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This week, we have two updates on ideas we covered earlier: a five-star hotel for cars and green home cleaning services; two new products: a locating device and bio-degradable flower pots; and two innovative web services: one that tracks concerts and another that hopes to harness the power of crowds to develop and manufacture new products. Our next edition is due on 13 December 2006. In the meantime, check out our daily postings on www.springwise.com, send us your tips, and please don't forget to tell your friends and colleagues about us. Much appreciated! |
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Tourfilter is one of those innovative new business ideas that came about because a smart entrepreneur wanted to solve a personal problem. Founder Chris Marstall kept missing gigs by bands he liked, and needed an easy way to track concert listings. When he couldn't find anything user-friendly or complete enough, he built his own service. The concept is simple: a user sets up a (free) account, picks his/her own city, and then enters all of the bands he or she would like to see in concert. Twice a day, Tourfilter's software crawls through live music venue listings for each city it covers. If it comes across a band people are tracking, it sends them an email, and lets them receive show updates via RSS or iCal. Entering a list of bands is fast and easy, with the system giving instant recommendations based on other users' lists. Users can also listen to thousands of MP3 and RealAudio tracks by bands with upcoming shows, and browse recent music blog listings, organized by band. Not in a hurry to make money with Tourfilter, Marstall isn't very focused on revenue generation. Of course, it isn't hard to imagine this type of service bringing in money. Recording artists are seeing concerts as a much bigger source of income than CD sales, so advertising would be an obvious start, as well as add-on services such as sms/text-alerts or ticket sales. Great example of simplifying and streamlining information, of using technology to service local markets at low cost. And of an entrepreneur building a service for the fun of it, without focussing on immediate returns. Do what you love, and the rewards will follow ;-). Website: www.tourfilter.com Spotted by: zBiz.tv |
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The Loc8tor is a combination of radio-frequency emitting tags and a cellphone-sized signal decoder. Both tags and handheld transmit and receive radio signals. Each handheld device can monitor up to 24 tags, which can be attached to keys, kids, pets and anything else of value that has a tendency to get lost. When registering new tags, users can specify what they will be attached to: 'Wallet', 'Favourite child', 'Prize-winning Poodle', etc. The system has a maximum range of 183 meters/600 feet, and the handheld will guide its holder to within 2.5 cm/1 inch of the lost possession, using fully directional signals: left, right, up and down. (Particularly useful when kitty-cat is hiding in the attic.) Not just for finding things, Loc8tor's alert mode also makes it easy to prevent them from becoming lost. Attach a tag to a child, and then set a safety zone. If the child strays beyond a specified distance, the Loc8tor sounds an alarm. The panic tag also acts as an alarm button that a tagged child can press to activate an alert on the Loc8tor. Obviously, as stated by Loc8tor, this isn't a replacement for parental supervision. ;-) For business purposes, Loc8tor offers an asset protection system, which can monitor up to 6,000 tags. Suggested use includes monitoring keys within a building and tagging items considered vulnerable to theft: laptops, cellphones and warehouse stock. A new and innovative product, Loc8tor is currently only available for sale online -- a basic locating pack goes for GBP 59.99/USD 99.99/EUR 89.99, while the locate and alert system retails for GBP 99.99/USD 179.99/EUR 149.99. One to contact for wholesale and distribution deals! For more 'Lost & found in the 21st century', check out these tracking systems that we previously covered: Bak2u, Stuffbak, TrackitBack, Postbak. Website: www.loc8tor.co.uk |
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Coming to the rescue of eco-friendly gardeners whose choice was previously limited to stoneware or cheap plastic pots and planters, EcoForms of Santa Rosa, California developed attractive sustainable pots. EcoForm pots are made from by-products of renewable and sustainable crops, namely grain husks (primarily rice hulls) and natural binding agents (a combination of starch based, water soluble binders and biodegradable additives). Under average use and conditions, they'll last five years and are freeze and thaw resistant. Once discarded into a landfill, decomposition will take place, with the products breaking down into nutrient-rich organic matter with a PH value of 7.0. Combining sustainability with eco-chic, the pots have a smooth finish and come in a variety of shapes and natural colours, in both decorative and grower lines. The products were developed by Sweetwater Nurseries in cooperation with an Asian manufacturing partner. EcoForm is currently only available on the West Coast of the United States, sold at nurseries and green-minded retailers such as Whole Foods. Similar products are being developed and manufactured by British Earth Buddy, Canadian BioPot and Australian EnviroArc. However, sales networks are limited and this sounds like a growth market in every sense of the word. EcoForms welcomes enquiries from wholesalers, as well as custom orders from buyers interested in developing proprietary designs, styles, trays or colours. Website: www.ecoforms.com Spotted by: Marsha L. |
