My Solution

Problem: College students are unable to cook cheap, healthy meals to eat every day because they have little time between classes, studying, work, and extracurriculars.

Solution: Make and provide cheap, healthy, home-cooked meals weekly to college students.

Looking for Opportunity

Opportunities from Economic Changes:

1. American families are leaning more and more on both parents working.
1. I heard it from the Dave Ramsey Show (radio show) as well as I see it happening in my friends and family's lives.
2. In the past, the mother stayed home with the children at least until they were old enough to care for themselves while both parents worked. However, in today's competitive economy, more and more families are seeing both parents having to work. This can create a financial problem - day cares and nannies can be almost as expensive as a second income might bring in. Teaching men and women to become at-home entrepreneurs allows at least one parents to stay home with the kids while making money.
3. The potential customer would probably be a current stay-at-home mother or father, or a young couple that wants to have children but cannot fathom the idea of living off of only one income.
4. This opportunity could be difficult to exploit, because teaching people to start business from home is different from ensuring that their business will succeed and make money in a reasonable amount of time.
5. I saw this opportunity because my own mom has commented on the fact that she could have made quite a bit of money in the 10 years she took off of work to raise my sister and I, if only she had known how or even realized that it was a possibility.
2. Ride share programs like Uber and Lyft are currently unregulated in the US.
1. I learned this from doing some extra background research on an opportunity I found in the Miami Herald.
2. An opportunity to joint the market exists here. The larger the amount of suppliers of ride share programs and the higher the demand for these types of programs, the sooner regulation will happen and the better chance that when regulation does occur, it would favor the ride programs over the taxicab industry.
3. The typical customer would be the customer profile of Uber users - nearly anyone can benefit from ride sharing. College students, people wanting rides to the airport, anyone without a car who needs to run errands.
4. The opportunity would be relatively easy to exploit. Ride sharing already exists, so the battle would be to advertise enough to make customers aware of your service.
5. I saw this opportunity because I harbor a general distaste for the taxicab industry, and I would much rather see regulation favoring Uber over taxicabs.

Opportunities from Regulatory Changes:

1. The NCAA does not pay its athletes (does not even pay for their scholarships) but generates large amounts of revenue from them.
1. I heard of this opportunity from my sport-loving friend.
2. There is an opportunity here to create private college-aged football teams and pay the athletes in scholarships to the state school of their choice, require them to attend college and keep a certain GPA, and pay them a percentage of the money that their name brings in to the team.
3. The typical customer would be a college football fan.
4. This opportunity would be very difficult to exploit. America is rooted in its college football and it would take a large upheaval to convince both athletes and fans that separate, private teams are more worth watching. Also, this would take decades and millions of dollars.
5. I saw this opportunity because I am not really a big football fanatic, so I don't see how deeply rooted the NCAA is and am able to mentally do away with the NCAA and still see the sports existing.
2. The NFL might become more regulated as emerging research shows that Mild Traumatic Bran Injury (MTBI) (concussions) have long-term harmful effects, which opposes the NFL's 1990s statement that concussions ave no side effects.
1. I heard about this from professors in my major (Applied Physiology and Kinesiology).
2. An opportunity exists here for private research institutions to find biomarkers of MTBI and create portable MTBI-testers to market to the NFL and other sports teams that may experience head injuries.
3. The typical customer would be the athletic training departments of professional, collegiate, and high school sports teams.
4. This opportunity would be easy to exploit once a biomarker is found, because MTBIs are the hot topic in sports news right now, but finding the biomarker may be difficult.
5. I saw this opportunity because I come from a scientific research background and tend to think in terms of "how can research solve this problem?"

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

College students are unable to cook cheap, healthy meals to eat ever day because they have little time between classes, studying, work, and extracurriculars.

• The who: college students
• The what: cannot eat cheaply nor healthfully
• The why: do not have time to cook for themselves due to student responsibilities.

