Elevator Pitch No. 1

'“Every 92 seconds another American is sexually assaulted (1).” Due their inability to defend themselves or simply being uninformed about how serious this issue is, more and more women are becoming victim to sexual violence and the rape rate in the United States has gone up. Due to this, "59% of women who ever walked down an alley alone always or often feel unsafe doing so (2)." The solution is developing a company that not only provides accessible but affordable, weekly self-defense classes, as well as pair each customer with their own ‘buddy’ to call when they feel like they are in an uncomfortable situation. Through large community advertisements and promotion on social media we can make our company known. Working with each customer individually, we can make personalized payment plans that work for them. I believe that the Buddy System is a crucial part to this idea because if you are alone but on the phone with someone or in communication with them in some way, you are less likely to be targeted by a predator. Even in the worst case scenario, there would be someone that knows you're in a bad situation and could call for help. Webster Merriam's phrase synonym for together is "at peace". No one should ever have to live their life in fear, afraid to going out by themselves in case that 'something might happen.' Our goal is to teach you what to do and how to defend yourself from acts of sexual violence and act as your security blanket when you are out with friends or on your own.'

My Pitch:

https://youtu.be/WholD6rw7nI

Citation:

(1) https://www.rainn.org/statistics/scope-problem
(2) https://today.yougov.com/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2019/03/28/women-safety-sexual-assault-awareness
(3) https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/together

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

During this third cycle of conducting interviews to find out where or not sexual violence is an opportunity that can be explored in our economy, I narrowed down my audience by interviewing women of different ages. In the pervious interviews, I included men and none of the men that I interviewed seemed to think that they were potential victims or feel threatened by the potential of sexual violence.

Who?

Even though I believe this is a problem that impacts everyone, entrepreneurs must look at whether or not people think that they are personally subject to the problem being discussed. Therefore, the people that fall outside of the boundary for this opportunity are: men, women over the age of 40, and women under the age 15. Again I would like to specify that I feel as though everyone should be informed and prepared to protect themselves, whether male or female, old or young. I am excluding men and women over 40 from my target audience because after speaking to many people, these people do not feel an impending threat by this problem and therefore would not make up a much of the market for a potential solution. Additionally, I am going to exclude women under 15, the reason for this is because though they are potential victims, they are too naïve or ignorant to the problem to present themselves as customers. However, at the age 15, you begin to get your independence, you are in High School and starting to drive; if these women do not feel threatened by the problem, most parents of girls this age will start to worry.

What?

When does harmless flirting become sexual harassment?

This is a very big question that not everyone knows the answer to. The thing about it that makes it so difficult to understand is that the line between flirting and harassment or being playful and being violent is different for everyone. What I think is flirty and cute, you might perceive as invasive harassment. However, the one concert, infinite line that will always separate the two is consent, on both parts. If you want to learn more about this, I recommend taking a look at the article below:

https://www.rainn.org/articles/what-is-consent

Why?

Though my target audience are women between the ages 15 - 30, and all of these women need to be informed and able to protect themselves in the case of unwanted sexual attention, not all of these women will necessarily want this solution. Some women may already be doing something that either makes them feel comfortable or safe, that makes them feel confident in their abilities to protect themselves. The boundary between these women and the people I had previously discussed in the "What" section of this article is the fact that they don't see themselves having to face this problem. They don't think that they need any help.

Solving the Problem

Background

• “Every 92 seconds another American is sexually assaulted (1).”
• “1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime (14.8% completed, 2.8% attempted) (1).”
• “About 3% of American men—or 1 in 33—have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime.”
• “From 2009-2013, Child Protective Services agencies substantiated, or found strong evidence to indicate that, 63,000 children a year were victims of sexual abuse (1).”
• “A majority of child victims are 12-17. Of victims under the age of 18: 34% of victims of sexual assault and rape are under age 12, and 66% of victims of sexual assault and rape are age 12-17 (1).”

Self-Defense (2)

Opportunity

The opportunity that I would like to pursue is of sexual violence against women under 30.

Solution

A solution that I was thinking for this problem would be to form a company that not only provided weekly self-defense classes, but also paired each customer with a ‘buddy’ to call when they feel like they are in an uncomfortable situation.

