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This week's selection of promising new business ideas includes a sewing cafe in Berlin, iced coffee straws from Australia, Valentine's pop-up stores in the U.S, user-generated news coverage in Denmark, and more. Our next edition is due on 16 February 2007. 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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Door-to-door luggage delivery services have been sprouting up around the world (see Personal Porter, Luggage Forward, Virtual Bellhop), helping air travellers avoid the hassles of waits at baggage carousels, searches by security staff and lost luggage. Newcomer FlyLite takes the concept a few steps further. The company not only picks up and delivers a member's bag, but also packs it, dry cleans the contents and keeps everything in storage until the customer's next flight. How it works? Customers receive a suitcase from FlyLite, which they pack with their favourite travelling gear, from suits and shoes to golf clubs and toiletries. FlyLite then collects the bag and stores the contents. A full inventory is made and placed online, allowing users to browse through their wardrobe and select what they'll need for their next trip, using a simple drag and drop interface. After they've entered their destination and arrival date, FlyLite takes care of the rest. Leaving customers to zip through airports, fly blissfully luggage-free, and find their suitcases waiting for them at their destination, without having to worry about clean socks or packing. It's a life-smoothing service for consumers who have more money than time, and are willing to pay well for what trendwatching.com has suggestively dubbed daily lubricants. The service costs USD 100 - 200 per trip and is currently only available in the United States. Which leaves plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurs in other countries and on other continents. One to start up in travel hubs across the world, from London to Singapore. Website: www.flylite.com Spotted by: Ilene Strongin-Garry |
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The curious folks at Altoids opened three very temporary retail outlets yesterday, and love-lost consumers will take heart: "Sick of all the Valentine's Day hype? Unattached and glad about it? In the week leading up to Valentine's Day, Altoids invites the lovesick, lovelorn and Cupid-wary to a sanctuary from all the romantic overtures." Altoids Curious and Original Chocolate Shoppes have touched down in Chicago, Miami and New York, and will feature various activities, from Therapeutic Crafts for the Broken-Hearted, with free ‘Love Stinks’ needlepoint kits, to Love Lost Readings. The main feature, however, is letting customers sample new Altoids Dark Chocolate Dipped Mints, accompanied by free lattes. Careful readers will have spotted a veritable hat-trick of marketing trends here, as Callard & Bowser pack them in: pop-up retail, combined with sympvertising and topped off with tryvertising. Website: www.altoids.com Comment on this article » |
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We've featured numerous citizen journalist ventures over the past few years (here, here, here and here). A new spotting just came in from Denmark, where free daily newspaper Nyhedsavisen is merging citizen journalism with its traditional counterpart. Bloggers and other citizen journalists have access to Avisen.dk's homepage, where their stories are published alongside articles written by the newspaper's editorial staff. Pros and amateurs compete for top positions in the 'most read' and 'most debated' sections. To contribute, 'Læserskribenter' (roughly translated as reader-writers) create a profile on Avisen.dk and set up a blog on the website. Whether a user-generated piece makes it to the homepage, is determined by its popularity. Putting pro journalists and citizen journalists on equal footing is an interesting way to bridge the divide between traditional media and user-generated media. The next step, of course, is to financially reward top contributors, which Avisen doesn't seem to be doing. More on that in trendwatching.com's briefing about Generation C(ash), which lists a number of new media companies that are helping users get paid for the content they're creating. Website: www.avisen.dk Spotted by: Peter Svarre |
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Everything can be upgraded, even the incredibly easy to assemble furniture that we covered last year. The Simple Furniture Company launched its latest brand last week, and it's an upmarket version of Real Simple Furniture. InModern's design is sleeker and more sculptural, with upgraded prices to match (USD 249 for an RSF desk; USD 400 for an InModern desk). Design aside, the premise remains the same: no tools needed to assemble or disassemble the furniture. The pieces are made of real wood, not particle board, and the wood comes from certified environmentally responsible forestry. Everything is manufactured and assembled in the United States. We still like the idea of eco-friendly, real simple furniture, and we look forward to hearing from entrepreneurs setting up their own local versions. Come to think of it, click-and-go furniture would be an ideal match for EvolvingVox, the 'temporary ownership network' that furnishes student dorm rooms. Perfect for temporary use, since flat-packable furniture significantly reduces storage space when items aren't in use. Website: www.inmodern.net |
