[ Home | Idea Database | Tip us! | Tell a friend | Contact | Subscribe for free ]

Over the past few weeks, we've picked our favorites from the new business ideas we covered in 2006. Not because we're particularly fond of reminiscing, but because we're convinced these innovative concepts stil offer plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurs seeking to start something new in 2007. They're ready for regional or international adaptation, expansion, partnering, investments or cooperation, so get going!

January 05, 2007

For all you retail buffs: 10 of the most innovative retail concepts we covered last year, both offline and online, and from across the world. (This is the last post in our series of top business ideas of 2006.)

1. A deal a day: What's the ultimate in curated consumption? Limiting your customer's choice to one product a day. Add a pinch of eBay-style excitement and bargain hunting, and you end up with Woot! ("one day, one deal") and iBood. Woot founder Matt Rutledge came up with the concept back in 2004, as an internet offshoot for his Dallas wholesale business. Since then, Woot's combination of great deals, highly novel approach and irreverent attitude have created a huge following. Thousands of regular buyers and visitors perch in front of their computers before midnight every day, hitting the refresh button to be the first More »


2. Luxury convenience store: Demonstrating yet again that everything can be upgraded, London's Harrods recently opened a luxury convenience store across the street from its famous Food Halls. Dubbed Harrods 102, the new store brings luxury and convenience together in a one-stop concept. Besides selling groceries and wine, Harrods 102 also houses a Yo! Sushi bar, a Krispy Kreme stand, florist, pharmacist, dry cleaning service, and oxygen bar. “These additional retail and service offers put Harrods closer to their customers’ everyday needs and delivers a new emotional relationship,” says Stephen Cribbett of Landini Associates, which designed both the store and its brand identity. More »


3. Dock and shop: The iFood terminal at Nordiska Kompaniet's food hall lets customers hook up their iPod and download audio recipes. The process is described in five simple steps (we couldn't resist including the Swedish original): 1) Docka - Plug in, 2) Ladda ner - Download, 3) Handla - Purchase, 4) Lyssna - Listen, and 5) Laga - Cook. After choosing from a wide range of recipes and downloading audio instructions to their iPod or other mp3 player, shoppers can purchase all necessary items from a colour-coded deli area. iFood is an exclusive cooperation between Nordiska Kompaniet/NK, an upmarket Stockholm warehouse with More »


4. Mastic fantastic: There's a new premium commodity in town, and its name is mastiha. Those of you with no ties to the Eastern Mediterranean or the Middle-East are forgiven for not knowing exactly what mastiha, or mastic gum, is. It's a product of the mastic tree, which is mainly cultivated on Chios, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. Small cuts are made in the bark of the tree, the sap seeps out and congeals into 'tears' of resin, which are harvested and cleaned by hand. The resinous result has been popular and highly valued in the region for thousands of More »


5. Shop-in-a-box: The latest in the world of pop-up retail? From Singapore comes the Venue VBOX, a portable store in a shipping container, which can be set-up temporarily. Any place. Any time. The VBOX enables a brand or company to follow an event they wish to align their brand with, or pop up where consumers least expect it. Tag along with a photography exhibition or set up shop temporarily at a large sporting event. Brands can even showcase items that consumers may not otherwise be able to purchase elsewhere: just fill the VBOX with one-offs or special editions and you'll pull More »


6. Convenient for women: Combining what our sister site trendwatching.com calls ‘Forever Trends’ (as in trends that will remain trends forever), Japanese convenience store Happily exclusively targets women. The thinking behind this concept? Convenience in a time-compressed world is priceless, and products specifically tailored to, oh, half of the earth’s population, make sense. In Happily’s own words, the stores are ‘of, for and by women’. The first outlet, located in Tokyo’s Toranomon business district, offers cosmetics and nutritional supplements. Only 20 percent of the products are the same as those at conventional am/pm outlets. Clerks are all women, except at night. To enable More »


7. Ranking Ranqueen: We don't mind spelling it out again: in an age of abundance, curators rule! Riding the CURATED CONSUMPTION trend in all its glory is Japanese Ranking Ranqueen, a Tokyo chain selling only the top 3, 5 or 10 items in a bewildering range of categories. Rankings are based on sales data from big Tokyo department stores and independent research. Think best-selling lists for bath powder. Tooth picks. Pasta sauce. Cell phones. And so on. Rankings are updated every week, mercilessly replacing the out of favor with the Next Big Thing. There are eight Ranking Ranqueen stores in total: five More »


8. Quick delivery e-commerce: In the San Francisco Bay area and Atlanta, two e-commerce companies are betting on the appeal of almost-instant delivery. Back in the '90s, Kozmo offered speedy delivery of anything an urban dweller might want or need fast, without leaving their home or office. Pack of diapers or a bag of Cheetos - everything was delivered under an hour. No delivery fee, and no minimum order amount. Although they turned a profit in New York, Kozmo expanded to other cities too quickly, infamously burned through USD 280 million in venture capital, and went bust in 2001. Kozmo's former CTO went More »


9. Brave new retail world: Yet another fashion/lifestyle brand has discovered the promise of virtual worlds and virtual retail, in this case dressing virtual inhabitants: American Apparel (the sweat-shop free apparel phenomenon) will open its virtual doors tomorrow (Saturday, 17 June 2006). The store, set on a private island within Second Life, was designed by Aimee Weber, a Second Life resident and designer, in conjunction with American Apparel's own architect. The store will sell 20 familiar American Apparel items for avatars, including the women's jersey polo dress. The company will charge a token sum of about USD 1 per item. It's (surprisingly!) the first More »


10. Sexy supermarkets in the Alps: MPreis, a chain of supermarkets in western Austria, bills itself as "The Seriously Sexy Supermarket". The company's stores literally stand out because of their unusual and progressive architecture. MPreis has been commissioning up and coming architects for the last fifteen years, encouraging them to design buildings that make the most of their settings in the Tyrolean Alps. Which is in stark contrast to most chain retailers, who find a formula and repeat it, regardless of location. A keen eye for aesthetics continues inside the stores, which feature sleek café's and carefully chosen materials. And the experience goes beyond design More »

Comment on this article »  
More Retail ideas »  

January 04, 2007

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas we covered in 2006. Below, ten marketing & advertising favorites.

1. Charmin' brand space: Not quite as chic as the Parisian sanitary stop we featured a few months ago, Charmin's public loos are nonetheless a great example of a brand space, combining the welcome relief of clean public restrooms with the most relevant space for advertising toilet paper. Procter and Gamble's bathroom tissue brand will be operating a 20-stall restroom in the heart of Times Square. More »


2. Agency for customer-made ads: ViTrue is creating a platform for consumers to create commercial videos for brands. Although many companies have been experimenting with consumer-generated advertising (see trendwatching.com's customer-made for a host of examples), up until now, this has mostly been in the shape of one-off contests held by individual brands. As the first agency dedicated to consumer-generated advertising, ViTrue intends to create structure in this arena, and a become a destination for brands to interact with consumers. More »


3. Frozen food bistro: In Paris, bistros are synonymous with cheap and cheerful food. In Hamburg, FRoSTA Bistro serves cheap and cheerful frozen food. We'll refrain from cracking jokes about German cuisine, as this actually isn't a bad idea. FRoSTA, a mid-sized, forward thinking company with an active blog, manufactures premium frozen foods that are completely free of artificial additives. The bistro, which opened in November 2005, is a well-designed restaurant with chefs working in an open kitchen. For all to see, they prepare frozen foods from FRoSTA's range. More »


4. Bookvertising: Not quite what the name suggests, a Brajacket is an advertisement disguised as a dust jacket for a book. According to Trends in Japan, Brajackets are one of the hottest new trends in Japan. Created by an advertising agency (Setup Inc), Brajackets offer consumers a free cover to keep their book nice and neat, and advertisers a space to advertise that goes everywhere readers do. More »


5. Let your buses do the talking: London buses will soon carry the world's first GPS advertising. Yell.com has retained 25 buses outfitted with digital LED panels that will show messages matching the bus's geographical position. Yell.com is using the GPS panel system as part of a five-month campaign to raise awareness of its local search facility. Besides intelligent buses, the campaign (developed by AKQA) also includes knowledgeable bus shelters: interactive screens on bus shelters will highlight local shops, restaurants and bars and help users find their way. More »


