The Entrepreneurial Adventures of Gabe Meyer

Overall, how was this quarter for you?

Overall this quarter went pretty well for me. This class felt more manageable which was super nice. I think that might have been due to me taking a smaller amount of credits than last quarter but nevertheless, it was still nice. Another thing I liked about this quarter was reaching the end and actually throwing the event. It was super satisfying to see all of our work throughout the quarter turn into something really visible. In addition to this, I liked working with all of the other E2s this quarter. It felt like a good team and it didn’t feel like too big of a group or too small.

How did you develop as an entrepreneur throughout the quarter?

This quarter my networking ability was definitely enhanced. There were many times this quarter when I found myself going out of my way to network with people when I normally wouldn’t have. This happened many times outside of class this quarter which was really cool to see. Also for the event, lots of networking and really utilizing networks had to be practiced. All of this combined certainly contributed to my networking ability improving.

What are you hoping to carry forward from this quarter?

I am hoping to carry forward the friendships and connections that I made and furthered this quarter. I am also hoping to take forward the networking improvements that occurred this quarter, as well as the experience from throwing the event.

What are you hoping to leave behind from this quarter?

I am hoping to leave behind any and all stress, discomfort, and anxiety from this quarter.

What was your highlight from E&I this Spring?

My highlight from E&I this quarter definitely was seeing the event that we put together actually come to life. It was really satisfying to see some of my friends attending the event. What really amplified that moment was when the sun escaped from behind the clouds to create a nice ambiance of a sunny afternoon in Bellingham to set the scene for our event.

How was the pitching experience for you this week?

The pitching experience for me this week was great! We all prepared really well, there were definitely some small opportunities for improvement, but overall I think it went well. It really helped that we prepared a lot for our dress rehearsal pitch so by the time it came to preparing for the real pitch we only had to make a few adjustments. We also got a really good reaction from Tara and the rest of the class so I feel it was evident that the pitch went well.

What resonated with you from pitch day?

What resonated with me on pitch day is how the way you go about preparing your pitch really translates into how the final pitch is performed. This not only means how much time you put into preparation but also how you might need to adjust your pitch according to your specific audience. A key example of this is how John has to drastically simplify his pitch into lamens terms every time he pitches to the class compared to when he is pitching to his niche group that already understands NFTs and how they operate.

What did you think of the E&I event this week? Were you able to network and connect with others at the event? Why or why not?

I think the event turned out really well. There were definitely points when preparing the event when it seemed really chaotic, but in the end, it turned out really well. After the event, I realized I had gotten a text from my mom before the event saying, “Also remember every event I’ve been in charge of there is things that aren’t like as expected… But in the end, things turn out okay.” When the event was done, seeing that text was kind of funny because I felt it matched the situation quite accurately. Some things like the layout were changed last minute as well as some vendors not showing up, and some minor other things but in the end, it did turn out good. I even heard from an attendee, “This is better than the events Western throws.” I was also able to network and connect with people while at the event, it was really easy to talk to lots of different people because everyone seemed really kind, open, and excited to share their experiences or whatever business they were a part of.

How are you feeling coming near the end of VP2? What are there areas in that you are in need of support?

I feel pretty good coming to the end of our VP2. Now that we have successfully held the event and completed the pitch all that is left is some background work and a learning journey video. We do need to complete a couple of canvases and it can seem a bit overwhelming but I am confident we will be able to work together and divide up the tasks in an effective and fair manner.

How did the technology prototyping workshop go for you?

I thought the technology workshop was pretty cool. I feel some of the concepts resembled closely measures we already have in place. However, I still found it useful and thought it was cool to hear about the methods in a slightly different context. My favorite thing I took away was probably the agile method. I really liked that this process could forever be repeated.

How did the interviewing workshop go for you?

I found the interviewing workshop to be pretty useful. I liked getting feedback from other people in the class especially upper E-levels who have a bit more knowledge on these projects and the best methods and procedures to follow. I also really liked giving feedback. Some of the conversations I had seemed really valuable and it seemed like both parties learned something and really gained more insight from the conversation. This really made me feel like I had something valuable to contribute. I hope it felt the same for my fellow classmates.

Dress Rehearsals! How did this go for you and your team? What traction do you guys need to make before pitch day?

Dress rehearsals went great! It was relaxed but still allowed us to practice in a more professional manner. We got some really good feedback on our pitch deck and how we could make it better too. Before pitch day the majority of the traction we still need to make is within the food and also perfecting our pitch deck. Overall feel pretty prepared for the real pitch and hopefully, we will be able to deliver on an awesome event!

What are you going to take away from Sawyer’s presentation on budgeting? What resonated with you?

