20 A - Growing Your Social Capital

20A - Growing Your Social Capital

The first person I talked to was an executive at a construction company, who focused on their technology and app side of the business.  He was the domain expert I interviewed.  He allowed me to present my idea napkin to him in exchange for feedback on what he believes strengths and weaknesses of the business are.  One strength he liked was that there are not any apps like this on the market today that he knows about.  He appreciated how inventive and creative it was.  One weakness he identified though was that this app will take a lot of marketing and development to take off.

The second expert I networked with was an independent marketing consultant who helps to manage and market a few different apps and websites.  She was the supplier in my market, by providing her services to help market businesses.  She thought the app was very intuitive, but she also believes that adding a few extra features would help it really take off.  One thing she suggested was having a service that would match consumers to a specific brand, and then deliver that brand directly to their home.  This would help consumers save even more time.

The third expert I spoke to was the store manager at a grocery store.  He was an expert on the market, specifically the grocery section of the idea.  I was able to run into him while doing my grocery shopping, and he was more than happy to give me feedback on what I have so far.  He thinks this app would really help the average consumer.  He stated that he gets many questions a day asking which product is best for what. He also stated that this app may help store employees who are unsure of the answers to questions.

This activity forced me to go outside of my comfort zone more than usual.  Usually, I don't go out of my way to network if I am not at a specific networking event.  It was interesting to push myself to do something a little different.