20A - Growing your social capital

1) Interviewee (Domain Expert) #1: Monsterdue otherwise known as Kyle. Kyle is a fitness instagram influencer who sells guides to his followers. I direct messaged Kyle and asked if I could ask him some questions about business. He does not have a large following but his content sells well enough to support him and his family so I was wondering how he differentiated from the numerous other fitness guides. He said you just gotta talk about what you truly believe and usually it will come out unique. I found this interesting as I believe it opens the door to creative solutions in the future. I talked to Kyle about my fitness journey and asked him if he could help me with giving me a recommendation on my product offering and he said sure. I asked how I could market my product or create a following for an online product when most of my consumers are older and not on social media as much. He recommended getting ads with google and other advertising locations on the internet. I think that was a great idea and it will surely help the success of my company.

2) Interviewee (Expert on Market) #2: I contacted my old friend Hannah Pate who studied at the University of Central Florida and now works in social care. I asked her if she knew anything about underage pregnancy and how prevalent she comes across that in her work. She said a lot of the children she cares for are being put into foster homes because of the fact that their parents are too young or too unprepared to care for them, not a majority of them but a lot. So in knowing that she had some knowledge in this field and dealing with these families, I told her about my product and asked for her opinion. She said she likes the idea as it can be very hard to cope in a situation where you're the parent of a pregnant teen and you may not have control over the situation. However, she doubts the viability of the product, wondering how it can be more in-depth and worth more than going to a real person like a therapist to help solve the problem. I will therefore have to make sure my product is of high enough quality and credibility to survive in this market. I asked Hannah if she would be there when I had an MVP ready or if I ever had any questions and she said she's there for me.

3) Interviewee (Important Supplier) #3: I could not think of a person that would sell products or services to other organizations in my industry to interview, but I thought of a person who sells advertising to other firms in my industry. My friend Alex Kenworthy currently works at Google in California and I still talk to him actively so contacting him was not a problem. I asked him what he knew about google ads and if I could ask him some questions that might relate to my business. He said his knowledge about google's ad program was pretty limited, but he said he could give it a shot. I first and foremost asked him if he would have a way for me to get involved with google and maybe they could provide lower-price ads for my potential company and he said that may be a possibility (jokingly as I will likely not pursue this product). However, I asked him how google chooses what ads people see and how firms get to choose what people see their ads. He answered in saying that they have a bunch of algorithms that decide what person may be most likely to click on the presented ad through information from search history, video history, and purchase histories. So, I learned from Alex that I might actually be able to target my market segment a little more directly than initially anticipated, and that's great news.

The one thing that really benefited me from doing this assignment was simply the act of reaching out to new people or people who just havent talked to in a while. It is important to take your shots especially when support is vital to any successful business. This gave me practice "hitting people up" if I simply want their help/support. Do not be afraid to take your shot.