20A - Growing Your Social Capital

1. Domain Expert

• Tyler is my childhood friend who always had a passion for the internet and all things online. He is currently on track to graduate this semester from a different school with a software engineering degree. For the past year or so, he has been working on an app that helps users create memes with tons of different formats.
• Tyler fills the domain expert slot, because he has experience in the process of actually coding and developing a mobile application. Also, he knows the preferences and restrictions of both Apple's and Android's app stores, so we could avoid those issues from the start.
• Tyler is one of my good friends to this day, so I FaceTimed him to show him some of my blogposts and get his opinion. I have been friends with him since elementary school.
• Tyler did me the favor of providing genuine constructive criticism on my opportunity. He mentioned that a one-time fee might not be sustainable for the company. He also said it would be a pretty awkward conversation for one person who wants to download the app to get their roommates on-board. Luckily for me, he has an idea of what the app might look like to be streamlined for the common user.
• Including Tyler in my opportunity would be a huge help, because he truly enjoys designing applications. He also has a degree of professionalism when it comes to mobile applications, so he could advise me which ideas to keep and which ones are mistakes, before actually releasing my service to the public.

2. Market Expert

• Dilma is the maid that my parents back home hire to clean the house every two weeks or so. She immigrated to the USA and now runs her own private cleaning services business all by herself. She is married with two kids. We have become good friends with her in our house.
• Dilma fills the market expert slot as a maid, because we are essentially targeting the same market: people with messy homes. She is also very experienced.
• My parents found Dilma and her services through the internet, where she is highly rated locally in my hometown. I simply texted her showing her some of my work and asking her opinion, because we are very friendly with her.
• I had Dilma look at a couple of my blogposts that explain the nature of my opportunity. I wanted to get a grasp of how she thought my idea would play out in the market. She advised that I had a pretty good idea that could be tweaked around a little bit to potentially become a true success. She also made note that if my app went viral, then her customer base might start falling.
• Since Dilma has over a decade of experience in cleaning services, she is very familiar with the basics, like pricing and manners. She also knows the demographics of people who don't like to clean versus those who don't mind.

3. Industry Supplier

• Since I don't personally need a supplier to run my opportunity idea, I went with suppliers of cleaning goods. Shauna was the very nice sales associate at Dyson, who took the time to go over my idea.
• Shauna fills the industry supplier slot, because she is a sales associate for Dyson, a household appliance / care company. She quite literally supplies appliances like vacuum cleaners and mopping tools to cleaning service companies. She has had a number of clients who requested bulk orders.
• Since I was at a loss trying to find someone, I called Dyson's customer service number to connect with their sales team. Shauna was nice enough to help me out instead of trying to make a sale, which was probably what she was expecting.
• Shauna explained to me that cleaning service companies are often very successful, because they do not need a constant supply of much, besides rags and towels. Every other appliance can be reused for years on end, so there is rough competition for my service. She also stated how COVID-19 is affecting the industry, mentioning that she hadn't made a sale in days.
• I probably wouldn't directly include Shauna in my opportunity idea, because I myself don't need cleaning supplies for my brand. However, she could help me exploit information, such as cities with the highest sales volumes, which ties into how my opportunity would function in the real world.

Reflection

• This experienced helped my networking skills, because now I can make connections between my own ideas and others' to see if there is a potential benefit for both parties. I know who to include and who to eliminate in my future networking endeavors, so no time is wasted. This particular experience differed greatly from other past networking experiences, because I had to do everything over the phone! All my past networking experiences have always been in-person, because that is simply how it's done so each party gets an idea of what the other is truly like. Thanks to COVID-19 I was limited in the personification of myself as well as my questions, because none of the interactions were face-to-face. Regardless, I enjoyed it as I do all networking opportunities.