6. Checking into another dimension | aloft in Second Life: Announced last year as W Hotels' new brand for the select-service hotel category, the first aloft hotel won't open until 2008. So, what does a brand do to create some pre-opening buzz, and give future customers a taste of what's to come? Build a virtual hotel in Second Life, of course. Like American Apparel's foray into Second Life (which we wrote about here: brave new retail world), aloft is set on an island within SL. More »


7. Baby brand spaces: Turkish diaper brand Evy Baby is reaching out to parents by placing changing rooms in shopping malls. Evy Baby is showing parents of nappy-clad infants some well-deserved sympathy. The diaper manufacturer has installed changing rooms in 12 shopping centers, and is planning to open more in the near future. Each clean and cheerful baby room has a changing table and comfortable chairs for nursing. And, of course, samples of Evy Baby's products. More »


8. Advertising after dark: Australian Passout Marketing is using nightclub hand stamps for advertising. Inked on the hands and wrists of nightclub patrons, passout stamps are used as proof that someone has paid admission, is of legal drinking age, or can gain re-entrance to a club. Passout Marketing deemed this space too good to go unbranded, and has started working with venue owners and advertisers to stamp marketing messages on club hoppers. As they put it, Passout Marketing allows companies to "get their brand name right onto the skin of their target market". More »


9. Bikevertising: We spoke about carvertising in previous editions, and mused about the eco-friendly opportunity of handing out free bikes, sponsored by advertisers. Amsterdam-based RedStarMedia took the entrepreneurial leap and is now doing just that: their 'Ik Fiets Gratis' ('I Cycle for Free') venture offers students in 22 university cities in The Netherlands gratis bicycles. Not surprisingly, more than 4,000 students have already signed up. More »


10. Jet-sized gravanity: It's a bird... It's a plane... It's a picture of your wife on a camel in the Sahara, on a Boeing 737! Dutch airline Transavia recently held a photo competition that we couldn't help but notice. To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the holiday transporter invited passengers to send in pictures taken in or around one of their 87 destinations. Forty winning photos have been picked and will be printed on larger-than-life stickers, along with the photographer's name, and stuck onto several of Transavia's planes. More »

Comment on this article »  
More Marketing & Advertising ideas »  

January 03, 2007

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas we covered in 2006. Below, our lifestyle & leisure favorites.

1. Dream job holidays: Taking a Vocation Vacation, potential career-changers can test-drive their dream job before taking the plunge. A few years ago, Vocation Vacations' founder Brian Kurth left his job and tried something new. Realizing he wasn't the only person stuck in a corporate lifestyle he didn't enjoy, he came up with the idea of making it possible for others to test the waters without having to quit their jobs. The idea is simple: customers use the 'Dream Job Finder' to pick a job they'd like to try out. More »


2. Being spaces for writers and parents: Remember trendwatching.com's being spaces trend? This third-room phenomenon (commercial living-room-like settings, where catering and entertainment aren't the main attraction, but are there to facilitate small office/living room activities like watching a movie, reading a book, meeting friends and colleagues, or doing your admin) continues to evolve. From an entrepreneurial point of view, Springwise particularly likes the following being spaces spottings: New York's Paragraph and The Village Quill are members-only centers catering to writers who need a space to be away from it all and actually get some writing done. More »


3. Dating 3.0: Nothing seems to inspire innovators more than online dating. Adding to the plethora of new dating concepts, South-African yesnomayB is the world’s first dating site relying on collaborative filtering. The site makes recommendations to members on other members they might fancy. This is how it works: as a user, you look at pictures of other members, and select yes, no, or mayB. Your favourites are put into your own private 'blackbook', while yesnomayB then secretly puts your picture in front of those people, to see if they like you too. More »


4. New hotel includes work space for non-guests: The Hoxton Hotel just opened its doors in a hip neighbourhood in London's East End. Besides the usual meeting spaces for guests, the Hoxton also offers private offices for non-guests. Perfect for getting work done between meetings in London. Each office features a desk, free wireless internet, a phone and a private bathroom. The offices are open from 10 am to 4 pm on weekdays and are currently on offer for just GBP 19 per day. Offering work space to non-guests is a smart sideline for hotels, who should be able to incorporate them with existing (underutilized) business centres. More »


5. Wedding webcasts: Springwise loves forward-looking ventures that manage to stick around until their time has truly come. Like webcastmywedding.net, which broadcasts weddings to a couple's friends and family unable to come over from (or to) far flung places. Customers need a video camera, laptop, and high speed online access. The company then charges USD 395 for setting up a live stream of the event, support for up to 25 simultaneous viewers (who are sent a url and password), and an on-demand archive of the wedding for 10 days. More »


6. Table with a view: Some new business ideas are admittedly over the top. Here's one we couldn't resist – Dinner in the Sky. Belgian Dinner in the Sky offers event organizers a new way to make their event highly memorable: a table, with 22 seated guests, is suspended from a crane. The specially built table is surrounded by chairs of the type usually found on roller coasters, with four-point seat belts. Hoisted 50 meters (164 feet) above ground, safety is a reasonable concern. More »


7. Being space for mobile warriors: The Coffee Office is built for business – meeting spaces, workstations, conference rooms and café are combined into a centre for mobile professionals. Based in Windsor, Ontario, The Coffee Office was founded to offer business professionals everything they need to stay productive outside a traditional office, in what trendwatching.com calls a being space. A café section is open to everyone, and like the rest of the building, offers free high-speed wireless internet and plenty of power points. The rest of the space is reserved for TCO members, who have access to private workstations and conference rooms. More »


8. Saucy chic: Regular readers know we're fond of saying that everything can be upgraded. Case in point? Worlds away from tawdry shops frequented by men in overcoats, Kiki de Montparnasse has turned the sex shop into an erotic boutique. Adopting the stage name of Alice Prin, a nightclub singer/model/painter who was photographer Man Ray's muse and lover in 1920s Paris, Kiki's Lower Manhattan store is anything but sleazy. Described as 'Madame de Pompadour meets Monica Vitti', the store is luxuriously furnished and dimly lit. More »


9. Snowboard for the street: A modification of skateboards, Freebords are designed to mimic the behaviour of a snowboard on a ski slope. Not only are they larger than standard skateboards, they also include two additional castor wheels down the center line of the board, sticking out just a bit more than the four side wheels, and allowing the board to carve and slide like a snowboard. According to Freebord: "You can hug a tight turn or drift a long, gentle slide, float a 360 or ride switch. More »


10. Sitters with a creative touch: A singer, a dancer, a painter – take your pick, these are just some of the creatives that New York parents can hire as their child’s babysitter for the night. Eugenia Bachaleda, a musician, and Kristina Wilson, a performer, combined their talents to devise Sitters in the City for a modern twist on baby sitting. Both Bachaleda and Wilson enjoyed performing but also loved working with children, and so they found a way to use their artistic talents to inspire and entertain children. More »

Comment on this article »  
More Lifestyle & Leisure ideas »  

January 02, 2007

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas we covered in 2006. These are our favorites from the homes & housing category:

1. Covering up IKEA: Bemz is a Swedish company that sells removable, washable slipcovers for sofas, armchairs and cushions, which is a cool business idea in itself, what with the 'fast fashion' trend dictating wardrobes and the living room. But we're not talking just any sofas here – they've narrowed it down to seats by IKEA. Makes sense! Millions of homes around the world are furnished by IKEA, which means that Bemz started off with a huge potential market, as well as a limited number of sofas to design for. And while mass class products definitely have their advantages, most customers are eager More »


2. Garden offices for lawn commuters: For everyone who'd like to escape office politics and the daily commute, iscape manufactures and sells purpose-built garden offices. The British company has created two modular buildings, or 'iscapes': Miana and Winola. Both are multi-use outdoor living spaces, but the Miana was specifically designed to be used as an office. Every garden office (from GBP 4,995 including installation and delivery) comes complete with integral electrics and includes sockets and lighting. Constructed from panels, the Miana can be ordered in a range of sizes, with door and window positions meeting a customer's specific requirements. Customers can choose from 60 colours More »


