Well there’s now an alternative – AgencyNil

Agency Nil? Do they charge ‘nil’ for their services?

Well…yes and no.

You submit a work order for what you need, agree a time limit and to cover certain ‘costs’ up front…travel, printing and the like…then you wait and on or before your deadline — Agency Nil will deliver.

So what do you pay? Well…that’s up to you and how happy you are with the work product.

“So could I decide to pay nothing? Sure – but consider if you would like Agency Nil to do more work for you in the future — if so, you may want to resist the compulsion to say “Free Free…mine mine mine” and instead, pay what you really believe the work is worth and not just what you think it worth but also take into consideration what it might have cost through a more traditional route.

Business Model:

• Nice and simple – want advertising services? Tell them what and when. Agree an amount to cover reasonable costs and pay for what you receive based on what the customer thinks its worth. Revenue – services paid at end of project.

Likes:

I like this business model for a number of reasons:

1. Advertising can be a bit of a black box – a little bit of ‘alchemy’ and ‘Science’ that may or may not deliver on the promise.  It can be daunting to those un-initiated, so start-ups, small companies, young companies and the like may not feel too comfortable picking up the phone and calling Saatchi, Grey or one of the others big boys. And who are the little boys again? And frankly the big boys would probably not return their call anyway. So  – what I like out the gate about this business is it lowers the ‘barriers’ to doing business with them. After all – what’s the risk? You won’t end up paying through the nose if you get something back which is wide of the mark. So, what is there to be afraid of as a prospective customer? Nothing!
2. A great way to match availability of resources with demand – especially as customers look for fresh ideas and lower prices.
3. A significant percentage of advertising dollars come from large companies – think ‘Procter & Gamble’, ‘Unilever’, “Kimberly Clark” and those types of big company, big brands.  Are companies like that, who negotiate long term relationships with advertising companies on a brand by brand basis going to do it the Agencynil way? Unlikely – but there is the underserved long tail out there of small companies…and this model knocks it out the park for these guys. Another consideration – tackle those bigger brands through alternative media where the big agencies are weak – i.e. digital advertising, gorilla advertising and so on – that may be a good way to get a toe in the door. 

 Dislikes/Suggestions:

1. One of the toughest elements of creating good advertising (aside from ample supplies of creative juices!) is a really well thought through initial brief. That brief needs to cover background, brand character, goals and a number of well thought through elements – otherwise it’s really tough to get a great output, partially because what the customer really wants isn’t necessarily well expressed in an un-rigorous brief. It’s not the creative’s fault but they and the customer need to ‘mind meld’ before the output will exactly hit the target. Based on that, AgencyNil will need a winning means of taking prospective customers through their requirements and it will need to be more than just a form or two. Perhaps concalls? Q&As? Probably and thankfully there are ways to add that to the service for free – so no worries then…
2. What is a fair price? Anyone who has been involved in advertising will have their views – customers new to advertising may have a very different ideas – that potential mismatch may make for some annoyed creative’s but in reality – give it a year and I would imagine AgencyNil will have a cadre of customers and will not need those completely new to advertising customers…

My Virtual Investment:

With my virtual $1M, I would invest $750K of virtual dollars as I LOVE this business – low cost, great upside and a service which makes a hell of a lot of sense, especially in these crazy economically challenged days – gone are those BMW driving Advertising reps…move over for AgencyNil.com.

 Good luck Guys!

http://www.AgencyNil.com/

Interested in other articles about AgencyNil?

 http://www.psfk.com/2009/05/agency-nil-will-work-for-all-its-worth.html

Andrew

http://www.Andrewive.com

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Zumbox: The Alternative Postal System

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 https://extras.skype.com/1091/view (Zaplee Free Trial Via Skype)

Recent Post:
For anyone that has read any of the posts on this blog, you’re probably used to seeing a review of the business model of an up and coming young company.  Today’s post is different. It’s a Startup ‘Quick Intro’. My goal is to intersperse the usual type of postings with ‘Quick Intros’. We’ll see what reception these quick intros get!

A friend has been working on a startup called Zaplee.com – so given that I’m particularly excited about the company and it’s opportunity, thought I would do a quick ‘drive by’ about Zaplee.

Zaplee has been working on creating consumer software to provide small and medium sized companies with call center functionality via the Skype service.  This gives Zaplee the capability to offer a other companies call center capabilities without painful and expensive setup costs and processes and like Skype, gives users very low monthly costs for ongoing call center services which have tradtitionally been unreachable by many young companies.

There are many exciting elements to the Zaplee business model but as they are still so ‘fresh’ I’ll need to wait a month or two before getting into details.  Zaplee is currently going through an angel investment round.  This is one of those ‘once in a decade’ opportunities so if there is anyone out there that wants to explore this opportunity…send me an email and I’ll pass it on.

http://www.Zaplee.com

Andrew

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What a great pick-me-up after a long week to read your take on our site. I’m glad you like it and I’m flattered you chose us as one of the sites you review. I understand your suggestions, and will take a look at those elements with a fresh eye. We’re continuing to improve the site as each day passes, so please stop by again in the future. Thanks again for the vote of confidence. If you ever want to consider making that virtual investment a real one, let me know. Your bio would suggest you’d be a great person to have giving us additional counsel. All the best!

