Week 15 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 rate of loan repayment in this article is insane. You'd think because of the unsecure nature of the loans that SKS Microfinance wouldn't have such a high repayment rate (99.5%) but they make it work. That's fucking awesome.

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

• None of it was confusing. This business and article was extremely straightforward and utilized basic business concepts such as having high volume with low margins that were easy to understand.

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

• What's next? Will Vikram Akula be expanding to other countries? Have there been any other companies that have tried what she is doing? Is it because she's adopted a profit-driven model, in part, that this has been so successful? Are there any companies that are providing micro financing specifically to men? Why or why not? Very curious about these answers. Microfinancing seems like a very tangible and exciting solution to poverty.

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

• I don't think Akula was wrong about anything but I would like to see information about the rate of loan repayment for men. It doesn't seem fair to lump all men together and completely exempt them from micro financing simply because research has shown that they don't generally pay back loans. I'm sure there are some men in India who could very much benefit from micro financing to support their families or improve their situations. Maybe they should go through an extra screening process but I don't think it is fair to not lend to them at all. 

Final Reflection

1)So this is it. One of my last posts in my blog for the Intro to Entrepreneurship class. In this post I will be reminiscing over my blog and all the experiences I had during this class. It's been a treat, fam. Good luck in life to all my fellow classmates and avid readers. I hope I entertained you or at least did not bore you.

Here goes nothing.

2)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?

Most formative experience: Definitely the most formative experience I had came from the exercise where I had to reach out to an industry expert, a market expert, and a supplier for my venture. This exercise gave me actual insight into how people are currently dealing with the issue of revenge porn (my venture concept is a service for survivors of revenge porn whereby my company wages a campaign on the victim's behalf to get the revenge porn taken down or use SEO to bury it under layers of positive information about our clients) and what (limited) resources are currently out in the world. Not only that but if I ever decide to go ahead with my concept, this exercise put me in direct contact with an organization that said they would endorse my service once they've seen it in action.

Most memorable experience: The most memorable exercise was the one where I had to go out and try to give 5 one dollar bills to people. This exercise really pushed my comfort zone and forced me to talk to people I normally wouldn't, which is why it was so memorable. The reactions I got to giving away money were varied and entirely unexpected. One person even gave away the dollar I gave them just to participate in the fun I was having.

Most proud experience: The experience I just mentioned is probably the one that invokes the most pride from me. I'm not usually the person who goes out and talks to strangers, but I want to be. I was really proud of myself for actually doing this and for making it entertaining.

3) Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?

You know, I actually do. Before this class, I thought entrepreneurship was something you either born to do or don't do at all. Now I know that's not true. Anyone can have an entrepreneurial mindset, in whatever field they are in. It's about being innovative and identifying opportunities where you can create value for the people around you. I am entrepreneur. I can think like a guerilla.

4) 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?

Do the assignments that make you uncomfortable. Go out and talk to people about an idea you have and get their feedback. Understand that you are going to fail and that's really okay. You learn so much more from failure and suffering through weird or awkward experiences than you do from being super successful and no one giving you criticism. Have thick skin. Take the advice given to you without trying to defend yourself and explain things better the next time if that was the root of your problem. And remember, shit happens. Some things you will never be prepared for - and that's okay. Don't be too hard on yourself. Entrepreneurship and life are very similar creatures. They're unpredictable, frustrating, sometimes depressing but the experiences you have as you figure shit out are 100% worth it. If you don't know shit, then you're only choice is to learn and grow out of your innocence.

To better foster the entrepreneurial mindset, I would pick a venture concept at the beginning of this course that you are actually passionate about. Doing that will make all your assignments way more interesting and valuable to you because you actually give a damn about finding out what you can from these assignments. Also, talk to people outside this class about your idea and about entrepreneurship. Listen to people's experiences and incorporate what they have been through into your entrepreneurial mindset by listening and asking questions.

Alright. So that's it folks. Hope you enjoyed the ride and...

Elevator Pitch No. 4

All of my feedback from my last elevator pitch was really positive and didn't include anything I should change so I basically did the same elevator pitch but switched up my intro. Enjoy!

Venture Concept No. 2

Venture Concept Description Take II

Opportunity. The opportunity my venture seeks to capture is a very unfortunate opportunity that has arisen out of the influence of the internet on society. The interconnectivity of the web is good for sharing valuable information across geographical boundaries but, on the flipside, it is very harmful when someone uses that interconnectivity to try and ruin someone's life. The opportunity I want to help solve is the issue of people having content on the internet that they don’t want out there. Specifically, when someone posts nude pictures or videos of someone in an effort to publically humiliate them.