I really enjoyed how much information sawyer provided us with on Monday. I also really appreciated how open she was with us about how much she is making and how it does take most businesses a bit to get out of the red after starting. I also liked that she provided us with examples and ways to develop a personal budget as well as a budget for a business. All the different revenue models definitely set in for me and it was even easier to internalize them since we had a Kahoot about them after. I liked that we were able to ask a lot of questions and basically have class discussions about how to legally be certified as a business. I do wish we were able to hear a bit more on Meg’s personal journey in legally certifying her business though.

What was your favorite part of the E4 shift and share? What do you think you will carry along with you from these presentations?

Unfortunately, due to a messed-up ankle, I was unable to attend Bryan’s share of the shift in share but I did really enjoy Megan and Karl’s as well as Adams. I enjoyed it when we got to meditate in a room, but I was surprised to hear about all the possible ways to meditate. Personally, I am used to just sitting silently with closed eyes and focusing on different aspects of the present moment, but I do see now how different methods can be applied. Adam’s presentation I thought was pretty awesome. It was cool to watch as he walked us through everything on the laptop and I found his commentary to be quite entertaining as well. It almost reminded me of a how-to youtube video or something. Who knows, maybe Adam could start up a youtube channel teaching magic one day. I also really took away a lot of info and now a free Canva pro account from his presentation which was pretty awesome. I will most likely use the tools he demoed for us in class now that I have been introduced to them.

How are you feeling wrapping up Change Leadership? Any new sparks or ideas?

Honestly, I have been struggling through the week and am a little behind on change leadership. However, I have been thinking about it and I think I am coming up with some sparks that will make this project really worthwhile for me. I have already conducted one interview though but am a bit concerned if I should use it or not since I did not fully read the Change Leadership prompt prior to the interview. However, the interview I did conduct was very useful and inspirational which would probably serve well in this project.

How did the Evidence Pitch Day go for you? In what areas do you need to amplify the evidence in your Venture? 

The evidence pitch went well for me, I think it was really cool to see all the evidence and ideas we have collected so far all together. Overall I feel this assignment gave me a better perspective as to where we currently are with the assignment and where we need to be moving. I think we need to amplify the number of interviews conducted in our venture. We did use a lot of surveys which have been extremely helpful for us but we could very much benefit from a few more interviews as well.

What do you know about your customer for your project?

We know why most people want to attend events. We know what people like most about events for our targeted age group, which would be college students. We know what activities are most popular, what types of food, and what overall people like as well as dislike about events. We have a lot of information through mostly primary research which has been extremely useful so far in giving us some direction.

What has your evidence process looked like throughout the quarter?

We have created surveys either as a group or individually as well as created interviews as a group or individually. After these surveys and interviews are created we all work as a group to conduct as many as possible and usually attempt to meet a goal amount of conducted surveys. In addition to this, we have been searching on the web for additional information and ideas that may be useful to us. Another aspect that I guess you could consider evidence is finding leads and tracking down people that may be able to donate to our event or even participate in it.

It is week six of the quarter! How is it going? How are you hanging in there?

The last few weeks have been a bit of a struggle but I do feel I am now on the right track. I feel like we are moving in the right direction with our E2 venture although we might need to pick up the pace a little bit. I also feel that I am moving in the right direction with my other classes as well as other aspects of my life. Hopefully, I can continue to build this momentum back up and finish out the last half of the quarter strong!

How did the Jobs to be Done workshop go for you? Do you still have questions? How do you feel about the JTBD statement for your venture?

Unfortunately, since I was really sick last week I was unable to attend the JTBD workshop. However, for my venture, I feel the JTBD statement would have to do a lot with wanting to have fun, and wanting to keep busy, as well as wanting to learn about the E and I program. This is because I am an E2 this quarter and we will be throwing the event for our venture. I do also think there is a lot more opportunity to collect evidence on our JTDB to even better grasp and support it.

What resonated with you from Ugly But Tasty? 

Sadly not too much was mentioned in the Ugly But Tasty that our group hadn’t already talked about and discussed. However, it was really cool to take part in the Ugly But Tasty because of how relaxed the environment was and what everyone was able to contribute. We sat in a circle, everyone talked a little about their venture, and after everyone was able to share feedback in a calm and relaxed way. It wasn’t super nerve-racking and a lot of good ideas seemed to come out of it.

How did “Got Your Back Consulting” go for you? How did you feel about sharing ideas and feedback on other ventures?

Got your back consulting went well for me. I thought it was really fun to talk about other people’s ventures and spitball potential ideas with the rest of the group. Unfortunately for my personal venture, there were not too many ideas that were brought up for our group that had not been thought of. Overall I feel great about sharing feedback on others’ ventures, especially in a group setting where ideas can be poked at and really hashed out.