Interview # 1: Jacob Clark: https://soundcloud.com/sbrinkerhoff/voice-011

• Jake's "Who": UF student, graduating senior.
• Jake's "What": Finally cooks for himself after 4 years of schooling. The hardest part for him is dinner, and dealing with the dishes involved and thinking of new meals to make.
• Jake's "Why": College kids may not know how to cook and are probably too lazy to cook. Also, a lot of college students use their parents's money when they go out to eat, so the price factor wouldn't be an issue.

Interview #2: Matthew Craighead: https://soundcloud.com/sbrinkerhoff/voice-013

• Matt's "Who": Rising senior at UF.
• Matt's "What": Freshman year was harder for him to eat healthfully. Now, he meal preps for himself every week using variations of chicken and rice, mostly because he knows the nutrient breakdown of the foods he is putting in his body. Meal prep has become a habit for him.
• Matt's "Why": College kids have a general lack of knowledge on how to cook at all.

Interview #3: Jareb Mendez: https://soundcloud.com/sbrinkerhoff/ent_fob_interview_jareb

• Jareb's "Who": Rising senior at UF.
• Jareb's "What": Does not eat healthfully in college.Usually eats out cheaply and sacrifices health.
• Jareb's "Why": Does not have time to cook due to working, research, and class.

Interview #4: Alan Williams: https://soundcloud.com/sbrinkerhoff/ent-forming-an-opportunity-belief-interview_alan

• Alan's "Who": Rising senior at UF.
• Alan's "What": Believes he is a healthy eater in college. During the school year, he buys meals on campus or out. He eats healthfully out, but spend a lot of money.
• Alan's "Why": Does not have time between schoolwork and studying to cook.

Interview #5: Bailey Fell: https://soundcloud.com/sbrinkerhoff/ent_fob_interview_bailey

• Bailey's "Who": Graduating senior at UF.
• Bailey's "What": Eats out on campus every day because it is convenient, and spends money on food.
• Bailey's "Why": She came to college and was thrown into cooing for herself and did not feel prepared, o he eats out for main meals.

Forming an Opportunity Belief

1.     Opportunity: college kids have no time or knowledge to cook healthy food for themselves.

2.     Description: the unmet need is providing pre-prepared home-cooked meals for college students or courses to students on how to make healthy, quick food. This need has probably not always existed - as college becomes more and more difficult and students find themselves with less and less free time, making home-cooked meals becomes much more of an issue. I believe that our parents generation had an easier time of feeding themselves than our generation does. Right now, college students are attempting to meet this need by eating out for at least one meal every day, which is absurdly expensive and unhealthy.

3.     Prototypical customer: a college student probably in an intensive major where the classes are all in-person, so s/he does not spend much of the day at home.

4.     Interviews: 

1.     Alan Williams: https://soundcloud.com/sbrinkerhoff/ent-forming-an-opportunity-belief-interview_alan/s-Ro65k

1.     Nature of the need: Spends too much money on eating out because he does not have time to cook.

2.     When are you aware of this problem: During the fall and spring semesters, his Monday/Wednesday/Friday days are very busy and he becomes aware that he has no time to cook.

3.     How long have you had this need: Since beginning college.

4.     When did you first become aware of the need and why: When he got to college and left home, where his mom made most of his meals.

5.     How are you currently addressing this need: He tries to cook ahead when he thinks of it, to prep food for multiple days, but most of the time he doesn't have the ingredients that he needs or the time needed.

6.     How satisfied are you with this solution: He seems pretty dissatisfied with his solution, since it is not working well to solve his problem.

7.     My reflection: I learned that eating healthy was not really a concern of this college student, but that the amount of money he spends on eating out is a big problem for him.

2.     Jareb Mendez: https://soundcloud.com/sbrinkerhoff/ent_fob_interview_jareb/s-ig5fu

1.     Nature of the need: sacrifices eating healthy to spend the time he would normally spend cooking on studying for classes.

2.     When are you aware of this problem: when he opens his fridge and realizes he has nothing to eat.

3.     How long have you had this need: since leaving home and coming to college.

4.     When did you first become aware of the need and why: when he came to college and had realized that he to cook every meal for himself.

5.     How are you currently addressing this need: He eats out wherever is easiest and closest to get to.

6.     How satisfied are you with this solution: He would rather be sacrificing his eating habits than his grades, but wishes he could eat healthier in general.