 This opportunity is, unfortunately, huge. There are hundreds, upon thousands of victims of revenge porn out there with very little options or legal protection. Only 26 states in the US have laws criminalizing revenge porn. My market isn’t really defined geographically since anyone can post revenge porn from anywhere but this tends to happen in more developed countries, such as the US, Canada, and Western Europe. Demographically, the victims of revenge porn are overwhelming women, ranging from 14 years old to women in their 50s, though men can certainly be victims as well.

There are only a few options out there for survivors of revenge porn: ask the website owners to take down the content, report it as inappropriate to google, or get your nude photos or videos trademarked and issue the sites a DMCA takedown notice. (Or, if you live in one of those 26 states, take the person who posted the picture to court. Though that doesn't guarantee they will be taken off the web.)

Since revenge porn can be on thousands of sites in the worst case scenario, the first option isn’t really an option. Reporting it to Google is a necessary step in trying to solve this issue, but Google can’t force sites to take down the content and there are many other search engines where the photos could still be lurking. Google can only make sure it doesn’t pop up on a search. Lastly, getting your pictures trademarked is an option, except that it costs 300-400 dollars a year to maintain that trademark and still some sites can host the photos without facing repercussions because of the anonymous nature of the web.

As of right now, I have found only one other company that is trying to solve this issue. More may arise so this window could be closing.

Innovation. My innovation is a service for victims of revenge porn whereby my company wages an online campaign on behalf of the victim to get their revenge porn taken down. At the same time, my company will be doing online reputation management by using search engine optimization to create a positive online presence on our client’s behalf. My company’s site will also host an online forum for survivors of revenge porn and will provide free legal information about victim's legal options.

The service works by using advanced technology that combs the web for the revenge porn’s unique address. Once found, Post Back’s employees contact the website owner and request it to be taken down or, with the client’s permission, issue a DMCA takedown notice on their behalf after the process for getting their photos trademarked is started. The service costs $150 and there is a crowdfunding option on the site so that other victims can help people who struggle to pay the cost. Post Back will also offer payment plans to help with the cost.


Venture Concept. My innovation attempts to solve this opportunity by providing a service to people who critically need it and who are very often times taken advantage of by sites promising to take down the photos for large sums of money. My venture will actually help these people who have been violated for the world to see.

There is only one other company that currently provides a service to victims of revenge porn. This means that there isn't a lot of competition for the immense amount of demand. What's my advantage over them? After contacting sites that are campaigning to end revenge porn, I have found that they have never heard of my competitor and thus my advantage over them is my connections to non-profit organizations which will help market my venture.

To start out, I am considering using crowdfunding to fund this venture. I think people can really get behind this idea so having it be funded by people seems like a no brainer.

I imagine this company to start out with 5-10 employees and grow to around 20-30 over time. Starting off, I'll need a technology director, a marketing director, and customer expert. This is because the customer experience is a critical part of Post Back that also gives my company an advantage over its competitors. The goal of Post Back is to give our clients peace of mind and to show them that someone cares about what happened to them and is doing something, anything, to make it better.

Since the company will be entirely online, the location of it is entirely flexible. It could be anywhere. In 5 years, I don’t see myself still running this business. I think this industry will have many competitors in the coming years so I doubt I will be able to an edge in it. On the flipside, I could see this business transitioning into other services for women or anyone who has been harassed on the internet. Don’t know how to do this exactly, but that’s where I could see this going. As an entrepreneur, but really just as a person, I want to enact positive social change in the world. I see this venture as a start to this.

Feedback from students: The feedback I have received on this venture concept has all been really positive. Almost all of the students talked about how passionate I was for my idea and how they thought I had really thought through it, which is true. The only thing that was recommended for me to change was that I would probably be doing some crowdsourcing to raise funds for this venture. Other than that, I didn't receive any other feedback about changing my venture concept.

How I changed my venture concept: I added in the crowdsourcing bit and I tried to shorten the concept so that it was more concise. Other than that, it's basically the same as before.

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?

• What definitely surprised me the most was that there was a classification system for the social responsibility of an enterprise. For instance, in stage two the organization recognizes that it has a social responsibility and it keeps a low profile by donating to well known charities while talking to the public about how they haven't been socially responsible in the past. I wonder why the end stage, stage three, is associated with donating to "controversial" charities? Is social change inherently controversial? Interesting.

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

• I wish the author had explained more about the "heightened sense of accountability" inherent within social entrepreneurship. Like, it makes sense that when you are a social entrepreneur, the people you answer to are those who are affected by your efforts but I wanted that better explained.

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

• What are the implications to a social startup's organizational structure and/or processes with the heightened sense of of accountability? I am interested in starting my own non-profit so I want to know the answer to this question for the benefit of my future nonprofit.
• What's the difference between a social enterprise and a nonprofit? I don't think this is clearly stated in the reading.

