4A Forming an Opportunity Belief

 1.     When I first moved to Gainesville my freshmen year, I did not have any form of transportation. My roommates and I always struggled to find a method of transportation to the grocery store to get food and supplies. An opportunity exists in making a shuttle to transport on campus students to specific grocery stores.

2.     The unmet need is a method of transportation to take typically first year students living on campus to grocery stores. Mostly freshmen and out of state students without cars possess this transportation need. The need has always existed to find a means of transportation to go shopping in Gainesville. Some people take the bus, uber, or ask friends for a ride; however, these methods are costly and time consuming. I am 95% positive that this opportunity exists.

3.     Interviews with Prototypical Customers:

·      A freshmen living in dorm. She first became aware of her need when she ran out of water and snacks in her mini refrigerator. She experiences this need to go grocery shopping on a bi-weekly basis. She told me she has been using the bus system; however, she missed the bus and waited 2 hours for the next bus at the bus stop the last time she used the bus. She is not satisfied with wasting her whole day on grocery shopping using the current bus schedule.

·      An out-of-state freshmen living in a dorm. He became aware of this need when his parents took his car back to Georgia. He usually goes shopping for food on a weekly basis. He explained that he normally takes Ubers to Publix, but he is not satisfied with spending an additional $15 in Ubers as a faster mode of transportation than the bus.

·      An in-state sophomore living in a dorm with a scooter. She first became aware of her need for an alternate mode of transportation when she couldn’t fit more than a few items in her scooter seat. She currently asks her roommate with a car to take her to the grocery store; however, she is not satisfied with this solution because her roommate doesn’t like to visit the grocery store as often as she needs to visit it.

Reflect: Every prototypical customer expresses minimal satisfaction with his or her current solution to the unmet need. Public transportation consumes too much time, whereas private transportation such as Uber charges exorbitant fees to transport students a few miles away.

Summarize: After talking to these three potential customers, I think my original opportunity definitely can be utilized to fulfill this unmet need. My new opportunity is more accurate than when I started because all three customers confirmed their openness to a new solution. Entrepreneurs should change their opportunities based on customer’s feedback. If customers do not express interest in their original opportunity, then entrepreneurs should adapt their original opportunity to fit the customer’s wants.