Growing Your Social Capital

Brad Bao: CEO of  Lime Scooters; his background is business specifically business development. He was one of the co-founders of Lime Scooters
Filling the slot on industry expert
I knew of his company before I knew who he was. I researched the company and found on he was the CEO. I connected with him over Linkedin via a message. Him being a CEO of a huge company did not actually respond to my message which I assume would happen but I asked him about his company. I asked what determined where they launched these scooters. Not every city or town has the lime scooters so what made him choose his placement of the scooters. I also asked him how he came up with pricing of the product. He produced his product more as a leisure product for people that have a more discretionary incomes but still how did he price it to still have young professional using his product. If the connection was made with Bao it would have been a huge help to utilize his knowledge about the industry so that I can use his advice for my company.

David Hurst: Study Edge tutor
Filling the market expert spot
I knew David from Study Edge as I use study edge for business finance and he is the study expert. He would be beneficial to me as him and Study Edge all sell products to college students. I emailed David about how they entered and dominated a market full of broke college kids. He believes that most kids see their service as essential or that the student is not the one paying for the membership it is the parent who wants them to excel in school. I asked him also about marketing Study Edge because I feel like they have created such a brand at UF their tactics and strategies are working. He said they appeal to college kids as equals. Most of their employees are young, they throw parties at Swamp which appeals to college kids and they create a lot of swag. They have created shirts and pens to get their name out their to students.

Roger L Brown: CEO of Ninebot
Filling my supplier expert
I had to do research to find someone who could fill this spot. I worked backwards based off my knowledge of Lime scooters to see who their supplier was and it is Ninebot. Ninebot produces and manufactures scooters and sells them to many scooter services. I reached out to Mr. Brown via email but got no response. I wanted to know how much it cost to sell in bulk to give me my scooter to start my business. I wanted to use him as a basis for my search for my supplier of scooter. I wanted to know also the reliability of his product and why it is better than the other suppliers of electric scooters.


This was a lot harder than I expect for building my social capital, it was really hard to contact people who could give me insight on my business. They are also my competitors so I do not think they would want to help me that much as I am competing against their businesses. I did not really gain more social capital as they people never reached out to me to answer my questions. I would say that I did strengthen a weak tie I had with David from Study Edge which was neat and beneficial. This is way different than any other networking I have done, my other networking has been through business mixers and career showcase.