20A

1. Domain expert: My first expert is named Terrence Blackburn. He has been in the telecommunications industry for more than 10 years. He works for Kamco, a company that operates many AT&T stores. Terrance is a person that  has been close to me in some way but at the same time he didn’t. I did not know him until a friend of mine gave me his contact details. My friend told me that his dad used to buy products in South Florida for his pharmaceutical company . In one of the many yearly conventions these companies have , Terrance was selling phone plans to people that we're attending the convention. He somehow found a way of grabbing my friend’s dad's attention. My friend told me that he was offering good corporate phone plans and that his dad did not think twice when he grabbed his offer. The exchange relationship with him is mostly profesional. He is just making a favor a client of his by helping me with this assignment. Including this person will enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity because he might be able to  share some of the knowledge he has with me. His knowledge in communications also extends to internet connection since his AT&T stores also offer those kinds of services.
2. Market expert: My market expert is called Millie Navarro. She worked for 5 years for a telecommunications company in my home country(Honduras is my country and Tigo is the name of the company). She has a Bachelor's in Communications and a master's in marketing. When she worked for this telecommunications company she was part of the marketing department. Similar to a company like AT&T, this company offers phone plans and internet services. Her job was to target segments and create marketing campaigns to attract them. I got Millie’s contact when I asked some friends if they knew someone with experience with marketing in a telecommunications company. My exchange with this person is also professional. Since I got to know her through a friend of mine, I don’t think she expects something from me. However since she is helping with this assignment she might ask something from me in the future. Including this network to exploit this opportunity will help me a lot. She has experience in marketing and she even has a degree. More importantly, she has work experience on how to market people when selling internet services.
3. Supplier expert: Telecommunication companies do not have suppliers when it comes to their services. What they have are technicians. My expert on this part is called Fabio Gonzalez. Fabio is a technician that assists businesses when they have internet connection problems(Fabio also works for Tigo, the largest telecommunications company in Honduras). Fabio has more than 7 years of being a technician. One of the tasks of his job is to visit local homes and companies to help them find solutions when their internet connections are not working. Again, I had to use my current social capital to get to know new people. Fabio,  was kind enough to respond to my emails when I contacted him. The nature of the exchange I have with Fabio is professional. He is willing to help me because a client of the company he works for asked for his help. This for sure will benefit him. Including this person in my network will enhance my business because of his knowledge. He has so much experience from being a technician that he knows the reasons why an internet connection might stop working. More importantly, he even knows how to fix it. If I want to provide good customer service to my clients this is one way to do it.
Reflection: This assignment reminded me why our social capital is so important. In the idea napkin, I mentioned that my business concept can be real because of my social capital. By knowing these experts on telecommunications, my business concept is getting closer to getting real. Networking is one of the most important things. Networking is one of the reasons I’m at the University of Florida because I’m here to get a degree and to know people. We don’t know how important our networks can be until we need a favor from them. This assignment will shape me when I attend networking events because maybe in the future when I open my startups I can give them a call. This networking experience was not different in comparison to my past networking experiences. I have done this kind of networking in an internship I did in 2018. One of the ways to get suppliers was to email and call people. Emailing and calling people was one of the ways I expanded my social capital in the past.