Posts Tagged ‘Business Ideas’

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Are you sure?

July 19th, 2010

I ocassionally joke that often the only exercise I get is jumping to conclusions.
For some reason I always thought I heard something like that from Norton Juster’s Phantom Tollbooth but could only find the following interchange:

“You’re on the Island of Conclusions.”
“But how did we get here?” asked Milo.
“You jumped, of course,” explained Canby. “That’s the way most everyone gets here. It’s really quite simple: every time you decide something without having a good reason, you jump to Conclusions whether you like it or not. It’s such an easy trip to make that I’ve been here hundreds of times.”
“But this is such an unpleasant looking place,” Milo remarked.
“Yes, that’s true,” admitted Canby; “it does look much better from a distance.”

A lot of us think we have a great idea for a business and in our haste to get things going often take a trip to the Island of Conclusions.
We take our own mental map and impose it on our customers, vendors, and employees imagining that of course they see things the same way as we do. It’s obvious, right?
And that is how you build something no one wants.

Solving a problem comes only after understanding the problem, the real problem. Even if you’ve experienced the problem double-check that you’re not the only one who sees it that way.
Once you have an answer ask yourself how KNOW that is the answer. Does it solve the real problem?

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KitchenPC

July 16th, 2010

 

BrainHuddle is about sharing ideas and kicking them around (I need to do this more often) so I thought I’d share one I recently came across while at the aforementioned crowd pitch. I was fortunate enough to meet, Mike Christensen, President and Chief Architect of Kitchen PC ( link for when it is launched). Since he voted or me with his fake money I couldn’t help but like him to start off with. Then I heard how he too had decided to take the plunge leaving a full-time job with successful corporation in the Seattle area and had coincidentally just parted ways with a business partner as I had (good luck Mark in Nicaragua!). It is nice to find a commonality with others especially recent commonality. 

So here is the idea, and hopefully I do it justice. KitchenPC is a website where you can enter the ingredients and quantities you have available in the kitchen and it will give you recipes that you can use. Either your own or others. Now I have a way to narrow down my dinner planning choices. It is still being developed as we speak but I’m sure Mike would love some user input. Follow his entrepreneur’s blog to keep up to date on his progress.

 Let’s help him out with his market research. Has anyone come across similar sites? Which ones and what did you like or not like about those sites?

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Bringing minds together

November 8th, 2009

Far too often I’ve found that I have a promising idea that is later abandoned due to a missing skill or piece of knowledge that would be necessary to implement it. Part of what has driven me to help create BrainHuddle is the belief that there are many other individuals and ideas out there that suffer the same fate. I have a (partially selfish) desire to have a tool/community/platform where I can go to find people with a shared interest in creating and developing new ideas who have varied skill sets and domain knowledge that will help make these ideas into reality.

productPartner

Often I see evidence of others seeking the same thing. The included post from another site seeking a partner isn’t uncommon. We’re trying to find ways to help bring passionate minds together from all over to help recover some of those otherwise discarded ideas. Have any ideas? Want to join us? Feel free to register and add your voice.

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Adaptive business models

November 3rd, 2009

evTribuneTweetIn previous posts I’ve mentioned my feeling that the rate of disruption is accelerating. Watching traditional media flounder has reinforced this opinion. A combination of last week’s TechCrunch article on newspapers and then a local newspaper shutdown announcement today is driving that point home. Newspapers are an extreme example of the impact that technological shifts can have on previously stable business models. Free and convenient news can now be found online from a variety of sources. In many cases, craigslist will attract a bigger audience than any classified ad might and in most cases won’t cost a penny. This has resulted in a drastic decrease in relevance for newspapers.

Sadly, I think that newspapers have lost too much ground to recover and that this will result in lower quality news from fewer sources as more and more players are forced out. I do think, however, that the newspaper business has given us an excellent example of how important it is not to become too dependent on assumptions of perpetual status quo.

Google recently announced the inclusion of free turn-by-turn navigation with unsurprisingly graphic results for the GPS makers. Are there any shifts that could render your business model dead in the water? Will a new technology reduce your effectiveness? Are unseen competitors able to enter your market at a cost that makes your business unprofitable?

