Venture Concept No. 1: The Gator Spotter

I’ve been living in Gainesville, Florida for almost three years now. As you may already know, Gainesville is what we all consider a “college-town” given that the majority of its population are college students. One of the biggest and unique advantages for students that live in Gainesville is the free public transportation. But as many advantages it provides, it also shows areas where improvement could be done. Throughout these past three years, I’ve used the free Bus (aka RTS) to go everywhere. From my place to Santa Fe, to Downtown or to UF Campus. But it was not until this semester that I was able to perceive a potential solution for an unmet need.

Opportunity

What are the forces or changes in the environment creating this opportunity?

Almost 76% of the undergraduates that go to UF live off-campus, which means that they have to use transportation resources to get to their destinations. The vast majority of students that live off-campus use the Bus as their transportation resource, and as it may sounds great to have a free transportation source, it has its drawbacks too.  Being a college student requires effort and commitment, which means that the source of stress for college students should be to have a good performance in school. But unfortunately, this is not the case in Gainesville where students that “ride the bus” experience that stressful and nerve-cracking moment of being late to the bus stop. It is hard to imagine but this is what happens not only every year, every semester or every day, but it happens every single hour. This is clearly an unmet need that craves for a solution.

How is this market defined geographically and demographically?

My market is focused on every single person who lives in Gainesville, who owns a smartphone, and who is able to install an application. As it is a wide market, I would first concentrate on a specific portion of the market and these are all students at the University of Florida, who use the bus regularly. The ages of my potential customers range between 15 to 60 years old, which gives me the opportunity to hoard a good portion of the market. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to satisfy those who don’t own a smartphone and who are not updated with the process of downloading an application to their phones.

How are customers currently satisfying this need?  And how loyal are they to whatever they use now? 

Nowadays the only way of catching the bus on time is by setting and individual alarm and/or reminder that reminds you that it is time to go! There is a live-tracking map offered by the UF Free Mobile Application that tells you where your bus is. However, this application is not always updated and sometimes there are buses that are not registered with the GPS tracking system, which make this app useless. My potential customers are loyal to the UF mobile app simply because it’s free and works the majority of times.

How big is this opportunity? and how long will the “window of opportunity” be open?

The opportunity is REALLY BIG!!! Not only because there is no other resource that helps not only UF students, but also an entire community, to better manage their time.

Remember that we all have the same time, but it is what you do with it that makes you unique! This app will help you achieve this common and universal goal. This app will help you manage your time.

Innovation

How will The Gator Spotter work?

The Gator Spotter app will offer the student or the person that downloads the app with the opportunity of basically scheduling his or her bus. The app will send notifications 25, 20 or 15 minutes before the bus actually gets to the bus stop he or she usually uses. You just have to set up the following:

•  Where do you take the bus (what bus stop)
•   At what time you usually take the bus
• What Bus route you usually use (Bus number)

My venture will require an installation of GPS on every bus stop in Gainesville and on every Bus. Using a GPS system, the app will send you notifications before the bus gets there, so you will know it’s time to hurry up.

Throughout the life cycle and especially at the first stages, my venture will require a good amount of financial resources. To maintain this type of technology, and to satisfy all the possible costs, the price of my app will be ranging from $0.99 to $1.99 per semester (the semester will cover from January 1 – June 30 and from July 1 to December 31). This price is subject to change given possible unexpected costs.

Venture

·         The Gator Spotter would be unique and extremely helpful for students and people that use the bus as their source of transportation. It would not be hard to switch and to download the app as it would be available in the Google Play Store for androids and on ITunes app store for iPhones.

·         The only competition I will be facing is the already Free Application that UF offers, but I would have the advantage of offering more benefits to the same customers.

·         Customer feedback will be essential for my venture in order to maintain their level of satisfaction, and I will focus myself to and my venture on having a fluid and constant communication with my customers.

·         I will need to hire 4 employees experienced on the installation of GPS system as well as 3 employees experienced on coding and developing applications. This number is subject to change in specific circumstances.

The Three Minor Elements

1.       The Gator Spotter will be unique and a complete innovation for the Gator Nation. Competitors will not be able to copy us because we will be the first and only business on providing this service in Gainesville.

2.        We want to make it easier for our customers to manage their time and take advantage from it. That is why for future endeavors, we will offer our customers with a variety of events that are happening in Gainesville. This will vary from concerts, to parties to sport events, and we will tell you how the get there using The Gator Spotter!

3.       I dream that this innovation will impact not only to Gainesville, but also different college-towns across the country.