In short, what makes me different from the traditional UF student is that a) I have class spring and summer and have the fall off and b) I minor in Innovation.
Now, in the summer of '15 my Innovation class had us group up into teams and prototype a functioning invention...in six weeks...from scratch. Essentially, they told us to find and problem and create a solution.
After countless hours of debating and drafting, my team and I came up with Aquanyte. Aquanyte is a all purpose survival cup. Aside from holding fresh water, it also held mini flash light, styptic pencil (to heal light wounds), rope, and magnesium/flint (to start fires). My job was to design the cup. As a result, for a week I drew and erased and drew and erased until I came up with a design that was feasible and practical enough to make. Six weeks only, remember?
My friend Ryan used software to make the design come to life (I helped too!)
The competition also asked that we provide a business model along with the product. We marketed this product towards survivalists. Admittedly we had a very cool model (3D printed and fully functional), but we lost. Looking back, I feel that if we had put more effort into out marketing strategy as we did into the cup, we would have won.
I enrolled into this class because it is, once again, part of my Innovation minor. However, now that I have some experience with entrepreneurship, I could do a better job and this class than in my previous IA class. I hope to gain more insight into business modeling and marketing strategies.
Gustavo, that is a very interesting design. Good luck with your future strategies! I hope after this semester you are enlightened and can be success with the product.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to add my blog post! Here it is:
Deletehttp://lopezhaviana.blogspot.com/2016/01/week-2-my-entrepreneurship-story.html
I also wanted to mention how important marketing strategies are. I recently took Principles of Marketing in the business school and it was a great course, very informative. I now good to the grocery store and look at products not just for what they are but for their labeling and marketing strategies. Also, how is the innovation academy ? I have met a few students enrolled in the program and they seem to love it. How does it feel to be a student during different semester as traditional students?
DeleteWhat a neat idea, I can see this product being shown on a survival show! I am also taking this class for the Innovation minor. Nice to see other IA students' blogs!
ReplyDeleteThis product sounds like a great idea! Although you didn't win, take what you learned from the course and remember those are your true successes! You have much more to learn in this course and I hope you continue the great work!
ReplyDelete