Week 15 Reading Reflection

1)      What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

I think the biggest surprise to me was the premise and theme of the whole article. I was not aware that microfinance companies existed. I would think that a business with profit margins that are that low would not attract investors or would not stay in business for that long.

2)     Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I was a little confused about the structure of the microfinance firm. I am not sure how the loan officers work and whether they worked independently at home or if they worked at the local branch. It is not necessarily important I guess but it does intrigue me because of the firm’s expansion rate.  

3)      If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

I would ask them what he thinks the biggest roadblock is for these impoverished families who want to better their lives. I would also ask the author what he thinks is the most important about the microfinance business.

4)      Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

I don’t think this article necessarily held any strong positions or opinions. It was mostly a narrative of the impact and experiences of the microfinance firm. So I don’t disagree with anything.

Final Reflection

The whole semester was a very interesting experience. It was sometimes very difficult for me because I was studying abroad in Madrid, but the experience as a whole was a positive one. Many of the assignments required you to either think critically or demonstrate good communication skills.

I think the most formative and memorable experience was conducting all the interviews and being able to gather so much information from people. Not only did it help me feel a lot more comfortable interviewing people, but it also helped me learn how to properly interview someone. It also required the most motivation and courage because you had to go out of your way to talk to someone.

I am probably the most proud of the venture concept assignments because it forced me to form and develop a complete idea. I had to sit down and solve any issues in my path while I organized an idea that was conceivable and effective.

Now I feel a lot more like an entrepreneur because of all the skills that I had to develop over the semester. But I think I still have a lot to do to develop the entrepreneurial mindset.

I recommend that future students take the assignments seriously and put in enough effort into their venture idea. If you develop your ideas seriously it will make the assignments easier and you will get a lot more out of the course. I think that the work you put into the course really shows at the end of the semester.

Elevator Pitch No. 4

2) A reflection on the feedback you received from your last pitch. Describe what stood out to you as important, what feedback surprised you the most, what feedback you think was outright wrong or silly. 

All the comments from my previous elevator pitch just mentioned that I did a good job improving my pitch. As much as I enjoyed the positive feedback it did not give me much to work with as far as improving or changing this new pitch.

3) What did you change, based on the feedback?

I only changed the introduction to something I thought was stronger and I elaborated on the struggle that students face. I had nothing to change according to the feedback I received.

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity
As a student on the verge of graduating college and about to start my career, I realized that there was a major problem with our education system. Our schools educate and prepare us for the academic rigor of higher education. Our institutions of higher education prepare us for the challenges we are to face in our careers. However, there is no organization or program, private or government funded, that connects the two key stepping stones in our professional careers and guides us towards the right careers for us. Whether they know it or not, every student K-12 has a need for career guidance, especially in their middle school and high school years. Currently, the only source of career guidance the average high school student receives is from their parents or their guidance counselors. This however is not enough if we want to give our future generations the best chance to pursue the best career for them. This is a huge opportunity to improve our education system and make in more efficient and effective. This opportunity however will only last until someone else steps up to address this need. If the solution can be applied nationwide, it could help millions of students save time, money, and could help them fulfill their potential.

Innovation & Venture Concept

What students need is an innovative program that guides them along the right career path as they transition into high school and eventually college. The innovative program would have to implement several key features:

• Career shadowing program
• Professional mentorship
• Career counseling
• In depth academic analysis

The career shadowing aspect of the program would expose the students to different professions and careers in various industries. This shadowing program would help students explore their career interests and perhaps introduce them to something they had not considered before. This exposure to different careers would help eliminate, create and modify career options as the student understands that that career in greater depth.

The program would also assign mentors who can connect with the students and help guide them along, answering any questions or concerns that the students may have. These mentors would change as the students’ interests and career direction changes.

The program would also provide counsel and career advice as the student progresses through his education. By periodically meeting with a trained career counselor the student can continue to narrow his career choices as he approaches graduation.

By working together with the student’s schools, the program can analyze the student’s academic strengths and weaknesses. Having a clear picture of where the student excels academically, the program can help guide the student toward a career he can be successful in.

Although this program is initially intended to be part of a nonprofit organization, it could be
privatized and its services could be sold to private schools. The price of these services have not been established yet since I have no idea would be an appropriate price. That being said I think there will be many parents, students, and schools interested in this idea because it is a major issue as the students begin college. And seeing as there is currently no competitors, I think it would be easy to capture the interests of many students nationwide. The most important thing is to have this service available to as many people as possible, and to give them the best experience they could have. And being a non-profit, we can rely on other organizations or on government support to help finance our services.