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In March, we covered a five star hotel for cars: The Engine Room in Belgium. Besides offering secure and swanky warehouse storage for members' automotive treasures, the Engine Room is also a private club. Recently, the engine people added a third offering: The Engine Room Challenge. For annual fees ranging from EUR 15.000 to EUR 22.000, members have up to 10 weeks access to a range of exclusive cars. Automobiles to choose from include the Spyker C8, Aston Martin DB9, Rolls Royce Silver Seraph and Ferrari 456 MGTA. Membership fees cover storage, maintenance, taxes and insurance, as well as full use of the club's facilities. In short, members get all the fun of using an exclusive car, without the hassle and unexpected costs of ownership. Which will appeal to wealthy transumers, described by trendwatching.com as those consumers that are driven by experiences instead of the 'fixed', who increasingly live a transient lifestyle, freeing themselves from the bothersome aspects of permanent ownership. Although it's great to see them combining it with their other services, The Engine Room isn't the first to enter this space. An exclusive car sharing club we featured earlier is British ecurie 25, and trendwatching.com spotted a number of similar initiatives across the world: Classic Car Club, P1 Club, LuxShare Auto Club, Club Sportiva, Van Horrsen Group, Oversteer Spain and Ascari. Should give you plenty of inspiration for coming up with a fractional ownership scheme of your own ;-) Website: http://www.engineroomchallenge.be |
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What blogs, citizen journalism and YouTube have done for media, CrowdSpirit hopes to do for product development. The Scottish-French venture's focus is on harnessing the power of crowds to allow inventors and adaptors to take their products to market. By involving end-users in every aspect of a product's life-cycle, CrowdSpirit aims to set off a crowdsourced manufacturing revolution. How it works: inventors submit ideas for innovative new products and contributors submit problems for inventors to work on. Members vote, define a product's specifications, and can invest money to finance development. After a first prototype has been created, selected members test and help fine-tune in cooperation with manufacturers. Once the stage of product development has been completed, contributors continue to be involved, for example by acting as a product's ambassador and promoting it to retailers, or by providing product support, like translating instruction manuals. CrowdSpirit's primary focal point is electronics with a market price below EUR 150 / USD 190. If all goes well, this will be followed by more expensive electronics, and other sectors as the concept develops. A selection of inventions will be launched in parallel, so that the community can work on several projects at the same time. What remains to be seen, is how customer-manufacturers will be rewarded for their efforts. CrowdSpirit clearly states that contributors give up all intellectual property rights when they submit an idea or product, or when they help define a product. As trendwatching.com points out in its briefing about the customer-made trend (a.k.a. co-creation), "as co-creators get smarter and realise how much they're worth, expect kick-backs for co-created goods and services to go up. If you don't pay a fair share, talented members of the global brain will take their business elsewhere." Website: www.crowdspirit.org |
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As you know, Springwise is all about spotting and sharing good ideas. So we're always thrilled to hear from readers starting up a company (partially) based on something we've written about. Vincent Wek wrote this weekend to tell us about his new company – Home Sweet Home – which he was inspired to start after reading about eco-friendly cleaners Greenway Maid, featured here earlier this year. Home Sweet Home is dedicated to providing London with an environmentally friendly cleaning service, aiming to offer a deeper and healthier house clean. The company uses Ecover cleaning products, which are made from natural plant and mineral ingredients, have a minimum impact on the environment and are safe for cleaners and a home's inhabitants. Home Sweet Home also uses microfiber cloths, which clean hard surfaces with just hot water, saving the environment (and allergy sufferers) by minimizing the need for harsh cleansers. We hope increasing numbers of entrepreneurs in service industries will go for the green, and look forward to hearing from you if you're launching a business based on a new business idea you spotted here. Website: www.homesweethome.uk.net |
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