Final Reflection

This semester in ENT3003 has pushed me in various different situations and scenarios that I have never before been to. I feel like the most formative experience in this class came from the elevator pitches that we needed to do. I feel like being able to summarize your ideas in a short pitch is something that can help you in many different areas of your life, including school and careers. The assignment where we needed to find our “secret sauce” will probably the one that I will always remember because It was interesting to see what the people close to me had to say. The hardest thing to do for me was the customer interviews because it was hard for me to find people willing to participate in Orlando.

I personally will not see myself as an entrepreneur until I have opened an actual business but this class has absolutely helped me develop a mindset for the entrepreneur. I feel like starting a business is something that I am not only now prepared for, but also something that I am capable of doing.

I would recommend to future students that they start the assignments early in the week. Many times I would find myself unable to complete many of the interview assignments simply because I did not have the time to complete them. In order to foster the mindset necessary for this course, I would also say that it is important for people to act as if they are actually creating their venture in real life. This will make the entire course more fun and realistic. I would also recommend using a checklist to make sure you complete everything in time.

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity: Every year, millions of tourists travel from all over the world to the City of Orlando to visit its world-class attractions and experiences. Although most tourists travel from within the United States, there is an increasing amount of tourist from international countries, especially Brazil and Argentina. Most visitors come to Orlando as part of a convention group or with their families. When someone has decided to go to Orlando, they usually have a hotel reservation, flight booking, and a rental car prepared months in advance. Once they actually get to Orlando, they have to decide and plan what they are going to do with their precious time. In Central Florida alone, there are over 45 attractions to choose from and most of them are not well-known outside the state of Florida. There is currently no way to easily plan which attractions will be visited and also no way of knowing which attractions will be entertaining for everyone traveling together.



Orlando has been continuously expanding over the past decade in both residential and commercial zones, which has brought increasing amounts of people and new businesses to the city. This upward growth has ultimately led to an increase in the tourism industry which makes it harder for tourists to make the best of their time. Currently, tourists are relying on their own knowledge to plan their vacations. This leads to people who are not able to make the most of their time and who come to Orlando to visit only the major theme parks that are known across the nation. This window of opportunity will always exist because Orlando will always rely on tourism as its main industry.



Innovation: The innovation that will be at the backbone of this new venture will essentially be a new “vacation planning” software that can be accessed through a mobile application or website. Users will first create an account so all their information can be saved and accessed from any device. After creating this account, every person in the family or group will take personality/interest quiz. This quiz will be composed of questions that ask of the preferences of each user based on scales from one to ten. Using this information, the website will notify the users which experiences/ attractions will best suit everyone in the family and how much time they should spend there. A specific calendar will be displayed for the days of the vacation and users can drag the attraction onto the day they wish to go there. The calendar will automatically calculate how long the user will be there for and how long it will take to get to travel to the next location afterwards. Users will then be able to purchase all of their tickets together online. This will not only save them money, but also time by keeping away those pesky will call lines and allowing tickets to be printed at home or saved to their smartphones. If for any reason, users would like to manually add an attraction that they would like to visit, they would be able to add it to their calendar and ticket bundles.



Revenue will mainly be made through two services. Most of the revenue will come from advertisements on the website. Every advertisement displayed on the site will be limited to attractions and experiences in the vacation city. This means that users will only be seeing relevant options instead of their most recent amazon search while they are planning their vacations. A smaller portion of revenue will come from a small convenience fee added to every online purchase.



Venture Concept: This innovation will specifically be designed and customized for the city of Orlando and will be called “Experience Orlando”. This website will allow guests to plan out every attraction they want to visit while knowing that everyone in the group will enjoy the entire vacation. Nothing like this has ever been created before, therefore, customers will not have to switch to this service, but they will need to log on for the first time. The biggest competitor I believe could possibly the large tourism websites, such as Expedia. They do not actually meet the unmet needs of the guests, however, and should not interfere very much in my venture. My business concept is based on guests purchasing the tickets online in bundles so that they can save money on the experiences chosen for them. Small convenience fees and advertisements for tourism in Orlando will allow for a good inflow of money. My business will ultimately be composed of about 15 employees where most of them are other IT specialists or guest service employees who will answer phone calls.



Other Elements: The problem with many internet businesses today is that they are based on profit over passion. What will set my business apart is that it will be founded and operated by people who love the city of Orlando. This particular website will never focus on other cities.



The next step in this venture will be to actually open a customer service center inside the tourist district of Orlando. Once this is completed, guests will be able to talk to guest service representatives in person. This will give my internet business a personal touch that I am sure many tourists will make use of.



If this business was to be launched, I would like to see myself still in control over the venture. Because this venture is based on my passion for Orlando, I would like to see myself involved for as much as possible.



Previous Feedback:



All of the feedback from the previous post stated that I needed to add the option to manually add attractions that people want to their itinerary and bundles. I added this change to the venture concept above.