Three Minor Elements
I think my most important resource will be my clear vision for this venture and my motivation to make this idea a reality and a success.


The next service the program could provide could be connecting students to different internships or volunteering opportunities that could help them on their professional journey. Another possible step for the program is to partner with companies like Monster.com that can help connect students to jobs and or internships.


In five years I want this venture to gather enough support to be implemented at least locally. As I evolve as an entrepreneur, I will try to make this venture a reality and get it to the point where it can grow steadily and continue to help students as I move to the next venture. In the following decade I want to have gained enough experience with this venture so I can start to work in the business side of the design industry.

Summary of Feedback
Most of the feedback I got was other students relating to the issue and opportunity at hand. A lot of them reinforced the fact that they never got the proper help as far as career counseling and that they believe it is a good idea. One suggestion that I got was to create partnerships with companies like Monster.com so they can connect students with job opportunities. 

Changes
I thought the suggestion to partner with job search companies like Monster.com was a great idea so I included that in the future plans of the program.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

1)      What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

I was surprised to read that some companies promote innovation by letting employees use company time for their own projects. I feel like big corporations would find that to be a waste of time and company resources.

2)      Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I found it a little odd that companies would take such rigid, structured, multi-step plans to try and foster innovation. I think it’s counterproductive to try and come up with new ideas using creativity by using such an uncreative model.

3)      If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

I would ask the author what the most important aspect of innovation is and why. I would also ask the author what he thinks is the most important aspect of social responsibility is for a corporation to consider.

4)      Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

I don’t think it was the author’s opinion but I do think that having such a structured mechanism for innovation is not the best way to arrive at innovation. I think if you eliminate structure while still holding employees accountable for being productive you could probably come up with much more innovative ideas.

Google Gold

1)      To be quite honest, I didn’t not know that we were actively trying to achieve SEO for our blogs using keywords and other social media. I did however try to be consisted with the wording of my concept and the general idea of it. I also tried to tie all the posts and assignments together to keep it cohesive.

2)      Since my venture idea revolved around a career guidance program that features a career shadowing option some of the words I consistently used were education, career shadowing, career guidance, and the name of the venture Careerquest.

3)      The only social media that I used to promote my blog was blogger itself by posting the link to my blog. I was surprised however that my posts received a lot more views and comments that were required by the assignments.

4)      My most “viral” posts was napkin idea #1 and elevator pitch #2. Both of these had the same about of views and are way ahead of all the other posts. I think they received the most traffic because they were both engaging and discussed an issue that is very relevant among college students.

5)      Unfortunately I could not find my post through several pages of Google results. I think it was because it did not generate enough traffic since I didn’t know we were supposed to promote it through other social media.

Very Short Interview, Part 2

My impression of the first interview is that is seems like I do not know a lot about entrepreneurship. The questions I asked could have been more in depth in order to receive a more meaningful answer. For the second interview I wanted to use my questions to demonstrate my knowledge and development in entrepreneurship. It was pretty difficult to get a hold of the entrepreneur since im studying abroad in Madrid and he has a busy schedule but I was able to interview him through email.

-As an entrepreneur, how do you identify an opportunity in a market?

Savni: “If I see there is a certain need from customers, I try to evaluate whether I can satisfy that need. As far as the hotel business goes, if there is a location where there is a lot of demand from tourists, visitors and locals that need lodging, I evaluate whether it makes sense to build something new or improve an existing business.”

-What is the most important lesson you have learned as an entrepreneur?

Savni: “I learned the hard way that not all of your businesses are going to work out. I had several hotels that I had to walk away from because there was not enough demand or the market was not right.”

-What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs?

Savni: “When I was a very young entrepreneur I explored different jobs and careers. Working in different environments helped me discover different opportunities and helped me focus on the ones that I wanted to work on.”

I felt a lot more comfortable with this interview because I felt like I knew more about entrepreneurship and I could ask him better questions and understand his responses better. It was hard to get a sense of what the entrepreneur thought because it was through email but he did mention that the tougher questions made him think hard, which I think is a good sign.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

1)      What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

I thought venture valuation would be a simple assets minus liabilities type of thing. But it was a little more complex than that. I did not take into account the startup cost involved in the mix.

