4A- Forming an Opportunity Belief: A Twist on Opportunity Identification

1)    My belief is that more RTS bus drivers/routes will soon be created near Countryside Apartments.

2)    I believe that this belief will come true because the current unmet need is affecting several UF students. The unmet need is that students at Countryside Apartments need more than one bus route to get to campus faster because the current bus route available is not adequate and takes too long. As far as I know, this need has been here for a few years, I wouldn’t know exactly how long this problem has been here since I’ve only lived in Gainesville for 3.5 years. Since there is this unmet need, UF students currently are walking 7-10 minutes to a different bus stop or driving to different complexes to park their cars to take a different bus. I believe that there is a 90% chance this opportunity exists. I say 90% because I am not sure of the exact numbers of students who suffering from this need.

3)    The prototypical customer is a UF student, UF faculty, and Gainesville community member who lives near Countryside Apartments. I identified 3 UF students, (A) Shahayra Majumder (B) Jaime Chavez (C) Moné. For the following interviews, I will use the letters ‘A, B, and, C’ to refer to each prototypical customer. Customer A is my neighbor and Customer B and C are my roommates.

4)    For Customer A, I spoke with her for about 15 minutes. She informed me that she has lived in Countryside since her freshman year at UF and that the bus system has not changed in the past 3 years. The bus that passes by Countryside Apartments is the 9, and this bus does not go directly to the UF campus; it heads toward Williston and takes a 7-minute break at Lexington. The exact nature of this need is that is inconvenient to walk 7-10 minutes every morning in the blazing hot sun or when it is raining heavily outside. Thus, her commute to campus is 20 minutes longer than it should be. She noticed this need immediately once classes started because she does not have a car or a scooter so she was obligated to only use the RTS system daily. She’s had this need for 3 years since she moved in and currently must walk to another bus stop every morning to get to campus in order to get to campus quicker. She does not like this solution.

For Customer B, she is my roommate and I spoke to her while eating breakfast. The exact nature of this need is that is inconvenient to walk 7-10 minutes every morning in the blazing hot sun or when it is raining heavily outside. This was her first year living in this apartment and she was surprised to see the inconvenience of having to go to a different bus stop just so that she could get to campus on time while still getting a little more sleep in. She noticed this this year the day before classes started. She is a getting her masters in Physical Therapy and classes everyday so she must suffer this unmet need every day. Since the semester just started she hasn’t had to deal with this need for too long but she foresees the inconvenience that this will give her in the future. She is doing the same thing that Customer A is doing to combat this need, she is walking 7 mins to another bus stop. She does not like this solution.

Customer C is also my roommate, however she lived with me in Countryside last year. When we both moved in, we both immediately noticed this unmet need. The exact nature of this need is that is inconvenient to walk 7-10 minutes every morning in the blazing hot sun or when it is raining heavily outside. The option besides walking to different bus stop is to add an extra 20 minutes to our morning ride. Moné does not like this solution of having to walk in the hot sun every morning, yet she does it almost every day to go to class. We have had this unmet need for 2 years now.

5) While conducting these interviews, I learned I was not alone suffering from this unmet need. I had an idea that other people did the same thing as me and walked to a different bus stop because I would see other people do it too. I was surprised to learn that Customer A and B has lived here many years besides this inconvenience. However, I have lived here for 2 years now because of the cheap price, so I guess it makes sense.  

7) My original opportunity belief did not change, in fact it was reinforced. I think now that I have testimonials from different people, I can accurately say this is unmet need is in fact a problem. I think entrepreneurs should ‘adapt’ their opportunities completely based on customer feedback because customers know best. Entrepreneurs cannot create need so they must listen careful to find problems to create opportunities.