one being to simply eat out and spend the money). Food is a B2C business, so their method of acquiring it is pretty straightforward.

2.     This person is a vegan student who lives off-campus. Their choice of alternative was the same as the first, with meal-prepping being the most efficient alternative. They buy their food from Walmart and Trader Joe’s, and try to meal prep for as many days as possibly at a time, also usually once a week.

3.     This person is a vegan student who lives on-campus. They however, happen to have a lot of money assistance from their family, so they’re choice of alternative is simply to eat out whenever they feel like it, since they don’t have any financial worries with doing so.

Post-purchase evaluation.

For these people, the rightness of the purchase is just making sure that what they are consuming is vegan. For the first two, being able to do this without breaking the bank is what determines whether or not their purchases were a good idea, and eating out too much/spending too much, for them, is a bad idea.

Conclusion.

This segment Is a segment that has a very limited variety of behaviors, since there aren’t many alternatives to keep up the lifestyle that they live. For the most part, their only goals are being vegan, regardless of the way they do because the belief is a driving force in their daily lives.