24A – Venture Concept No. 1 (Gator Umbrellas)

Every student who has to walk to class probably experiences the unpredictable weather patterns. I am one of those students who walk to class and have to deal with the unpredictable weather patterns of Gainesville. The forces that create this is the ungodly beast known as mother nature. She is an unstoppable and predictable force of great power. “When it rains, it pours.” – ASAP Rocky, 2018. This market is geographically isolated being only in Gainesville and only relating to college students who walk to class from their homes. Customers currently satisfy this need by either carrying around an umbrella or having their rain jacket on them at all times. Umbrellas are a hassle to carry around and more often than not it is too hot to be wearing a rain jacket in Gainesville. Customers are most certainly not loyal to these options now which is why I believe my innovation will be a big hit. This opportunity is big. I’m talking like google and amazon big. Like Andre the Giant Big. This window of opportunity is forever. There will always be a need for my business in Gainesville.

My innovation is a business where you can rent umbrellas from all over campus and have locations to return them to. This would be like a zip car for umbrellas. I think that this idea would work very well because they would be connected to a student’s gator one card. All students would use this system.

Customers would definitely switch to this system because it is much more convenient that their current methods. There are no competitors for this market either which means I would have a monopoly and make a lot of money. There is no packaging required and I have a team of employees that can handle all the marketing aspects of the business.

My most important resource is my human capital.

The next business opportunity is expanding the business to other campuses.

My personal next opportunity is starting another business and finishing my degree here at the University of Florida.