20A – Growing Your Social Capital

1a) Who they are and what their background is.

I interviewed the owner of a local meat market and farm back in Orlando. They are a pretty big supplier of Halal meat and operate a few local restaurants as well.   

2a) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

This person would undoubtedly be a supplier since meat is a one of the key resources in the business. 

3a) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

My family buys meat from them and since Eid is coming up we went to get a goat. That's when I asked my questions. 

4a) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

I'd like this person to give me good bulk prices on certain cuts of meat and in return I would exclusively buy from him. 

5a) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

Since having this person in my network will reduce costs on one of the more expensive parts of the service I can start focusing on recipes and other parts of the supply.

1b) Who they are and what their background is.

The next person I talked to was the manager of of a cafe that serves Halal meats in Lake Mary.  

2b) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

This person would be my market expert 

3b) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I frequent the restaurant often and knew her from prior visits.  

4b) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

I mostly asked for information in running a food related business complete with all of it's intricacies. She was happy to teach me but suggested I put some time aside and consider interning. 

5b) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

Actual restaurant knowledge and customer input will be invaluable towards building the business since these are the people my service is targeted at. 

1c) Who they are and what their background is.

The last person I asked actually worked for PepsiCo and is close friend of mine from high school 

2c) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

This person would be my domain expert

3c) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

As they are a close friend I just called them earlier in the day

4c) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

I asked him to explain the shipping and distribution process that big companies take when getting products to retailers. I think this will help since my service is a subscription based thing. 

5c) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

Knowing this person will help me with the distribution part of my business and could help reduce inefficiency. 

Finally: Reflect. This experience requires you to do a little 'targeted networking.' How will this experience shape how you participate in any future networking events? Did this experience differ from your networking experiences in the past? How?

I found this more difficult then the regular interviews since it was difficult to think of people for specific roles. Next time I will make sure to go with specific questions in mind.