How is VP2 going as a whole? Are there any areas of confusion or need for support? 

VP2 is seemingly going a lot better now. One issue I was running into at first was communication. I was sick and unable to receive clear communication directly with the teaching team who is assisting us on the event. Now that I am recovered and can speak directly with the team we are working with it is already seeming to clear up issues and make the whole process much more fluid.

We launched Change Leadership this week! How was this experience for you? How are you doing heading into this project?

I will be completely real, I already have a lot on my plate and another project is not really what I need. Since I am an E2 my project revolves around networking which is awesome and is something I am fond of but when forced upon me in a very structured method my love starts to fluctuate for it. That is because this is a very time-consuming task to arrange meetings and go out of my way to meet with others. Hopefully, my perspective on the project will soon change but as of now, the feeling is overwhelmed.

What was the process you and your group took to create your Plan of Action? 

To create our plan of action we first wrote out our prompt and project name. After that, we listed all of our team’s contact info to allow for easy communication and hopefully prevent any difficulties. Next, we listed our teams’ strengths and weaknesses as well as our team goals. When creating our calendar we filled out all important dates and due dates. We also included all our meeting times. To finalize our plan of action we included a to-do list for everyone that will be actively updated. This will help to hold everyone accountable and be consistently updated. Another important thing is that we all have access to the plan of action so it can be consistently updated each week as we meet and the project develops.

What is your plan for sticking to the Plan of Action and holding one another accountable throughout the quarter? 

Our plan for sticking to the plan of action is to consistently meet every Monday. This way we are all kept up to date and can check in with everyone’s progress. Another thing which I mentioned above was the addition of the to-do list for everyone on the team. Since the to-do list is in a shared document it will dramatically help to hold everyone accountable since we can constanley see were the other team members are at in their progress.

How are you feeling about Venture Project Two? What areas do you feel good about? What areas do you need more clarity on?

I feel pretty good about VP2, it doesn’t seem too complex. However, I have been a bit confused about how much power we have over the project. At the beginning it seemed like we were responsible for the majority of the event, but now it is seeming like we have less and less power and are more of a company recruiting team and marketing team for the event. It certainly will take some exquisite communication between our team and the teaching staff. No matter what though I am sure just taking part in the event will be some good experience and overall a fun project.

We went downtown this week! What sparked your interest for you in the downtown tour?

Unfortunately, I have been extremely sick this week and on top of my current illness even go pink eye so I was not able to go down town this week. However, recently, before I got sick I was spending much more time downtown this quarter than ever before, and I have to say, there is a lot about downtown Bellingham that sparks my interest. This city seems like it has some serious potential and will likely grow into that potential as the urban sprawl continues and populations increase. One thing I noticed is it really seems like a historical and potentially a tourist town. There are tons of great signage scattered around the city as well as plenty of musems. One thing that makes me sad however and I hope to see change is that it seems like there a quite a bit of empty or abanded storefronts. One day when I was walking around I even noticed what seemed to be an abandoned or shut down salmon spawning facility. Hopefully Bellingham will be able to grow into its potential while still maintaining its quaint small town feel, and hopefully some of us can be apart of that development.

Reflecting on your pitch and wrapping up Venture Project One

How did it go?

With your team?

Although our project is not fully completed yet it has gone amazing. Our team has been really good about meeting consistently as well as having consistent communications. Everyone seems eager to learn and eager to contribute. In addition to this, it seems like the work has been getting divided up evenly which is super nice. It’s especially motivating when you are not the only one spending additional time on the project and really giving it your best effort.

With the evidence-based entrepreneurship skills?

With evidence-based entrepreneurship skills, I feel like we are doing really well. I think we are really giving the E1s a good base to work off of and I feel like I also have been elevating my skills since last quarter. An example of this is last quarter I would collect interviews, but the interviewees were not specifically people of interest or people in the specific niche we are targeting. However, this quarter we are starting off strong with a language barrier project, and everyone we have interviewed or plan to interview actually has the experiences that contribute to our niche. More specifically we are interviewing people who actually have language issues, hearing issues, or experiences not speaking the language of the country they live in.

With discovering a new accessibility opportunity?

At first, this prompt seemed really difficult to me. I really didn’t like how broad it was and wished we had a bit more direction. However, after we started with a small idea it quickly grew much larger and became easier and easier to grow and adapt. So as far as discovering the accessibility opportunity it has been going well.

What have you learned about yourself?

I feel like this project has certainly opened my mind a bit more to accessibility. I now feel much more conscious and aware of issues people might potentially face. I have learned that I am very blessed to not have many accessibility issues myself. I have also learned that keeping accessibility issues in mind should be an aspect of basically every venture.

