Growing Your Social Capital

1)      Blaire Wolski MS, RD, LD

a.       Wolski is a licensed and registered performance dietician at the University of Florida

b.       Domain Expert – she is extremely knowledgeable in what (and when) athletes should eat to maximize their performance potential

c.       I found Blaire through the nutrition department for University of Florida athletics. I spoke with her in person at the Hawkins center (the student athlete academic building on campus).

d.       During our meeting, I explained my business concept and she gave me great feedback! I was expecting that she could help formulate meal plans for my target market – busy athletes.

e.       Including Wolski in my network will allow me to create meals that are truly fit for athlete’s dietary needs, using her extensive knowledge and expertise on performance nutrition.

2)      Jennifer Rubio

a.       Jennifer is an is a food and resource economics major with a focus in marketing at UF. She also interns for aha Pure Foods, a vegan soup company based here in Gainesville. Her duties include conducting market research for the brand, and this has helped her become greatly acquainted with health-conscious consumers in Florida.

b.       Market Expert – she has conducted market research in the health food industry

c.       I am also an intern at aha Pure Foods (I work on the creative side), so it was pretty easy to simply have a conversation with Jennifer about my business idea.

d.       I talked to Jennifer about my meal delivery service, and she offered some great insights. Our conversation was pretty quick, but she had some practical advice, especially relating to the economic side of things.

e.       As a friend and someone with a lot of knowledge on food and my market, Jennifer would readily available to assist with the logistics of exploiting this opportunity.

3)      Alfie Crescentini

a.       Alfie is the executive chef and co-founder of aha Pure Foods.

b.       Supplier – as of now, Alfie personally supplies aha Pure Foods soup to the buyers, including Lucky’s market. aha Pure Foods also ships to health-conscious consumers across the southeastern United States. The starting location of my business idea and some consumer attributes (caring about the food you put in your body, for example) overlap between aha’s target market (millennial moms) and my prototypical consumers.

c.       I met Alfie through my internship at aha Pure Foods.

d.       I explained my idea to Alfie, and he offered to answer any questions I have about starting a food based business!

e.       Having Alfie in my social network can be a great resource, as he has a wealth of knowledge about making food taste good (he is a chef!) and starting a business from the ground up.

4)      Reflection:

This networking experience was definitely different than other networking opportunities I have had in the past. Mainly, I have tried to make “professional connections” with people at career fairs, organized events, and other similar networking experiences. In these situations, I feel more like the “interviewee” than someone seeking certain information from others. This activity was also very different than connecting with people through LinkedIn or email, as you actually had a lengthy conversation with them in person.