Explanation

I would like to preface this by saying that if you are in a bad situation where you have a feeling that something bad is going to happen, please call 911. I feel like the buddy system is very important because I know personally that if I have to go to the store alone or if I am walking outside by myself at night, that I usually call someone (whether that is a friend, boyfriend, or parent) to have someone to talk to and know where I am. Simply being on the phone with someone often not only makes you more comfortable in these situations, but it also makes you less of a target. Additionally, self-defense classes are not often well promoted, accessible or cheap. Knowing this, the ideal way that I would go about presenting this solution would combat each of these things, offering a less expensive and more accessible class.

Citation

(1)https://www.rainn.org/statistics/scope-problem

(2)https://www.thelist.com/58565/basic-self-defense-tips-every-woman-know/

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

1. The opportunity that I would like to pursue is of sexual violence against women under 30.
2. In the United States 1 in 5 women between the ages 12 and 30 because most of these women did not have an accessible tool of defense at the time or did not know how to physically defend themselves.
• The Who → Women in the United States
• The What → They experience acts of sexual violence
• The Why → They do not know the proper way to defend themselves under those conditions.
3. As a 20-year-old female, I experience sexual harassment and unwanted sexual attention almost on a daily basis. This topic is very important to me as just recently I had the experience of someone sexually harassing me in my place of work. I had known everything I have even been taught, about standing strong and not letting people talk to you a certain way. However, when it actually happened, I did not know what to do; the person being a customer, I did not know if I could ask him to leave or if I had to sit there politely as they spoke to me. I know many people around my age and older who have experienced things like this. And it is not just women, “1 in 3 women and nearly 1 in 4 men have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact at some point in their lives (1).” People need to know how to defend themselves or have access to things that can help them in times of crisis. “Research shows that 59% of women who ever walked down an alley alone always or often feel unsafe doing so, while 50% feel similarly about walking alone at night. Women are at least twice as likely as men to always feel unsafe going to a stranger’s house alone (23% of women vs. 6% of men), taking a trip to a foreign country alone (24% vs 12%), or getting a taxi or ride-share by themselves (13% vs 4%). Data also suggests roughly one in five (21%) women say that they always or often feel unsafe when going on a first date. Only 9% of men experience similar feelings about being unsafe on a first date (2).” Even if you specifically do not ever face a sexually harassing experience, you still likely suffer from the impending fear that it will one day happen. This is an opportunity, there is a large target audience of women who want a feeling of reassurance, that they have something to do, should this problem ever arise for them.
4. Talking to people about this opportunity enlightens you to the commonality of people who if not fear the possibility, then have experience first hand what it is like to be on the receiving end of  sexual harassment. Everyone that I spoke to found this to be a very prevalent problem in today's society. One thing I noticed was in talking to the men; even though men are subject to sexual violence, when speaking to them they spoke as if it only pertained to women, and most men I spoke to did not fear the possibility of it happening to them. This made me question ‘Why?’. Why do men not fear this yet women do? Is this a culturally inflicted fear that women have or is it an innate form of self-preservation? What can we do to help relieve people of this fear; not in a way that makes them careless, but in a way that makes them confident that they could handle themselves in that situation?

Citation:

(1) https://www.cdc.gov/features/sexualviolence/index.html

(2) https://today.yougov.com/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2019/03/28/women-safety-sexual-assault-awareness

Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Regulatory Changes

1. Bright Future Scholarship have set requirements higher.

• Source of Information:https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/state/new-florida-laws-that-go-into-effect-july-1-2019
• I believe that there is an opportunity in “the “Academic” scholarship, covering tuition and fees entirely at state colleges and universities, will require a student’s SAT to be near 1330 instead of 1290. The “Medallion,” which covers 75 percent of the costs, would move to about 1200 from 1170.” This is going to very much raises the standards and makes it harder for more students to get these scholarships. Students will have to study more and teachers might have to update their curriculum.
• This is a great opportunity for tutors and study guide manufacturers.
• I feel as though this opportunity will be very easy to exploit. Even if it's just another student charging extra to tutor those about to take the SATs. Speaking from experience, most students (who plan on attending college) will do whatever it takes to do well on the SATs. And more than this, most parents will do anything to make sure their children do well on the SATs.
• Having personally bought several practice SAT books, and having a younger brother that is currently studying for the SATs, I know that there is money to be made by exploiting this opportunity. When I read that they were changing the Bright Futures Requirements, my first thought was ‘thank God I already graduated’ because I know how much harder I would have had to study to get the scholarship that I needed.

