Growing Your Social Capital (20A)

Domain Expert: 1) Scott Fox and they are the director of Transportation and Parking Services at the University of Florida. Which means they know about all the different alternatives for the RTS system and what running a good transportation system looks like specifically at the University of Florida. 

2) They served as my domain expert as they are someone who knows exactly how the transportation system is at the University of Florida.

3) It was really easy to find him actually, I just googled "transportation system in Gainesville, Fl" then the official site of the Transportation and Parking Services popped up and I went to the contact section and they had a whole page on their director along with his contact information so I sent him an email. 

4) I asked him for information on the alternative options along with a description of who actually pays for these things to be available for students as they are for the most part free. I am expecting them to email me back with the answers to my numerous concerns and questions but who knows if he will especially considering I probably looked crazy with all the questions I asked. 

5) This could be someone with multiple connections and a desire to improve the situation for the students at the University which is someone I definitely want in my back pocket when trying to go into this market. We both have the same goal which means he is someone who should be willing to help improve the current solutions. 

Market Expert: 1) I reached out to Collin Austin from New Scooters 4 Less as he is selling to the same market that I would be looking to get into. He is the owner of New Scooters 4 Less which is an alternative that is on the rise currently within my market. 

2) I am using him in order to fill the Market expert slot as he is selling to the same market and really caters to his market of broke college kids well which I was shown through the interview Pryor did on him within our videos for this semester. 

3) I searched for the New Scooters 4 Less and went to their contact page where they actually have a section for you to send them questions so I sent my questions and concerns through this platform because I figured that would be more efficient during this current COVID-19 situation. 

4) I asked them about how to advertise to college students and for tips when it comes to getting this tough markets attention and even pitched my business idea to him, with a little shoutout to the class and the University in order to get his attention. I expect a response and from the video, he seems pretty nice and willing to help entrepreneurs. 

5) Including him in my network would be smart because it allows me to get a better understanding of the market and the struggles that might come with starting up a business reliant on this market. Along with a better understanding of the alternatives that are currently in place.

Supplier:


1) I contacted Jesus Gomez the director of RTS who is the man I would potentially be selling to in order to use the busses that are under his surveillance. 

2) I am using him in order to fulfill the supplier position as he would be the one to agree on allowing me to implement new navigational systems into his busses. 

3) I searched up the RTS system within Gainesville and found their contact information in the page which led me to the director Jesus Gomez who I then emailed in order to reach out to him. 

4) I asked him what he thought of my idea and about the general prices that it would take in order to get them implemented if I did actually go through with it. I am hoping he comes back with some responses that are helpful and doesn't get offended I tried to tread lightly because I didn't want to offend him in anyway. 

5) I think this would be a good person to have in my network considering for this endeavor to work he is a key role that I would need to work with in the future.

Reflect: 

I think this experience made me more aware of how easy it is to reach out and ask, they might not respond but it is really easy to reach out to the people that obviously have more knowledge than I do. This was a more useful experience than my networking experiences in the past because it is going to the source directly and causing me to reach out to people who would be of more help to me than just family friends.