3. Real estate 3.0: selling houses that aren't for sale: Igglo combines large amounts of real estate information into a customer friendly package that could alter how the housing market operates, by letting potential buyers 'pre-order' houses that aren't yet for sale. The Finnish company has photographed every building in Helsinki, with more towns to follow, and combines these photographs with satellite images and maps. Every property is listed, not just those that are currently on the market. (Their tagline is: "Your house is already on Igglo.") Potential buyers can earmark a building, street or neighbourhood they're interested in, and post offers online. This lets potential sellers find out More »


4. Dorm furniture for hire: As a solution to furnishing temporary dorm life, two students at Dartmouth College recently set up Evolving Vox, a temporary ownership network. Their company rents out furniture to students, enabling them to go through college without having to make large purchases for their rooms. They don't have to worry about hauling furniture and appliances around, either -- everything is dropped off and picked up for free. Evolving Vox offers everything from futons to TVs, all at affordable prices. A dorm-sized refrigerator, for example, goes for USD 35 per term. Since the company just got started, all items were brand More »


5. Designer garages: To many men – and a few women – the garage is a haven for unadulterated self-indulgence. When Vault founder Chad Haas was looking to outfit his new garage, he realized there was nothing suitable on the market. Demanding high quality and stylish furnishing and accessories, Haas found nothing quite lived up to his needs or desires. So he founded Vault, "your showroom for treasures." Vault offers a range of upmarket and stylish made-to-order garage furnishings. Homeowners can personalize their garage with fine quality cabinetry, work chests, flooring, wall treatments and hand-crafted garage doors. Think industrial floor coatings, stainless More »


6. Wallpaper 2.0 | Update: Wallpaper's journey from faded to fresh continues. Located in Paris, The Collection is a boutique that pushes luxury wall coverings closer to art. Founded by Allison Grant to promote the work of young British artists in France, The Collection now has partnerships with designers across Europe. The boutique's offerings are anything but mass-produced. Wallpapers are hand-screened, embroidered and hand-coloured. One long, narrow piece shows huge piles of paperback novels 'to remind us of our youth', for EUR 55 per meter. Another features a floor to ceiling stack of plates. And one of the boutique's most popular products is a More »


7. Test-sleeping for homebuyers: Taking try-before-you-buy to new heights is New Zealand Ruatuna, which lets potential customers stay overnight in one of the company's straw built homes. Customers can book a night’s accommodation to get a real feel for the type of house and whether they truly like the design. It’s a far cry from traditional sterile display homes or choosing houses off a plan. Potential buyers can overnight with their entire family: kids, cats, dogs included! The concept enables consumers to make a more informed purchase decision based on what they know they like in a home, rather than what they think More »


8. Rental gardens: Dutch Rent-a-Garden has come up with the perfect solution for garden owners in need of a quick garden fix, whether for their own pleasure, or to make a house sell more easily. The company offers a wide range of potted plants and outdoor sculpture. After discussing a client's needs and wishes, Rent-a-Garden draws up a plan and takes care of all details and installation. Pricing ranges from EUR 300 for a makeover lasting 3 months, including upkeep. Akin to changing a home's outdoor wardrobe, customers can switch their garden, patio or roof-terrace's look with every season. Sounds like the More »


9. Ready to assemble, no tools needed: Just as everything can be upgraded, most things can be simplified. For consumers who struggle with regular ready to assemble furniture and it's complicated instructions, Real Simple Furniture will come as a welcome relief. Real Simple Furniture lives up to its name: their flat-pack furniture can be assembled and disassembled with absolutely no tools, other than a pair of hands. The pieces simply click together using lips and grooves. Besides offering super fast and easy assembly and disassembly, the company also stands out by making all of its pieces from real wood, not particle board, and manufacturing everything in More »


10. Stop Gap Sofas: weekly couch rental: Not every new business idea needs to become the next Shell Oil or GE. London-based Stop Gap Sofas fills a neat little business er... gap, by renting out sofas/couches by the week, to consumers who are moving house, or buying or renting for the first time. In their own words: "furnishing your new property is a time consuming yet essential part of the process. One of the major decisions you'll face is choosing your ideal sofa, and once you've made your choice, chances are you will be faced with a 6-12 week wait while your sofa is hand crafted More »

Comment on this article »  
More Homes & Housing ideas »  

January 02, 2007

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas of 2006. Below, non-profit and social cause.

1. Calling for a cause: Belgian Ello Mobile is a new mobile operator that was established with the sole aim of giving away 100% of its profits. Ello is a mobile virtual network operator – it uses an existing network. Instead of offering bargain-basement cellphone plans, the company offers its customers the chance to contribute directly to a cause with every call they make, and every text message they send. Customers can currently pick one of six projects, from protecting the jungles of Sumatra to providing mobile schools to street children in South America. More »


2. Mobile libraries: Doing good while building its brand, Brazilian bus company Itapemirim has set up a library on wheels. Itapemirim, the major bus carrier in South America, covers more than 85% of Brazilian territory, and its buses travel more than 300 million kilometres per year. The company recently started supporting a project developed by well-known local cartoonist Mauricio de Souza: a library on wheels. The library buses will travel throughout the country to give low income kids the opportunity to improve their reading skills and be exposed to a variety of cultural experiences. More »


3. Cookies with a cause: As its tagline says, a small South African manufacturer of upmarket cookies and brownies is "creating opportunity, one bite at a time." Khayelitsha is one of South Africa's largest townships, located on the outskirts of Capetown. Its inhabitants are locked in a constant struggle against poverty, unemployment and violence. Two years ago, Alicia Polak, a former investment banker, founded The Khayelitsha Cookie Company (KCC). Ms Polak wanted to offer more than monetary aid, and decided to help the township's women build a sustainable living. More »


4. Speaking books for health education in low literacy areas: Low literacy levels in Africa are part-and-parcel of everyday life, and seriously reduce the effectiveness of health care literature. In association with the South African Depression and Anxiety Group, Books of Hope has designed and produced interactive, multilingual Speaking Books that can be seen, read, heard and understood regardless of someone's reading ability. More »


5. Mobile schools: Mobile School is a Belgian foundation that provides portable schools for street children. Instead of taking homeless children and placing them in an institutional setting, which often doesn't work, the Mobile School reaches out to children in their own environment. The goal isn't just to teach them basic reading and writing skills, but also to help them learn that they deserve a better life. They're given time to develop self-esteem and slowly prepare themselves for life off the streets, or if that isn't possible, at least make their life on the streets more humane. More »

Comment on this article »  
More Non-profit, Social cause ideas »  

January 02, 2007

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas of 2006. Below, our personal favorites from the food & beverage industry.

1. Local shrimp farming: Who ever said everything is going to be outsourced, from salary slips to agriculture? In The Netherlands, Happy Shrimp is working hard to build Europe’s first tropical shrimp farm, located in the very non-tropical port of Rotterdam. Promising fresh (‘superfresh’) shrimp, aimed at local restaurants, the business is taking on low cost shrimp farming in Asia. It does so by smartly capitalising on trends that the competition may find it hard to latch on to. More »


2. Sipping flavour into milk: Sipahh, a new twist on the traditional straw, is filled with naturally flavoured beads that dissolve and impart flavour to cold white milk as it is sipped through the Sipahh. As the tagline says, “Insert into cold milk, Sip, and say Ahh!” Sipahh straws come in six fun flavours (Strawberry, Chocolate, Caramel, Banana, Toffee Apple, Cookies and Cream and Choc Mint), contain no artificial preservatives or colouring and less than half a teaspoon of sugar. More »


3. Dessert-only restaurants: The newest addition to the niche restaurant scene is the dessert bar. Room 4 Dessert (New York), Espai Sucre (Barcelona) and our most recent spotting, ChikaLicious, limit their menus to creative concoctions that satisfy even the most ardent sweet tooth. A tiny 20-seat eatery in New York, founded by husband and wife team Don and Chika Tillman, ChikaLicious offers a 3-course menu for USD 12, consisting of a sweet amuse, the customer's choice of main course dessert, and petit fours to top it off. More »