From this learning, what will you carry forward into Venture Project Two?

I think moving on to venture project two I will try to keep accessibility issues in mind.

Why is this important to you?

This is important to me because if I were to create something worth using or worth experiencing I would want everyone to be able to experience it, I would not want to exclude anyone. I also think this is really important because right now accessibility issues can be really hard to solve. However, if we collectively work towards solutions the solutions will slowly become easier and easier.

Reflecting on this first week on a Venture Project One Team…

How’s it going?

With your team?

So far it is going great with our team! It seems like we have a really good group and everyone seems eager to contribute. We have already met once and made a clear plan of action, established clear assignments for everyone, and we seem to have very fluid and honest communication as well. I think as long as we maintain our schedule we should be able to produce a pretty good project!

With the evidence-based entrepreneurship skills?

So far for this venture project, evidence-based entrepreneurship is a little bit harder. We are focusing on making businesses more accessible to those with hearing impairments or language barriers. Because of this, we have to seek out people who struggle with those issues to interview. First, it is somewhat hard to find those people to interview because I am not actively involved in any of these communities. Second when these people are found it is somewhat hard to interview them because of the issues we are addressing. However, I am confident we will be able to gather some good evidence that hopefully supports our project idea.

With discovering a new accessibility opportunity? 

Honestly, this prompt seemed really difficult to me at first. I think the reason for that was mostly because we were hit with the prompt and then immediately sent to interview before we even had a solid understanding of the prompt. At first, we were interviewing people and asking them questions like, “what are the most common accessibility issues that your business faces?” Most of the time the immediate response was, “what do you mean accessibility?” Which I felt was quite relatable with the prompt being so broad. However, the more we were able to dive into it the more ideas we were able to come up with, and the more clear the opportunities were.

Where are you feeling the need for support at this point in the quarter?

At this point, I really feel like I need support with finding people to interview. So far I have one but I need to figure out a way to reach more people within the niche of accessibility that we are trying to handle. Luckily it sounds like my group members are finding some people to interview so collectively we should have some pretty good evidence to work with.

Introduce yourself! Who are you? What are you majoring in/hoping to major in? What are your hobbies?

Hello, my name is Gabe Meyer. I am currently a sophomore here at WWU. I am currently hoping to major in Kinesiology and Environmental Studies. In my free time, I like to work out. I also play basketball on an intramural team. I try to meditate consistently. I also resell clothes online. I like to hang out with my friends
as well as my girlfriend, go on hikes, thrift clothes, skate, play sports, etc.

Why did you join Entrepreneurship or why are you in the Entrepreneurship minor?

I joined the entrepreneurship program because throughout my life I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I even can remember back to when I was eight years old and came up with my idea and designs for a hovercar. I drew out my plans, presented them to my family, and stuck it on the fridge with my signature on them to serve as a patent. Fast forward about 12 years and here I am taking a diverse course load at WWU. While my majors may not seem to relate directly I can see the plans in my mind, and for me, an entrepreneurship minor seems like just the perfect thing to act as the glue between these majors and completely round off the sphere that I aim to be as a human being.

How did the first day of class go for you? What stuck out to you? What areas do you need more clarity? 

The first day of class went great for me. It was wonderful to get to see everybody again and catch up a bit. I was also really excited to see all of the new E1s that have joined the program. It seems like the majority of them are extremely qualified and will hopefully contribute great work to the program. There aren’t too many areas at this point in which I feel I need clarity. However, I feel a WordPress workshop could be extremely helpful, as I have been running into many issues trying to figure out how to sort out my menus and get all the pages to behave.

How are you preparing for success this quarter?

This quarter I am preparing for success by planning out my weeks, months, and days as far as I can in advance. I plan to focus primarily on maintaining solid mental health throughout the quarter by meditating, getting good sleep, exercising, eating healthy, and getting plenty of water. Hopefully operating with a focus on mental health will lead me to produce higher quality work in the long run. That is my plan at this point in the quarter, it may be subject to change as I get deeper into my classes.

After reading the syllabus, what do you expect for your E-level journey this quarter? (eg- first quarter, second quarter, etc.

This quarter I expect an extreme amount of growth. We are being presented with the task of organizing an entire event. This may seem like a daunting task but it is also very much an exciting one. I feel much more prepared after last quarter, really getting my feet wet with my entrepreneurial skills. Now I am ready to kick it into full gear, networking, planning, and executing I am sure we will be able to pull off something great. I have already started thinking and doing some minor planning for the project as well as doing some networking for the event. I am excited and ready for this quarter!