Alex Clouser- Growing Your Social Capital Assignment 20

1. The first person I reached out to is named Mike. Mike is a software engineer at Apple. This makes him qualified as a domain expert because he has worked with similar programs to the one that I have proposed for more efficient and private data collecting. I met Mike through his niece who is one of my good friends from back home. Mike did me the favor of listening to my elevator pitch and he liked it and agreed with me that it would be a good business opportunity to design a program that is safer and more efficient than current data collection tools. Including Mike in my network will enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity because he can help me with the design and implementation of my data collection tool and oversee the technical aspects of it.

2. The second person that I reached out to is named Jane. Jane is a sales manager at JCPenney. This qualifies her as an expert on my market because she has years of experience selling to people in the same market that would be the most beneficial segment for me to enter with my product. I met Jane when I was shopping at JCPenney and she was working at the same time. We struck up a conversation and got along well, so I asked her if she would help me out with some school work by reading my idea napkin and giving me some feedback on my ideas, and she did. She liked my idea napkin and said that I provided many strong points in it and that my business seemed like a solid idea. Jane would enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity by being in my network because with her in my network, I have a consultant to approach about my target market and who can show me the inner workings and desires of what exactly retailers and department stores want from the products they buy.

3. The third person that I reached out to is named Sophie. Sophie works at Wal-Mart, the biggest retailer in the world, ordering supplies and shipments for her store. This qualifies her as an important supplier to my industry because she understands what retailers and other stores look at when ordering their supplies and can help me with that aspect of designing my product in order to make it more attractive to retailers and other customers. I met Sophie on LinkedIn and we set up a meeting for her to give me feedback on my idea napkin. She very much liked my idea napkin and even suggested some ideas to help make my product easily supplied to large retailers and other stores. Including Sophie in my network will enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity because she can serve as a resource in helping to make my product more marketable to other supply order managers at other stores, and also by helping to make my business model around my supply process so that I am not over or under producing and do not lose money.

This experience has made me less afraid of other social networking events and has gotten me to become comfortable introducing myself to strangers, something that I was hesitant to do before. This experience did not really differ from other social networking experiences in the past, mostly because I have never really been a part of any other social networking events, but it matched my expectations of what a social networking event is like perfectly.