4. Indian Pret a Manger?: British Tiffinbites is a chain of Indian food outlets, which might well be the first real Indian fast food brand. The company gets its name from the classic stacked metal boxes that are used to carry home-cooked Indian lunches. Tiffinbites has replaced tin with plastic, but aims to keep the traditional, home-cooked quality. Food is centrally prepared in North-London, using fresh ingredients and with a much lower fat and oil content than regular Indian take-outs. More »


5. Customer-made flavours: Austrian manufacturer Frenkenburger is asking customers to come up with new flavours for its all natural hemp milk drink, Trinkhanf. Made from ground hemp seeds, hemp milk is highly nutritious – hempseed is high in protein, amino acids and essential fatty acids, making it one of the most nutritionally complete food sources. But it doesn't taste of much. More »


6. Ice cream factory in a vending machine: Banana ice cream with peanut butter cups mixed in? Not a problem for MooBella, a high-tech vending machine that makes ice cream to order in 45 seconds. Because it uses flash freezing instead of the standard slow churning method, MooBella can produce ice cream on demand from room temperature ingredients. More »


7. Bamn! Rebirth of the automat: Photos by kind permission of Matt Jacobs, Capn Design. The hottest new eatery in New York won't get rave reviews for fine service provided by its waiters. It doesn't have any. Nor does Bamn! have tables, cashiers or any of the other basic amenities diners have come to expect. Instead, Bamn is a throwback to the first half of the 20th century -- it's an automat diner. Windowed compartments display hot, fresh food. Customers throw in a few coins and are rewarded with instant gratification. More »


8. Happy healthy meals: School lunches are a hot topic across the world: from British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's Feed Me Better campaign, to Two Angry Moms trying to improve school lunches in the US. Both are aiming to get junk food out, and bring whole foods in. The situation is slightly different in The Netherlands, where children traditionally went home for lunch, and school cafeterias are an anomaly. These days, however, more and more Dutch children are 'staying over' for lunch at school. Soda and chips are gaining ground, and childhood obesity is on the rise. More »


9. More beer for women: It seems an international race is on to get women to drink more beer. Following our previous coverage of Karla, a functional German beer for women, comes a related spotting from Poland. Karmi, a regional brand produced by the Polish division of Carlsberg, is a dark beer that has been around for a while, and is characterized by its sweet caramel flavour. Categorized as a near-beer for its low alcohol content (0.1%), the drink has been revamped and is now being targeted to women. More »


10. Meal prep goes uptown: While suburban households across the country are welcoming fix-and-freeze dinners to their tables, an urban version of the concept just opened at 63rd and Third in New York. Since New York real estate prices don't allow for huge communal kitchens, Really Cool Foods has altered the prep kitchen model into 'component cooking'. Customers select a recipe, grab the colour-coded components (vegetables, meats, sauces, etc), and get cooking. More »

Comment on this article »  
More Food & Beverage ideas »  

January 01, 2007

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas we covered in 2006. Next up: media and publishing.

1. Everyone's publisher: As readers of trendwatching.com's briefings will know, Generation C (the content generation) is a force to be reckoned with. Or, better yet, catered to! Which is exactly what Blurb is doing. This still in beta publishing software and services company partners with the world's leading book printers to offer would-be authors bookstore-quality publishing. As they put it: "Holding a finished book with your name on the cover is a truly amazing feeling; it's one of those experiences everyone should have." More »


2. Bounty hunters armed with cameras: Spy Media, a Silicon Valley-based news photo marketplace, lets both amateur and professional photographers sell their photos at a price they set. They've just added a new twist: buyers can request a photo of an event, place, person, product or whatever, and place a bounty on the image. Buyer sets the price, and the first photographer with the right image gets paid. More »


3. JPG 2.0 | Customer-made magazine relaunched: JPG Magazine, a photography magazine that our sister-site trendwatching.com covered as an example of user-generated content, recently relaunched. In its previous incarnation, the magazine allowed photographers to submit photos based on one theme per issue. While anyone could submit, JPG's founders (Derek Powazek and Heather Champ) decided which photos made it into print. Now, for a publication that's even more customer-made, JPG has made some significant changes. More »


4. Angelic crowdsourcing: Whether you call it the Power of Us, Customer-Made or Crowdsourcing, new business concepts continue to pop up that involve large groups of consumers pre-funding an artist's album, pre-purchasing an olive farmer's harvest, buying shares in a whiskey distillery, or colonising a remote island. Case in point, from the movie world: A Swarm of Angels. A British project, the team behind A Swarm of Angels has set out to make a GBP 1 million film and give it away to 1 million people in 1 year. More »


5. Agency connects bloggers & press: Scoopt, the world's first commercial citizen journalism photography agency (see our recent article for more), just launched ScooptWords to help bloggers find a commercial market for their writing. Scoopt strongly believes that many bloggers produce content as good as or better than what appears in newspapers and magazines, and Scoopt aims to bring that content to larger audiences. The process is simple: ScooptWords members place a "buy this content" button on their blog, indicating that an article is available for republication. More »


6. Channeling online video: TurnHere -- "Short films. Cool places" -- offers exactly that: short, online videos that give viewers an insider's look at destinations around the world. Created by experienced filmmakers specifically for TurnHere, the website's videos offer an alternative to travel books, with obvious benefits to consumers: they're up-to-date, super local, highly personal, free, and they communicate the sense of a place more directly than traditional guidebooks ever could. More »


7. Citizen journalism | Update: Nearly three years after we first featured OhmyNews, the South Korean online newspaper co-written by ordinary citizens, a similar venture has popped up in South-Africa. "For the people, by the people," Reporter.co.za is a news website written entirely by its readers, and publishes articles, images, audio and video they send in. Riding the wave of user-generated content, Reporter.co.za gives its readers the opportunity to determine what they regard as news, and to raise issues that might not make it into mainstream media. More »


8. On product publishing: Developed in Melbourne by Modern Media Concepts, iLove is a 32-page, full-colour magazine contained within a glossy label on a 600ml bottle of spring water. It's the world's first magazine on a bottle, and is published in four separate editions fortnightly. iLove's female target audience should love its purse-sized format, which makes it great for reading on the tube or while having lunch, and advertisers will be enamoured by its reach – a weekly circulation reaching 150,000 this month (March 2006) and growing, which will soon make it Australia's largest women's magazine. More »


9. Life story caching: Dandelife is a social biography network: a social network built around telling life stories. Building on the notion that stories are best shared, Dandelife offers everyone the opportunity to write and share their personal memoirs online, one story at a time. A user's 'vanity page' shows a horizontal timeline, with events neatly placed in history, as well as photos, videos, tags and favourite stories. Tagging is an important part of storytelling on Dandelife, allowing users to create common threads within their own stories, and connect with those of other members. More »


10. Yearbooks for Class of 2007: Now a US phenomenon, Facebook enables 7.7 million members with a valid email address from a supported college, high school or company to create a profile to share information, photos, and interests with their friends. Sure, there are numerous sites like this, but opportunity, especially outside the US, remains: this is not friendsreunited.com: this is capturing a new generation in such a way that they will never need a reuniting website! More of an ongoing meeting space, Facebook actually ranks as the seventh-most trafficked site in the US. Next? More »

Comment on this article »  
More Media & Publishing ideas »  

January 01, 2007

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas we covered in 2006. Below are five transportation businesses, from an easy to start up driving service for seniors, to a chic new airline in Japan.