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

• I would disagree with the author when he or she states that a key part of having an environmental strategy is promoting diversity. I know a big problem in the environmental community is that it is largely white, upper-middle class people that can afford to care about the environment. I think that an environmental strategy should include promoting diversity but that's not usually reflected in real life.

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 each of my blog posts about my venture concept, I tagged the words "revenge porn" and "survivors." I also tagged some of the pictures I posted with those words. The commenting with a link to my blog was the only other SEO tactic I engaged in.

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

"Revenge Porn," "survivors," and "Post Back." I thought these words were really targeted towards my business (which is a service for survivors of revenge porn). In retrospect, I wish I had used the keywords "Gainesville revenge porn survivors." I selected these keywords because I thought the survivor part would differentiate me from a lot of the revenge porn resources on the web which generally use the term "victim." These keywords stayed the same throughout 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?

Um. I didn't really use social media to enhance my SEO effort. I don't even think I shared a blog post to my facebook at all. Surprisingly enough, I had a few classmates and friends tell me that they've read my blog posts. Which is strange because I didn't think I was doing too good of a job at using SEO.

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

My most "viral" post was the Free Money post. Which is terribly ironic because, while I completed the assignment, I didn't get credit for it because my video was downloading on my friend's computer. I know why it was viral though. So many students didn't do that post so when they went to do the commenting on it, they had to search through the class blog directory till they found someone who had actually did the assignment.

5) Finally, did you make it to the first page of Google results for your keywords? If not, what page of results did you make it to?

Nope, I definitely didn't make it on the first page. I stopped looking for myself after page 26 of a "revenge porn survivors" search. In retrospect, I should have picked more specific words.

This is the image I found when I did an image search of the name of my blog lol

Very Short Interview, Part 2

Impression of the initial interview: 
So looking back over my first interview, I am super embarrassed. Ben's responses weren't bad at all but I feel like I'm really awkward and unconfident in that video. I've linked it here for comparison. I think I was unprepared for that interview, in retrospect, and it shines through in the video. Also, the quality of the video sucks.

My 2nd Interview with Ben King, CEO and Founder of Keep It Simple Technologies:

How far I've come:
The second interview really made me realize how much I have progressed in being able to talk with people and to network. Even during the course of this class, I have seen an improvement in myself in how I am able to ask for things I may need or to speak up when before I wouldn't. I think being in an entrepreneurial environment as well as growing up a bit has really helped me improve my confidence and my ability to articulate.

It's a lot easier to talk about entrepreneurship with fellow entrepreneurs now that I have taken this class as well as taken the Business Plan Lab. I think my questions are a lot more targeted towards business rather than "wow! That was a great idea," because I have more knowledge now. Which means I hold myself to a higher standard than I did before in terms of participating in business discussions. For instance, I used to think it was okay not to ask questions or talk when someone asks for entrepreneurial feedback because I thought I didn't have anything to say. Now I can make a comment on their revenue model or whether or not they have a MVP. What's cool is that this business acumen is standard throughout the world, like a language I can finally understand, and it makes me feel like I belong. Knowing more about entrepreneurship has definitely improved my confidence and for that I am very grateful.

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?

• It shouldn't surprise but I am still surprised by the fact that most ventures that are on a tight lease have issues with undercapitalization. You would think that the owners would know where to inject money into their business to watch it grow but time and time again, I read articles and reports on the need to grow ideas and businesses by bringing on more opinions. Like a good friend always says, once you're in the rabbit hole, it's hard to see out. It shouldn't surprise me at this point but it still does.

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

• Definitely the part about discounted the cash flow was confusing. I don't get how or why a business is suppose to discount its cash flow and I don't think the author did a good job at explaining that.

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

• Why would you discount cash flow for the discounting earnings valuation method? I want to know!!
• How are you suppose to estimate what a buyer could earn elsewhere with the amount of money they are investing in a company? I don't know where that investor could be putting his money! Well, I know a couple of places...

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

• I disagree with the terms outlined in the Letter of Intent. The terms listed have no mention of the employees that work for the startup. What about them? Sure, maybe they don't get a say in what happens to the business but shouldn't there be some mention of what happens to them after the acquisition? I think so at least.

Celebrating Failure (Sorry, long post)

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. 

So this past semester I have been failing with one of roommates. A lot. I mean like, everyday. Her name is Maitane and when we moved in together, we were good friends. We were on better terms than my best friend and me at the time. Then, as this year has progressed, something happened. It started slow. Differences in lifestyle, bedtimes, definitions of clean, and what should be talked about as roommates arose from living with one another.

I failed. I failed to communicate with her. To reach out and understand her point and, in turn, have her understand mine. I fail every day when I walk down the stairs and we say nothing to one another. We slink by one another with only the slightest semblance of recognition, as if we were two beings whose universes sometimes overlap and we both need to stay quiet for fear of this moment shifting out of focus.

