19A – Idea Napkin No. 2

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

My name is Aobo Jiang, and I currently majored in Food and Resource Economics. I describe myself as a creative person because I always have so many ideas in my mind. One of my aspirations is that I can be a successful businessman in the future. Again, I want to provide a service to people who like to use and collect iPhone cases, and it's called "forever personalized iPhone case" service. I see this business because I am a big iPhone case fan, and I like to collect different kinds of iPhone cases. So I am excited to do something I interested in.

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs).

I am offering to customers customized iPhone cases with high quality and low prices. This service solves customer's unmet needs in many ways. It provides good products to customers. People can get a customized and high-quality iPhone case once they get a new generation of iPhone. They can also sell the old cases to us to get credits for their future purchase. We also have a plan for people who like to collect different phone cases which can save a lot of money for them.

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

I am offering this service to people who like to use iPhone and phone case. They like fashion so that they like to collect different phone cases. They are young college students, and they want to save money on this hobby.

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe it's valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service.

They care because they enjoy their hobbies. They want to have fashionable and high-quality iPhone case, and they also want to save money on this. Therefore, I believe they are willing to pay to use this service.

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has?

My core competency is that we solve all the unmet needs about phone cases for our customers, so they don't need to worry anything about their phone cases. We make fashionable and high-quality cases, and we also recycle their old cases. Therefore, our customers can not only have good products with low prices, but they also avoid wasting.

In conclusion, I do believe these five elements can fit together. There is a high percentage of iPhone users whatever in the U.S. or worldwide, and most of them are using phone case. Therefore, I believe there is a big market for this service in the future.

Feedback memo:

Two main points I got from the first idea napkin are about the monthly service and the Android phone. I think both of them are really useful. The monthly service is good for people who want to give this service a try and see what is this service going on. For the Android phone, I want to say that I want to focus on the iPhone first because like I said, there are more than 50% people are iPhone users, there is a big market for iPhone. Also, we are the beginners in this area, so we want to focus on one thing.

18A – Create a Customer Avatar

My service is designed for people who like to use iPhone and phone case and also want to save money on the phone case. My main customers are all iPhone users, and they also use or sometimes use phone case. They like fashion, and this is one of the most important reasons why they choose our service because they can custom their own unique phone case on our service website. Therefore, the age for them is about 18~25 college students. They like to collect different kinds of cases and to save money at the same time, and this is one of their hobbies.

I do think I have in common with the customer avatar. I personally am an iPhone and phone case user. I also like to collect different cases, but I always want to find a way to save money on the case. However, I don't think this is a coincidence because this service is created by myself. When I think about the opportunity in the beginning of the semester, the first thing I thought about was what people's real needs in daily life. Then, I started to think about my own needs, so this idea came into my brain. In other words, I am also one of my customers. So I don't think this is a coincidence.

17A – Elevator Pitch No. 2

16A –What’s Your Secret Sauce?

1) Describe five ways in which you think you have human capital that is truly unique.

1. Thoughts and ideas: I always have this or that kinds of ideas in my brain when I try to solve a problem.
2. Sense of responsibility: I don't easily give up any difficulty I met.
3. Sense of humor: I have a sense of humor when I get along with people.
4. Knowledge of history: I like studying history so that I know history very well.
5. Relationship: I can get along well with others.

2) Five interviews:

1. Eason: my best friend. "One thing makes you different is that you always have many unique thoughts," Eason said.
2. Billy: my another friend. He said that my humorous is one thing makes me different.
3. Betty. my girlfriend. The sense of humor and responsibility are two ways she told me.
4. My mom: She thinks what makes me different is my creativity.
5. My dad: He thinks my attitude of doing things is my best strength.

3) After I interviewed five people, I'm not surprised by them. There is no difference in my assess myself compare to others because they are the closest to me, and they know me very well. Therefore, I do think my interviewees are correct about me, and I don't need to make any corrections to the list in part 1.

15A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

I interviewed three of my friends, all of them are iPone and iPhone cae users. When I ask them about the price, quality, and price, they said that all these three elements are equal important. All of them cares about the proce of this service. At the same time, they also care about the quality and the style of our iPhone case. Therefore, I feel like if I want to do this business, I have to find the balance between the price of this service and the product itself. Customers are not willing to pay money on the low-quality and ugly cases even the price of this service is low. My segment more likely to buy online, customers can simply select different "combo" they want to purchase. All of my three friends also like to do it online.

