Final Reflection

What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?

The customer interviews, with the cold approaches, was something that was very formative to me. I wouldn’t call it “joyous” necessarily, but I am the most proud that I accomplished them and will remember them in future business endeavors.

At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. And we repeated the mantra -- I am an entrepreneur. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?

Looking back, none of the assignments took too much time to complete, however there were a LOT of them. Although I’ve always considered myself an entrepreneur, I think these tiny steps and constant action have helped me re-frame how I will approach my next business that I start - to stop “over thinking” and “aiming for perfection” (both of which are my biggest faults).

What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?

Don’t get wrapped up in the perfection of your assignments. Put in the work, stay ahead of the assignments, and “just do it.” Don’t overthink things and take any feedback you receive as positive because it helps you figure out how to navigate around what customers REALLY want.

Venture Concept No. 2

1) Provide, again, your venture concept description, using this form.
The opportunity I plan on pursuing for my doorstep laundry delivery service will be targeted at young professionals and familiar who are too distracted by their busy schedules to deal with laundry on a consistent and efficient basis. The nature of the need is time management and added value (time and money), as my service will free up their own time to do other activities, as well as increase value of the newly found free time (i.e. some interviewed customers have stated their time for doing laundry is worth $50-$300, which is a chore I can complete for them for less money). Later on, I will test my concept with college students, which may require a centralized pickup and/or delivery area to make the service more cost prohibitive for college students and their lower income than my base client target. With a central pickup/delivery area, I can lower cost instead of passing the expenses of driving around town onto my student customers. I also may be able to target dorms to establish a consistent schedule.

As our lives become increasingly busy (more opportunities for leisure time, vacation, more time at work, and various other family outings and events), there is less and less time to complete the basics of a house hold. I view my opportunity as only increasing over the next few years as people’s lives become busier and busier. Geographically, my opportunity will be targeted at urban and suburban areas. Demographically, my service can be made available for a reasonable price to anyone from lower-middle class up to the top earners in any city I launch in.

Customers are currently satisfying this need by doing the laundry themselves or hassling with dropping laundry off at laundromats, both of which are inconvenient because self-serviced laundry is time consuming and a laundromat can become expensive. I do not think customers are loyal to either alternative, as both take up time and my service will give a majority of that time back to them.

I would consider the opportunity large, even with competitors entering the market. I think my service can become as commonplace as corner laundromats as efficiencies are created over the brick and mortar retail establishment. I firmly believe this opportunity window will be open until we have machines sophisticated enough to clean and fold our laundry with minimal effort, which will be a long time.

My innovation is taking a common household chore and automating it for the customer for a low cost. The customer will fill a laundry bag provided to them with as much laundry that can fit, place the bag(s) on their doorstep, and request a pick-up via our app. Once picked up, our team will wash, clean, dry, iron, fold, and return within 48 hours. Their card on file will be charged at time of delivery and they will have time to examine their clothes to make sure there were no unintentional damages.

The opportunity will be addressed by my innovation in the essence of saving time. By simplifying the traditional laundry process to a few steps (place dirty clothes in bag; put clean, folded clothes away), the customer will free up time in their busy schedules. Customers will pay for my service because they value their time so highly on such a menial, yet important and necessary, task. If someone values their time at $50 an hour and I can provide that same service to them for $20, then they are essentially saving $30. Do-it-yourselfers and laundromats will be the initial competition, but once I am able to show value in my service, customers will gladly pay for my service. Price and customer service will be my two primary focuses as I will need to price my service less than what a customer thinks their same time spent on the task is worth, and customer service is necessary to make timely deliveries to my customers and resolve any issues of damaged/missing clothes. I will need to split my company into delivery/pick-up drivers and in-house cleaners who will actually do the laundry.

 My most important resource will be building a corporate environment around customer service. Anyone can wash laundry, but providing seamless integration into my customer’s lives, by making sure they always have clean clothes at an affordable price without any lapses in service will be extremely important for the success of my venture. Creating this customer service atmosphere will be a one-up I have over competition because companies are notorious for letting things slip through the cracks, which is not something that can happen at this price point.

The next step would be to provide rush services for same-day turn-around, adding even more value to the customer’s experience. I think a rapid delivery/pick-up system on top of my existing standard service will give customers options that fit their lifestyles. Other additional steps would be to handle delicates and larger items (comforters, bed sheets, etc.). These would likely require a different bag, as well as a different price point.


This venture gives me a wealth of experience of taking a simple process and making it even more simple and efficient. It also will provide experience of logistics and customer service, both of which are things that will benefit me in nearly any endeavor I participate in for the rest of my life. Since this will be a low-cost entry service that I can provide, using resources I already possess, there is not much risk involved and I can make mistakes since they won’t be overwhelmingly expensive.

