Assignment 20A: Growing Your Social Capital

Sue Sandelier 

1) Who they are and what their background is.

   Sue Sandelier is the CEO of a company that produces and sells home playgrounds in South Florida. She started the company with her husband Todd but has since taken over and made it her career. She started the company when she went to buy a home playground for her kids and saw how expensive they were. Her and her husband ended up building their own for less than half the cost it would be to buy one and saw an opportunity. They both enjoyed the process of planning and building the playground and since Todd has a background in carpentry, they were able to build it relatively quickly. 

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

Domain Expert: Although this isn't the same type of company per se,  she does however have connections to manufacturers of plastic slides which could give me insight as to how that process works. The plastic slides she uses in her playgrounds are made out of the same material as most kayaks so it would be useful to know where to start looking for someone who could manufacture my product.

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

   Todd and Sue are very close family friends of mine and I have known them since I was born. I have seen their company take off and have seen some of their work in pictures. I asked my Dad for Sue's number and contacted her over the phone to talk to her a little bit more about her business. 

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

   I have helped Sue in the past picking up certain items that she needed for a couple projects so she was glad to help me with my research and this class. 

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

   I think having her in my network could potentially help me get my product shell manufactured because of the connections she has and her knowledge on the manufacturing industry. I don't really know anything about this aspect of the company so I think even if her manufactures wouldn't be able to help me, they might know a company who could. 

Richard Perez 

1) Who they are and what their background is.

   Richard Perez is the owner of a kayak rental company in the Florida Keys. He bought the company in 2012 and has since been running it along with his son Jose. They run the day to day operations including the marketing aspect of the company as well as the rentals and tours. 

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

   Market Expert: Richard was the first person I thought of when I saw this assignment because he has a lot of experience with different brands of kayaks and what the customers that he works with would want. He said that he has about 150 customers a day during the high season so he has a lot of knowledge on a specific subgroup that could potentially use my product. 

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

   I met Richard over spring break when I visited key largo with a few of my friends. We did a day tour with his son Jose and got to talking about kayaks and how he got into being a tour guide in the keys. I contacted his dad Richard over the phone and told him about this class and the product that I came up with. 

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

   I really enjoyed my time out on the water with Jose and I think positive word of mouth is very good for companies like his. He talked to me about his company and how he chooses the brands of kayaks and for what reasons and in return I will definitely tell people to visit his rental company if they're in the keys. I also posted a few pictured on my social media accounts while I was there and had tagged the company in the post. 

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

   I think the knowledge he has of owning a rental company in the keys would help me be able to come in contact with companies like his in order to sell some of my products to them. They would be able to rent my product out to customers for an additional fee and profit from it as well. 

Lacey Scout 

1) Who they are and what their background is.

   Lacey Scout is a saleswoman for Pelican Kayaks. She goes around to different companies such as Dick's Sporting Goods and kayak rental companies to try and sell the Pelican brand. 

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

   Supplier: She fills this slot because she has hands on experience with selling kayaks to different companies.

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

   I emailed Pelican at the beginning of this week asking them to put me in touch with one of their sales teams so that I could interview them for a project I had. They emailed back with Lacey's information and said that she was based in Jacksonville, Florida. I then emailed her and later spoke to her over the phone. 

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

   We spoke for about 20 minutes about her work and how she sells Pelican Kayaks to both retail companies and startup rental companies. Although she did me the favor of giving me insight into the sales portion of this industry, she didn't expect anything in return and was happy to provide some of the information I needed. 

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

   Having someone who knows sales in the industry is especially important because that is the biggest issue involved in selling a product. If you don't know how to get your brand out there, you won't make it as a company. 

Reflect: 

   I think this networking experience gave me insight as to how to target the people you would like in your network. Every other networking experience I have had has been with random people that don't really have too much in common with what I aspire to do with my life. I think that was an important skill to learn because it allows you to focus on networking with people who could help you in the field that you want.