2. Virginia raises the legal age to buy Tobacco

• Source of Information:https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/01/us/new-state-laws-july-2019-trnd/index.html
• An opportunity does exist with Virginia and Illinois raising the legal age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21. This excludes the military. However, I think that health organizations, such as The Foundation for a Smoke-free America, that promote non-smoking have room to benefit from this by promoting  things to make people not want to smoke.
• The customers that are most related to this opportunity are non-smoking or anti smoking companies and foundations.
• As long as the company knows how they can make a profit from people not smoking tobacco, I feel as though this opportunity could be pretty easy for companies to exploit. According to the CDC “nearly 9 out of 10 cigarette smokers first try cigarette smoking by age 18, and 98% first try smoking by age 26 (1).” This being said increasing the legal age to obtain tobacco should relatively decrease this statistic, the company simply has to know how to make a profit off of this.
• I do not have as personal of a connection to this topic as I do the rest. However, I saw this as an opportunity because I know a lot of people my age who smoke and I know that if they did not have access to tobacco until we were older, then there would be a lot less.

Economic Trends

3. Texting and Driving in Florida.

• Source of Information: https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/state/new-florida-laws-that-go-into-effect-july-1-2019
• There is an opportunity in this economic trend as car dealerships continue making new cars with new advanced technology that allow you to receive and respond to not only to incoming calls but also text messages. I feel as though this will soon also spark phone/electronic companies such as Apple and Google to do something about this opportunity as well. I believe that this law is very important, because texting and driving is reckless, however, if people want to read ‘just one more’ message, there is nothing that's going to stop them from trying, and there are going to be different companies trying to exploit this and get around the law.
• The most likely customer for this opportunity would most likely be car manufacturers and/or electronic companies.
• Exploiting this opportunity, myself would be very difficult. However, car companies such as Honda, who uses the HandsFreeLink, could take advantage of this opportunity by simply innovating their current product to either incorporate more or to simple function more efficiently.
• As a new car owner, and fellow Floridian, I see how useful my HandsFreeLink app is in my car. I know that it is hard to resist the urge of seeing what made your phone go off while you're behind the wheel, and therefore believe that a safe solution could potentially be found.

4. Banning the Use of Single-Use Styrofoams in New York.

• Source of Information: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/01/us/new-state-laws-july-2019-trnd/index.html
• There is DEFINITELY an opportunity in New York setting fines to back up these bans. With increasing the amount of the fine for each offense, there is a whole market that is now going to be sought after even more so in this economy. Places will be looking for styrofoam substitutes.”The ban will be enforced through health and other inspections.” Obviously most places will look for other products that are cheap, long lasting, and temperature-keeping. However, with the right market I am sure that this law change could also promote places to go greener and use an even more environmentally friendly product.
• The customer that I think is likely to take advantage of this opportunity companies that produce kitchen utensils and appliances, such as KitchenAid.
• I feel as though it might be a little more difficult to exploit this opportunity for many kitchen appliance companies. Or companies coming out with the best new environmentally friendly replacement. I say this just because most of the restaurants or businesses that were using styrofoam are probably going to be looking for the next cheapest option. So the difficulty here will be properly pricing and marketing your product.
• I do not live in New York, however, I do work at Planet Smoothie, and we recently got rid of all o our styrofoam cups and switched to the one-use plastic cups. The thing is though, when people ask me why we switched and I tell them about the environmental benefits of switching, most people care more about their drinks staying cold longer than about the fact that you can't recycle styrofoam. So I see the opportunity.

Citations:
(1) https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/youth_data/tobacco_use/index.htm

Identifying Local Opportunities

Looking at the local newspaper, The Gainesville Sun, these are five stories that I found that describe a problem that a person or an organization is having.

American Airlines mechanic accused of sabotaging flight

Source: https://www.gainesville.com/news/20190907/american-airlines-mechanic-accused-of-sabotaging-flight

• An American Airlines mechanic, Abdul-Majeed Maraud Ahmed Alani, was charged with sabotaging a plane because he was upset over stalled labor contract negotiations was fired from another airline several years ago and briefly had his mechanic’s license revoked. It was a pilot tube that was loosely connected and Alain's response was  that he was upset because he had been financially affected by a stalled contract.

