Very Short Interview No. 2

The initial interview I had with cousin Rob was interesting and he offered some great useful and helpful advice for an entrepreneur. After progressing more through this class I believe I understand where the advice he gave me can help my venture. Overall my impression was that it offered vital information for me to help begin my journey as an entrepreneur. Having info from his perspective, owning an entrepreneurial venture, was awesome.

For our second interview, I learned even more. We went a tad off track talking about my venture. Although, he gave me great answers to my questions along with suggestions for my app Sports 4 U. So one of the questions was built around Rob's 4 'golden' rules with entrepreneurial ventures. Rob constantly receives calls from students at the undergraduate and graduate level at the University of Southern California offering ideas for ventures that need funding. These are the 4 things he looks for in a new business/venture. Firstly, sales. By sales, he told me he means basically how the product or service is marketed or communicated to potential customers. The most important part of this section is to have people understand the product/service quickly so they know what they are getting. Second is the value created. This is a concept that we have been working on all semester in class. Your idea, Rob says, has to create some sort of value. The more value created for potential customers the better. You have to fill some sort of need or necessity, he said. Third, how the venture is operated. You have to have a good idea of how you are going to distribute your product and/or service. Additionally once your venture is put into place, you need to be prepared for success. In this, Rob explained, you have to be able to operate your venture if it starts working out. You have to be able to handle both the day-to-day and long term duties as owner. Finally, and most importantly, is there a profit to be made and how much. Rob told me that he believes having concrete numbers to present is the best way to communicate an entrepreneurial venture. When he talks to students, he looks for them to have numbers in the first or second time he talks to them. If they do not, he begins to doubt the legitimacy of their venture and starts to ask questions.

The other portion of our interview was about what traits or abilities an entrepreneur truly needs to succeed. Rob gave me the following 3 abilities/traits. First, iteration. You have to be comfortable around people you do not know. Also, you have to be open to change your idea. When your bring your plan to an investor or whatnot, you need to be open to suggestions and understand that the first draft of your idea will most likely not be perfect. One final point for iteration was to always look to open new doors. Look for new opportunities for your ventures and always look to expand. Second, he stressed the importance of networking. I am very familiar with this from our assignment where we talked to experts in our market. Rob said you should research specific people in your field of business you want to get to know and put in the effort to get to know them. You have to be open to build relationships and grow with people. You need support to grow your venture successfully. Third, and not least, he stressed continuous learning. He thought he learned the most as an entrepreneur, not from a theoretical text book, but from being in the field, interacting with people. and making sales. Also, a very interesting point he had was to look at business history books. They offer great learning experiences and can offer valuable advice for future ventures.

After talking to Rob this second time, and presenting my clear plan for my entrepreneurial venture, he thought I had progressed more as an entrepreneur. We spent some time going back and forth with ideas for my app. We talked more as two fellow entrepreneurs as opposed to a teacher and pupil. I had terminology I had learned from our last interview and my journey in this class to use and convey my ideas. It was really great being able to talk about my venture and receive such valuable advice. I feel very comfortable now as an entrepreneur at this point in the class.