7.     My reflection: I learned that my problem does in fact exist in the lives of other college students. However, I was surprised that Jareb was relatively okay with eating unhealthy foods every day. I was also surprised that he assumed he would have to sacrifice his grades or healthy eating habits instead of thinking he could balance the two.

3.     Bailey Fell: https://soundcloud.com/sbrinkerhoff/ent_fob_interview_bailey/s-Q3voT

1.     Nature of the need: Eats at least one meal on campus every day because she does not have time to cook for herself, and wants to eat healthier in general.

2.     When are you aware of this problem: When she checks her bank account and sees how much money she spends on eating out.

3.     How long have you had this need: Since coming to college.

4.     When did you first become aware of the need and why:Within the first few months of college, because the unhealthy dining hall was so much more convenient than using the communal dorm oven to cook meals.

5.     How are you currently addressing this need: She is choosing healthier options when eating out, such as Pita Pit over Relish.

6.     How satisfied are you with this solution: She is not currently satisfied with her solution, she would rather make herself food than eat out at all.

7.     My reflection: I noted that campus dining options probably make a lot of money off of students based purely off of the convenience factor. Also, though money is a driving factor for students, it does not seem to take priority over the inconvenience of cooking for oneself.

5.     Summary:

1.     How much of the original opportunity is still there?

§  The original opportunity is definitely still there. College students do not have time to cook for themselves, for various reasons.

2.     Do I believe the new opportunity is more accurate than when I started?

§  Yes, I believe I have a better grasp on the opportunity now than I did before. I understand the mind and the needs and wants of the average college in terms of food student a bit better.

3.     How much should entrepreneurs "adapt" their opportunities based on customer feedback?

§  I believe that entrepreneurs should be more willing to adapt than stay firm, at least in the beginning stages of their business. The only reason their business exists is because they have customers, so if the customers all want something specific to change or be implemented, it makes sense for the business owner to pursue that change. When an owner is first cultivating a target market, s/he needs to listen to the demands and wants of the whole voice of that market.

Identifying Local Opportunities

Opportunity #1
Florida police officer ticketed after slamming into woman's car
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15CF7028B2D3B800?p=AWNB
     A police officer crashed into a woman's car going around 90 miles per hour. He was pursuing armed robbery suspects and had his sirens blaring and lights on, and he ran a red light through an intersection to continue the pursuit. The woman took her green light through the intersecion, and was T-boned by the cruiser.
     In today's current climate, police officers are under some harsh scrutiny and any cop story gets media attention. The issue here is that the cop crashed into a woman, breaking several of her bones and totaling her car, and she is suing the city. However, she did not stop though she acknowledged his lights/sirens, which - though not a law - is more than standard practice. This is a grey area as to who is in the wrong.
     The cop and the city of Ocoee are mainly affected by this problem.

Opportunity #2
Transgender bathroom debate comes to Florida
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15CF702699A70FF8?p=AWNB
     A state representative pleaded with Florida's District Attorney to denounce the federal alw allowing transgender students to use the bathroom they feel most at ease in, but the DA's office is silent so far.
     Transgender people and issues are highly misunderstood, especially by the people making laws about them. Laws are being made and not-made based on ignorance and the closed-minded perspective of cisgedered men and women who have never com into contact with or tried to see the perspective of anyone unlike themselves, and this is a major issue.
     Transgender students under the age of 18 are most affected by these laws. As a whole, the transgender community is also affected.

Opportunity #3
Influence marketing: the new cost of entry
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15CE73068436B470?p=AWNB
     Now more than ever, non-celebrity social influencers are being used to target the masses.
     Businesses need to find creative ways to entice prominent bloggers and intagram-ers to sample their product and voice their honest opinions to their audience.
     All businesses with a service or product to sell are affected by this shift into influence marketing, and so are the influencers that are becoming the main target of these businesses.

