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This week's selection of new business ideas features custom-made energy bars from the US, a street golf brand from Germany, a new crowd-managed venture from the UK, and more. Our next edition is due on 6 February 2008. 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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Ubiquitous computing is a trend that's oft discussed and less frequently seen, but a shining new example just opened in New York City's luxurious St. Regis Hotel. A restaurant called Adour now features a technology-driven, interactive wine bar that lets guests explore for themselves the wide variety of wines available. While the decor of the 72-seat restaurant features hues reminiscent of burgundy and chardonnay, Adour's 4-seat wine bar is constructed from gold and bronze and covered in luxurious goat skin. Built-in interactive technology from Potion Design helps patrons choose a wine by allowing them to browse Adour's complete wine list by wine type, country and varietal. Computer menus are projected from the ceiling onto the bar, and patrons make their choices by pressing on the bar's surface. The first menu, for example, prompts guests to choose from a list of selections including By the Glass, By the Decanter, Sparkling Wines, Red Wines, White Wines, etc. Additional choices follow from there, including lists of countries, regions and wines. When a guest selects a particular wine, a rosette-shaped image is projected with information about the wine on each of its five petals, including details about the producer and the grapes. Adour’s Wine Director manages the wine list using a custom-designed content management system and can update the interactive bar daily or for special occasions. Adding a personal touch to its high-end experience, Adour also offers temperature-controlled, private wine vaults in its 12-seat private dining room to give guests a way to store their very own wine collection. Besides being an upscale novelty, Adour's interactive bar feeds modern consumers' apparently insatiable infolust with relevant information, and it incorporates that information into the real-world dining experience. It also educates consumers about wines, providing them with key status skills that (they hope) will elevate them above the rest of the crowd. All that and a highly engaging experience too! Mark our words: There's more of this to come... Website: www.adour-stregis.com Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen
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HOLZundEISEN—German for wood and iron—sells equipment for a new sport that's taking off in cities around the world: urban golf. Also known as cross golf or street golf, urban golf isn't limited to country clubs, and its players don't have to fork over exorbitant greens fees (although a good personal liability insurance is advisable). Instead, they play their rounds on building sites, campuses, rooftops and quiet streets. Since urban golfers literally hit the pavement, HOLZundEISEN’s iron is extra durable. It's equally suited to long and short shots, a definite advantage for golfers trekking through the city without a caddy. As befits a democratic game, the club is priced at an affordable EUR 22. The tongue-in-cheek brand, which describes the club's design as 'high-porno-anti-glamour style', was founded by two German students aiming to promote the burgeoning sport. Besides its urban iron, HOLZundEISEN also offers tips and a Google map marked with urban golf 'courses' across Germany. One to distribute outside Europe? Or find your own up-and-coming sport and cater to its underserved players. Since manufacturers in China and other low(er) cost production countries are increasingly accessible, designing and manufacturing equipment for niche (sports) audiences is more feasible than ever. Website: www.holzundeisen.de Spotted by: A.L.
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With hooligans grabbing the spotlight more often than not, warm and cozy aren’t terms that are usually associated with fans of European soccer/football. A new Swiss venture called Sleep-In could change that. Set up in advance of the 2008 European Football Championship that will take place in Switzerland and Austria this June, Sleep-In enables area residents from both countries to offer their homes to visiting soccer fans. Visitors can list the type of accommodations they’re looking for, and local hosts choose their temporary housemates based on the write-ups that guests submit. Besides access to accommodation that is low cost and in some cases free, the site’s overriding benefit, its organizers say, is the chance it affords both parties to meet new people. To make sure everyone is satisfied with the arrangements they negotiate, Sleep In exhorts its users to be truthful in the descriptions they place in their ads. We covered a comparable website last year, which facilitated bed-sharing at the Salone del Mobile in Milan and, like Sleep-In, didn’t feature advertising. However, revenues from ads could fuel similar sites for other events. The concept’s chief advantage is that it’s relatively easy to launch. A few days spent piecing together a website, sending out press releases and garnering blog posts might be all that’s required to generate some handy extra cash. Website: www.sleep-in.ch Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen
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We've always said everything can be upgraded (or premiumized, in our sister site trendwatching.com’s current lingo) and the recruiting industry is no exception. To wit: TheLadders, a job site created exclusively for high earners looking for jobs paying USD 100,000 or more. TheLadders lists more than 35,000 new jobs each month—all of them with annual salaries of USD 100K or higher—including many C-level, vice president, director and manager positions. Seven functional areas are served by specialized search engines, creating "ladder" listings specific to sales, marketing, finance, human resources, law, technology and operations; an eighth list, meanwhile, captures all other fields. But just as the site focuses on high-end jobs, so, too, does it cater to high-end earners. Reasoning that free access makes it too easy for less-qualified candidates to flood recruiters with a deluge of poor-quality applications, TheLadders grants full access to its listings only to premium