24A – Venture Concept No. 1 

Got the Blues Cafe

During my discovery of Butterfly Pea flower, a Southeast Asian plant that has antioxidant and anti-cancerous healing properties, I was registering myself for this class. At first, it was given to me as a gift to use in teas and flavored water. This is when I fell in love with its beautiful color and started to look into it online. Then I conducted a small science experiment with this flower for an assignment and learned a lot about its potential as an enticing food product because it changes color due to acidity which is really cool. I also realized that nobody knew about this flower other than me and people constantly were attracted to it and asked me about it. 

This made me realize the opportunity that I had with this plant to open up a small cafe of my own with a complete line of blue products such as milkshakes, icecreams, pastries, coffee beverages and other beverages. The unmet need is tasty, sweet, and relatively quick options for people that deal with allergies or dietary preferences. I have noticed an overwhelming amount of healthy, vegan, active, and fit students on and around campus that are interested in a good diet. My opportunity is to exploit a low-key food trend as a natural food dye to enhance foods (visually and naturally) in favor of dietary aware or restricted people. The unmet need is tasty, sweet, and relatively quick food options for people that deal with allergies or have dietary preferences. My shop would be located near school to target the increasing number of young students that care about their health but that need to compromise either their health, their wallets, or their taste buds most of the time.

This business idea is innovative because it isn't a new flower at all. This flower has been used for a very long time in other countries for cosmetic, dietary, and healing purposes. However, the flower has made a return and natural dye is taking over the food industry over artificial coloring. This flower contains anthocyanin which is the flavanoid that causes this array of pigments which can range from yellow, red, teal, blue, purple, violet, and pink. Effecting the pH of the solution can cause color changes and due to the internet people have been spreading this around because it looks so nice. I have seen a lot of pinterest posts about it because people really appreciate the aesthetic of it. Many businesses and people have discovered this lately and have been using it to create mocktails and blue lemonade and other things.

My venture concept is to target young and excited people to care (or continue caring) about their health while also indulging in delicious treats that make you feel good. I am using Butterfly Pea flower, a very feminine and sensitive flower, as my main resource to do this. This creates unison and binds the concept throughout. I am using this opportunity as a way to create a community of people that want to share health conscious, locally talented, and aesthetically appreciative times together. I will use my store as a venue and opportunity for cool events and provide a space for people to meet others, study, and enjoy something healthy. People will care because it will be one of the few places to indulge in sweets and grab a coffee while staying healthy and possibly having a cute new location to study. People will pay money for my products because it will be so visually enticing due to its blue and purple hues along with the fact that there aren't that many places around here to get yummy and guilt-free items. Many people (especially students) have dietary restrictions now and there is an increasing number of students that care about fitness and wellness. People that recognize a gluten-free, soy-free, and vegan kitchen and its rarity will spend their money at Got the Blues. 

I believe my most important resource would be my healthy supplies and ingredients that I get from my suppliers because this was my point with coming up with this venture. Healthy options need to be more accessible and the cute store is the vessel/tool in which I will use to supply the products to people. The fact that all my ingredients will be healthy, energizing, vegan, gluten-free, egg-free, and soy-free is what makes this concept so valuable and that'll be thanks to my suppliers that I can really trust and other people can trust. This is very valuable to this specific venture because we will brag about this characteristic of our business a lot. The main need we are supplying is healthy options for people and a menu that is clear and has clean ingredients! Most food & beverage items that are available have many unclear and unhealthy ingredients and usually contain high fructose corn syrup or some variation of it. The whole reason why I chose this venture is because it is too rare and difficult for people to find healthy treats easily with vegan ingredients. This is imitable but requires a lot of work and most places use soy or gluten or eggs in the majority of their stuff. It is difficult to get your kitchen certified organic or gluten-free and not many people would deal with that work.

I really want Got the Blues to be a meeting place where both locals and students can feel comfortable but at first I would have to focus on the social capital I have now which I am really grateful for. Since I am a sophomore my friends are heavily into social media which would be automatic marketing for me which is great. They would help me promote the shop so much and they would tell a lot of people about it because they are social butterflies. I also know a company very well that can be my first supplier and offer me good prices. My father is a business man and my mother is a doctor and health specialist which is basically the perfect combination for this business. Eventually I want to use Got the Blues as a venue for me to put on all sorts of cool events bringing people together and uniting Gainesville residents that can share this common indulgence.