Opportunity #4
Uber getting special zone at Miami International Airport
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15CEC77B9DCD0740?p=AWNB
     Although Uber is still illegal in Miami-Dade County, MIA airport is giving businesses like Uber specific areas where the drivers can and cannot operate at the airport.
     Uber drivers are being given the short stick at MIA, while taxis and Super Shuttles get VIP service. Uber can only operate on the outermost curb when picking customers up, and must wait to complete pick-ups until halfway down the concourse. Also, drivers cannot pick up a new customer in the same trip that they drop one off - they must circle back into the airport and begin a new trip.
     Uber and Lyft and other ride-sharing businesses are affected by this problem, as are all the drivers for these companies and, mos importantly, the customers.

Opportunity #5
Allen's Drugs owner says missing neon sign safe, but fate is unclear
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15CE7307F36326C0?p=AWNB
     South Miami residents are upset that a new law is changing a historic piece of the city's culture.
     A popular corner drugstore in South Miami may have to remove its historic neon "DRUGS" sign that has hung in the store since the store's inception, since a new law dictates that the selling of drugs cannot be advertised by a store that dos not contain a pharmacy.
     The store owner, Al Collazo, is mainly affected by this problem, as well as the community surrounding the the drugstore.

Bug List

1. Undergraduate volunteers almost always arrive late to or even skip mandatory meetings in the lab I volunteer in.
• Why? Because there is no actual punishment for arriving late or skipping meetings, because the graduate students can't afford to fire/lose undergraduates, because the lab's grants are so large that there is too much data processing for less than 30 undergraduates to complete. 
2. Student presenters tend to read directly off of the slides, especially in lab meetings where they are not receiving a grade - they put little to no effort into their presentations.
• Why? Because there is no feedback on presentations, so undergraduates both cannot get better and feel detached from their performance.
3. The motion capture software in the biomechanics laboratory that I volunteer in is very not-user friendly and is very difficult to teach new volunteers how to use.
• Why? Because it has so many bells and whistles that experienced users require of it.
4. To open a bag of shredded cheese, one must tear at the perforated edge on the top of the bag of cheese. However, the plastic never fully rips across the entire top of the bag, and the need for scissors always results.
• Why? Because the perforation only exists on the edges of the bag, not all the way across the top.
5. One of the hinges on my toilet seat is broken, so that the seat can now move not only up and down, but can medially and laterally rotate on the one intact hinge.
• Why? Because I have not contacted maintenance to fix it, because my only roommate left for the summer and I do not want a maintenance man to enter my apartment when I am alone, so I will request maintenance in the fall when my roommate returns.
6. At clubs and bars, bartenders refuse to meet my eyes when they realize I am under 21, and it takes me many minutes just to get a cup of much-needed water.
• Why? Because water is free so I do not tip the bartenders for it.
7. My shower does not have enough flat surfaces on which to put all of my shower products.
• Why? Because my apartment complex ordered the smallest, cheapest showers possible, and because I do not own a shower caddy.
8. The pants, shorts, and skirts sizes at Forever 21 run way too small. I can't even wear a large, sometimes not even an extra large, though I wear a small/medium in most other stores.
• Why? Because they use "Barbie" models - large in the chest and skinny through the legs - instead of "average-size" models.
9. The collection computer at the Gait Rite lab in the Movement Disorders Clinic in the Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Institute is excruciatingly slow.
• Why? Because is it very old, because the Gait Rite lab is the fourth of my PI's four labs and therefore his lowest priority. It is also the lab that is furthest away from his office, so he rarely visits and acknowledges problems.
10. Data collections with patients at Gait Rite take about 10 minutes, but I have less than 5 minutes with each patient.
• Why? Because I take patients after they check-in and before they are seen by their doctor but the patients do not show up more than 5 minutes before their appointment time, because the doctors and nurses do not ask them to show up early for their appointments though they know that I need to see them.
11. Every general physician in every doctor's office that I have been to is always running at least 5 minutes late, yet patients are requested to arrive 15 minute early to hurry up and wait.
• Why? Presumably so that the patient are not the reason that the doctor runs late. The doctor may run late because a patient that needed a 45 minute appointment was scheduled for a 30 minute one, so it may be the receptionist/scheduler's fault.
