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Convenience-seeking city-dwellers have access to speedy delivery services for everything from Chinese food to legal documents. Wakozi, a new service that delivers beverages and munchies throughout Manhattan, promises to be different in ways that start-up enthusiasts should take note of. The company itself carries no inventory. Instead it works with popular (convenience) stores throughout Manhattan. Wakozi doesn’t hire delivery staff, either—delivery is handled by the stores, usually within an hour. Plus, Wakozi has its own niche: deli food along with wine and spirits. The clincher is the Wakozi website, which lets logged in users order items with just a mouse click or two, although product choice seems rather limited for some stores. Wakozi’s business model greatly minimizes the capital needed to launch, and neatly avoids the high staff and inventory costs that doomed other delivery services, most notably Kozmo, which we wrote about in 2006, noting that the company had burned through millions of US dollars in funding before collapsing shortly after the dot-com bust. Wakozi not only operates on a much leaner business model than Kozmo, but also enters a market where almost every consumer is online, and most feel comfortable ordering products online. Especially if it saves them time or money. One to copy to your neck of the (urban) woods!