In the beginning of our issues, I tried. I really did. We had house meetings about the passive aggressive notes being pasted up on the fridge and talked about what we wanted to see changed in each other's behavior. But I did not reach her. She and I have not communicated directly since moving into this house except for short instances when we still liked one another.

Now our home is dark and tense. Eerie to walk into and embarrassing to bring strangers home to. I failed to communicate with someone who I deeply respected and admired. Certainly we were both at fault, I would even say she shares more of the blame than I do, but it doesn't matter. The result is the same. We are no longer friends, and that is that.

2) Tell us what you learned from it. 

I learned that even best wishes and efforts can turn sour. That even if you try to keep the peace and talk, things don't always get better. I learned that there is a certain threshold that, once crossed, you cannot turn back from. That point it when silence overtakes any argument or concern. That is when all is lost and the only thing that can make the situation better is time apart. Maybe forever.


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? 

Before two years ago, I thought failure meant flunking a test or not getting into that program or this internship. I've come to realize that that's the fun kind of failure. That's failure that you can pick yourself up from, dust off your shame, and keep moving, keep working. There is another kind of failure, the bad kind, which I am ashamed to admit that I have encountered quite a bit in my short life time.

The failure that is being estranged from a friend that you once held dear is incredibly painful. It sucks. You had so much respect and love towards that person, and then it goes wrong. What's worse is that it can be so hard to identify exactly where things went wrong. What words were said or what actions were done that cannot be taken back. You never know what you could have done differently.

Before, and I still do this, I handle failure by become down. Not depressed, for I do not suffer from depression, but sad and low and little like something terribly insignificant. I lay in bed and eat bad food and watch anime and drift into a restless sleep filled with half-remembered dreams of being chased.

While I still do the above, now I only allow myself to sink to that low for one day. One day, that's all I get. To cry (even though I don't cry) and sniffle and eat mac and cheese till I explode. Then, the next day, I wake up early, take a shower, eat a good breakfast, get coffee, and get shit done. Fuck that whiny shit. I get dressed and get the fuck out of the house because that's where all that dark shit is looking anyways.

Because of having failed so thoroughly and at so many things in my life thus far, my mindset on how I approach failure has changed. I give myself that day to wallow because I know I need it. I need to sink as low as I can so when I wake up the next morning, I say "alright. That's done. Now I can go back to being fearless." I've learned to move on and let the little shit go, like my roommate leaving silly notes about putting away the ketchup instead of putting it away herself.

This class has made me more open to reaching out to people - something I used to, and still do, consider a risk. Talking with people is scary. Asking people for something or giving someone something is even scarier. But this class has taught me that it's okay to fail, entrepreneurs should fail. What makes them entrepreneurs is their ability to get back up and keep going. That is what I am grateful for in this class.

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?

My exit strategy is to sell off my business within five to seven years after I have shown that the venture is profitable.

2) Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?

I have selected this exit because, five years down the road, I imagine that I will have become bored of doing the same thing, as I am want to do. Another option would be to expand my business by creating other services to solve social problems. Keeping up this kind of innovation would keep me engaged with my business.

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?

At first, I didn't think of my idea as something I would eventually try to get out of. I thought of it as a start to something that I really want to do. I'm not sure about that now and that has definitely influenced the way I view this concept. If I were to go ahead with the idea, I would outsource a lot of the development so as to keep my risk low and just aim to prove that this business model works (along with actually caring about what I'm doing). So yes, the understanding that I don't want to be doing this forever has influenced how I view my resources.

Week 12 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?

• I was most surprised by how the strategic planning steps were the same for creating a marketing plan. I wonder if the writers of this book had backgrounds in marketing. 

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

• So is it absolutely necessary to transfer to a managerial style from an entrepreneurial mindset? I get that, to grow, a company needs to assess the resources they have and consider how they can expand but expansion implies an entrepreneurial mindset. I get the whole need for planning but I don't get how planning is the opposite of the entrepreneurial mindset. Entrepreneurs need to plan too.

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

• How can someone look for a strategic position? How is it possible to teach that? I'm curious about how business prowess is taught to students. When talked about in books, these concepts seem very abstract and idealistic.
• How can business systems be quantified? This comes from the manager's mindset. I would like to understand how an objective decision like "should we be located here or there?" can be quantified.

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

• I disagree with the author when they say that there needs to be  transition to a managerial mindset. I think that kills creativity and destroys the point of the business for the entrepreneur who started it. Maybe its true that that happens and that's why so many entrepreneurs are serial entrepreneurs but I think a company can still be run with the entrepreneurial mindset when it starts to grow.