Growing Your Social Capital
1) Amanda Schull - graduate student at UF with expertise in web and app development. The slot being filled by her is a domain expert. She fills the spot because she has a wide range of knowledge in building and hosting webpages. I first met her during the UF Cyber Security weekly meeting. She offered to teach and help me if I face any problems during the construction of the webpage and doesn't expect anything in return. Including this person in my network will help me exploit an opportunity because she has prior work experience in a big firm and her experience can be used to attract potential investors if she is willing to work with me in the future.
2) Martin Clint - works at Neilsen in Tampa. His role is conducting surveys and collecting data for different markets and upcoming businesses. The slot being filled is that of a market expert. He is a colleague of my uncle and I met him during a family gathering. He offered his expertise to conduct a survey to know if customers are really into my service. Nothing is expected in return as he is a family friend. Including him in my network is really beneficial as I can get accurate results on who is interested in my service and then I can customize my service based on the results to target the specific group.
3) Bharat Tilak - works at Nielsen in Tampa. Has expertise in building webpages and apps to upcoming businesses. The slot being filled is that of a market supplier. I came in contact with him after asking Martin if he knew someone in the supplying domain. He offered help in the development of my service without any expectation in return. He would be a great addition to my network as he has the experience of developing many webpages and apps.
Reflection:
This has been a completely new experience. I don't generally reach out to new people for help but this assignment made me reach out to a whole new set of people. This will really help me in future networking events as I will be confident to start a conversation with a random person and establish connections easily.
Hi Toshi,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to commend you for doing a lot of your assignments ahead of schedule I think it is a big help towards you being able to get your interviews completed in time and to still be good quality. Particularly with this assignment since their is complications and people are busier with the corona virus. I agree with you that doing an assignment like this one definitely builds confidence when going about new networking opportunities.
Hi Toshi,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. I like how you analyzed each person and included how they would help you with your plan. For instance, you wrote, "Including this person in my network will help me exploit an opportunity because she has prior work experience in a big firm and her experience can be used to attract potential investors if she is willing to work with me in the future." You did a good job at analyzing details and reflecting on how you can utilize her skills. One piece of feedback would be that you should compare this networking experience to your prior networking experiences. How are they different? I think that this will enhance your post. Overall, I think you did a great job.
hey toshi, I really enjoyed reading your post. I like how you said that this was helpful because now you will be able to engage in conversation with random people in the future with more confidence. its great to see that this class has made you not only a better entrepreneur but a better person. I also feel more confident talking to strangers.
ReplyDelete