members, who must pay USD 30 a month for the privilege. Such members can access the full set of listed jobs as well as connect with corporate and executive recruiters. A one-on-one resume service, advice from career experts, customized online profiles and e-mail alerts are available, as are a host of services for recruiters. Since TheLadders was founded in 2003 by ex-HotJobs.com executive Marc Cenedella, the New York-based site has grown into the largest specialty employment website in the world, it says, with more than 1,600,000 members and over 35,000 recruiters using its .com and .co.uk websites. Last fall it was named a Momentum 2007 Company at the Momentum Growth Conference in recognition of its revenue growth over a short period of time, proven and scalable business model, user-base size, customers and partnerships. A good one to emulate, either in other regions or targeting niches with similarly simple boundaries. Website: www.theladders.com — www.theladders.co.uk
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Personal gene sequencing may be just beginning to make its way into the mainstream commercial world (see our post on Genome mapping services, as well as DNA-driven dating, which we just covered), but it's already getting upgraded. Witness Knome, which is offering whole-genome mapping for USD 350,000. Launched in November, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Knome is offering just 20 individuals the opportunity to participate in its debut by having their entire genomes sequenced. Whereas the contenders we've already written about have focused on sequencing just key parts of the human genome for anywhere between USD 985 and USD 2,500, Knome will map out and analyse the entire thing--something only two people have had done before. That means decoding the 6 billion bits of information that make up an individual’s genome, and the result is a comprehensive view of more than 20,000 genes and insight into the individual's risk of developing up to 2,000 common and rare conditions. Knome's price also includes a thorough analysis and continued support by a team of geneticists, clinicians and bioinformaticians. Clients will retain full ownership of their personal genome and have the ability to anonymously share all or portions of it with researchers and other medical professionals. Dr. George Church, PhD, a cofounder of the firm and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, explains: “In 2003, the Human Genome Project completed a 12-year effort to sequence the first human genome at a cost of USD 3 billion. Only very recently have costs come down to a level where it is now feasible for private individuals to be sequenced and analyzed. We expect this evolution to quickly usher in a new era in personalized medicine.” Need we say more? As this type of service becomes more commonplace, there will be plenty of demand for medical consultants who can put it all in perspective. Something tells us there may be a whole new market for medical lawyers as well... Website: www.knome.com Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen
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Of all the markets that could benefit from increased price transparency, the one for used cars surely ranks near the very top. Pricing sites have emerged in one area after another—including Zillow for home buyers—but now used-car buyers finally have one of their very own with the launch last fall of PriceHub. San Francisco-based PriceHub was created by two car enthusiasts who have collectively bought, owned and sold more than 30 (mostly used) cars over the last decade. They observed that while car buyers can refer to published invoice prices, MSRP prices, book values, trade-in values and other estimates of valuation, there was no source of real, actual car transaction prices. PriceHub, now in beta, is dedicated to providing that price transparency as well as a community for people to share and discuss prices. Users of the site can search for a car's make and model, and PriceHub will furnish a chart listing transactions made, including model year, mileage, condition, location, transaction date and actual sale price. People who have just bought a used car can submit the price they paid, thereby adding more data to the list, and PriceHub gathers sale prices from various auctions, agencies and dealers as well. Used-car sellers, meanwhile, can get a better indication of how much they can reasonably charge given their car's make, year, options and mileage. Sellers on Craigslist have even been spotted using PriceHub to justify their asking price, according to the company blog. Exposing pricing information for all to see is an example of what our sister site trendwatching.com would call transparency tyranny—a phenomenon that's informing buyers and leaving sellers with no place to hide. The lesson for companies: Offer real value, or pay the (figurative) price yourself! Website: www.pricehub.com Spotted by: Bill McMahon
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Last year we covered muesli that's mixed to order, and now You Bar has brought another customizable food to the table with its design-your-own nutrition bars. Customers of You Bar can choose every ingredient that goes into their nutrition bars: the base, protein powders, nuts and seeds, fruits and berries, sweeteners, seasonings, grains and infusions. One consumer might select cashew butter with shredded coconut, organic molasses and nutty rice cereal, for example; another might choose dates, soy protein, walnuts, ground cinnamon and dried banana. Special requests such as for organic ingredients or "extra crunchy" can also be accommodated. Consumers can choose a name for their specially designed bars, and You Bar will print it on each wrapper. For those feeling overwhelmed by the list of choices, on the other hand, You Bar offers three popular bar styles—"Honey Cashew," "Great Date with Chocolate" and "Breakfast Bar"—that are still customizable, but based on set ingredients. All bars are freshly made to order in You Bar's kitchens; pricing is USD 40 plus shipping for 12 fully customized bars, or USD 30 plus shipping for 12 of one of You Bar's popular styles. Los Angeles-based You Bar was founded about two years ago by a mother-and-son team frustrated with the limited choices on the retail shelves. They're certainly in good company, as consumers have begun to expect having it their way, all the time. Because the bars fall into the realm of snack foods, they also lend themselves particularly naturally to use as gifts—promotional or otherwise. It's hard to imagine a health club, for example, that couldn't delight its members with specially concocted and self-named nutrition bars. (Related: Custom vitamin packs, Blends for Friends tea.) Website: www.youbars.com Spotted by: Jonathan Teller
