June 19, 2014
With a small splash, last Saturday morning, AlligatorZone got started in an elegant library that recently underwent a multi-million dollar expansion, tucked away in a beautiful neighborhood in Valrico, Florida, about 30 minutes east of downtown Tampa Bay. Here is a pictorial report on the first ever AlligatorZone.
Chief Librarian Margaret Rials, of the Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative (HCPLC.org) welcomes members of the community to the first ever AlligatorZone, as the first presenting entrepreneur Jess Rasemont of RasemontGardens.com, (what we describe as an organic-garden-as-a-service company) prepares for her presentation in the background.
About alligators and grass, rather AlligatorZone and Grassroots.
AlligatorZone is just another step in a fascinating journey of programming brought to the public library in a grassroots fashion – based on the need felt by the community. First, there was the CoderDojo Tampa Bay Area which launched back in May 2013 with the help of selfless volunteers from the programming community to nurture the next generation of developers; the program grew within a year from one library location to 6 locations in 3 counties, serving about 300 parents every other week. Effectively, each month 12 classes are held to teach kids to code. The positive economic impact of this program will be experienced by the community within 5 to 10 years as these kids become teenagers and young contributors to the economy of the area. It is the only educational program that we know of, where a parent sits alongside the child, sometimes even learning with the child.
With AlligatorZone, it was the community of entrepreneurs who have a genuine need for getting fresh perspectives from members of the community about their business – both, risks and opportunities that the entrepreneurs usually miss because they are too preoccupied with their original vision and mission, and dare not stray from. However, as the presenting startups at the inaugural AlligatorZone realized, members of the audience provided them with suggestions on target markets whose needs they hadn’t considered, suggestions on advertising avenues they hadn’t considered, and some in the audience asked questions that helped the entrepreneurs rethink how they communicated their value proposition, their business model and their pricing models to the common member of the public.
How the Community Gathered Around the Entrepreneurs.
AlligatorZone’s debut session in Valrico, Florida featured three entrepreneurs, and the audience consisted of moms, dads, grandparents, teachers, working professionals from the fields of finance and marketing, teenagers, elementary school kids and other entrepreneurs. Yes, an investor also showed up, listened and left impressed.
An engaged audience of members of the community hear out Jess Rasemont as she describes RasemontGarden.com.
Each startup received various forms of feedback and suggestions, even offers for help to promote their service through resources where the audience members enjoyed access. Jess Rasemont is seen here talking to an audience member.
Pat Bhava of PikMyKid.com prepares to show an animated video to members of the community gathered at AlligatorZone on June 14, 2014 at the Bloomingdale Regional Public Library in Valrico, Florida.
PikMyKid.com founders Pat and Chitra continue to obtain feedback from school teacher Lorien Mattiacci who was a member of the audience, and had driven close to an hour to be at AlligatorZone.
Travis Russi talked about StuffHub, his app for selling/buying through trusted personal contacts.
Travis Russ, creator of StuffHub chats after the AlligatorZone session with Alfred Urena, a technology marketing professional, who also volunteers as the lead mentor at New Tampa Regional Public Library CoderDojo teaching kids to code.
Birds and Alligators, of course
Here are some tweets from AlligatorZone that could give you a feel for the session.
Thanks to the incredible support of @TampaHillsLib team from behind the scenes with @alligatorzone @HillsboroughFL pic.twitter.com/8OyGDRZkgS
— AlligatorZone (@alligatorzone)
#teens in audience at @alligatorzone debut session offered valuable tips to #startups @tamphillslib @HillsboroughFL pic.twitter.com/yOwIsDM7cf
— SiliconGlades (@SiliconGlades)
The Fringe Benefits For Startups in the AlligatorZone
Among the unplanned benefits of presenting a startup at AlligatorZone turned out to be the visibility they enjoyed in the media and in web searches. Pat Bhava of PikMyKid.com pointed us to the organic search results that were an outcome of their startup’s participation, by sending us this link: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=pikmykid&start=30
Alexandra Booth kindly took the time to write the story of AlligatorZone in the community newspaper Osprey Observer which we believe reaches 30,000 households in the vicinity of the library.
Building Best Practices for AlligatorZone
We are taking several of the lessons learned from the inaugural session of AlligatorZone and designing best practices for startups in AlligatorZone. We have identified interesting startups to present at the next AlligatorZone of July 12, 2014 at the same location. Sign up at http://AlligatorZone.eventbrite.com and stop by with your friends and family. Show your kids how inspiring entrepreneurs in their own community are! Follow AlligatorZone on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AlligatorZone.
