Week 8 Reading Reflection

            Throughout this chapter, there were multiple facts that stood out to me. I do not have enough of a thorough knowledge about sources of capital for entrepreneurs to claim that I know a lot about the topic. One of the most surprising facts to me was there are about 7,000 commercial banks that function in the United States, and it has been predicated that in time there will only be about 4,000 left. I had no idea that this number was dropping so drastically, and I thought it was really interesting that this is happening.

One of the topics in the chapter that slightly confused me was the section that talked about venture capitalism. I knew there were a lot of myths about venture capitalists, but there were actually much more than I thought. Also, it confused me to read that venture capitalists almost always expect unreasonable, outrageous returns on their investments. I would assume that a group of people who professionally invest in businesses should understand that expecting unreasonable returns is not productive. This did not really make sense to me because I did not find this mindset very professional.

If I could ask the author any two questions I would ask him whether or not he would like to be an entrepreneur, and I would ask him if he would ever like to be a venture capitalist? I would hope that he would elaborate on these two questions, and I think it would be interesting to get his point of view. Overall, I did not generally disagree with anything that the author put forward throughout this chapter. I am learning as I read, so I did not generally have any points that I particularly disagreed with.

The Twenty Percent

           Overall, I think that the entrepreneur does have an accurate understanding of who his target audience members should be and what their unmet needs are. He definitely comprehends what his customers are looking for, and I think he appreciates what they are expecting of his business. I definitely think that all of the audience members seemed to be intent on in-person advertising, as opposed to mainly social media advertisements. One of the obstacles that the entrepreneur will have to address is marketing to an older demographic because there are some teachers who work very well with technology and some who do not. This is going to be a hard distinction to make moving forward, and he will have to learn how to market and advertise appropriately. However, one issue that the last interviewee implied was that teachers can be very steadfast in their ways. It can be hard to introduce a new teaching tool to an experienced teacher who believes that his or her current techniques already work. Teachers generally prefer specific teaching methods for specific reasons, and a company that markets a general tool to assist in this may be hard to integrate into curriculum. Other than this issue, I believe that the young entrepreneur has a very promising business, and his target audience definitely seems to be interested and open to the concept!

This first interview is the young entrepreneur. ^^

           **Note: The last interview was cut off for some reason, and I could not get it to properly upload the full interview. The only part that I am missing is the last question, and I am sorry for the inconvenience. I do not have contact with this person because he was a random teacher that I asked to interview, so I could not re-record the final question. I am sorry for the technical difficulty! 

Half-way Reflection

            Throughout this course, there have been many challenging exercises that require certain characteristics in order to properly complete them. I have had to be outgoing, brave, and very forward  with strangers for many of these exercises. This class has challenged me to be forward with people that I have never met before, and this takes a certain amount of bravery and self-confidence. I am not always sure of myself when I am taking part in these exercises, but I enjoy the challenges and the characteristics that they require.

            I can definitely say that there have been multiple times where I wanted to simply give up and not take part in the assignments. I am not very comfortable asking random people if I can interview them for a class, and it made me pretty nervous to go up to anyone. One of the very first customer interview exercises was pretty difficult for me because I had never done anything like that before. However, I had confidence in my idea, and I think that is how I was able to finish the exercises. If I had not been confident in my business idea, then I probably would not have been brave enough to pitch it to random people. I definitely feel as if I have obtained a more tenacious attitude over these past two months. The more recent interviews are not as difficult for me to complete, and I no longer really feel nervous about interviewing people.

            If I had to offer a student any advice in regards to how to develop the ‘tenacious mindset’ require for this class, I would offer a few tips. First, I would tell the student to never be afraid to speak his or her mind. Second, I would tell the student to have confidence in himself or herself, because that is a huge part of creating a successful business. Finally, I would tell the student to appreciate the failures or mistake that he or she may encounter because that is one of the best ways to learn and grow. I think this last tip is true in this class, but I also think that it is true for any entrepreneur anywhere.