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The non-tech startup

October 14th, 2009

In a previous post I mentioned my belief that startups built solely on software are going to face diminishing profit potential. The reasoning behind my belief is that as the cost of software technology startups falls, competition will increase and in turn drive down profits. Don’t get me wrong, I’m personally working on a software startup and I fully expect there are still a few more Facebook or YouTube success stories in the works. But I also see innovations such as cloud computing, crowd-sourced design, and a low-priced, technically proficient global workforce lowering barriers that had previously prevented all but the most elite technical users from entering into the software playing field. I still believe (and hope) that those of us who are truly passionate about all things technical will hold the advantage but to some extent I believe our technology focus can also inhibit us from seeing a wider range of startup opportunities.

I think that a leading edge of technical startups will be based on hybrid approaches that marry software with a physical offering. An excellent example of this is the FitBit – a device that you simply clip on in order to track a variety of statistics that can then be analyzed using a software program. I can’t give a personal review of this $99 device (see here for one ) but I love the idea of expanding software startups into the physical world to locate new areas to create value.

My impression is that the barriers to entry are still higher here – do you have manufacturing contacts over seas? knowledge of the FCC regulatory process? etc. I’m also curious of what innovations are occurring in the manufacturing space that might lower barriers of entry. But I think this approach also presents some great opportunities for those willing to consider it with a promise of high returns given a good idea. I’d be curious to hear of other similar ideas that combine software with a physical offering. Can you think of any?

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Adventures in New Ventures-Intro

October 8th, 2009

Welcome to the chronicles of company creation (I look for excuses to use alliteration)! As mentioned in a prior post we’d be seeking to document and share at least one effort to start a business. So one of the first things to decide was where to start, do you focus on what or who? Meaning, do you find a great team and come up with an idea that you can do together (Good to Great bus model) or do you have a great idea and build a team that can implement it? Like most answers in life it starts with: “It depends.” I would recommend you start with whichever you happen to have. If you don’t have either then you’re hanging out at the right website.

I’ve been blessed with several good friends and fortunately a few of them are at least game for trying the entrepreneurial life at least part-time. So I called one individual that I’ve known since high school and shared my vision of starting a business with him. He was excited to get going since we’d brought it up off and on throughout our lives. He had one or two ideas he pitched right away that he’d been exploring and doing some market research on-he said he just needed someone to follow up and keep driving the completion of the project. A comment from the previous post about developing businesses in the open came to mind: “I can give my entire playbook to the world and 99.99% of people either lack the will or the ability to execute it.”

So after sharing an idea of mine we set up a time every week that we would meet and ended with a to-do list for each of us. This also included inviting a mutual friend who had experience as a freelance web designer. Next week we’ll “flesh out” (one of those phrases that sounds okay coming out of your mouth but looks strange when written down) some of our ideas. Anyone have suggestions on how to decide between ideas?

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Developing a business in the open

October 6th, 2009

As I’ve pondered the idea of what would make for a successful environment where “BrainHuddle”ing can take place, I remembered a blog post from earlier this year by Paul Allen (founder of Ancestry.com). In his post he addresses the conflict he feels between publicizing ideas in order to generate discussion versus building ideas in stealth mode to preserve a competitive advantage. This seems to be a polarizing argument.

Apple may be the ultimate example of stealth mode product development – where secrecy is “ruthlessly enforced”. If their success is any indication, we should all immediately pull down the blinds and eliminate contact with the outside world. And yet, the same article mentions that such secrecy comes at a cost, often creating “an impediment to actually getting one’s work done”. Still, Apple does a phenomenal job of creating a product that a wide swath of people are fanatic about with little to no feedback cycle.

On the other side of the fence, many companies today seem to be successfully developing products on a more open basis. Google, for example, seems to tend towards releasing beta products and using feedback to evolve features and resolve issues. After some hard knocks, Facebook has begun soliciting direction and feedback as it attempts to preserve its dominant position.

