Emily's Entrepreneurship Blog

A reflection on the feedback you received from your last pitch:  The feedback I got on the first one was basically to have more emotion and create a hook in the beginning to get people interested. I didn't get much feedback on the second one but I definitely took the feedback from the first one into account while doing this one. What did you change, based on the feedback?  When I recorded the first and second ones I was reading from a rough script so I could easily remember what I wanted to say. I also had to stop and rerecord a few times because I messed up. But this time, I had it mostly memorized and I didn't need a script at all. I also only needed to record it once, unlike the other times. Also, I added an opening hook which neither of my previous ones had and I, again, tried to show some more emotion to keep the audience interested and sell them on my idea. Overall, I was definitely more comfortable doing this one than I was doing the first two.

1. Experience in the food blogging field Valuable: This is valuable because I already know the trends of what foods and restaurants people tend to like. Rare: Even though there are many food blogs, it is relatively rare that someone has experience in running one and can apply that in creating a potential app. Inimitable: This could be imitated but it takes time and effort. Non-substitutable: Other food bloggers have experience, but they may not have learned the same things I have from doing it.  2. Connections with entrepreneurs Valuable: This is valuable because learning from other entrepreneurs experience will help me be successful. Also they have the resources to assist me in getting where I want to be. Rare: My father and grandfather are both successful entrepreneurs and not many other people have that close to them. Inimitable: I could reach out to other entrepreneurs, but the experience that my family members have learned from their ventures are different than ot...

Domain Expert: Michelle Rothstein is a "content associate" at Zomato. I consider her a domain expert because she contributes content and works for Zomato, an app that helps you find restaurants to eat at all over the world, and what would be one of my competitors. I found her through Zomato's LinkedIn as an employee and messaged her through there.  I messaged her saying that I have an app idea similar to Zomato's concept, only using Instagram as the database for restaurants and pictures and I asked for her thoughts on it. She said it's an interesting idea, but she's not so sure how I would sort through Instagram's archives and if I could get Instagram's permission. Basically, she wasn't so sure about the logistics of how it could work, but she thinks it's a good idea in theory. Including Michelle in my network would be helpful because she already has experience working for an app that suggests restaurants, and I would definitely take her...

The book I decided to read is  How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams. 1. The general theme of the book is Scott Adams, the creator of the famous comic "Dilbert," explaining his formula to success. He says that you have to create energy in your life by finding something you are passionate about and enjoy doing, even if that thing is not your main work. Also, he says you have to take care of yourself: exercise, eat right, take care of your finances, and look after your family and community. If these things are not in check, you become a burden on other people. 2. I think this book connected with what I've learned in this class in one big way. One of Adams' main points is to have big energy and be truly interested and have fun with what you're doing. He says you need something that excites you and reason to get up in the morning, and even if this thing isn't your job, you need to have side projects that truly excite you and give yo...

1. My name is Emily Mintz. After interviewing 5 people close to me last week, I think I am overall a caring, curious, and and honest person. I'd like to think I give good advice and I am good to my friends and people close to me. I see this business potentially playing a big role in my life. Since I already participate in running a food blog, I see creating this app as taking the next step in that world. I really enjoy doing it already so I think I would definitely enjoy doing it as a career and hopefully growing and expanding the app over the years. 2. I am offering an app that allows an easier way to search for restaurants in an unfamiliar area. The app would search Instagram's archives for solely food pictures in a certain location in order to make suggestions for the customer searching. In addition, in order to gain awareness for my app, I think it would be a good idea to team up with restaurants or other food Instagrams to offer deals for people that download and use my ...

The 5 things that I think make me unique are: Empathy- I think I am very empathic to how other people are feeling and I can relate to people emotionally. Critical thinking- I tend to think about problems in many different ways until I can find an appropriate solution and fix it. Honesty- I think I'm a very honest person; I value honesty over almost anything and I think it's extremely important to communicate how you're feeling and tell someone if you have a problem with something Independence- I have always been independent; I like to do things on my own figure things out in most situations without outside help unless needed. Curiosity- I ask a lot of questions about things I encounter because I like to understand everything in my surroundings. I tend to do research on things I find interesting and I like to be knowledgable about many things.  Interviews: 1. Lauren Mazzarisi Lauren mentioned that I am always up-to-date on current events and I know a lot...

On my last elevator pitch, there was some great feedback. I was happy to see that they thought my app was a good idea and that they thought I was clear and concise with my points about the app. Something that I need to work on based on the feedback I got is definitely showing more emotions and trying to connect with my audience. After watching it back again I saw that I really did not look all that happy and seeming more excited about my product could probably go a long way. Also, I could enunciate more and talk slower to get my points across more clearly. Lastly, a good opening line would draw people into the pitch. Things I changed this time: I tried to show more emotion and be more engaging and detailed. I tried to enunciate and get my words out slowly so they're understandable. I also used my phone camera this time instead of my computer's camera so it's a higher quality video.

My customer avatar would be a 22 year old woman who is an avid Instagram user. She lives in Miami and she works at a start-up. She lives with two roommates and she loves to eat out at new places every week. She has friends that live all over the country that love to come and visit her and she goes and visits them as well. She also loves to travel new places whenever she gets the chance. She likes a variety of genres of TV shows, but her favorites ones are Game of Thrones and The Office. She just bought her first car for herself: a white Volkswagen Tiguan. She's super social and makes friends wherever she goes. She doesn't have any kids, but she wants them someday. She has one Instagram account solely for her travels and one for her personal pictures, so she likes to take a lot of photos. She's really close with her family who also lives in Miami and she sees them often on weekends. She's a registered democrat but she's not very involved in politics. She loves to go ...

Alternative Evaluation: In my interviews, I learned a lot about customer needs and wants when it comes to my app. It seemed they would be unwilling to buy this app, and would only download it if it were for free. I explained that it was my original plan to offer the app for free, and make revenue from ads and sponsorships from restaurants. One of them suggested to maybe even take that a step farther and make the app downloadable for free, but have additional in-app purchases for new features, which people could buy if they are interested. I thought this was a great idea and potentially could make for another successful part of the app. How/where do they buy: It was obvious to my interviewees that my app would be available for download on the App Store for iPhones or the Google Play store for Androids. They agreed that there would be no version of my product that would be sold elsewhere at this point. Post-purchase evaluation: The people I interviewed all agreed that the most import...

Throughout this course, I have kept up with the weekly assignments mostly by setting extra reminders and putting due dates in my calendar on my phone. Sometimes, there are assignments that require more work and so I make sure to spread out the work throughout the week and give myself enough time to complete the assignments. For example, sometimes we are required to interview multiple people which takes more time than just a written assignment. We have also had to record ourselves doing an "elevator pitch" which also takes some preparation, so time management is definitely important in this course. This course has definitely opened my eyes to how much detail must go into your work, especially if you have a business idea of your own. I have felt like giving up on my idea a few times when I thought it wasn't great or I couldn't think of ways to make it better. I think this course has helped me build a tenacious attitude because it forces me to write about my idea and k...