2) Provide a summary of the feedback you received from your previous venture concept description. You certainly want to include the student feedback, but you may also include the feedback you received from others during the "What's Next" exercise. You want to summarize all of the feedback, but be sure to place an emphasis on what people recommended you change about your idea. (In other words, don't just describe the positive feedback.)

Most feedback was geared towards the validation of the laundry service being suitable for college students, a market I previously dismissed (at least for initial marketing) due to the income levels needed for a “luxury” service, as well as the fact that most college students are able to handle laundry since they are only doing it for themselves (or having their parents do it when the visit home every few weeks). Most “negative” feedback was sourced from considering cost differences to a regular dry cleaner and/or laundromat.

3) Describe how you changed your venture concept, based on what you learned from the feedback.

Although, not direct feedback, the “cost prohibitive” question got my wheels turning and came up with the idea to pursue on-campus students as well, along with centralized drop-off points and dorms. Finding the right price point will require testing to see if I can carry out my service at a comparable cost. I realize I will be able to charge some premium due to the pickup/delivery concept, but it will definitely be a fine line.

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? 

The number of large corporations that foster an entrepreneurial mindset surprised me. You usually think that these large, multi-billion dollar corporations are on "cruise control" mode since they are so large and that everything is reduced down to a tried-and-true formula, although that's not always the case. Sometimes the companies need a dose of out of the box thinking, so it is in the company's best benefit to promote intra/entrepreneurial mindsets among its employees.

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

I didn't find anything too confusing. I am familiar with social enterprise as I work for a large corporation that heavily pushes volunteering (8 hours of volunteer time per month is encouraged and we are allowed to take off work). Also, my company fosters innovation, to an extent (sometimes it is difficult in a heavily regulated industry because creativity has to sometimes pass through the red tape).

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

How do you think the current direction of our social climate will shape the future of business? i.e. Will businesses turn away from profit in order to pay their employees better wages, avoid cutting corners (tax evasion, non-compliance with environmental laws, etc.)

What would be the best way to introduce establish innovation structures as an individual contributor? How can you get leaders on board with promoting this mindset?

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

I know this is slightly off-topic of the reading, but I think the concept of ethics being taught at an earlier age needs to be included in any business book that speaks about social enterprise. I believe it would help avoid many ethical issues we see happening today (ENRON). I understand that we can't rely on our school system to teach ethics, as that is a state/church separation topic, to an extent, but the teaching of logic at an early age could equip students to make decisions based on their own conclusions, rather than conclusions that are pushed on them by society.

Google Gold

1) A discussion of your general approach and strategy to search engine optimization (SEO). What were some of the activities you did for each blog post to pursue SEO? 

For posts that involved my business concept, doorstep laundry service, I tried to emphasize saving time, laundry as a hassle, and how to complete laundry in a timely manner. Posts that didn’t have anything directly to do with the business concept really weren’t adjusted for SEO.

2) What were your keywords. How did you select those keywords? Did you change or refine your keywords through the semester?

I tried to use “save time”, “laundry service” and local (Jacksonville, FL). The keywords didn’t change through the semester.

3) How did you use social media to enhance your SEO efforts? What your your surprises or general impression of using social media to improve your blog's profile? Was social media generally receptive of your blog, or did it get ignored?

I did not use any social media for my SEO efforts. I generally do not like spamming services on social media, especially ones that I am not currently pursuing. I would rather a paid-ad approach, which is something I am not willing to do as a part of classroom assignment.

4) What was your most "viral" post? In other words, which post obtained the most traffic? Why do you think?

I had three posts that had the same page view count (19) – my second elevator pitch, my first customer interviews, and my entrepreneurship story. Since my 1^st customer interviews were on a different topic than my 2^nd and 3^rd, people may have went back to see why or how my first interviews were different in order to compare them. My second elevator pitch might have had higher views due to it being an explanation of a concrete service, rather than an abstract concept of improving Jacksonville from my first pitch.

5) Finally, did you make it to the first page of Google results for your keywords?

I didn’t make it on any pages of Google that I could find. I did find my URL from other classmate’s posts when I commented on their blog, however I had to specifically use my blogger name, not any of the relevant keywords pertaining to my business idea.

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? 

The “roll up frenzy” of the 90s is surprising. I’ve heard stories of people selling their business, only to buy it back for a fraction of what they sold it for, but the overall statistic of $3.6B paid for $10B of debt is enormous, especially in 90’s currency terms.

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

As the author mentioned, valuating a business is more of an art than a science. I believe valuing a business is outside of something that can be taught within the scope of a textbook, despite how many details can be provided. The theory can be discussed, but real world examples are the only way to get a true understanding of how to properly evaluate a business. Otherwise, it’s just educated guessing.