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In the crowd-funded arena, one name keeps popping up: Mark Bowness. Tribewanted, the experimental island community he founded, is now the focus of a BBC documentary series. Two other ventures—VIPbandmanager and the Liverpool Culture Cafe—haven't taken off as quickly, but Mark has high hopes for his latest project: Have You Got The Nerve TV. Have You Got The Nerve aims to be a new type of TV production company: one that's created, lead and inspired by a group of 3,000 executive producers. Fusing the collaborative power of the internet and the enduring mass appeal of television, Nerve will take on three genres: documentary, drama and entertainment. Content will be made both for TV and online viewing. To sign up as an executive producer, anyone can pledge to pay a one-off fee of GBP 60 as soon as 2,999 others have agreed to do the same. Once the 3,000 execs have joined, Nerve will be open to more people, who will pay a small monthly fee have access to the the platform. These members will also have input into programming, but only the executive producers will share in Nerve's profits. Revenue sources will be the traditional 10% cut of production value that TV production companies get, plus earnings from book deals, online social networks, games, mobile content, etc. Will the crowds be able to create content that's more engaging than traditional producers? And will Nerve be able to reach a wider audience than user-generated Current TV? We'll be watching ;-) Website: www.haveyougotthenerve.tv
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'Personal chemistry' has long been a blanket term for all the things that make people compatible (or not), but until recently only science fiction films like Code 46 have taken the notion literally. As of December, however, Boston-based ScientificMatch is using DNA to assess personal chemistry for dating purposes. ScientificMatch uses three components to match up singles through its dating service: personal chemistry, values and personal preferences. While the latter two are assessed via questionnaire, personal chemistry matching is done via DNA analysis. The immune system is what has been found to affect sexual compatibility, with people tending to prefer those whose immune systems are different from their own. The benefits of well-matched immune systems, according to research cited by ScientificMatch, include a more satisfying sex life, increased faithfulness, higher fertility and healthier children. Members who sign up for the company's USD 1,995.95 service send a cheek swab to ScientificMatch, which analyses the portion of their DNA that relates to the immune system. Matches are then suggested with other members who have compatible chemistry. The matching process won't work for women on the pill or for people who weren't raised by their natural parents, ScientificMatch cautions. It will, however, work for those seeking same-sex relationships. ScientificMatch currently serves just the Greater Boston area, extending into New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Not long ago we wrote about deCODEme, 23andMe and Navigenics, three firms that are providing personal genome services to consumers interested in gaining insight into their genetic ancestry and risk profiles for a variety of diseases. With ScientificMatch's debut in dating, genomics are moving out of the realm of research and medicine and into the mainstream business world. Other contenders are sure to follow soon—care to be one of them? (Related: Dating cards fuse physical & virtual connections.) Website: www.scientificmatch.com Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen
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Peer-to-peer lending is no longer a new concept, with marketplaces like Zopa, Prosper and others already out there, vying for consumers' attention. But while most such sites facilitate general-purpose lending, Fynanz appears to be the first to take a niche approach with a service dedicated to funding student loans. New York-based Fynanz, which is gearing up to launch in select states within the next quarter, offers students an "open loan" process for financing their education. To apply for a loan, students fill out an application and create a personal profile, including the amount and interest rate desired. Tapping into 15 years' worth of student loan data, Fynanz uses that information to give each student a grade and place them in one of six groups reflecting both their credit score and their academic characteristics, among other things. Individual lenders including friends, family and alumni of the institution the student attends are then given priority as they bid alongside lender networks to fund the loan. The more participants bid on the loan, the lower the winning rate is likely to be, Fynanz says. Servicing fees will be "no more than" what other marketplaces charge, company CEO Chirag Chaman says, but there will be no application fees or hidden costs for borrowers. For lenders, meanwhile, the benefits are attractive returns and the knowledge that they are performing a social good. Fynanz's platform is built using the same characteristics that traditional lenders use, preserving the legality and distinct tax status of the education loan, Chaman explains. There is also likely to be increasing demand for student loans, he predicts: "I came from the student loan world, and there are some big problems there. Those cracks have turned into huge gaps over the last year, and personally, I think the worst is yet to come. People used to dip into home equity, but that's not there anymore." The P2P lending market, meanwhile, could grow to between USD 5 billion and USD 10 billion in annual volume within 10 years in the US alone, according to data released this week by Online Banking Report. Is there room for niche players? Time will tell. Keep an eye on this one! (Related: Person-to-person loans for home buyers.) Website: www.fynanz.com Spotted by: Ozgur Alaz
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