1. Cabs for and by women: In London alone, 10 women are attacked each month after getting into an unlicensed mini-cab. No wonder that many women feel safer taking a taxi driven by a woman. Pink Ladies spotted a business opportunity, and created the UK's first women-only private car hire franchise. The Pink Ladies drive Renault Kangoos that are pink inside and out, making them highly visible. Passengers sign up as members, and fares are either pre-paid, paid by credit card or with a 'pink account', which is both convenient for members and safe for drivers. More »


2. Drive-in mobility: Made in Hungary, the Kenguru is a small vehicle that drivers can roll into without leaving their wheelchairs. Designed by Zsolt Varga, Kenguru is small, stylish and cheerful vehicle whose contours are similar to those of a Smart car. But the resemblance stops there. Made to hold one passenger in a manual wheelchair, the Kenguru doesn't have doors or seats. To get in, the driver opens the extra large back hatch and rolls inside while remaining seated in his wheelchair, which automatically locks into place inside the car. More »


3. No-frills chic takes flight in Japan: Like JetBlue, the U.S. carrier that first brought no-frills chic to air travel, Japanese StarFlyer combines low cost with high quality. "Blazing through the world like a comet," StarFlyer's homebase is the new airport of western port city Kitakyushu. Flights currently run between Kitakyushu and Tokyo (90 minutes), but the airline is planning to expand to more regional destinations, as well as international destinations such as Seoul and Shanghai. More »


4. City bike schemes: Cheap, environmentally friendly and good exercise, urban cycling is on the uprise, aided by smart locking and payment technologies that increase rental income and decrease the likelihood of bikes being stolen or abandoned. Since ever-rising fuel costs are making consumers think twice about using their cars, now's the time to launch your own urban bicycle rental service. More »


5. Driving service for seniors: After we wrote about Pink Ladies, a British taxi service for women, a reader alerted us to Canadian Driving Miss Daisy. Driving Miss Daisy is a cab and companion service for senior citizens, that takes them shopping, to doctor's appointments, social events, etc. The company prides itself on providing extra care and security to its elderly customers, at affordable prices. Driving Miss Daisy currently has seven cars in Edmonton, Calgary, and is looking to expand to other cities. More »

Comment on this article »  
More Transportation ideas »  

December 31, 2006

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas we covered in 2006. Today - ten style & design concepts to be inspired by.

1. Mass made to order, here: Unto This Last is a miniature Ikea, situated on Brick Lane in London's East End. Like Ikea, prices are low and many products are sold as flat-packs (pre-assembly optional). Unlike Ikea, everything is manufactured uber-locally, and the designs aren't overly familiar. The workshop uses the latest 3D modelling software to design and produce innovative and inexpensive furniture, which it sells directly to the public. Orders are manufactured to measure, within a week, at mass-production prices. More »


2. Repackaging barcodes: Japanese Design Barcode turns standard barcodes into appealing and engaging brand elements. Following laundry services, supermarkets and coffins in our recurring 'everything can be reinvented' theme, come the humble stripes and digits that shape the ubiquitous barcode, as reinvented by Design Barcode. Fifteen companies are currently using the agency's novel barcodes as part of their packaging design. (A video showing examples can be viewed here.) The designs are clever and whimsical, from bars being picked up by chopsticks for a ramen noodles package, to a zebra carrying the black and white stripes on its back. More »


3. Sexy supermarkets in the Alps: MPreis, a chain of supermarkets in western Austria, bills itself as "The Seriously Sexy Supermarket". The company's stores literally stand out because of their unusual and progressive architecture. MPreis has been commissioning up and coming architects for the last fifteen years, encouraging them to design buildings that make the most of their settings in the Tyrolean Alps. Which is in stark contrast to most chain retailers, who find a formula and repeat it, regardless of location. More »


4. Customer-manufactured: 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. More »


5. Luxury loos on location: Tired of our Everything Can be Upgraded theme yet? We're not. Not as long as there are new business ideas like Igloo’s Luxury Portable Loos. Offering the ‘ultimate luxury portable toilets for the corporate and private events industry within the UK and across Europe’, the company has beautified (and sanitized) events like the Brit Awards, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the Stella Artois Tennis Tournament, the G-8 Summit and the Volvo Golf Masters in Andalusia. More »


6. Customer-made wallpaper for naked walls: Combining one of today's leading consumer trends (customer-made) with a continuing trend in interior design (wallpaper), Naked & Angry just launched its line of user-designed wallpaper. Wallcoverings constitute Naked & Angry's second series of products featuring patterns created by the brand's audience. Anyone can submit a pattern design, which is scored by other Naked & Angry users. The highest scoring designs are manufactured in limited runs, with patterns providing inspiration for what the actual product will be. More »


7. Old-fashioned bikes for the new world: Vancouver-based Jorg & Olif sell Dutch bikes to Canadian urban cyclists. The two-year-old company took a classic design and added Japanese hub gears and drum brakes to tackle North American cities (i.e. cities that aren't utterly flat). Aside from that modification, Jorg & Olif bikes are utterly old-fashioned: heavy and black. A strong rear carrier handles extra baggage, and a woven basket is an optional extra. Saddle and handlebars are positioned for upright riding, which allows bikers a safer view of traffic and a better view of the scenery rolling by. More »


8. Masonry for beginners: Created by a Dutch company, Brickadoo is a building toy. Instead of providing an easy click-and-go system (like Lego), Brickadoo building kits come with little bags of mortar. Children mix the mortar in a mixing tub and slap it on the bricks with a small trowel. If they want to build something else, they just dip the entire house in water, which dissolves the mortar and releases the bricks for another round of masonry. Each kit comes with enough mortar to rebuild a house three or four times. More »


9. Custom-made avatars: Not long ago, we featured two small companies dedicated to creating custom-made avatars. A third example of this creative cottage industry was recently spotted in the UK. Bless This Chick creates mini-portraits that illustrate someone's online or offline identity. Customers send Bless This Chick details of the person to be illustrated, pay by PayPal, and receive a hand-drawn portrait by email a few days later. What are they for? Consumers can stick their chick on their personal website or MySpace page, add it to their email signature, or use it as an avatar on blogs or chatrooms. More »


10. Office supplies, upgraded: Offering an alternative to boring office supplies, russell+hazel sells stylish binders, paper, storage and accessories. Minneapolis-based russell+hazel, founded by a former architect, is a range of aesthetically pleasing office supplies that combine a designed look with durable quality. The company's newest range, Audrey, is a fashion-forward selection specifically tailored to women, offering 'working girl chic' supplies with details inspired by vintage architecture, classic Hollywood and contemporary couture. More »

Comment on this article »  
More Style & Design ideas »  

December 30, 2006

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas of 2006.

1. Bands funded by their fans: Aiming to empower independent artists, SellaBand has created a platform that enables fans to sponsor bands, and get a piece of the action in return. How it works: fans, dubbed Believers, find an artist they like on SellaBand.com. For USD 10, they can buy a share, or 'Part'. Once the band has sold 5,000 parts, SellaBand arranges a professional recording, including top studios, A&R managers and producers. More »


2. Urban amusement park: Located in the heart of Boston, 5W!TS (five wits) is both a venue and the producer of an interactive, walk-through adventure game. Think of it as an urban amusement park, with just one ride: a very elaborate, very high-tech haunted house. 5W!TS' first show is TOMB, a 40-minute adventure set in a realistic rendition of an archaeological dig site in Egypt. Unlike regular attractions, the path and story of the adventure aren't fixed. More »


3. Never miss another show: 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. More »


4. Background music for the web: Here’s an idea that was waiting to happen: Sonific provides 'soundtracks for your digital life', allowing users to select tracks from the company’s library (which contains thousands songs by independent artists and from record labels whose music has been licensed for this purpose), and then create their own ‘SongSpots’. Naturally, users can also upload music they've created themselves. SongSpots are flash-objects that stream the selected music and that can be quickly pasted onto websites, blogs, social network profile pages, eBay auctions, etc. More »


5. Haute design cineplex: Located in the south-east '13ème' district of Paris, MK2 Bibliothèque is a grand boutique cineplex. A USD 30 million branch of an 11 theatre chain, the MK2 Bibliothèque (so named for its proximity to the François Mitterrand National Library) features 14 screens, as well as cafes, restaurants, DVD shop, classical music boutique, bookstore, modern art gallery and even a DJ bar. It's a miniature cultural city incased in a long, sleek, glass and steel structure, linking movie-going to other experiences. More »


6. Retail approach to recording: Taiwanese Timestudio (Hua Shi Dai) offers studio recording sessions for everyone. Located in the busiest pedestrian areas in Taipei, Timestudio's two mini-recording studios let consumers record a professional cd for around USD 30. The studio features a sound booth and a control room manned by a professional audio engineer. A glass wall facing the street means that the 'artists' can be seen by passing shoppers, adding an element of momentary fame. More »


