7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

The opportunity that I would like to capitalize and peruse is the need to try and provide UF, and college students in general, the ability to find restaurants, bars, and entertainment events that are affordable in their area. Many college students live on a tight budget, so money is always the deciding factor when choosing a place to eat or going to do something fun with your friends after a long week of studies.

Who: College-aged students or anyone trying to go out on a budget

What: Are sometimes unable to go out because of the high prices of restaurants and entertainment venues.

Why: Students especially, live on a tight budget that usually does not have much money set aside for entertainment and going out.

Testing the who: I believe that this problem is not exclusive to college-aged students. Although they are the intended demographic, I believe that this problem exists with anyone that is smart with their money and doesn’t usually spend a lot when they go out to eat or have fun with friends.

Testing the what: Obviously not all restaurants and entertainment options are expensive, but if people were able to more easily see the cheaper options in their area, I think that could fill a need.

Testing the why: I think that obviously not everyone runs a tight budget when it comes to spending money on restaurants or entertainment, but I do think if everyone had the ability to see cheap options around them and save money, they would make an effort to.

For this assignment I interviewed 3 UF students and 2 young adults who are not in college

UF Students:

When I asked them about the “who” element of this opportunity they all agreed that this is something that college-aged people go through any time they try to go out with friends. They explained that whether or not the option is affordable or not can really determine if they decide to go out that weekend or not. One of the students also brought up the point that if he was given the opportunity to know what was out there in his price range, he would have more incentive to go out. The two other students went on to add that the frequency that they would go out would go up if they were able to find more affordable options nearby that would make it possible to afford 2 or 3 weekends in a row versus 1 weekend where they spend a lot of money.

Young adults (non-UF students):

Right from the start both of these individuals expressed interest in a service that would help them choose more affordable entertainment options. Both of them have full time jobs so they both shared similar stories of trying to spend as little as possible on a night out but still trying to have a good time. Even though I explained that my target demographic was college-aged students, they both concurred that even though they were older, had jobs and were not in college, anyone that wants to save a little money when they want to go out could really benefit from a service like this. Lastly, when I brought up the question of what the root of the problem that caused this opportunity to exist, they had differing opinions. While one of them did agree with my idea that it is because people want to save money and entertainment is expensive, the other brought up the idea that people may want to save money but they also don’t go out because the more expensive options have higher visibility versus the more affordable ones.

Summary: After conducting the interviews I was glad to see that my hypothesis was supported by the people my solution was targeting. Seeing that there is an actual need and opportunity makes it an even more compelling proposition and something that should be capitalized. The one thing that I did learn about the opportunity from these interviews was the idea of visibility. If people want to go out and only see expensive options this will obviously discourage them and stop them from going out and spending money in the local economy.