on How did this quarter go for you?
It went okay, not really a fan of the structure behind the event VP2. I wish I could have done more of a innovated VP2 where I get more practice coming up with business models.
What did you love?
Not really sure if I loved anything, but I liked getting an event idea set in place that was reliving.
What do you wish would have gone differently?
Definitely how the event VP2 went. I think we had a few variables not in our favor with the whole process.
on How did your pitch go?
It went great I thought! We did not get any significant negative feedback which was good!
What do you need to do from now until VP2 is due?
Just get together to record our LJV, organize the drive, and draft up our business report! After this is all done we just have to turn it in and make a blog post.
What feedback did you receive?
Mostly positive, I think the only feedback I found important was to add a financials slide. We did not have any financials so I did not put it, but I think it would have been cool to add the slide showing we did not need to raise any money and we got it all for free. I think it would have made our project look a bit better.
Outside of E&I this week
I had a great week! My housemate Andrew was the last to turn 21 out of the 6 of us this Thursday so we had a great time at the royale downtown signing some karaoke! Other than that I went to Lummi island with my girlfriend which was fun!
on What are you going to do to exceed the standards this quarter? Why does it matter to you?
Make sure our group does a good job organizing the evidence locker, we met all requirements and continue to add more, and we do a good job on our final pitch.
What jumps out to you in the rubric?
I worry that it is not up to date and we will potentially be marked down in some categories just because we did not know. For example we just learned at rehearsals that we can go over 5 minutes on the pitch, and it even says in the rubric that our pitch needs to be 5 minutes for the E3’s. As long as that does not give us any grading issues then that should be fine.
Between now and Final Pitches, what traction steps do you need to make? Where could you use support?
Don’t need any support we are all set and know exactly what needs to be done this week.
Outside of E&I this week?
First off I would like to thank all the students who came out for our event! it was awesome to see everyone, and we really appreciate people showing up! Other than the E3 event this week I went to deception pass which was really cool!
on What did you love this week?
The networking event was a lot of fun and really nice to get some insightful advice from people who have been successful.
What resonated with you in workshops?
Getting to build new connections with the community coaches and ask some questions that helped me out a lot.
How might you apply this week’s learnings to your venture?
Not too sure honestly, at this point everything about our venture is locked in, so we do not have too many major aspects to change.
What did you learn in shift and share- what did you love, what would you have loved to see?
Learned more about credit from sawyer which was nice. Not sure what else I would have loved to see I think all 3 of the E4’s did their best.
What does excellence look like for you and your team? What’s needed to get from here to there?
Excellence for us would look like, having a good event that everybody enjoyed, and getting the grade we desire. What we need? A solid pitch, and make sure we get enough post prototype interviews in the short time after our event is actually done.
Outside of E&I this week.
It was nice to finally get some sun? Did a lot of biking this week and an old friend gave my housemates and I his old blow up pool! We had some friends over Friday afternoon and got to sit in our little pool haha nothing to fancy, but it was fun!
on What did you love this week?
Specifically I really liked hearing Tim and Nicole talk about some valuable info. Nicole gave out a great sheet for networking which I will use in the future to look back on, and Tim gave a lot of good insight into the business side of things if any of us wanted to go through with a venture.
What resonated with you in workshops?
For me it was listening to Tara talk about radical responsibility. In college I started to hold myself responsible more for my school work and whatever came up in my daily life. Then originally hearing about radical responsible has made me want to be even more on top of my school work to succeed and I was just reminded by Tara about that when she talked.
How might you apply this week’s learnings to your venture?
I will apply some of my new networking knowledge gained from Nicole to hopefully get some local Bellingham businesses involved in our E3 event.
Outside of E&I?
Just got back from Oregon this week and had to get a lot of work done to get back into the swing of things. A friend from home who is now out of school came up to Bellingham this week to hangout which was a lot of fun, and now I am home for mothers day!
on How are you currently planning to serve your customer with your venture? Is there fit? If not, dive deep.
Currently we are just trying to come up with an event to effectively build relationships between students and either alums, or successful professionals within their respected field in order to help our students gain a new connection and potential job opportunities. So far, we have some ideas, but no event yet.
How might you apply this week’s learnings to your venture?
Not too sure, we are just pretty stuck in the ideation process of the event. I will use the new insight I got from Meg and Schantell on friday during office hours to hopefully make some good progress on our event this week.
Outside of school this week: I went to Lincoln city on the Oregon coast to see some friends and family! Good break from school, but ready to get back Monday and start working again.
on How have you deepened your understanding of secondary and market research? (for E2-E6)
I think keeping an open mind always help me think of certain aspects to research that I normally wouldn’t. Doing the VP1 on accessibility I think also really helped broaden my thinking.
How have you deepened your understanding of empathy and customer discovery?
This VP2 my group and I are tasked with creating an event. Out of any other VP2, the empathy and customer discovery aspect weigh heavily on our decision. That has helped me deepen my understand because I am relying so heavily on it, and want my data to be good/accurate.
What resonated with you in Oscar Edward’s storytelling workshop?
When we all went around and said what are spirit animal or thing was. At first I thought it was kind of silly, but as the time went on it gave me more time to think on it and how we are just animals in a way. I think it helped me realize that life isn’t as complex as we make it out to be everyday
How might you apply this week’s learnings to your venture?
I got some good insight from Schantell on what the event VP2 is all about and how we want to approach it, so I will keep applying that.
Outside of E&I this week:
This week was pretty good overall, I got my last bike rides and hikes in due to the rain coming in. Here’s a random photo from the hike!
on How do you plan to be curious about developing empathy with your customer?
By staying super open minded and taking everything in. Making sure to receive the data with zero emotions to cloud my judgement.
How do you plan on responding to the needs of your customer?
By getting effective data from the consumer and then make adjustments from there, rinse and repeat.
How might you apply this week’s learnings to your venture?
I would say doing the improv could hopefully help me really nail my pitch.
on What did I love this week. I really enjoyed listening to Hoby speak, I was extremely impressed to hear all that he had accomplished in his academic career while being blind. I don’t think there is anything else I would have loved to achieve this previous week, I thought it went really well for me. What did I learn from this VP1. Besides just going over the basics again and getting a little refresher. I really liked learning about the accessibility aspect. I never thought of it before, but now that I do it opens up a door of endless possibilities. I will put this new found knowledge into action by always thinking of accessibility and think of each person could be effected, then figure out a solution from there.
on Going into my third quarter of E&I I believe I am still learning more and more on how important the culture of belonging mission statement really is. Last quarter when asked this question I just kind of explained what it meant, but this quarter I am really starting to grasp the importance. This program is like no other in that everyone is so welcoming and wants to make you aware of that. For me the statement is just a way to let the new students know that we will never judge you and this is a pretty open minded place where you can share your thoughts, even in the middle of class to everyone. To answer the original question, culture of belonging to me means that everyone is welcome and we use that as a statement because we want to aware the new students about this so maybe they are not scared to say something out loud. Preparing for success, I am just getting back into the work flow and working hard on VP1 so I will be all warmed up for VP2. For my E3 journey this quarter I just hope to gain some new insight and knowledge on how to be the best entrepreneur I can. I guess if I had to pick a spark it would be just trying to make money. Ever since I was a kid I have been doing whatever to make some money in different side hustles, now that has mostly changed to strictly stock trading and reselling goods online. That is what sparks my entrepreneurial interest. For a # learning objective I will be taking into next week is the culture of belonging. I think it is super important in these first two weeks to be very welcoming of the new students, because this first week jumping into VP1 can be stressful and hectic. If we do not show them this is a welcoming and even relaxed environment, then I worry it may scare off newer students.