Growing Your Social Capital- 20A

1. Ed Buckley

• Who they are and what their background is.
• Ed Buckley is the CEO of Peerfit. He is also one of the cofounders of Peerfit. He has a Digital Health PhD from UF. While studying at UF, Ed was a personal trainer. He initially created Peerfit to digitalize training programs to make it easier to send to clients and keep track of workouts.
• Which slot they fill and how they fill it.
• Ed Buckley is a domain expert in the industry I have chosen. Since Ed is the CEO of Peerfit, a company that creates a universal gym membership for employers to connect their employees with a multitude of fitness experiences, he fits this slot perfectly. Although Ed targets employers and gyms. He is still connecting individuals to different gyms. By doing so he is creating a healthier world. 
• Description of how you found the person and contacted them.
• I found the company, Peerfit, through crunchable.com. After finding the company I emailed them requesting an interview with Ed Buckley. One of the company representatives scheduled the interview for me. 
• The nature of the exchange you have with the person- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation?
• During my interview with Ed Buckley we spoke about his company, Peerfit, and my business plan. Ed described to me how his company started and then ultimately switched paths to the one they are today. Initially Peerfit was targeted towards individuals but now it is targeted to employers. After hearing my business plan, Ed describes to be the positives and negatives of it. He also gave me tips to improve it such as doing research on successful and unsuccessful apps in the recent years. Ed helped me reevaluate my business plan and find new developments for it. Ed did not expect anything in return, however from doing this interview, I can potentially spread his company for him and act as a marketing tool. 
• How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?
• Ed Buckley has been in the industry for approximately 7 years. He has experience dealing with the customer base and knows their buying behaviors. He was able to share some advice with me that has allowed me to exploit the opportunity better by understanding my customer base a little better.

2. Victor

• Who they are and what their background is.
• Victor is a a strength training coach. His brother, Frank, and him have an Instagram named "twinzpeakfitness." On it they share tips about strength training and is free to the public. They also have training programs which is personalized for everyone after a 10 minute interview with them. 
• Which slot and how they fit it.
• They will fill the slot of a person that is an expert in my market. They fit this spot because the target similar individuals. They target anyone who goes to the gym. Since their programs are designed based on the individual, it caters to anyone that goes to the gym, such as my app. 
• Description of how you found the person and contacted them.
• I found them through Instagram. They reached out to me to ask me questions about my fitness journey. While we talked I asked them about my app. We talked over direct messaging on Instagram. 
• The nature of the exchange you have with the person- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation?
• During our conversation, we initially talked about ourselves. We both described how we got into fitness and our aspirations. Then we spoke about how we try to better ourselves and how we were contributing to the fitness world. I then asked them the to give me feedback on my app design. They stated that it was an excellent idea and that I should go for it. By taking action I can modify the app to counter any negatives. Since we created a relationship neither of us expect anything in return from each other. However we believe that we can always ask the other person to help out if needed. 
• How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?
• Victor is a strength training coach that specialized in online training. Therefore he has many clients nationwide who go to gyms and he also works at a gym. Through him I can promote my app nationwide as he can mention it to his clients who are looking for training partners. 

3. Anthony

• Who they are and what their background is.
• Anthony is the owner of a clothing called KrookedKings. His clothing is designed and targeted to fitness individuals. 
• Which slot and how they fit it.
• Anthony fills the slot of a person who is an important supplier in my industry. My app will include a store section in which individuals can purchase supplements, gear and clothing. Since Anthony owns a fitness clothing company he fits the slot as a supplier. 
• Description of how you found the person and contacted them.
• I found Anthony and his brand through Instagram. An athlete I followed was wearing one of his shirts and I liked it. I then reached out to Anthony to talk about his brand.
• The nature of the exchange you have with the person- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation?
• During our conversation, Anthony talked to me about his brand and why he does it. We spoke about loyalty to a brand and why one should stick to the original design of the company, as in don't change the culture of it. We do not expect anything in return from each other, however I hope to be able to work with Anthony in the future as I am going to be representing his brand at my next powerlifting meet.
• How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?
• By including Anthony in my network I have someone that is an example of staying true to his beliefs. This will help he success of my business because if I am able to exploit the opportunity and become successful that will in part be a result of the beliefs I established. By staying true to it I can continue to exploit the opportunity because my customers will remain loyal if I do not go back on my own beliefs. 

Reflection

• This assignment has taught me how to target individuals when trying to network. When I came to college I had the idea that I needed to form some sort of relationship with as many people as I can. As a result when I went to an internship fair I talked to every booth. For this assignment I spoke to individuals that I found were relevant to my app. For example I have never heard of PeerFit but I found them when doing this assignment by researching the industry. I realized that that is most likely a mistake because every internship was different from one another. Instead I should've found one that relates to my interests the most and get to know that person. From now own whenever I am networking, I will be looking for individuals who share similar beliefs or are doing what I want to do.