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Last year we wrote about Sipahh, an Australian innovation that turns plain milk into flavoured milk by way of a straw filled with naturally flavoured beads. The straws come in flavours like strawberry, caramel and banana, and are mainly targeted at children. Since they contain fewer calories than ready-made flavoured milk, they're pitched as a healthy way to get children to drink more milk. At the time, we suggested: "And how about adult versions, like coffee-flavoured straws for a homemade iced-latte?" Our speculative suggestion became reality with parent company Unistraw's recent launch of a new brand: Mai'a Iced Coffee Straws. Mai'a straws are available in four 'rich and tempting' flavours: Mocha, Latte, Espresso and Cappuccino, made with real coffee. Like Sipahh straws, they're low in sugar—just 15 calories per straw—and can be used with any type of milk, including soy, rice and goat. Unistraw anticipates Sipahh milk flavouring straws will be available in 85 countries later this year, and they're hoping Maia coffee straws will follow this same path. They're still seeking partners in numerous territories around the world. If you hurry up, you might still be able to arrange local distribution in time for the Northern Hemisphere's summer of 2007. Iced coffee straws for cool profits. ;-) Website: www.maiatime.com |
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An all-business class carrier that started flying between London Luton and Newark's Liberty International Airport last week, Silverjet is the first airline to become carbon neutral. While several airlines and (online) travel agencies offer carbon dioxide offsets as part of their booking process, Silverjet is the first airline to make a carbon offset contribution mandatory. A smart and sympathetic element is that customers receive carbon offset points, which they can invest in a number of Verified Emission Reduction projects. This actively involves customers with offsetting, making the contribution seem less like an additional tax and more like a charitable donation. Climate friendly projects include a solar panel program in India and a wind farm in New Zealand. Silverjet's CO2 neutral scheme is operated in partnership with the CarbonNeutral Company. The concept fits with our eco-mantra: make it easy and fun for your customers to be green. On a side note, while its mandatory carbon offsetting might be unique, Silverjet isn't the only airline to offer a 'private jet experience'. It joins Maxjet, PrivatAir, Eos and L'Avion, all flying transatlantic routes. Silverjet perks include a private terminal with dedicated security, flat-bed seats, quiet zones and women's-only restrooms. Return tickets London-Newark start at USD 1,798; additional long haul routes will follow once the existing route becomes profitable. Website: www.flysilverjet.com Related: Carbon offsets by sms | No-frills chic takes flight in Japan |
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Founded by 29 year old Linda Eilers, Linkle is the first dedicated sewing cafe we've come across. Knitting clubs have spread like wildfire over the past few years, with men and women gathering in pubs to stitch, bitch and get their craft on. A sewing machine, however, is rather more cumbersome than knitting needles and a bag of wool, leaving less room for social sewing. A year ago, Eilers was teaching sewing classes in The Netherlands. Noticing a huge increase in the number of people interested in sewing their own clothes, Eilers spotted a gap in the market and left for Berlin, a city with low rents and plenty of crafters. Her sewing cafe, Linkle, is open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 1 - 10 pm. Like internet cafes, people just walk in and install themselves behind a machine, and are charged by the hour (5 euros). Besides 10 sewing machines, customers have a cutting table at their disposal, as well as Eilers' extensive knowledge. She helps replace broken zippers and advises on tailoring a vintage dress or stitching a handbag. Linkle serves a wide range of customers—from teenagers customizing jeans, to a woman creating her own wedding dress. For entrepreneurs with a knack for sewing (or carpentry, or almost any other kind of craft), now's the time to make the most of the craft revival as it continues to expand. Set up a working / being space, and maybe combine it with a fabric or supplies shop. It might not be the most lucrative business, but at least you'll be doing what you love. ;-) Website: www.linkle.de Related: Etsy Labs |
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