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Another week, another fine selection of new business ideas from around the world: indie download cards in the US, custom-mixed cereal in Germany, pizza vending machines from Italy, a crowd aiming to buy a football team in the UK, and more. Our next edition is due on 23 May 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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As much choice as there may be in the cereal aisle, nothing beats made-to-order, especially if you can mix and match 70 different ingredients. Which is what Mymuesli offers through its online cereal store. Using a simple and user-friendly interface, customers build their own personal muesli. First, they pick a foundation (oats and other grains), then add fruits, nuts and seeds, and finally extras like organic gummi bears and alfalfa. Prices and quantities are tallied along the way (60 eurocents for 30 grams of chopped almonds, 40 cents for 45 grams of dried apricots, etc), and a 575 gram pack costs around EUR 5-9, depending on which ingredients are used. Shipping is extra. Customers can name their mix, which is also assigned an ID that's printed on the muesli box. This makes it super easy to reorder a specific mix, or recommend it to friends. Those who aren't feeling creative can order one of the German start-up’s personal favourites, like tropical Copacabana Days, or Alte Freunde, a choc and nuts mix. Mymuesli only uses organic ingredients (which helps explain the hefty price tag), and offers exotic fruits like goji berries and sour cherries to spruce up the most important meal of the day. Nice example of mass-customization, and one that's quickly catching on: Mymuesli started two weeks ago, but has already run out of packaging (which they'd estimated would last at least 8 weeks). The concept reminds us of the customized vitamin packs we featured earlier, which also allow customers to create their own unique blend. One to adapt to local breakfast preferences? Could be a fun gimmick for hotels, too: during the booking process, let guests order their own breakfast and have it delivered to their room in a personalized box. Website: www.mymuesli.com Spotted by: Franziska Luh
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Following our earlier post on the Salone del Mobile's bedsharing project, comes a non-profit venture that's dedicated to making conferences greener and more sociable. SpaceShare develops online tools for environmental logistics and networking. The aim is to help people share and save resources while building community. The company works with event planners to orchestrate complex logistics for large events, letting participants find other participants nearby to carpool or travel together on trains and planes; share taxis or car rental from airports to conference venues; and share a hotel room or find local residents offering space for a homestay. SpaceShare sets up the databases and web forms needed to help participants find suitable matches. After filling in their details and describing their needs, attendees are emailed when a travel or accommodation match has been made. SpaceShare aims to make the journey part of the conference. By travelling together, people can connect with attendees from their neighbourhood or home city, using the trip as a regional mini-conference and taking learnings back to their community. As described by SpaceShare: "Spending a flight talking to someone about the conference can be a tremendous improvement over flying alone, essentially extending your conference for the duration of everyone's flights." Pricing for conferences depends on the event's size and planning needs. SpaceShare's tools are also available for weddings, encouraging guests to travel together and forge new connections. For weddings of normal size and logistical complexity, SpaceShare will customize a 'green travel' site for USD 200. Full websites are also available (including forums and/or blogs), for USD 500. We like the combination of smart use of resources and promoting relevant, location-based networking. How about something similar for high school reunions and other social gatherings? While SpaceShare offers its tools to a variety of events, focusing on a niche market could make it easier to find customers. Ideally, this type of service would be fully automated, Web 2.0 style, and free. Either offered by one of the big players (Google, Yahoo, Facebook for high-school reunions) or sponsored by a relevant green-conscious brand (Toyota?). Website: www.spaceshare.com Related: Enhanced networking for business travellers
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We've written about the phenomenon of team buying, whereby consumers band together to negotiate good deals. A different kind of team buying is being initiated in the UK, where a large number of people will buy a sports team. MyFootballClub, which launched just two weeks ago, aims to buy a professional league football/soccer club. Football fans can currently register for free, but commit to paying GBP 35 as soon as 50,000 people have registered. This will create a purchase fund of GBP 1,375,000, plus GBP 375,000 for staffing and running MyFootballClub. When registering, members vote for the team they'd like to buy. As soon as they've paid their membership fee, they can confirm their prior choice or pick another team. After a club has been purchased, a Board will be formed to help run it, containing existing supporters of the club, existing board members, new directors and a member of the MyFootballClub web team. The Board will consult MyFootballClub members on all major decisions. All members will be able to vote, and decisions will be made based on those votes. Which, theoretically, should create steadier management than most clubs have, where personal politics and clashing interests can get in the way of sound decision making. And, as MyFootballClub states: "Without having to rely on the wealth and goodwill of an individual owner, the club will benefit from the pooled resources, knowledge and enthusiasm of thousands of football fans worldwide." Members will be able to vote on crucial matters such as team formation, tactics and substitutions. To keep members fully in the loop, the head coach and players will give regular video briefings, which will be available online, as well as reports from the training ground. Wisdom of the crowds will also be used to decide which players to buy or sell, and for how much. To ensure all members have equal rights, MyFootballClub limits ownership to one share per member. Next up: crowd-funded baseball, hockey, basketball and (American) football teams? Or get creative and find another project that could benefit from crowd clout. Various revenue models are possible. If you're charging membership fees, be sure to follow MyFootballClub's lead and be very upfront about how much you're charging for coordination and maintenance. Considering more than 22,500 members signed up for MyFootballClub over the past two weeks, the crowds definitely seem game ;-) Spotted by: Daniel Mackenzie Related: Sellaband, which lets individuals sponsor bands, and A Swarm of Angels, a crowd-funded movie