7. Downloading on the go: A world's first, British UBC Media just announced a download service that will allow consumers to buy songs while listening to them on digital radio. UBC Media, a radio producer that also develops technology products and services for the broadcasting industry, will begin testing the service on Chrysalis Group's Heart station, with plans for a full roll-out by December 2006. The digital music download (DMD) service is expected to generate GBP 95 million of turnover by 2012, with a profit of nearly 10 million. These estimates are based on the assumption that in six years 25 percent of mobile More »


8. Pop-up drive-in movies: Hot on the tail of pop-up retail, comes pop-up entertainment. California-based MobMov is a drive-in movie system built into a car, that pops up at different locations every week. MobMov, which is short for mobile movie, was founded last year by Bryan Kennedy, a 25 year old web developer who wanted to create a guerilla drive-in for his friends. Before long, friends of friends joined in, and MobMov went public, with movie showings announced through mailing lists. More »


9. Splice: social mixing and remixing: Splice. No it’s not an ice pop or an alcoholic beverage, it’s an online music publishing community that uses Creative Commons licensing to encourage users to share their creations. Splice gives anyone, anywhere the ability to collaborate on music using web-based tools. Users can upload or record sounds, make songs, and listen to and remix other users' songs. The primary difference between Splice and everything that came before it, is that the mixing tools are built-in. The main tool is a sequencer combined with a 'sound surfer' that lets users choose from a library of samples, loops and beats. More »


10. Prepaid downloads: In Turkey, online music store MuziPlay has forged itself a larger market by selling prepaid music cards. Much like prepaid telephone cards, 'MuziKarts' are available from newspaper stands and small shops. After activating a code on the card, customers can download and play mp3s using the company's proprietary MuziPlayer. Cards are available in denominations of YTL 3, 5 and 10 (EUR 1.50, 2.50, 5.00/USD 1.95, 3.25, 6.50). Sounds like a winner for countries where the growth of broadband internet is outpacing adoption of credit cards. More »

Comment on this article »  
More Entertainment ideas »  

December 30, 2006

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas we spotted in 2006. Today - ten from the mobile and telecom industries.

1. Phone for boomers & their parents: While most cell phones tout an abundance of bells and whistles, two companies are focusing on the substantial market for simpler phones. Founded by Arlene Harris, a telecoms veteran, and her husband Martin Cooper, who helped develop the first portable cell phone for Motorola in 1973, GreatCall is a new wireless company that will target baby boomers and their parents. More »


2. Turning phone calls into phonecasts: Voice over IP isn't just making phone calls cheaper. It's also spawning innovative services that make calls smarter. Case in point: a new start-up called Pheeder, which allows users to communicate with groups of people simultaneously, with just one phone call. How it works: a registered member calls Pheeder, leaves a message, and hangs up. Seconds later, the message is delivered to a pre-selected group of friends, who can either reply to the message or forward it to their friends. More »


3. User generated content meets profit sharing: Slowly but surely, established brands are climbing aboard the customer-made bandwagon, inviting consumers to co-create. But as our sister-site trendwatching.com predicted a while ago, true co-creation can only blossom if brands share revenues resulting from consumer generated content with those same consumers. Which is why we like Vodafone Netherlands' new KijkMij TV (Look at Me TV) initiative, which not only involves customers uploading their funniest, sexiest or most informative (cameraphone) videos, but also pays these minipreneurs 10% of revenues generated when other customers download their video. More »


4. Private yapping booth: Here’s a smart idea that could be turned into a global cottage industry: sound resistant cell phone booths. The Cell Zone, produced by Salemi Industries, can be placed in nightclubs, restaurants, libraries, on airports, train stations, at concerts, and all other places where a bit of peace and quiet is often hard to get. More »


5. Start Mobile: OK, so we're suckers for anything that claims to be a 'world's first'. Like San Francisco's START MOBILE, a gallery selling art for cell phones. Part of the START SOMA gallery, the venture sells thousands of original works of new art from hundreds of established and underground artists, to be downloaded onto mobile phones. More »


6. Audiobooks for phones: Bokilur is Swedish for book on phone. And the company offers exactly that: audiobooks for cellphones. To get started, customers download and install a piece of Java-based software, that's compatible with over 40 phones (both 3G and GPRS). They can then use the software's interface to browse available titles, and listen to two minutes of each book for free before deciding to download. More »


7. Calling all mompreneurs: LiveOps enables clients to set up virtual call centers, connecting to agents that work from home. Made possible by availability of broadband internet access and affordable computers, the virtual set-up is spurred on by cost-conscious companies who would rather rely on independent contractors than hire full-time staff. Even better, since people who have the freedom and convenience of working from home are generally happier than those that have to commute to call center warehouses, they provide friendlier customer service and are better salespeople. More »


8. Boomer tones: Just when you thought the ringtone craze had reached its peak, a new ringtone provider springs up and grabs your entrepreneurial attention. Although it also offers popular―some would say hackneyed―classics like Für Elise, Booseytones' main attraction is its wide range of less overworked ringtones. Being the world's largest publisher of classical music, Boosey & Hawkes can draw from an immense catalogue of music. More »


9. Mms-ing local government: Love Lewisham involves residents in keeping the southeast borough of London clean. After installing special software on their cameraphone, observant townspeople can snap a picture of 'offending graffiti' or overflowing litter bins, enter location details, and send it to the local council. The picture is then posted on the council's website, and cleaning crews are sent to resolve the issue. More »


10. Shoot and know: Hardly a week goes by without another company unveiling a new service (often based on barcode or RFID scanners) to facilitate the interaction between people and physical objects. Still, Dutch ShotCodes has managed to take a original shot at this market with a visual approach that will appeal to consumers because, well, visuals always appeal to consumers. More »

Comment on this article »  
More Telecom & Mobile ideas »  

December 29, 2006

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas we spotted in 2006. Listed below are our ten favorites from the fashion and beauty business.

1. Hubwear: Aspiring entrepreneurs often ask us for ideas that don’t require hundreds of thousands of dollars, euros or pounds to get started. Look no further than the burgeoning arena of t-shirts. Bearer of profiles, of lists, of any kind of self-expression really, the humble t-shirt continues to bestow riches on creative entrepreneurs, or at least guarantee some low-risk entrepreneurial fun. So here’s yet another cool t-shirt start up: Hubwear. Its t-shirts display a wearer’s favorite travel routes, in airport codes (think JFK, AMS, MIA, HKG and so on). More »


2. Denim doctors: Jeans can now go into therapy. Yes, you heard that right -- New York's Denim Therapy restores, rejuvenates and injects life into worn-out, tattered jeans. Playing on the fact that many consumers have an emotional attachment to their jeans, the service repairs jeans with unwanted holes, denim that's worn, tattered or just plain falling apart. Using a unique reconstructive technique, Denim Therapy places existing denim fabric into the jean to replace the holes. More »


3. Mormor: Nostalgia. Design. Generation C. Storytelling. Knitting. Senior citizens and baby boomers. All these 'trends' beautifully come together in Danish Mormor.nu, an online store that sells baby and children's wear from the time when grandma herself was a wee lass. ('Mormor.nu' is Danish for 'Grandma.now'). In fact, the company's employees stem from an era when everything was made by hand, the youngest employee being 68 years old. All products are handmade, from pure wool, alpaca wool or cotton. More »


4. Culturally sensitive sportswear: Designing headscarves that can be worn for sports and play, Nike and Capsters are offering Muslim girls and women a practical alternative to the traditional hijab. Created by young Dutch designer Cindy van den Bremen, Capsters are sleek head coverings made from comfortable, stretchy fabrics, and come in a variety of styles to match different activities and sports look. More »


5. Shoes for good: While traveling through Argentina, Blake Mycoskie came across canvas shoes that his feet took an instant liking to. He took the alpargatas--comfortable utility shoes that resemble espadrilles--reworked them a bit, and started TOMS Shoes. Not just casual chic slip-ons that were spotted all over L.A. this summer, TOMS Shoes give new meaning to 'two for the price of one'. For each pair purchased (USD 38), TOMS gives a pair to a disadvantaged child in South America. More »