2)      Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

It was all fairly simple to understand. There was only a little terminology that I hadn’t seen before.

3)      If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

I would ask how startup cost is evaluated into the selling price and how much it matters. I would also ask the author to elaborate on how he determines the right time to sell a venture.

4)      Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

I don’t disagree in with anything specific that the author said. But I think that there is less emotional biases because I think people understand now more than ever that business is business.

Celebrating Failure

This past semester I have been studying abroad in Madrid. One of the hardest things for me has been to adapt to my Spanish grammar class. Growing up in a family that spoke Spanish help me become a very fluent speaker. Although my conversational skills were good, my Spanish grammar was rarely tested. Because of this, I was having a hard time in my Spanish grammar class, especially with accents. I consistently under-performed in tests and quizzes. I had to try and do something different if I wanted to pass the class.

As I watched the other students progress and improve their grammar, I because a little discouraged with my situation. Although I understood that failure can be a good thing, it was tough to not see any improvement. I decided to look at the issue differently and I changed how I studied what they were teaching me. I started to see improvement and I ended up passing the class. I learned that if you keep failing and you don’t change your perspective, you will continue to fail.

Being a perfectionist about most things, and someone who likes a challenge, I have very mixed feelings about failure. On one hand failure is the enemy. Being a competitive athlete all my life, it’s against my nature to welcome failure especially as others succeed. On the other hand failure presents a challenge by making you aware of different areas you can improve on. This paradox brings out interesting reactions from me in different situations. During athletic competition it can bring out motivation, adrenaline or rage. When I fail in areas of creativity it challenges me to focus, concentrate and look at things differently.

This class has helped reinforce the idea that failure can be a good thing because it tells you what does not work. Failure helps you refine your final product, improve your service or think differently. This reinforcement has helped me be more open to taking risks than I was four months ago.

My Exit Strategy

1)      I intend to leave the nonprofit venture after it has grown and stabilized enough to be able to continue meeting the goals I have established. I imagine that would be 5-10 years after it starts to implement the Careerquest program to young students. I would leave its direction and its future in the hands of someone that shares a passion for its success and who has a similar vision for its future. The ultimate goal is to eventually have it established nationwide so that students all over the country can enjoy the benefits it offers. Although it is a topic and an idea that I am passionate about, there are other interests that I would like to pursue.

2)      I selected this exit strategy because I think I would be able to gather a lot of experience as I develop this venture until I am ready to leave it in capable hands and explore new interests.

3)      I don’t think my exit strategy has influenced any other decisions I have made. I think even if I wanted to stick with the venture until I retire I would still make the same choices. The choices I have made have been based on what is best for the growth and success of the venture.

Whats Next

Existing Market

1.       The next thing for my venture would be to offer more extensive career counseling, especially for high school juniors and seniors.

2.       (See Video in New Market Segment)

3.       I think the next step moving forward for the venture would be to include events like job fairs especially for the high school students. I also think that providing services like mock interviews and resume workshops would help the students develop professionally.

Services like these will grow the existing market because more students and parents will want to benefit from the new services offered.

New Market

1.       A new market I could target is the first year college students that might benefit from the services offered to high school students in the program.

2.       I could offer very similar services to them as I do with my original market, such as the career shadowing and the career counseling services. Some college students might already have access to this, but some might look for some career services we offer that their college doesn’t.  

3.       (see video)

4.       I think that this market may not be a great one to pursue because some the needs of the new market are already met. Most college students will already have access to a career guidance center at their college, and most of the benefits of the program are geared for middle school and high school students. Because of these reasons if would be better to focus on the current market and look for ways to expand it.

I thought that maybe college students would not be interested in the program because they are too busy and it is already too late. I was right to some extent because most of them already have a major chosen so the program would not help them as much. 

Week 12 Reading Reflection

1). The biggest surprise to me was reading that it is not good to grow too quickly because you can lose vision of your planning and strategy. I always thought that firms would want to grow as quickly as they can to dominate the market.
2). To me it was confusing how the stabilization stage is a swing point where the firm could take off and be a success or crash and fail. If the business is stabilizing, how can it fail?
3) I would ask him what the “hypnotic effect” of the growth stage is because he talked about it but never elaborated. I would also ask him how the stabilization stage can lead to failure for a firm.
4) I don’t really disagree with anything the author said, it all made a lot of sense to me. There was just a few confusing points that he made.