Venture Concept No.1

The Opportunity
Here in Gainesville, we probably have the best bus system in Florida. However, this doesn't include the weekends because on the weekend here in Gainesville the bus doesn't take you anywhere after 6 p.m. and there is no guarantee that an Uber will always be cheap enough to afford. A lot of small, cheap trips will eventually add up.
For students, life doesn't stop at a certain time on the weekends and one should certainly not be forced to plan out there day with an hour of time to account for when the bus may or may not arrive. Students need reliable and stable transportation on the weekends at all times not just during the day. Sundays are the worst because after 10 p.m. it's as if the entire city has turned off in preparation for Monday. The Students of UF and many other hard working people who make work odd hours and still need reliable transportation on the weekends. RTS and Uber are not that when the weekend begins after you clock out on Friday. This is a big opportunity for another service because I believe that while it will serve the people who need to get around on the weekend currently it will also empower and persuade people to do more things on the weekends here in Gainesville because they are confident in being able to get around and get home if need be.
Innovation
A new shuttle service could be implemented to supply the market demand for travel on the weekends. I am offering a shuttle service called Swift that would run 24 hours on the weekends here in Gainesville. It would serve customers on a number of routes with 3 specific ones being considered main routes with more shuttles to decrease wait time and travel time. The shuttles will not be bigger than SNAP vans and this is because the bigger the vehicle the harder it becomes to get from point A to point B in a reasonable amount of time. The service would decrease travel wait times to at 10 mins at least and aim to get people from archer to Campus in less than 15 minutes. The shuttle would also be outfitted to have customers step into the van and sit around the inside so as to allow easier and quicker boarding and departure from stops. The shuttle would cost $2.50 per ride and it doesn't matter how far you go. Also for customers convenience each shuttle unit will be outfitted with a vending small vending machine to provide refreshments such as water and juice to help patrons better enjoy their ride and the overall experience. I would like to someday include snacks as well so that customers can feel like they are on a Jet blue plane while riding my shuttle service.
Venture Concept
The implementation of swift solves two major problems people have on the weekends. Getting around and the long wait times for the current transportation in place. Not only this but it will give students and others the opportunity to be out longer and be able to get more things done outside of the house without needing to ask a friend for a ride or relying on the bus. I believe customers will buy my innovation because though 50,000 students are enrolled here at UF not all of them have cars and those who don't could benefit from a service dedicated to getting students where they need to go at any time on the weekends. Right now most people rely on the bus and Uber if they don't have cars and after a while if that is what they deem is reliable then that is what becomes the norm. I believe I can get people to switch over to my service because Swift does not have a pricing model nor does it have surge pricing at certain times based on demand. Swift would be much faster than RTS and would be a great alternative to the later gator when it stops running at 3 and people are left downtown and at midtown to find a way home. As far as a business I would buy up a lot with a decent sized office space to run logistics of the operation. the lot will be for the shuttles when they need to be changed out and parked over the weekend and during the week. I believe I would need about 6 employees to start. First would be my financial officer who would oversee the financial state of the company and the inflow of money through transactions and so forth. Second, a tech expert who would over see our website and mobile application. Third, a communications officer that would handle all communications of the business. to compliment them I would also have a external communications officer to handle communications with customers and outside influences. Fifth I would have an advertising and marketing head for the business and last a driver supervisor who over sees the work of all the drivers, en route. I believe this is a service truly beneficial to the people of gainesville.