24A - Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity
The opportunity in my local community that I have identified has been a need for a more reliable method of transportation to and from campus. Now, growing up in New York City for a time period, I became accustomed to the convenience provided by the Taxi and Uber/Lyft services that are highly prevalent in the Big Apple. That being said, I realized that the suffering public transportation system here in Gainesville could do with some TLC itself and should be subjected to an improvement or at least an alternative service that could reliably and conveniently transport students, staff, and faculty to campus in a timely fashion. This led me to theorize about a business concept which would essentially rival the SNAP services here at the University of Florida. I figured I would bring a University of Florida backed ride sharing service to the school in an effort to bolster the timeliness of the transportation service options available to all students on campus. Thus, hopefully the disconnect in the public transportation already here in the city of Gainesville can be quelled. This opportunity is additionally, moderately big with a sizable market. Customers unfortunately are being let down by the various services related to this cause that are already in place here in Gainesville. Customer loyalty can always shift with the right marketing and advertising shifts in place.

Innovation
This innovation is somewhat centered on innovations currently already present in the general population. That being said I believe that this innovation allows for a centered approach to the whole concept of the transportation issue prevalent in our general community. A fair enough amount of college students here seemingly struggle with the topic of reliable transportation services and its availability in a timely manner. I aim to use the ride-sharing software and develop it in to a pattern that can subsidize University of Florida funds in a way to give back to the student population. In doing so, the money pumped into this idea by the college financial committee will allow for students to download an app that can be then used to call the service. Ride-sharing limits costs and in doing so also limits time between rides given the fact that most students live in community clusters centered on the various apartment communities surrounding the university.

Venture Concept
I believe that the customers, who in this case will most likely be the University of Florida students, faculty, and campus workers, will critically benefit from a service like this. In theory, it will add a sense of convenience to the transportation experience. Say your bus that takes you to class in the morning is either late or filled to the brim with other students. Now a service will be available that can attempt to ameliorate said concerns. I know given the fact that I have experienced both of these aforementioned unfortunate circumstances. Competitors are slim to none, outside of Lyft and Uber which are already planted in the community. Packaging is less of an important hot topic issue in this scenario. The ongoing production of the product will be supported through advertising outreach and social media marketing that is designed to provide attention to the product at hand.