Growing My Social Capital

Domain Expert: 

Randy Etman is a National Account Manager for SemaConnect, which is a nationwide company that is a provider of electric vehicle amenities, such as car charging stations and assistance. He is in charge of sales for the state of Florida, and is based in Orlando. I would say he fills the domain expert position because he the company he works for deals with multiple aspects of the car charging stations for electric vehicles and they sell these products to both commercial and residential clients. I found Randy, by searching a combination of Google and LinkedIn connecting him by email and direct message on LinkedIn. He provided me with insight into how people go about the process of purchasing charging stations and maintaining them through SemaConnect, and he did not expect anything in return, while providing this information. I now have the ability to connect with him through email or phone if I have anymore questions regarding my concept and the process from here on out, therefore, being able exploit this connection for future opportunities. 

Market Expert: 

Tim Swazey is one of the Sales Manager of Gainesville Nissan. He is in charge of supervision and direction of the sales team at Gainesville Nissan. I would say he is my market expert because I was able to learn a lot of information from him over my target audience in regards to owns and who are looking for electric vehicles in the Gainesville area. I found Tim by researching the car dealerships in Gainesville about a month ago, and who dealt with the selling of electric vehicles. I called Gainesville Nissan, and did a general inquiry of what I was looking for,  and they set me up with Tim. Furthermore, I told him what what kind of information I was looking for, and what I could do in order to find out more about my target audience. He then spent sometime explaining what a typical customer of electric vehicles does when purchasing one, and the method they go about, which was very sharp information and exactly what I was looking for.  He was more than willing to provide me with additional information anytime I would need it, and he did not expect anything in return. I believe I would be able to go back to him and update him on my idea for the target audience and see what type of feedback he would for it, thus, exploiting Tim to enhance my business concept.

Supplier Expert:

I was unable to find a supplier expert for my business concept, as no one returned my request for information. However, I do believe that Randy Etman and SemaConnect would fall under this category as well because not only is this company a domain expert that knows the electric vehicle industry very well, but also supplies products and services to individuals from electric vehicle charging stations to mobile apps for their clients to track information on these stations. 

Reflection: 

This was an excellent experience that helped me gain more networking experience for the future, and show that it is not as difficult as I thought it would be. I believe this has shown me that if you go out of your way and make attempts to contact people you would not have beforehand, and explain to them what you are trying to do more than likely they will be willing to help out. Also, I believe showing initiative helped as well. Furthermore, I differently believed this experience differed from my previous networking experiences because this time I had to put a lot more effort in and personally contact this individuals in order to get a response, and I did not have this set up, for instance, like a networking fair at UF.