6. Vending that kills the frizz: Born out of frustration from hearing their female friends complaining of frizzy hair, entreprenuers Richard Starrett and Neil Macka took it upon themselves to devise a solution. They came up with the Straight Up machine. Trading under the name Beautiful Vending Ltd, the two men realised there was a gap in the market, since English weather can turn perfectly styled hair to frizz, ruining a night out for women fixed on having pin-straight hair. More »


7. Wearing your profile on your sleeve: Here's something that captures the zeitgeist in a novel yet simple way: Canadian t-lists are t-shirts that list the owner's top 5 for *anything*, from five worst movies or five most admired musicians, to five best products ever, or five things he or she will never eat. More »


8. Niche-niche skincare: Created by UK native and long-time vegan Leesah B, and based in New Jersey, Inky Loves Nature produces products from community traded and traditionally extracted exotic butters and oils from Africa, biodynamic herbs, and other minimally processed plant based ingredients. Exclusively vegan and packaged in funky, eco-friendly and recyclable containers. With names like Warrior Queen Cleanser and Nappaliscious Nutritious Scalp Butter, the company wants its products to "call out to the culture-craving brown skinned urbanista."More »


9. Nail taxi: Regular readers of Springwise will know that we're a big fan of mobile concepts; they're easy for entrepreneurs to set up, and so very convenient for consumers. Quick spotting from the world of beauty: Nail Taxi, based in the greater Washington D.C. area, provides nail care at customers' homes, offices, hotel suites, hospital rooms. They'll send a professional nail technician wherever a manicure or pedicure is needed. More »


10. Bold for bald: As a dedicated head-shaver, Abe Minkara tried every shaving product on the market, but none of them worked as well as he wanted. Discovering an underserved segment in the growing male grooming market, Minkara developed his own formula. His new company, Bold For Men, specializes in innovative skincare products for head-shaving men. More »

Comment on this article »  
More Fashion & Beauty ideas »  

December 27, 2006

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas we spotted in 2006. Up next: financial service ideas:

1. Kiva: p2p micro lending: Kiva helps lenders provide (charitable) microloans to entrepreneurs in developing countries, offering a new, sponsor-a-business option for individuals to connect with small enterprises in developing countries through flexible loans. More »


2. Facilitating kidpreneurs: Dutch Postbank, part of the ING Group, recently started a campaign aimed at budding entrepreneurs. Children who open an Easy Blue account receive a briefcase containing materials for printing their own t-shirts (aka bizznizz attire), stickers, letterhead, flyers, and business cards. More »


3. Making it easy to chip in: ChipIn is an online tool that enables people to collect money for gifts or other group purchases. Like Fundable, which we wrote about last year, ChipIn automates the time-consuming task of organizing people to collect funds for a group purchase. More »


4. Prosper, one and all: In March, we wrote about Prosper, the people-to-people money lending marketplace. Time for an update! Since its launch in February 2006, Prosper has signed up 100,000 memberships and has generated more than USD 20 million in loans. Prosper lets interested borrowers create a loan listing for up to USD 25,000. More »


5. Ether: sell what you say: For minipreneurs with a service to sell, Ether provides an innovative and easy way to tap into new business. The idea is straightforward: the service provider signs up for a free Ether (1-888) number, which is forwarded to a phone number of his choice, be it cell, home or work. He then decides how much his time is worth, per hour per minute or per call. More »


6. Greensurance: Touted as the UK's first eco-friendly car insurance, Ecoinsurance offers customers a cleaner conscience and a greener planet, at no extra cost. Each vehicle insurance policy comes with carbon offsets for 20% of the customer's car's CO2 emissions, based on an average passenger car with average annual mileage. More »


7. Ultra-personalized banking: Like My Postbank Cards, which we wrote about last year, Garanti Bank's Flexi Cards allow customers to personalize the look of their bank cards. But Garanti takes the concept a bit further: customers can develop their own banking product. Flexi Cards are Visa cards that let the cardholder make a few key decisions, allowing them to set over ten parameters. More »


8. Banking on women: Austria's first bank for women was recently opened by Raiffeisen in the ski resort town of Gastein. The concept was developed in association with Emotion Banking, which conducted extensive studies about women and finances, and how they interact with banks. More »


9. Prepaid computing: Using small-dose financing, Microsoft's FlexGo is attempting to make computers available to more consumers in developing countries. Customers will pay approximately half the price of a computer upfront. Usage is paid by the hour, and after a few hundred hours of use, the user will own the pc outright. More »


10. Matching first-time homebuyers: Faced with rocketing real estate prices, first-time homebuyers have a new option in the UK: buying with a stranger they've found online. Shared Spaces is a 'co-buyer network', enabling potential buyers to join forces with others. More »

Comment on this article »  
More Financial Services ideas »  

December 26, 2006

1. Hailing a hybrid: The Toyota Prius, the world's most popular hybrid car, emits half as much carbon dioxide as a traditional black cab does. This made it an obvious choice for greentomatocars, an environmentally friendly cab service in London that was launched on 1 March 2006 and was founded by two young ex-City lawyers. Hybrid cars have an electrical engine that takes over from the petrol engine when the car is moving slowly, which eliminates toxic fumes and noise. More »
   
   
2. Consumer generated power: Until fairly recently, wind turbines were huge structures that were only available for commercial use in turbine parks or empty rural areas. No longer so. Consumers can now choose from various wind turbines for residential use. For GBP 25,000, consumers can purchase beautifully designed, 'elegant' wind power from Quiet Revolution. More »


3. Household recycling plant: When discussing insperiences (the trend of bringing professional grade products and services into the domestic domain), one thinks of plush home cinemas and chef-worthy kitchens. An indoor recycling plant doesn't immediately spring to mind. But that could change with the arrival of the Ecopod. Created in partnership with BMW DesignWorksUSA, Ecopod's E1 Series is a household recycling center that aims to change the way consumers take out their trash. More »


4. Green rentals: EV Rental Cars is the first US rental car company whose entire fleet consists of hybrid vehicles. The Los Angeles based firm doubled its fleet over the past two years, and now offers fuel-efficient wheels for rent in eight cities in the Western US through a partnership with Fox Rent A Car. More »


5. Eco-chic entrepreneurs: Two stylish opportunities from the world of sustainable fashion: ECOIST Known as the candy wrapper handbags, Ecoist's bags (USD 28-58) are made from misprinted or discontinued snack bags, soda labels and candy wrappers. A family business based in Miami, the company believes that consumers should be able to enjoy a modern lifestyle, buying their favourite things, while also doing good to the Earth. Material that would otherwise end up in landfills is folded into straps and woven into bags and clutches by Mexican artisans. More »


6. Innovative olive farmers: Following in the footsteps of vineyard sharing concepts like WineShare and St. Helena Winery's Adopt-A-Vine, Nudo lets customers adopt an olive tree. Founded by two former British television producers who decided to ditch the rat race for a farm in rural Italy, Nudo is an olive grove that offers trees for adoption. More »


7. Retail approach to recycling: Whether ignorant or just plain lazy, plenty of consumers and businesses don't make the effort to recycle electronics. Which is why Green Citizen's drop-off center and pick-up service are great concepts – they make it convenient for people to recycle unused electronic equipment. In their own words: "we want to make recycling electronics so easy that you’ll make it a part of your everyday routine." More »


8. Carbon offsets by sms: World Land Trust, which was founded in 1989 to preserve the world's most ecologically important and threatened lands, recently created a new way for concerned citizens to help the earth. The foundation now offers carbon offsets by sms/text message. Every time a consumer texts "WLT CARBON" to number 87050 (within the UK), World Land Trust will offset 140 kilograms of CO2 through its Carbon Balanced Program. More »


9. Zen approach to cleaning industry: Looking to stand out in a lackluster industry? Learn from ZENhome Cleaning! This Brooklyn based home cleaning company, founded by a former model, changed hum-drum home cleaning into something special. The company only uses non-toxic, environmentally friendly cleaning products, appealing both to ecologically aware consumers and people with allergies. More »
   
   
10. Hot nightclub, minus global warming: Kicking off in Rotterdam's Off_Corso on October 14th is the Sustainable Dance Club. The kick-off party will feature biological beer on tap and fair-trade clothing brand Kuyichi helping clubbers customize their clothes. The end concept will go much further. Enviu, an environmental NGO for young people, is working together with architectural firm Döll to create a truly sustainable nightclub. More »

Comment on this article »  
More Eco & Sustainability ideas »  

December 21, 2006

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas of 2006. Each day, we'll feature our personal favorites. This batch highlights ten great new businesses focused on making their customers' lives easier.

