20a- Growing Social Capital

Growing Social Capital

1)      Domain Expert:

         I.            The Domain Expert I have chosen is named Sunny Ilyas, he is the founder and CEO of Vale Food Co. one of the most well renowned healthy food options here in Gainesville, and has expanded operations to Tampa, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and Fort Lauderdale as well. He grew up in Florida, and has always been an avid supporter of working out and being healthy, and decided while in college to make his passion into his job, and thus opened up Vale Food Co. and has had smashing success.

       II.            Sunny Ilyas is the Domain Expert, as he is engaged in almost the exact same industry my venture would be in, and his restaurant is part of what inspired me in the first place. He fits the role of Domain Expert perfectly, as his business venture is exactly what my own would consist of, and he was extremely successful at it.

     III.            I met Sunny about a year ago through my girlfriend Fern. She has quite a massive amount of Instagram followers in her fitness and health account, and is relatively well respected in the community. She gave me his number, and I have been in contact with him through Instagram DM and text message since.

    IV.            The exchange with Sunny was a simple one, he reviewed my business venture and plan and gave me feedback on what I need to focus on and improve going forward if I hope to be successful in the very competitive industry. To do this, I sent him both my idea napkins as well as my elevator pitch, and he gave me feedback on both. In exchange, I told him I would convince my girlfriend to post on her Instagram account to sponsor word of mouth for Vale, and thus the exchange was successful.

      V.            I  believe this contact will be a crucial one if I intend on pursuing this idea as a true business venture. Sunny is extremely well versed in the field and seems to know everything there is to know about what his clients want as well as how to manipulate buyer behavior to grow profits. In addition, Sunny is a very down to earth guy and seemed very supportive and interested in my idea.

2)      Market Expert

                     I.            The market expert I have chosen goes by the name of Nick Demos. He owns a business in my hometown of Chicago that goes by the name of Culinary Delights and Marketing. He runs a dual operation in which he offers catering services to the Greater O’Hare area in addition to private contracting for marketing in various aspects of food marketing.

                   II.            Nick is clearly a Market Expert in the field. He has run his own catering/marketing operation in Chicago for 36 years, and his business has been flourishing the whole time. Nick knows what major companies such as Hello Fresh and other healthy food services target when it comes to advertising and market segmenting, and although his operation is no where near the size of these conglomerates, he has been extremely successful in the field.

                 III.            I met Nick through my father, one of Nick’s new operations takes place on land close to my father’s business and they have met recently and grown a relationship. I was given Nick’s number by my dad, although I am yet to meet him.

                IV.            In exchange for Nick going through my elevator pitch and telling me what I need to change to more accurately target the consumers I am trying to reach (Mostly college kids who value eating healthy and staying active), I told him I would mop his floors for a month upon returning home in the summer.

                  V.            By knowing someone like Nick who knows how major companies appeal to consumers and market segments, this will be extremely helpful when I open my own venture and begin advertising and appealing to customers to grow my own business. Nick has shown me some of the work he has done for companies in Chicago and it is truly impressive, he is so good at drawing attention to the food but what’s more impressive is his ability to capture your attention with slogan’s and other lingo. By knowing Nick and being able to potentially hire him to market for me here in Gainesville, that can be tremendously helpful in the future.

3)      Supplier

                     I.            Matt Simmons is a major supplier for health food conglomerates such as Hello Fresh and Blue Apron. The name of his business is JMA Transport and he is the chairmen of one of the largest transport chains for these two conglomerates.

                   II.            Matt is a major supplier for health food companies. He is not only in charge of packaging and shipping the food for these major companies, but he oversees transporting the goods by truck as well.

                 III.            I met Matt when I was home in Chicago by chance over the weekend when he brought in one of his transport trucks for repair to my dad’s Auto Body Shop for repair. I informed him of the assignment and asked if I could have his contact info for the assignment and he gave me his phone number.

                IV.            In exchange for Matt giving me a more detailed explanation at the costs and expenses that restaurants and other food chains face when transporting their food, I told him I would convince my father to run him a slightly lower repair cost for his truck.

                  V.            I think Matt is also a crucial contact to have when trying to open up my own restaurant and establishing supply chains and food transport. This is because I had no idea what prices and expenses I would be expecting to face through transport of ingredients and other aspects of running a restaurant, and I will now be able to contact Matt to run numbers and ideas by him if I ever choose to open up the restaurant.

Reflection:

I was definitely lucky I met some of these contacts by chance and didn’t have to work as hard for the contacts as I thought I would. However, this ‘targeted networking’ was definitely different from other experiences I have had in the past. When talking to these individuals, I had an idea of where I wanted the conversation to be steered and it felt like I was in control. This is definitely a new experience for me as I am a genuinely nice person and don’t often feel like I am trying to get something out of having a conversation with someone, but when talking to these three individuals this definitely felt like the case.