Again, the "forever personalized iPhone case" service is for people who like to use iPhone and phone cases. People can get a brand new customized phone case once they buy a new iPhone after they use this service. They can also sell their old cases to us for extra money. For these three people I interviewed, they all feel that it is worth to buy this service because it saves them more money and avoids the wasting on the old cases. After I ask them "What sorts of things make them think a purchase was a bad idea?". All of them still worry about the quality and style for our products. Overall, I still think the most important part for this business is the customer satisfaction for the products. Only high-quality and popular products can help us to improve our service.

14A – Halfway Reflection

1) Tenaciousness is a competency. What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course?

- First of all, the "Tool Pages" is the most important part for me because it contains everything you need for this course. Moreover, checking the videos everyweek is also important. I always pre-read each assignment and give myself 3 days to think about it so that I have enough time to finish it.

2) Tenaciousness is also about attitude. Talk about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you through? Do you feel like you've developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to this?

- I felt like "giving up" when I do the "elevator pitch" because I am really not good at speech. I thought that I may still get A even I don't do this assignment. I finally did the pitch because I want to challenge myself and to improve my speech. So I definitely develop more or less a tenacious attitude during past two months.

3) Three tips. What are three tips you would offer next semester's student about (1) fostering the skills that support tenacity and (2) developing the 'tenacious mindset' ?

- 1. Always plan ahead
2. Think deeply for each assignment (useful for your future)
3. Enjoy each opportunity to practice

13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson

1) What surprised you the most?

- The experience of how Jobs to be succeed.

What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

- His long ranging vision.

What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

- His management of human resource (CEO John Sculley)

Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

- For example, he was dropped out from college, but he still continued to take cources which he interested in. Then, he was fired from his first company he worked. He didn't give up what he want to do, and he believe that he is the new generation of the entrepreneurs.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?

-  Perseverance - like I said in the last part, he never give up what he want to do even in difficult times of his life.

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

- It's "reality distortion field".

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

- What are your suggestions for youngers who want to start their own business? I want to ask this question because I want to start my own business after I graduate this semester. I need some suggestions from a successful and great entrepreneur like Steve Jobs.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

- His opinipn of hard work is that people should follow their dreams step by step until you achieve it. Those failures are the valuable experience for your future.

12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

The segment I chose was people who like to use iPhone and phone case, but want to save money on the case. I interviewed three of my classmates from my other classes. All of them are iPhone users, all of them like to use the phone case, and one of them like to collect different cases. I asked them when and why they need some service like the "forever personalized iPhone case" service. They said that when they buy a new iPhone, the shape is different from the old one. Therefore, they want to buy a new case for their new iPhone. At the same time, they cannot find a way to deal with their old cases, so they think this wastes their money.

When I ask them what is the very first thing they do to find a solution to their problem, they said the only thing they can do is trying to buy a case they like, but some of them are really expensive. They do talk to their friends and family about their needs, but it's really hard to solve. After the interview, the conclusion I find is that people who want to save money and to not waste their resources on their phone case need the service like ours. This segment helps me to know more about the customer's behavior so that I can adjust my business strategy.

11A – Idea Napkin No. 1

1) My name is Aobo Jiang, and I come from China. I majored in Food and Resource Economics. I transferred from Santa Fe College two years ago, and this is my last semester here in the UF. I think my talent is my imagination, so I always have ideas to deal with my troubles and to solve my problems I met. One of my aspiration is that one day I can be a successful businessman. Like I posted on my previous blog, I want to make a "forever personalized iPhone case" service. This business will play a role in my life because I personally like to collect different phone cases. I like to do what I interested in.

2) I am offering to customers the high-quality and customized iPhone cases with low prices. My service is called "forever personalized iPhone case" service. Just like the name of this service, once customers use this service, they will get a brand new iPhone case when they get a new iPhone. Our customers can also sell their old cases to us so that they can save more. Those are why our service called "forever".

3) I am offering it to people who like to use iPhone and iPhone cases. The common of my customers is that they are all Apple fans, and they like to use phone case. Also, the most important thing is that they want to save money on the phone case.

4) They care because a good iPhone case can cost them more than 30 dollars, and they have to change to a new one once they change to a new generation of iPhone because of the different shapes. Also, for people who like to collect different cases, they even spend more. Our customers are willing to pay their money to buy our service because they can not only save money on their new cases, but they can also get the cases with high-quality and characteristic.

5) As a phone case collector, I didn't find any service like our service to make people save money and to give people good case with customized and good quality. Therefore, this is our core competency, and I think this service has a huge market in the future.

These five elements fit together and create a  blueprint within my brain. These elements also explain why this business is going to fit the future market. This service provides what people's real need, and I believe one day I will make this happen.

10A – Elevator Pitch No. 1