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

Should a business owner pay someone to appraise their business annually/every few years in order to get an objective view of the price of the business? The author discussed that the seller may have emotional ties to the business which can cloud judgment and expectations, and sometimes the buyer can be clouded by emotion as well, thinking they know the industry better than they actually do – it may just be better off to business expense the appraisal in order to get an objective number.

Could you go into greater detail on the art of evaluating a business? The numbers can be numbers, but it seems like there is room in the text to discuss psychological tactics of making a deal work and deciding which is the best approach to acquisition (controlling stake, silent partner, etc.)

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

As with the previous chapter, this one deals mainly with calculations and very concrete things, so there is not much to disagree with. The author wrote in depth about the different types of business valuations and how to understand the numbers involved in buying or selling a business, and the key factors for each type of valuation.

Celebrating Failure

1) Tell us about a time this past semester that you failed -- whether in this class, or outside of this class. Don't spare any details! It'd be even better if there was something you tried several times this semester, and failed each time.

This class brought about many failures for me, especially in the form of finding customers to interview. I had about a 4:1 success (failures to success) when finding people to interview. I came across a lot of people that were downright rude (even before getting to the question of them allowing consent for me to audio/video record them), despite my pitch to interviewing them being as un-salesy as possible and just asking for help on a school project.

2) Tell us what you learned from it. 

I learned that people are difficult to get through to, no matter how hard you try or how much value you offer to them. In the situation of customer interview, I really wasn’t offering them any value (except the hypothetical), so it was harder, for me at least, to get through to them to spend some of their valuable time.

3) Reflect, in general, on what you think about failure. Failure is hard, isn't it? It's embarrassing, sure, but it also means that we have to change something about ourselves. Talk about how you handle failure (emotionally, behaviorally). Finally, talk about how this class has changed your perspective on failure -- are you more likely to take a risk now than you were four months ago?

Throughout my entire life, I viewed failure as “impossible” for me. I was fed the notion that you can work hard and achieve anything you want, and I always compared life to how easy school was for me from elementary school through middle school. My parents, who were probably much too young to have me, were only in their early 20s and raising me, so they didn’t have their own life experiences to encourage me to fail. I remember my father early on telling me to “make decisions carefully because you can’t go back and change them,” and although his advice was well-intentioned, it created a “don’t try it if you think you’ll fail” attitude. He has since recanted this advice, and regularly encourages me to fail now, however it was this “no fail” attitude that was instilled in me. When I finally met challenges in high school (being a part of the IB program), I shut down and couldn’t handle the failure so I just wouldn’t even try. After high school, I only completed one semester of college and subsequently dropped out to pursue a career in real estate – something I sort of accidentally fell into – which delayed earning my college degree (I’m finally back 5 years later to get it completed). It has only been in the past year that I have started taking more risks and learning to cope with failure, almost to the point of carelessness. Although it may be foolish, I intentionally make mistakes now on low-stakes tasks so I can know consciously that I am failing and it has helped me accept failure by knowing I am failing and realizing that mistakes don’t equal the end of the world.

I don’t think this class has really changed my perception on failure, as intentionally failing is something I have been working on for the last year or so, but it may have helped me reinforce my perspective and encouraged me to continue failing as much as possible.

My Exit Strategy

1) Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. Do you intend to sell your business in the next 5 years for a large return? Do you intend to stay with the business for several decades and retire? Do you intend to protect the venture as a family business, and pass it down to your children?

Ideally, I would sell my business for a large return, but look to keep some equity in the company for passive income.

2) Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?

I believe with a lump sum payout and recurring monthly equity, I would be able to purchase/start other ventures to bring value to customers in different ways. Through this example, instead of passing one type of business down to my children I would be able to show them how to build and create new businesses and seek out new opportunity, rather than pigeon-holing them into a single industry. Also, a lump sum of money is more immune to economic downturns and other industry threats that may come on stage over the years which could affect my livelihood. With the money in the bank, I can invest based on market conditions to stay ahead of the current economy.

3) How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept? For instance, has it influenced how you have identified an opportunity? Has it influenced your growth intentions or how you plan to acquire and use resources?

By building my company as efficiently as possible, it will make it attractive to potential buyers of the company who will be given the option of being as involved as they would like to be in the business. If the business can run without much owner input, they can sit back and enjoy the passive income, while if they get bored, they can step in an participate as much as they would like. Sometimes the “cash-out” method may encourage one to cut corners and try to make the company look as profitable as possible (without insight to how the company will be affected after it is sold), but I would fully intend to build the company as if I were going to participate for decades, as I believe this would allow me to pass along the most value to the new owner.