Growing My Social Capital

Domain Expert

1)   Dr. Jessica Robertson is a veterinarian here in Gainesville, Fl. She graduated from the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in 2010. She worked in Banfield Pet Hospital and even served as Chief of Staff. She decided to build her own practice here in Gainesville, called Robertson Animal Hospital. With a growing family of her own giving birth to her daughter, She decided to take her practice to a mobile service called Robertson mobile Vet.

2)   Dr. Robertson fills the slot of domain expert. She has extensive experience in preventative and internal medicine. She is also devoted to her work and love for animals. 

3)   I found Dr. Robertson through a friend that used to work for and volunteer at Robertson Animal Hospital. I have also met her in person since she was my pet’s veterinarian. I contacted her through phone and she was willing to help.

4)   Our phone conversation started out by her asking how my pet is doing and if there was anything she could help me with. I told her about our idea napkin and described the product as best as I could. I also told her who my targeted customer would be and gave her as much detail as I could. She thought the product was great and would help a lot of families that worry about their pets. She also mentioned how it could help save a pet’s life if it were to get lost. She really liked the idea and if it were to come out in the market she would definitely offer it or recommend it to her clients.

5)   Including Dr. Robertson in my network will enhance my ability to seize this opportunity because it is something that as an expert in the field really reassures potential customers to get this product. She is someone who can judge whether the product would be good or bad for his or her animals. People appreciate an expert’s opinion.

Market Expert

1)   Theo Saroukos is the manager at one of the Walgreens stores here in Gainesville. He has been with Walgreens for many years and has grown with the store. He is the hiring manager as well as the manager of all employees that work there. He has experience in customer service and considers Walgreens a one-stop convenience store.

2)   Theo is filling the slot of a market expert. Theo fills the slot of market expert because he has worked with and deals with a broad range of age groups and has picked up on certain tendencies for each age category. Theo experiences my targeted customers on a daily and knows how to work with them.

3)   I met Theo through a friend that works in Walgreens. I contacted him through phone and then went to the store and talked with him.

4)   I told Theo about my idea napkin and told him how he would fit into this assignment. He was happy to collaborate and walked me through a regular day. He also agreed that I had picked good target customers for my product. He sees them on a regular basis and could see them purchasing the product for their pet.

5)   Including Theo in my network will enhance my ability to seize this opportunity because Theo is someone that could teach me a lot about customer service. He also knows how to appeal to the customers needs and make the product more attractive to them.    

Supplier

1)   Karrie Underwood is the current practice manager at Banfield Pet Hospital. Her past experiences include assistant store manager at Coldwater Creek, senior assistant store manager at charming Charlie, service and training manager at Gap Inc.

2)   Karrie is filling the supplier slot. She is filling the supplier slot because she works directly with animal medicine and is the person in charge of maintaining and ordering the appropriate medicine. The tracking device has to be implanted in a safe and sterile environment with the appropriate personnel implanting the device in the animal. Through Karrie, Banfield Pet Hospital would be one of many veterinary hospitals that would sell this GPS tracking device.

3)   I found Karrie through a friend that told me they were hiring in Banfield Pet Hospital. I went in for an interview and met Karrie and had the pleasure of working with her for a short period of time. I contacted her by showing up to Banfield Pet Hospital and talking to her.

4)   I started by telling Karrie about the class and the idea I had come up with. I took the idea napkin number two and let her read through it and answer any questions she had. She asked about the price and how it would work with satellite. In my first idea napkin I had set a price but thinking about it in more detail I am unsure of the price point. She suggested something in the ranges from $80-$150, on the lower end, depending on how difficult or easy it is to create the tracking chip. She stated that I had picked good-targeted customer demographics and was on the right path with the idea. Although, she liked the idea she told me that she would not be surprised if someone was already working on a similar idea with the current microchips.

5)   Including Karrie in my network will enhance my ability to seize this opportunity because she is someone that could get me to the main suppliers of veterinary medicine. She is also someone who has a business that I could offer my product too. Although, she would not be the main source she is a start and someone that could help me meet and get to the right people.

This experience shaped how I participate in any future networking events because now I know that I need to do research and come ready to answer questions and listen to different perspectives people might have. I also learned that knowing the right people could take you a long way. Being able to know whom to talk to is key in growing your social capital. This networking experience differed with networking experiences in the past because for this experience we were looking at a potential product. It was much more in-depth than what I had done in the past.