This business plan is centered around the creation of a digital marketplace that will promote small businesses and sustainable shopping habits throughout the community and beyond. Our business decisions will be guided by our vision which involves encouraging environmentally conscious shopping habits, supporting small artists, and raising money for charity without compromising quality. In addition to our focus on creating a social media-based digital marketplace, we aim to ultimately help local artists grow their businesses and further support the causes they care about.

For our Founders Lab Thesis Project, we are investigating the viability of a cryptocurrency that will be marketed towards students, prospective students, alumni, and faculty members of Arizona State University (ASU). Our cryptocurrency is known as “Hippocampus”. Essentially, individuals within the target audience will have the opportunity to exchange their fiat money for our university-affiliated cryptocurrency. These individuals will be incentivized to utilize the university-affiliated cryptocurrency as opposed to fiat money, because this cryptocurrency will offer them discounts on college-related expenses, such as tuition, student loans, textbooks, supplies, on-campus housing, on-campus dining, and much more. As the demand for Hippocampus increases, so will its value, which will benefit ASU as a whole. We created a Spring 2022 Semester Survey and surveyed a sample of 250 ASU students regarding the viability of our Founders Lab Thesis Project. 73.2% of participants revealed that they would support a university-affiliated cryptocurrency, and 62% of participants revealed that they would personally utilize a university-affiliated cryptocurrency. Additional activities that we completed to enhance our Founders Lab Thesis Project include interviewing an avid cryptocurrency user, learning about the Blockchain Research Lab, meeting with a financial advisor to understand the financial implications of a university-affiliated cryptocurrency, collaborating with a group of university students at Portland State University who implemented their own university-affiliated cryptocurrency, and touring a cryptocurrency-mining company to grasp an understanding of how cryptocurrency is mined.

Transportation around campus on time is crucial for in-person college students looking to succeed in their studies. Unfortunately, inequities have arisen between the ability of able-bodied students to get to and from class and permanently or temporarily disabled students looking to do the same. ASU’s solution to this problem, the Disability Access and Resource Transportation (DART) service, does adequately address the needs of its targeted customers properly. Unfortunately, student surveys and anecdotal evidence from students’ lived experiences have demonstrated that DART often leaves students waiting for more than half an hour for a ride, causes students to miss class, and is altogether unreliable in today’s age where punctuality is key to success. Our goal in our thesis project was to create an equal on-campus transportation playing field for students with and without mobility issues so that a students’ ability to get around campus would never serve as a hindrance to his/her ability to, at a minimum, earn a degree; ideally empowering all students to thrive regardless of their personal circumstances.

It is estimated that anywhere from 30 to 60 percent of athletes experience performance anxiety (Rowland, D. L., & van Lankveld, J., 2019). Currently, there are very few solutions on the market to help athletes prevent performance anxiety besides typical cognitive-behavioral therapy solutions. ITZ Technologies is using NASA-patented technology to combat performance anxiety in elite athletes. This technology includes reading brain activity through electroencephalography and utilizing biofeedback through an engaging augmented reality game to help athletes recognize when they are “out of the zone” and help them reduce their performance anxiety. This product will be marketed to facilities that train high-level athletes to provide training services to their athletes. Surveys and interviews with athletes and those in the sports performance industry have shown favorable feedback on the device concept.

The purpose of this thesis was to analyze the social media marketing strategies of Goldvana, a recently launched startup who provides a nanotech-enhanced CBD brand, analyze the survey data from over 930 respondents, and make recommendations for Goldvana to improve its social media marketing strategy going forward. After overviewing the science and efficacy of CBD, its legal background, industry trends, and best practices, this thesis will review Goldvana’s offerings, differentiation, and previous social media strategies. Then, this thesis analyzes the data of a qualtrics survey sent to 933 respondents. Among the most interesting trends found were consumers’ heavy prioritization of the credibility of CBD brands, the suggested benefits that consumers were most strongly influenced by (stress relief, pain relief, headache relief), the strong preference of Instagram as a platform to engage with brands on, and significant correlations between CBD use and which benefits of CBD (as well as unique benefits of Goldvana) that consumers consider in their purchasing decision. After analyzing the primary data, industry trends, and best practices, I make three categories of recommendations for Goldvana to revamp its current social media marketing strategy. These recommendations include new tactics for our content strategy, insight on how rebranding may benefit Goldvana, and ideas to install advertisement campaigns that are compliant with the guidelines of both social media platforms and the FDA.

The purpose of this thesis was to analyze the social media marketing strategies of Goldvana, a recently launched startup who provides a nanotech-enhanced CBD brand, analyze the survey data from over 930 respondents, and make recommendations for Goldvana to improve its social media marketing strategy going forward. After overviewing the science and efficacy of CBD, its legal background, industry trends, and best practices, this thesis will review Goldvana’s offerings, differentiation, and previous social media strategies. Then, this thesis analyzes the data of a qualtrics survey sent to 933 respondents. Among the most interesting trends found were consumers’ heavy prioritization of the credibility of CBD brands, the suggested benefits that consumers were most strongly influenced by (stress relief, pain relief, headache relief), the strong preference of Instagram as a platform to engage with brands on, and significant correlations between CBD use and which benefits of CBD (as well as unique benefits of Goldvana) that consumers consider in their purchasing decision. After analyzing the primary data, industry trends, and best practices, I make three categories of recommendations for Goldvana to revamp its current social media marketing strategy. These recommendations include new tactics for our content strategy, insight on how rebranding may benefit Goldvana, and ideas to install advertisement campaigns that are compliant with the guidelines of both social media platforms and the FDA.