• The problem here is that American Airlines had a mechanic sabotage one of their flights.

• This is American Airlines problem because it was their employee and now they will most likely face the repercussions of less people choosing their air-line as their form of travel.

Chiefland works to return to winning ways

Source: https://www.gainesville.com/news/20190912/chiefland-works-to-return-to-winning-ways

• This story is about Florida high school football team, the Chiefland Indians. It discusses how well they did in their previous season, "coming off a 10-2 season," and expresses worry for this coming season as they are starting off 0-3.

• The problem is that their team isn't doing a well as expected.

• This is probably going to be considered John Palmer's, the coaches, problem. He is the one in charge of training and making sure the team is ready.

Mixed messaging: Joe Camel was forced out of ads, so why is Juul allowed on TV?

Source: https://www.gainesville.com/lifestyle/20190912/mixed-messaging-joe-camel-was-forced-out-of-ads-so-why-is-juul-allowed-on-tv

• This article discusses the debate of why e-cigarettes are being advertised on television when cigarettes ads were banned years ago. The company had launched a 10 million dollar TV and radio campaign saying "Make the switch". This article talks about the concerns that many public health associations are expressing as a result to this.

• The problem is that e-cigarettes are, as of right now, permitted to promoting televised advertisements.

• I think that this is cigarette companies' problem; the advertisement says "make the switch" so they are at threat of loosing business.

City OKs budget, tax increase

Source: https://www.gainesville.com/news/20190912/city-oks-budget-tax-increase

• In this article we are told of the new tax increase. Gainesville has recently okay-ed a tax increase that will raise the price of "utilities, fire protection and property taxes" this coming fiscal year. They said that this became so Thursday, when "City leaders gave the first of two required approvals to Gainesville’s $133 million budget."

• The problem is the tax increase.

• This is Gainesville's taxpayers' problem; it is them that are affected by having to pay more for their everyday necessities.

Neglect unchecked: Erratic nursing home staffing revealed through new records

Source: https://www.gainesville.com/lifestyle/20180817/neglect-unchecked-erratic-nursing-home-staffing-revealed-through-new-records

• This article deals with nursing homes quality and standards, and how nursing homes have "fewer nurses and care-taking staff than they had reported to the government". Thee are a certain amount of staff required per resident. Low staff levels compromises the quality-of-care offered by the homes. The CMS, or Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, helps families and friends find the right place for their loved ones. However, these too are undermined when the facilities report that they have more staff than what they actually have.

• The problem is that the nursing homes are lying about how many people they actually have to take care of their residents.

• This is the residents and the residents' families problem; they want a good place that they can be taken care of and they are given unreliable information which does not allow them to make the best decision.

Forming an Opportunity Belief

My Beginning Point

I believe that there are many opportunities that exist that can be exploited for further development, innovation or a new idea all together. The opportunity that I am going to focus on, however, concerns that of public safety against sexual violence.

"Every 92 seconds an American is sexually assaulted."

My Belief

• The unmet need that I would like to focus on is that “one in five women and one in 71 men will be raped at some point in their lives” according to the NSVRC: The National Sexual Violence Resource Center. 
• The people who have this need in their day-to-day lives are primarily young women but exists as a need to everyone [Inmates, Children, the General Public and Military].
• This has always been a problem, in fact, it was more so in the early 1990s and has decreased by 63% since 1993, according to rainn.org overtime (1). That is until about 2013 when the ‘reported forcible rape rate in the US’ began to rapidly increase (2). And though it has decreased exponentially, still "every 92 seconds an American is sexually assaulted (1)."



People Affected by This (1)



Rape Rate Statistic (2)

• According to rewire.org four of the main things out there to prevent sexual assault are (3):

• Athena - "This will call loved ones or emergency officials to come to the rescue during a dangerous and possible life-threatening situation (1)."
• Undercover Colors - "This product is a nail polish line that detects date rape drugs such as Rohypnol, Ketamine, Ecstasy, and other roofies by changing colors when a finger is dipped into a drink to “discreetly” stir (1)."
• Disguised Pepper Spray - A can of pepper spray that looks like lipstick.
• Wild Kat Keychain - "This keychain can clip right onto your backpack and can be used as a kind of brass knuckles that can help in defending yourself (1)."
• I am 95% sure that this not only opportunity exists but open to many possibilities of development and something that most people care about. 

