Growing My Social Capital

Vincent Caggiano, computer engineer, studied at UCF

 Caggiano is my domain (technical) expert. He is on the software engineering team at Spotify where his job is to maintain quality of the music service and develop new tools and features to make the product more intuitive to users. Since my product relies so heavily on the efficiency of my Jukebaux App, I need insight from someone who writes the program for similar music technology

 He is a friend of a friend who I reached out to, thinking they might know someone successful in the same computer engineering pool. And they delivered: name, email and everything. I left him an email with basically my whole pitch for this potential product and was honest about my lack of knowledge on the technical side. I then left my phone number and received a call about 2 days later! We chatted about spotify, my ideas, and computers for a while and had a grand old time. He explained the basic process and ideas behind the data and development of an app of this nature. The return expectation is i'll continue working on my project and be a loyal spotify user.

It's simple. I am not a technical expert. He is pretty darn close. I need the technical skills to make this product a reality so it'll definitely enhance my ability to exploit the opportunity.

Cisco Neri, Asst. Manager, Best Buy

My good friend Cisco will have to do for the slot of my market expert. I thought that Best Buy would be a retailer most likely to carry my product, and that also knows a lot about how relevant customers behave. He is competent and knows how the store operates, so he could enlighten me on the finer points.

I found him hanging out at another friends house and we've been boys ever since. For the purposes of this assignment though, I met him for lunch and explained what i was thinking and why I needed his help. 

Our exchange was pleasant. Initially, we talked a lot about girls. Then the conversation turned serious and he helped me understand what I was looking for. He explained what it takes for Best Buy to carry a certain product line, and also told me the latest trends in what customers want from the music industry. 

Knowing this person is beneficial because I would intend to sell my product to Best Buy for retail.

John Mirsky, customer service, Bluetooth

I was sort of at a loss for this category, as my product is pretty specific. However, I chose this person in hopes that he could give me any info on the way bluetooth is operated and how they have grown.

I called the phone number under "contact us" on the Bluetooth website.

Our conversation was brief, polite, and not too informative. When I managed to finish my summary of why I called, all he could tell me was a short company history and info on how well the company is doing. 

This person is one way another part of the business I want to get into, but I am not sure how knowing Mr. Mirsky will personally help me.

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This experience was interesting. In the future, I know that people (depending on personality) will be of more service to you if you mention how you can help them, or if you're passionate enough about what you're doing. Yea it differed from previous networking experience by being slightly awkward and very uncertain. Thanks for reading.