1. Mom-to-be, no time free?: As long as our spotters send us spottings like Babyplanners, Springwise will never go out of business. This newborn London-based company has managed to find yet another niche-market waiting to be penetrated: young, hard-working parents-to-be, who are willing to shell out some dough to have others deal with the endless shopping, researching, conflicting advice and general stress and confusion that come with a first-time pregnancy. More »


2. Summer storage for students: Dorm2Dorm was founded by college students, for college students. The service is simple: students order storage materials online, which are delivered a week before finals. Dorm2Dorm comes back a week later, when finals are out of the way, to pick up packed items and store them for the summer. More »
   
   
3. Charge lockers: A ChargeBox is a set of lockers designed to charge batteries of phones and other mobile devices. Created by British Boxbrands, ChargeBoxes have six lockers with each locker containing four different chargers. The user picks the appropriate locker for their device, opens the door and attaches the device to a charger inside. More »


4. Discount glasses online: Helping consumers see money left in their wallets, 23-year-old James Murray Wells has shaken the British prescription glasses industry. Managing director and co-owner of Glasses Direct, Murray Wells began his no-frills web store offering specs for as low as 10 percent of the price of many high street stores. More »
   
   
5. Keeping track of kids & keys: 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. More »


6. Quick delivery e-commerce: In the San Francisco Bay area and Atlanta, two e-commerce companies are betting on the appeal of almost-instant delivery. More »
   
   
7. Kids party in a box: Favouritz sells boxes filled with everything needed for an original and entertaining children's party. Founded by Danish-Swiss Jeannette Domeisen, Favouritz targets the niche market of children's' birthday parties. More »


8. Helping friends keep track: BillMonk is an online and mobile application that helps friends to keep track of how much money and which items they owe each other. More »


9. Lost & found in the 21st century: Last year, we featured a few tech-savvy lost and found services that let consumers label their valuables and recover them if lost or stolen. A recent spotting came in from Singapore, where Bak2u offers various ways of securing expensive gadgets. More »
   
   
10. Dating security: Secure Singles has developed a 'personal emergency notification system' for the dating world. A tool that singles can use to protect themselves, Secure Singles allows users to store information on the people they're planning to meet. More »

Comment on this article »  
More Life Hacks ideas »  

December 20, 2006

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas of 2006. Each day, we'll feature our personal favorites from 20 industries we’ve tracked throughout the year.

1. Niche parcel service: Every air traveler knows pocketknives and scissors won't make it through airport security. Yet sometimes something sharp is accidentally left in a pocket. More »



2. No frills chic, Indian style: Back in 2004, trendwatching.com wrote about IndiOne, a pilot for no-frills chic hotels in India. Now, the IndiOne in Bangalore has been renamed Ginger, and an ambitious roll-out for the new brand has been unveiled. More »


3. Tribewanted: Launched by two young British entrepreneurs, tribewanted is creating a global tribe that will develop a sustainable eco-community on an island in Fiji. More »


4. Minipreneur travel agents: Joining the customer made revolution, Belgium tour operator Wasteels has set up a division called Club Tours, which allows amateurs to create travel packages that are sold to the company's customers. More »


5. Buy room 387: Consumers becoming participants is one of the big evolving themes for 2006, so we thought it fitting to highlight UK based Guest Invest, who offer individuals the opportunity to own a fully managed, luxury London hotel room, from GBP 140.000 - 300.000 for a 999 year lease. More »


6. Airport weddings: New at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol: weddings to go. Whether a couple met on a flight to Bangkok or just wants to be able to go straight from ceremony to runway for their honeymoon, Schiphol offers travellers the opportunity to get married at the airport. More »


7. Tripadvisor for gay travellers: Pink Choice is a review website for gay and lesbian travellers. The company was founded by the owners of two successful gay guesthouses in Massachusetts, who were frustrated by the lack of relevant information when planning their own holidays. More »


8. Checking into another dimension: Announced last year as W Hotels' new brand for the select-service hotel category, the first aloft hotel won't open until 2008. So, what does a brand do to create some pre-opening buzz, and give future customers a taste of what's to come? Build a virtual hotel in Second Life, of course. More »


9. Digital fuel: Fuel for Travel lets consumers download travel guides, music, audio books, tv shows and movies to their MP3 players and other digital devices. More »


10. Funky kiwi campers: Escape Rentals is a New Zealand camper rental company that sets itself apart by letting artists turn camper vans into art on wheels. More »

Comment on this article »  
More Tourism & Travel ideas »  

December 19, 2006

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas of 2006. Each day, we'll feature our personal favorites from 20 industries we’ve tracked throughout the year. First up: automotive. Enjoy!

1. Driver's education for customers: Maruti Udyog, India's largest car manufacturer, has taken a matter-of-fact approach to broadening its customer base. Want more people to buy your cars? Teach them to drive! More »
   


2. Five star hotel for cars: The Engine Room in Belgium not only offers secure and swanky warehouse storage for members' automotive treasures, but now also offers car-sharing for an exclusive range of vehicles. More »


3. The going is green (and electric): Designed in California and manufactured in India, GoinGreen's G-Wiz electric cars are a hit in London, where the company has sold over 600 units, making London the electric car capital of the world. More »


4. First car brand drives into Second Life: Scion became first automaker to run a campaign in Second Life, releasing virtual cars in the popular metaverse. More »


5. Fractional supercar ownership: Offering "intelligent supercar ownership," écurie25 is a club that gives members the right to drive fine automobiles for 30-40 days per year. More »


6. Mobile exchange for parking spaces: SpotScout claims to be the world’s first mobile exchange marketplace for parking spots, connecting parking spaces with drivers that are desperately seeking them. Urban planners estimate that as much as 80 percent of traffic on some city streets comes from motorists aimlessly circling blocks in search of a place to park. More »


7. Greener drivers ed: Drivers Ed Direct aims to revolutionize the drivers education industry, by getting rid of "old cars, dimly-lit sterile classrooms and out-of-touch instructors". Not only have the old cars been replaced by brand new cars, they've been replaced by gas-electric hybrids: the school's entire fleet is hybrid. More »


8. Cabs for and by women: In London alone, 10 women are attacked each month after getting into an unlicensed mini-cab. No wonder that many women feel safer taking a taxi driven by a woman. Pink Ladies spotted a business opportunity, and created the UK's first women-only private car hire franchise. More »


9. MySpace for car lovers: MySpace, the social networking website, is home to more than 54 million people, most of whom are teenagers. And what MySpace has done for teens, CarSpace (launched February 2006), hopes to do for people who enjoy, love, obsess over cars. More »


10. Auto shops by the hour: Plenty of consumers around the world enjoy tinkering with their cars, preferably surrounded by professional looking tools and equipment, in a state- of the art garage/auto shop. More »

Comment on this article »  
More Automotive ideas »  

Springwise and its global network of 8,000 spotters scan the globe for smart new business ideas, delivering instant inspiration to entrepreneurial minds from San Francisco to Singapore. Time to start the Next Big Thing!

Feel free to publish part or all of these trends at your convenience. As long as you properly name, credit and link the source, www.springwise.com, we're happy. If you're a journalist working on a new business idea-related article, check out our extensive Press page or request a quote: we'll do our best to make your deadline-dominated life easier.

If you experience any difficulty reading this newsletter; please access www.springwise.com/newsletter

Want to change your email address or unsubscribe? Please go to: www.springwise.com/managedetails.aspx.

The author reserves the right not to be responsible for the topicality, correctness, completeness or quality of the information provided. Liability claims regarding damage caused by the use of any information provided, including any kind of information which is incomplete or incorrect, will therefore be rejected. More information can be found in our Terms and Conditions.

Springwise BV, a 53rd Floor BV company.
Address: Laurierstraat 71, 1016 PJ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Web address: www.springwise.com
Contact email address: liesbeth@springwise.com

[ Home | Idea Database | Become a spotter | Tell a friend | Contact | Subscribe for free ]