20A - Growing Your Social Capital

Domain Expert

• Mr. Walker works with Khan Academy and has been working there for 8 years.
• He fits the Domain Expert role because he works with a company that I would like to model my own after and has similar services to my own.
• I looked at the Khan Academy website and sent an email.
• In the email, I described my service and showed him my idea napkin. He said that it was great that I was looking to solve this problem and that they actually have a section on their page that also looks to address these topics. He encouraged me to continue on my idea and that perhaps I could add more to make my service more unique and accessible.
• By having Mr. Walker in my network, I have a company that I look at as a reference when building my own and can look to him in advice as to how to execute my idea.

Market Expert

• Mrs. Kretzer is an AP environmental teacher from my high school who interacts with students everyday. Her family is from Maine and she has been teaching students for over 10 years and has also served as a high school wrestling coach for girls. 
• She fits the Market Expert role because she consistently works with students (who are in my market segment) and they have even asked her to teach them life skills in the time after AP exams and before school ends. 
• I took her class my senior year and she was also my wrestling coach junior year so I emailed her for her feedback.
• In the email, I gave her a brief summary of my service by showing her my idea napkin. She acknowledged how this is a problem that more and more students are realizing and how since I have a personal connection to it, that would make me more successful. She hinted that she wasn't sure how I would deliver the product - either by selling it directly to students or in tandem with schools themselves.
• By having Mrs. Kretzer in my network, I have an inside look into the school system from the back-end as well as having someone who has a huge connection to my market. 

Important Supplier to Industry

• Mr. Porter works with Kaplan and has been working there for more than 5 years. 
• He fits the important supplier to my industry because he works with a company that offers a service to students that helps them prepare for an exam, advancing their career, learning English, preparing for university, and earning a degree.
• I went to the Kaplan website and sent an email.
• In the email, I gave him a overview of my business idea with my idea napkin. He thought my idea was innovative and clearly addressed a problem so many students have. He said that my idea targeted a skill set that isn't normally taught in schools or even services like Kaplan. However, he did mention that my idea could be further developed and encouraged me to reach out to more people for feedback.
• By having Mr. Porter in my network, I'll be able to connect with a business that is similar to my own in the sense that it is a third-party service and targets a similar market and how they go about it.

Reflection

This experience will help shape future networking events by giving me more practice in how to talk to people in terms of giving context before saying my piece as well as making sure I stay on topic and to focus on the relevant information. This has been different from my networking experiences in the past mainly because it was through email as opposed to the in-person networking events that I've been to.