12. My dishwasher's "heated dry" mechanism is broken, so after washing dishes I have to leave the dishwasher open for a few hours so that the dishes can all air dry.
• Why? Because the maintenance man said he could not fix it, so he put in a request for a new dishwasher and my complex' managers do not deem it as important as buying new pool chairs.
13. The large burner on my stove top is broken, so I must heat even my largest of pots on the small burner which takes considerably more time.
• Why? Because my roommate broke it and we are afraid that calling maintenance will result in them charging us for a broken burner, so we keep trying to fix it ourselves.
14. My dryer and washing machine are both so loud that if I am running one of them, I cannot watch TV or listen to lectures in the next room.
• Why? Good question. I doubt maintenance will even how up for a request that my appliances are "noisy".
15. Feminine hygiene products are excessively overpriced and I can't stand knowing that these companies are making way more money off of me than they should be, yet I still must buy their products.
• Why? Because these big companies know that women need these products, so they absolutely participate in collusion and price fixing, though illegal.
16. In today's current political climate, our Congressmen and women and even our presidential nominees are chosen first by money and big business, then by the people.
• Why? Because campaigns are funded by money, and big corporations are those with the kind of money that politicians desperately need. So the only nominees that we the public even see are those that have had money thrown at them by large corporations - so the candidates will owe those corporations big favors if they gain office.
17. In most quick service food chains, some times during the day are busier than others, yet in Panera Bread only one cashier may be working through the long line at those times.
• Why? Because the managers don't have the budget to staff more than on cashier, because they are under pressure from higher bosses to keep expenses low, because the franchise owner/CEO has probably never worked as even a manager in food service and has never seen the reality of the job.
18. I work a physical labor job on a farm taking care of horses. The nature of my job is such that only one employee works each morning or night shift and we work alone, without a boss or any other human being present. We are well-trained before we are cut loose, and every employee definitely knows what is expected of her. Yet, when I show up for my shifts, I find signs that clearly indicate that the other employees are majorly slacking off at work and are not doing the required tasks.
• Why? Because they are not supervised, because the job honestly does not need supervision as long as an honest and common-sense-minded employee is working. However, it is difficult to find honest, intelligent, and young/fit employees willing to work a manual labor job 30 minutes outside of Gainesville.
19. I have to drive down Archer road to Guitar Center to replace my guitar strings every few months.
• Why? Because I play a lot of guitar so my strings erode, and I do not buy multiple sets of guitar strings at once.
20. My horseback riding instructor has lessons every hour on the hour but is always running 15-60 minutes behind schedule.
• Why? Because one rider in the morning shows up 10 minutes late and all of the day's lessons are pushed back 10 minutes. My trainer send out a text to everyone to let us know that she is behind, so another rider who would have shown up 10 minutes late anyway now shows up 10 minutes late to the new lesson time, pushing the whole schedule back 20 minute, and the cycle repeats. There is no punishment for arriving late.

Reflection on the "Bug List"

I honestly did not find this assignment difficult at all. It turns out that there are a lot of things that bug me, and when I began looking for them I saw them everywhere. It helped that I made this list over the course of 4 or 5 days, so I only challenged myself to add 3 or 4 new bugs to the list each day. I actually found the first 5 bugs the hardest to come up with, because I was not used to looking for problems. Once I became accustomed to that idea, the rest of the list came easily.

My Entrepreneurship Story

I volunteer as a research assistant in a UF biomechanics lab. My graduate student mentor, a PhD student, has run her own personal training company for ten years. She is the most inspiring human being that I know - life has dealt her so many hardships and far too many obstacles, yet her strength and drive and determination never cease. From the stories she has told, I honestly believe that her persistence and optimism derives in part from her entrepreneurial success in the over-saturated fitness industry in an age where instagram models can become more famous personal trainers than people who know what they are doing.

I decided to take ENT 3003 as a confirmed elective for my major not because I have any aspirations to start my own business, but because I feel that the characteristics that make entrepreneurs are traits that every successful person should have. I believe that learning how to think and make decisions like an entrepreneur will help me no matter what field I go into and no matter how many bosses I have.