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One of the world’s favorite fast-food options just got even more convenient with Wonderpizza—the world's first vending machine to serve up piping hot pizzas in less than two minutes. The Wonderpizza machine stands at about six feet high, six feet wide and three feet deep, and holds up to 102 pre-sliced 9-inch pizzas in separate and sealed trays. The pizzas are frozen using a special process. Once they’ve been thawed and placed in the machine, they have a shelf-life of 12 days. Standard varieties are Cheese, Vegetables and Ham, but other varieties can be produced on request (minimum order is 39,000 pizzas). Using a high-intensity toaster oven cooking process, Wonderpizzas are heated upon order and delivered fast and hot at a suggested retail price of USD 5–6. Based on more than five years and six million dollars worth of research and development, Wonderpizza originated in Italy and is now beginning worldwide distribution, seeking regional and local distributors, dealers and agents. Wonderpizza joins MooBella in offering consumers innovative alternatives to traditional vending machine fare. Entrepreneurs who are quick to jump in on the game and target the right locations can feast on a yummy slice of profit. Website: www.wonderpizza.org — www.wonderpizzausa.com Spotted by: Bertjan van Dijk and Bjarke Svendsen
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Of the millions of new bicycles sold each year, thousands end up neglected, abandoned or gathering dust in garages or sheds. British Specialbike has set out to change that by refurbishing old bikes with precision craftsmanship and high-end parts. The result? Sleek and stylish one-of-a-kind bicycles. Specialbike breathes new life into beaten down bikes—even ones that may seem far beyond salvaging—by stripping down the reusable components, sandblasting to remove old paint and rust, powder-coating the frame in a selection of eye-popping colours, and then rebuilding the bike to meet custom specifications. Customers can bring in their own bikes to be rebuilt. Or they can request a certain type of bike, and Specialbike's staff will hunt one down to restore. After taking the time to discuss each customer's unique needs and preferences, the finished product is designed and manufactured specifically for him or her, usually in just a couple weeks' time. Customers who don't want to wait can choose from refurbished bikes that have already been completed. Either way, customers are ensured they’ll be coasting along on a unique ride. Prices range from GBP 250 to GBP 1,000. A “Pimp My Ride" for the two-wheeled crowd, Specialbike offers a perfect blend of recycling and custom tailoring—promoting its own brand of reuse, while encouraging one of the greenest forms of transit and offering consumers a one-of-a-kind product. It's a concept that could easily take off in any (affluent) urban area suited to bicycle traffic. More bicycle business ideas: Bikevertising, City bicycle schemes and Old-fashioned bikes for the new world. Website: www.specialbike.co.uk Spotted by: Iain Tate
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We featured gravanity dolls last year and the year before. It's a concept that continues to spin off businesses, as witnessed by our most recent spotting from Sweden. The dolls come in two sizes: small (21 cm / 8 inches, USD 48) and large (14 cm / 5 inches, USD 44). They're made of 100% cotton, with a polyester stuffing. Washed sand is added for weight. TPP digitally prints photographs on fabric, and everything from shoe colour to clothes can be customized. After the customer's photos and selected clothing are printed, the dolls are assembled by hand. Business opportunities? Start something similar, picking your own niche and gravanity targets: how about Mii dolls? Or pocket-sized pets? Or work with a major clothing brand, letting customers create a mini-me wearing pieces from the brand's latest collection. Tiny Converse sneakers, mini Levi's jeans, minute Threadless t-shirts... We're sure you can come up with a fun and mutually beneficial partnership :-) Website: www.tinypocketpeople.com Spotted by: David M.
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Bridging the divide between digital and physical, DiscRevolt provides a tangible solution for selling digital media. Artists upload songs to DiscRevolt's website and design their own artwork for a plastic download card. The cards are then printed by DiscRevolt with a unique redemption code on the back. Artists sell the cards to fans at live shows, and the fans can then download songs or albums from the artist's online page. Many independent artists make most of their revenue at merchandise tables after they play a live show. Audiences connect with a band or song, and are most likely to pay for music during the post-gig buzz. As bands are moving from CDs to digital downloads, they need something to hook potential customers when they can, instead of asking them to download later. Which is a challenge DiscRevolt aims to solve. The start-up describes its download cards as a cross between a gift card, a backstage pass and a baseball trading card. They're designed to be collectible items, attachable to lanyards or backpacks or rear-view mirrors. The fact that artists design their own artwork, and often make cards in limited runs, adds to the appeal. Pricing is set at 500 cards for USD 250. Each card gives fans access to 15 credits worth of the artist's material on discrevolt.com. Artists set their own prices, but DiscRevolt recommends USD 5 per card, which brings the price per song to 33 cents for buyers, and gives artists a 90% profit margin. Since artists buy the cards upfront, profits are received as soon the cards are sold. Which can be useful while bootstrapping a tour ;-) It also provides a user-friendly download avenue for bands that haven't yet made it to the front page of the iTunes Music Store. DiscRevolt is currently in beta, and is offering artists 100 free cards if they sign up before May 15th. The website currently only supports MP3 audio files (at any bitrate), but future releases will also support other media files such as video and PDF files of liner notes, lyrics and artwork. Something to set up locally? And although musical artists are the main target group for this type of service, how about BookRevolt? At lectures or other events, both published and unpublished authors could sell cards for downloads of audio-books or e-books, or supplements to printed work, or use the cards as a promotional tool, giving away digital copies of sample chapters without having to worry about hosting downloads. Website: www.discrevolt.com Related: Amie Street: Music at market prices Spotted by: Ozgur Alaz
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