Growing Your Social Capital

For those of you first time visitors, the idea I have come up with is that of the Variety Van- a food truck to be set up behind midtown that essentially sells cheap yet healthy food for late-night goers. My targeted market is mostly college students who have had themselves a night out or are possibly taking a break from studying at the library and are in need of a snack.

I talked to 3 separate people and have either omitted his/ her first/ last name for the sake of privacy. I asked each person the same questions:

1) Aaron
Background: Graduate student studying anthropology

Slot/ how he/ she fills the slot: Market expert- works with, teaches, and researches college students.

Description of how you found the person and contacted the person:
Aaron was my TA a couple years ago in a class so I went back through our thread of messages and emailed him.

Nature of the exchange you had with the person/ what favor did they do for you? What was the return expectation?
Aaron was happy to help since I was a former student of his.

How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?
Aaron understands how the brains of college students work, which is beneficial when they are my target audience. I want to cater to their needs.

2) Mr. Brown
Background: Employee at the hotdog stand in downtown Gainesville

Slot/ how he/ she fills the slot: Industry expert- similar to a food truck, Mr. Brown sells hot dogs to late-nighters looking for food after a night of going out.

Description of how you found the person and contacted the person: I've been to the hot dog stand before, so when I decided to stay in on a Friday night, I made a trip down there around midnight to talk to him.

Nature of the exchange you had with the person/ what favor did they do for you? What was the return expectation?
All I had to do was buy a hotdog!

How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?
Including Mr. Brown is beneficial because he's seen the drunk people, he's dealt with them, served them, etc. He knows what he's doing.

3) Mrs. Jackson
Background: Employee at Prestige Food Trucks in Orlando

Slot/ how he/ she fills the slot: Industry expert- she works at the world's leading food truck manufacturer.

Description of how you found the person and contacted the person: I googled around for a while before I came upon their website and called the toll free number and finally got put through to her .

Nature of the exchange you had with the person/ what favor did they do for you? What was the return expectation?
There was no return expectation. She was polite and friendly, but definitely had other things on her mind/ stuff to do so it wasn't a particularly long conversation.

How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?
I think this is the biggest benefit. Mrs. Jackson knows all about the process behind how a food truck works. While I have this grand idea, I haven't put too much thought into the "behind the scenes" of it all and she is the go-to person.

In participating in future networking events, I don't necessarily feel much more confident. I already knew Aaron and Mr. Brown only works at a hotdog stand. Mrs. Jackson was an operator, so I didn't really speak to anyone super high up in their field. The food truck industry is just taking off but it is definitely a more casual sort of dining. In the past I have networked with people related to telecommunications (my major), or higher-up business players (as I am studying a concentration in business administration), so this is completely different due to its casual nature.