Making It Real

Here is my resume through the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7JArDPaOi-Pd3ZFOTZsUjdZRkk/view?usp=sharing

My Exit Strategy

For my venture, I could see myself continuing to run the business in the City of Orlando for as long as possible. Because my venture would be created specifically for Orlando, I would not attempt to add other cities to my venture. I believe I would only sell "Experience Orlando" when I choose to retire. I would, however, consider selling the platform and software to other companies for use outside of Orlando. These purchasers would be required to only focus on their own city and will not be allowed to be used in the state of Florida. Other than the usage of the same interface, these companies will not be tied to "Experience Orlando".

I chose this exit strategy because I want my venture to remain focused on Orlando. I would not want to see this business sold to a large company and applied generally to every city across the nation. I could make money off of selling the platform for other companies to focus on their own city, but I want to remain personally focused on the original city.

This exit strategy influenced how my website would be designed. It can be something that can be applied to other cities and sold, but the venture will always be designed specifically for the original unmet need in Orlando.

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity: Every year, millions of tourists travel from all over the world to the City of Orlando to visit its world-class attractions and experiences. Although most tourists travel from within the United States, there is an increasing amount of tourist from international countries, especially Brazil and Argentina. Most visitors come to Orlando as part of a convention group or with their families. When someone has decided to go to Orlando, they usually have a hotel reservation, flight booking, and a rental car prepared months in advance. Once they actually get to Orlando, they have to decide and plan what they are going to do with their precious time. In Central Florida alone, there are over 45 attractions to choose from and most of them are not well-known outside the state of Florida. There is currently no way to easily plan which attractions will be visited and also no way of knowing which attractions will be entertaining for everyone traveling together.

Orlando has been continuously expanding over the past decade in both residential and commercial zones, which has brought increasing amounts of people and new businesses to the city. This upward growth has ultimately led to an increase in the tourism industry which makes it harder for tourists to make the best of their time. Currently, tourists are relying on their own knowledge to plan their vacations. This leads to people who are not able to make the most of their time and who come to Orlando to visit only the major theme parks that are known across the nation. This window of opportunity will always exist because Orlando will always rely on tourism as its main industry.

Innovation: The innovation that will be at the backbone of this new venture will essentially be a new “vacation planning” software that can be accessed through a mobile application or website. Users will first create an account so all their information can be saved and accessed from any device. After creating this account, every person in the family or group will take personality/interest quiz. This quiz will be composed of questions that ask of the preferences of each user based on scales from one to ten. Using this information, the website will notify the users which experiences/ attractions will best suit everyone in the family and how much time they should spend there. A specific calendar will be displayed for the days of the vacation and users can drag the attraction onto the day they wish to go there. The calendar will automatically calculate how long the user will be there for and how long it will take to get to travel to the next location afterwards. Users will then be able to purchase all of their tickets together online. This will not only save them money, but also time by keeping away those pesky will call lines and allowing tickets to be printed at home or saved to their smartphones.

Revenue will mainly be made through two services. Most of the revenue will come from advertisements on the website. Every advertisement displayed on the site will be limited to attractions and experiences in the vacation city. This means that users will only be seeing relevant options instead of their most recent amazon search while they are planning their vacations. A smaller portion of revenue will come from a small convenience fee added to every online purchase.

Venture Concept: This innovation will specifically be designed and customized for the city of Orlando and will be called “Experience Orlando”. This website will allow guests to plan out every attraction they want to visit while knowing that everyone in the group will enjoy the entire vacation. Nothing like this has ever been created before, therefore, customers will not have to switch to this service, but they will need to log on for the first time.

Celebrating Failure

1) This past summer has definitely brought several new experiences that I had never before expected. One failure this summer was actually during a job interview that I had. It was just for a seasonal position for a tourism company in Orlando. I had spent about an hour filling out the online application and then got an in-person interview. I went to the interview and answered all the questions. Apparently, during the interview, I had contradicted information about my availability and the next thing to happen was that the recruiter said they can't hire someone who lied during the hiring process.

2) Although a small mistake on my application over what hours I could work should not have led to me being labeled as liar, I think it is safe to say that this was a failure. In this instance, I learned the importance of double checking job applications and any other important documents.

3) It was especially embarrassing to find myself being called a liar by an employee for the company that I wanted to work for. It definitely made me think twice for any future job applications that I have had to do. When I face failure, I usually don't really react behaviorally but I do feel a little emotionally down. After some time, however, I am usually quick to come back with the expectation to do even better. This class has shown me that failure is a good thing that everyone can learn from. Failure in many ways can be the only way to get better.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

The Pitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZTD3HW8Ow8&feature=youtu.be

The Feedback: The feedback I received on the last pitch was actually very good. Most people said that my tone of voice throughout the video was really good and well-rehearsed. Most people simply said that with more practice it could become closer to perfect. Someone said that my transition to the product features wasn't too well done but only one person said this.

What I changed: I practiced my pitch several times before making a final video and I tried to work on smoother transitions. I also tried to add a little more detail on some of the details.