Growing Your Social Capital

1. Domain Expert: Bay Islands Coffee Owners

• Who they are and what their background is? 
• Bay Islands Coffee is a small, local coffee shop in Gainesville and the owner was nice enough to have a conversation with me. 
• How did I find this person? 
• By being a loyal customer of Bay Islands Coffee. 
• What was the nature of the exchange? 
• Bay Islands Coffee is one of the only places in Gainesville I've found that offers Coffee Ice Cubes on their menu. I asked how successful they are on the menu and about how many they sell a day. The owner said that the Coffee Cubes are more popular with the regulars because not everyone knows that they offer them. 
• How will having this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?
• They've already had their opportunity to exploit the Coffee Cubes at their own business and they've done well for them. Being able to ask someone who has already taken my idea and implemented it into their own business model is super helpful. It allows me insight on how customers react to having the opportunity to purchase coffee cubes for their iced coffee.  

2. Market expert: Starbucks worker 

• Who they are and what their background is? 
• My friend that has been working at Starbucks for almost 5 years. 
• How did I find this person?
• I've known them since we were little, so I figured they would be very honest with me and they work in one of the biggest Coffee shops in the country. 
• What was the nature of the exchange? 
• I basically just told him my idea and how I wanted them to be offered in grocery stores in addition to being implemented into other coffee shops. He actually told me that he has received a few complaints before from customers about either their being too much ice in their drink and it tasting basically like water, or by the time they finish half of their large drink, the ice is melted. 
• How will having this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity? 
• Talking to my friend that has worked in a Coffee Shop for about 5 years was great help in terms of realizing exactly what customers like and dislike and if they would even be interested in having Coffee Cubes implemented into their coffee routine. 

3. Supplier: Coffee distributors 

• Who they are and what their background is? 
• Places around Gainesville, like Karma Cream and Volta Coffee have the same coffee distributors. I realized this one day while out and I could smell the brewing coffee nearby. I stumbled upon the Coffee distributor location and tried to go in to buy a cup of coffee. They looked at me a little funny and informed me that I was not at a coffee shop. Anyway when I called to talk to them, they remembered who I was. 
• How did I find this person? 
• On accident. 
• What was the nature of the exchange? 
• I asked them about the distributing process and they informed me that because they are so local, it is easy to distribute the coffee around to local shops in Gainesville. 
• How will having this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity? 
• It was nice to talk to someone on the back end of things and see how the whole process actually plays out.