Reflection

Being a twenty-year-old female college student, this ‘opportunity’ has been very present in my mind especially the last two or three years. I had talked to a few different college students on campus at the University of Florida, my own co-workers and heard a personal testament from a Sunday-School teacher a First Baptist of Jacksonville, regarding this opportunity. Having done so I believe that this opportunity is something that most people have felt the prevalence of in most of their lives. “I shouldn’t be scared to take the trash out after my shift;” my co-worker said that she would, run out of the back ally where the dumpster is because she felt so unsafe out of the lights of the surrounding stores. And having asked some students about this topic, 9 out of 10 women I spoke to had at least one of the following: pepper-spray, brass knuckles or flashlight. The sheer amount of people who carried these things with them at all times is shocking. The men that I spoke to on campus said that they know it’s a problem but did not, themselves, feel threatened by it. Finally, I spoke to a Sunday-school teacher who has actually experienced an occurrence of sexual assault. The main points that I took out from speaking to her were that, she “never had even feared the possibility” of being victim to an act of sexual violence. It is something that stays with you forever and, she says that she still deals with today.

Summary

I am more sure now, after having talked to all of these people, that this opportunity is real and present in so many people's lives. 

Customer feedback is a great tool because it tells you from the source, of who you are selling to, what they want. However, there is a give-and-take between adapting to customer feedback and staying firm. You have to be able to recognize the outliers within your feedback. If you took into account what every person said, you would not be very successful. You should narrow down your target audience because not everyone thinks the same way. For this, for example, though sexual violence can affect everyone, my target audience would be women between the ages 15 and 30. Yes, men do also experience sexual violence, however, I wouldn’t include them I my target because the vast majority do not feel threatened by it and would therefore be less likely to [purchase a product to prevent it. Additionally, although the women I spoke to who was victim to sexual assault was in her early 50s, but the occurrence happened when she was 17. You have to be able to identify the right customers because though this opportunity can affect everyone, of the general population, the people who feel most at risk are younger to middle-aged women.

Citations:

(1) https://www.rainn.org/statistics/scope-problem

(2)  https://www.statista.com/statistics/191226/reported-forcible-rape-rate-in-the-us-since-1990/

(3) https://www.rewire.org/our-future/five-tools-prevent-sexual-assault/

My Entrepreneurship Story

What do you want to be when you grow up?

https://www.monster.com/career-advice/arti
cle/what-to-be-when-you-grow-up-quiz

Growing up I didn't have a set vision in my mind of what I wanted to do when I grew up. My ideas ranged from being a singer, to a Marine Biologist, to President and everything in-between. As I got older this obviously become more narrowed down. However, still to this day working a concrete schedule or working behind a desk doesn't sound like it would be the right path for me. That's when I thought the classic 'I'm going to be an entrepreneur and run my own business' thought:

"What if I was my own boss?"

Since then I have strayed away from this toward a career path that I believe suits me more and that I would like to pursue. Though, that was really the first time I sat down to think about being an entrepreneur.

BMYD field trip to the
MOSH Science Museum.

Summer Volunteering Experience

My first experience being exposed to an actual, successful entrepreneur was the Summer before my Senior year in high school, when I was working as a volunteer at the summer camp, Bright Minds Youth Development. During one of our staff meetings, we were greeted by Mr. David Bright, the entrepreneur of BMYD. Talking to him was actually a very interesting experience, he talked about how he got the idea for this type of summer camp and how he had started it by utilizing a room in his local church. His first official camp began in 2011 and he has now expanded to having this camp in almost 20 different locations.

Summer catalyst event

Further Curiosity

I feel as though I have a lot of admiration for those people who start up their own business or company. Their devotion of not only their own finances, but also their time and labor is remarkable. The passion that most entrepreneurs have for what they do inspires me. I know that it is not a career choice for everyone and I don't think that it is the one for me. Wanting to expand my knowledge and learn more about entrepreneurship and being a part of the Innovation Academy at the University of Florida is what pushed me to enroll in Principles of Entrepreneurship (ENT3003).