Idea Napkin No. 1

1. Born and raised in Gainesville, FL, I have always been surrounded by numerous start up companies. My mother is the executive director of GAIN: Gainesville Area Innovation Network and I have been recruited on a number of occasions to volunteer and work at many of the events held. Being a college student, I am continuously surrounded by partying--which always contains endless amounts of alcohol. I have witnessed first hand on a number of occasions where my peers have exceeded their limit and turned into someone they would never recognize. This too, has happened to me on a few occasions as well.

2. I believe there is an unmet need of drinking responsibly. From the time teens enter high school, they are presented the opportunity to drink alcoholic beverages very frequently. In college, it is almost looked down upon if you don't. Now for me personally, I could care less whether someone chooses to drink or not, but I do care about their well-being if they have exceeded their limit and made it strikingly obvious. I believe to prevent this in the future, one could download an app called DrinkSmart. This app would be on your phone and would be able to track your BAC, the different types of alcohol and amounts consumed, as well as providing services to locate the cheapest and nearest taxi or Uber to get home safely.

3. The demographic that this would be offered to would be individuals of all ages. I would not make it 21+ up because I am well aware of how individuals from the ages of 14+ behave when consuming alcohol, and act much more irresponsibly. Therefore, I would be targeting 'drinkers' and these people all have in common the same thing--the desire to consume alcohol in a social setting.

4. I would work on making this app free to the public. I think individuals care about this because of the act of 'blacking out.' More often than not, I will wake up with text messages from my peers asking things like "What the hell happened last night?" or "You will never believe where I just woke up, save me!" Blacking out is a lot more common than most people think and is incredibly incredibly dangerous. A lot of this is dependent upon how quickly one consumes alcohol (hence, why taking a number of shots in a row will get you drunk quicker). Individuals that have experienced these black outs have a lot more trouble in the future not doing the same thing, which is why I believe this app would be beneficial and prevalent.

5. I have not done enough research to see what sets me apart from others, however I do personally have an application on my phone that will prevent me from drunk calling or texting individuals I would not make the effort to speak to sober. I believe this has been excellent in preventing me from doing so, and I feel as if creating an app to help one keep track of their limit could make the whole idea of social drinking a much more pleasurable experience.

Overall, I believe the application could have a lot of potential. However, I do feel stress in the logistics of being able to measure all of these things. I believe a lot of research would be necessary to implement it, but in the long run I believe users would find use of it, especially if they are unaware of their limit. I think another addition to the app would be the option to put in ones height and weight, and based off that give an estimate of the number of drinks they could consume, as well as the types.