Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity
UF students who live off campus and do not have a car or scooter are the prototypical customers. The need is that they do not have a reliable free form of transportation to get to their off-campus housing late at night. The forces in this market are that some times there are exams late at night or students study late, leaving them vulnerable when they have to head home. Currently, students are either walking home, taking the Later Gator, getting an Uber or Lyft, or carpooling with their friends. None of these alternatives are reliable, however, and Uber and Lyft are not free. Also, Uber and Lyft are risky because you never know if the driver has other more dangerous intentions. Walking is not safe because students are left vulnerable, especially when walking home alone. The Later Gator is a free option but it is not always reliable and requires students t wait outside at a bus stop which can be dangerous at night as well. This opportunity is very big because a large portion of students live off campus and not everyone has a car to use. The window of opportunity will be open as long as UF is accepting students, and as long as students have to live off campus.

Innovation
My innovation is SNAPX. It is an extension of the current SNAP program but it would be specifically for off-campus students. It is a free driving service that would operate from 6:30 pm to 3:00 am. There would be a van set specifically for off-campus rides to make the journey as efficient and easy as possible. SNAPX would take students from the campus to their housing complexes 1 to 2 miles off campus. My program would be a free service so I would not be charging students meaning it would get its funding from Student Government. Students would request SNAPX through the app, TapRide. Directly underneath the SNAP option, there would be an option to choose SNAPX. They would put in where they want to get picked and then their off-campus destination. In the beginning, SNAPX would only pick students up at the major areas such as the Reitz or the Hub.

Venture Concept
Customers will switch to my product because it gives them a safe, reliable, and free option for traveling home at night. It will give them an extra sense of security knowing that they have a driving service accessible to them that is completely free of charge. It will not be hard at all getting customers to switch to SNAPX because it is the best option out of all of them. When doing the different interviews throughout the semester, mostly all of my interviewees said they would use SNAPX if it were actually implemented. The main competitors are Uber and Lyft. Their strengths are that they can pick students up anywhere they request it and students have the option of getting a ride completely alone. They would not have to wait for other students to get dropped off first. The weaknesses are that they both charge you for the ride and for Uber the price can increase depending on how busy they are. Customer experience is the only thing that plays a role in defining my business concept because the business is entirely service based. If there is a driver that is rude to the students or makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe in any way that may create negative word of mouth causing less student to use SNAPX. I would have 2 to 3 drivers per night covering different shifts so that whoever was driving would always be awake and alert. There would be a hiring manager and a SNAPX director who would make sure all the operations are running smoothly. There would also be a Student Government Liason who would communicate with Student Government about the different expenses and updates with SNAPX.

Three Elements
The most important resource I have is my connections with Uf Faculty. This is extremely important because they could introduce me to other employees who would actually help me get this program started. They could also help me with setting up a meeting with faculty that are hard to reach and act as a reference for me to show my commitment as well. What would be next for the venture would be to expand the stop route even further, about 3 to 4 miles off campus to reach complexes such as the Niche. To do this I would need to have about 2 more vans. I would operate the vans based on their destinations. Routes that go only 1 to 2 miles off campus would be for one van and routes that go 3 to 4 miles off campus would be for the other vans. In five years I would want to have my program grow so that there are about 10 vans operating for off-campus stops. As an entrpreneur, I would eventually want to start my own business for myself. This program would act as a build my confidence in the ability to start a venture so I would be more willing to take the risk and start m own business full time.

The feedback I received on my first venture concept was all positive. The comments were saying that they liked my idea and it would be useful to them right now. Since I did not receive any constructive criticism I reread my previous venture concept to see what I could improve on. This time, I went into more detail on the topi f what would be next for my venture in 5 years. I went into more depth about how it would work and what I would add.

This is what the SNAPX vans would look like. Similar to the SNAP vans, but the label would say "SNAPX"