So which is it – will bringing your closely held idea out into the open give away any advantage to the competition? Or will you be able to successfully develop the perfect product without any public feedback or input? Neither option seems perfect to me which is why I’m throwing this out for debate. Personally, I’m straddling the fence. I believe the BrainHuddle team is committed to developing useful functionality with as much input as possible from users. At the same time, I’m working on other projects that as for now are outside of the public sphere. I’ll be sure to document my findings but in the meantime, what experiences have you had?

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I’d rather be procrastinating…

October 1st, 2009

One of the most valuable commodities you possess is time. What you do with it determines what kind of life you lead and is often a reflection of your beliefs. For some of us we get busy doing things that are not what we want to be doing. I know since the last post I told myself- “it is just for a little while until…” and then a week passes and more stuff surfaces. When you are starting or exploring business ideas as a hobby, as a part-time or even as a full-time entrepreneur it is easy to fall into that kind of trap. That is why it has been good to have someone to work with or nag you about what you said you’d do.

That is why Brain Huddle is going to launch a small service to anyone who wants to use it. It will be a weekly nag email, facebook message, or tweet to see how you’re doing with your idea. Until we get a widget/tool interface just send an email (brainhuddle@gmail.com) with your preferred method of contact and tell us what you want us to bug you about and we’ll start following up with thought provoking questions or reminders until you tell us to stop. I believe there are few good ideas that require secrecy instead of frequent testing, however we’ll be happy to agree to any NDA’s if it makes you feel better. We just want to help. Do the same for us in the comments of this post. Make sure we deliver on the tool and don’t let the time pass us by. Thanks BrainHuddlers.

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The Huddle Continues

September 25th, 2009

Thanks to all those who provided input into the future of brainhuddle.com. The blog is liked but the posts tend to be mostly theory. Blogs that are visited over and over are those that combine the theory with practice. Preferably that practice should be our own. It tends to have more power to drive traffic and credibility when that happens.

So in order to be true to the original intent throughout the blogs we’re going to chronicle the creation of a start-up among friends. We hope to share our successes and failures; as well as any tips or tricks that we come across. Of course we would appreciate any counsel or advice as we make our way through this journey. In the process we hope to be able to create a way, space, or resources for those that, like us, want to work with your friends to make a difference to someone.

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BrainHuddle Brainstorm

September 17th, 2009

After the last post I realize I tend to blather on; I’ll try to keep this one a little more… hmm…shall we say succinct. A friend of mine challenged me to think about connecting with people AND ideas. This site is about both but currently really just favors ideas and only ideas from a couple of brains at that. It’s time to do a flashback. Everybody wave your fingers up and down like a Wayne’s World episode-dude-a-lu, dude-a-lu, dude-a-lu. Party Time! Excellent!

Originally, the idea for BrainHuddle was born as a solution for students that didn’t want to become a cog in the Corporate America machine or at least not stay there very long. Instead I wanted to create a space where people could join together with other people they trusted to come up with business ideas doing things they enjoyed that would free them from the need to work for loud, demanding bosses or in soulless organizations that profess one thing but do another.

However, time passed and neglect that comes from the unfocused busyness of life morphed it into its current state. Which is still better than being just a wish, but it may be time for an additional mutation. Help us explore ways to accomplish that original idea and make it available for everyone.

We could attempted to turn this into a free- for- all blog that allows anyone to post their ideas instead of just commenting on existing blogs with some veto power intact to prevent spam or non-value add items to show up. If people like the idea they could contact the author and explore ways to get there.

Or we could allow people to register and create their own Brain Huddles and either make them private or public for those that want to be involved with just a few close friends or want to meet people that share similar interests. But how could you make that different from a Yahoo/ Google group or a private blog?

Then why not use existing systems and create an app on Facebook or Twitter that allows you to create your own BrainHuddle or Board of Directors for your life. BrainHuddle=Blog/Journal +Mentors? Maybe that is another level of Facebook or Linked In-invites to be a part of one’s BrainHuddle. Does it need to be focused on creating businesses if it is making a difference to someone?

Maybe there are imposed time limits that require a group to do something by a certain time. Kind of like those weekends where you go and sign up to create a company and dedicate the rest of the time to coming up with a working business plan, model or idea.

What do you want BrainHuddle to be for you? What do you really want? Leave a comment or email us at BrainHuddle@gmail.com

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