It's Who You Know, Not What You Know
1.) The first person I interviewed was Robert Evans, who is a graphic designer and web developer in Atlanta. He specializes in marketing, branding, and design. He's worked on apps countless times for clients, so I count him as my domain expert. Rob is my uncle, so I knew he was going to be my first call.
After giving him my business idea and platform, he let me know that the hard part would be getting other food companies to agree to adding a QR code to their products, and another hard part would be programming the augmented reality aspect so that it would recognize the QR codes. It exists in other apps, but I have no experience personally with programming, so I'd need funding and a team of computer programmers who know what they're doing. He loved my idea and said that it's definitely an unmet need in a market that's changing the food industry and growing bigger each year. If it were a situation where I could pitch this idea then either sell it to someone else or go on Shark Tank and obtain the funding to support it, he said this app would probably be successful.
Including Rob in my network would be a massive help to both of our brands. I'd be able to utilize his graphic design skills to give my app a user-friendly experience with an iconic and modern aesthetic that would help launch the app to success. If my app is successful, he'd be able to put it on his list of projects so that future businesses that want his web development services would know his worth and be able to recognize his design.
This is his website by the way: https://www.evansmade.com/
2.) The second person I interviewed was Erika Evans, who is a registered massage therapist and is taking classes working towards being a registered dietitian as well (she studied Health Education and Behavior at UF). She is also a yoga instructor, and was vegetarian for 12 years. Since she's knowledgeable about health and wellness, and was vegetarian for a long-term period, I'm considering her my market expert. Erika is my aunt - yes, she is married to Rob - so I killed two birds with one stone and talked with them back-to-back on the same phone call (if you were wondering, that side of my family is artsy and innovative and crazy talented).
After giving her my business idea and platform, she loved the idea and was totally on board. She said it was a good shortcut for googling every individual ingredient on a food product. She voiced a couple of the same concerns as Rob regarding the actual programming of the app, and getting cooperation of food companies with QR code labeling. She said she thinks this app would be more useful for vegetarians and vegans when they're adjusting to the diet, but once they use the app enough they will get more comfortable with knowing which food products are okay to eat and which ones aren't and will gradually stop using the app. She said I should focus more on people who are trying to become vegetarian or vegan or people who don't quite know their stuff, because people who have been vegetarian or vegan for long-term like her probably already know food items like the back of their hands. Since more people are becoming vegetarian and vegan every day, and since it's such a rapidly growing market, she thinks this won't be a problem.
Including Erika in my network would be just as essential as Rob. I've only been vegetarian for 2 years, and my aunt was for 12 years. She knows about not only sticking to the diet but also doing so in a healthy and balanced way, so maybe I can find ways to implement nutritional deficiencies and promote health and wellness into my app on top of the primary purpose of distinguishing vegetarian and vegan food products. If my app was successful, it would help her out by putting her name out there as a nutrition and health expert and promoting her brand.
3.) The third person I interviewed was Doug Brown, a computer programmer for IBM. Since he's a computer programmer and would theoretically know how to program an app (and would also have a network of computer programmers who know how to program an app), I'm considering him a supplier in my industry. He's my roommate's dad and my own dad's coworker, so I called him too.
He said the augmented reality part of my idea would be difficult to program, but it's been done before in other app that utilize QR codes, so it wouldn't need any groundbreaking technological innovations- just the funding to hire a team of programmers to create the app.
Including Doug in my network would expand my contacts to not just who I know and who my dad knows within IBM, but also who Doug knows. Having as much reach as possible in regards to finding computer programmers would be integral in making this app actually happen.
(Doug with my roommate!)
Reflection
This experience was similar to past networking experiences I've had, because I reached out to people I know personally who would actually be able to help me professionally. In the past I've done that with past teachers, mentors from internships, coaches, and family/close family friends. Usually when you start there, it's a good place to start because it starts a chain of them saying someone else they know who could possibly help, which expands my own network further. This exercise was just one more confirmation that I do know people who could and would help, or could at least be a good starting point for this project, and that I don't have to do this alone.