Doug Worple
++

Doug

Thanks for your comment…I have just about resurfaced from banging my head on the desk after seeing 3Luxe…it was one of those moments that happens all too often ~ ‘Why didn’t I think of a highly demographically segmented product search engine?”.  I mean really!  It’s so obvious when you think about it.  So come on folks, before 3Luxe – who can really lay claim to creating a product search engine that specifically and tightly targeted a specific demographic of consumer?  And No, tech geek is not a demographic before folks start jumping up and down about CNet and that ilk.

Again, good luck to 3Luxe! Stay in touch and let me know if there is any way at all I or the Advisor Garage site can support you as you take the discriminating consumer market by storm!

Andrew

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3Luxe.com is a product search engine with a difference…other search engines use algorithms, numbers and fractions as the cogs and wheels to regurgitate a whole string of very near misses to everyone that plugs in a search phrase. 3Luxe uses no algorithms or numbers…it more relies on the taste and interpretive skills of its founder and pooled review site results to determine the top 3 products currently available. 

Like Flash floor cleaner and hundreds of P&G commercials, draw a line down the middle of your computer screen and compare and contrast – on one side you have a big complicated machine delivering a homogenized gloop of product results to anyone that asks and on the other side of the screen, the three best products in any given category according to the 3Luxe founders.

Business Model:

• Advertising from key manufacturers who are ultimately lucky enough to have their product/s in one of the top three results
• Affiliate links with Amazon or Shopzilla et al when people take the next step after the search and review and treacle forward towards purchase
• Google ads (ugh!)

Some Core Functionality/Elements:

•  Um…Search!
• 3 Results only of perhaps the most expensive but kick butt products you can find in any given category
• Thumbs up or thumbs down vote for any of the items returned
• A very cool drop down of review results from cnet and others, along with consumer reviews from other sites
• Bookmarking
• Send to friend
• Comment posting for all items

Likes:
Like, Like, Like.  This site is well built, thoughtful, intuitive and not surprising the Worple Brothers have got it right…I say not surprising because Doug Worple, the CEO is another former proctoid that went on to create what looks to be a very cool creative / advertising agency called Barefoot.  Like it or not, the great advertising agencies are helping to shape the tastes and desires of us all…so it is not a shock that by combining their own tastes for items with consumer reviews from multiple sites they are delivering product results that actually seem to be the best 3 luxury items.  I guess my original concern was “What makes these guys able to choose the best three items that I’m going to like?” – but in a sense, better to combine the science of review sites such as cnet with some degree of taste than relying upon the Google number crunchers. This business model opens up a number of now obvious business opportunities i.e. segmented product search engines according to demographics – so now we have the ‘A’ search engine, anyone up for creating the ‘B1′ product search engine?

Dislikes/Suggestions:

• The home page has more of a ‘website’ than a search engine feel.  You could argue that this is so different that going for the minimalist search format is wrong – but the current look and feel of the home page is almost of a templated website.
• Taking a note from P&G brand training – too many fonts, and no clear obvious focus for the eye causes confusion in terms of what are the priorities on the page.  We have caps competing with flowing scripts with more modern fonts, moving photos and all in all its a great concept which, from a design perspective, needs some tweaks.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would consider it a luxury if I were able to make a $500K virtual investment in 3Luxe. Good luck Guys!

http://www.3Luxe.com

Interested in other articles about Its Our Movie?

• http://www.coolbusinessideas.com/archives/consumers_seach_engine.html

Andrew

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As never before the ability of online networks has the potential to shape the world.  Tumpang is preparing to take advantage of this dynamic by offering people who come together online the ability to put their joint purchasing power to work. 

The Tumpang model is interesting.  Manufacturers are asked to discount their products if Tumpang can guarantee a group purchase of a certain quantity of items.  Then, within their site, they offer the items for sale at the discounted price providing enough people agree to purchase the item at the discounted rate.  As individuals the customers may not be able to get these ‘bulk’ discount prices – as an online mini-purchasing group, they suddenly have more power.

Tumpang is currently focused on the Chinese market…but are making moves to go international.  There are two obvious challenges at this point:

Products are often country specific so although they have international plans, this may not translate well for the mini-groups.  Will a German purchaser be interested in a kettle for the Malaysian market? See my point?

Most of the products on the site at this point seem relatively low quality i.e. Tumpang does not seem to be striking deals with Apple, Panasonic etc but rather more unknown brands. However, as their purchasing power and traction increases this should give them more negotiation strength with the bigger, more popular manufacturers.

So, Tumpang is one to watch.  This crowd purchasing approach could create another shift in online purchasing.

Andrew
Founder -Advisor Garage
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

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I wish I could tell you all about Flixor but I’m not allowed to today.  What I can say is that Flixor is a very cool up and coming company focused on tools that have both consumer appeal but also the potential to revolutionize the advertising industry.  I recommend you go to http://www.Flixor.com, bookmark it and watch as this company moves from stealth to a very compelling young company. If you are a potential angel – reach out and I’ll forward on your contacts – you won’t be disappointed…

Andrew
Founder – Advisor Garage
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/Community

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For anyone that has read any of the posts on this blog, you’re probably used to seeing a review of the business model of an up and coming young company.  Today’s post is different. It’s a Startup ‘Quick Intro’. My goal is to intersperse the usual type of postings with ‘Quick Intros’. We’ll see what reception these quick intros get!

A friend has been working on a startup called Zaplee.com – so given that I’m particularly excited about the company and it’s opportunity, thought I would do a quick ‘drive by’ about Zaplee.

Zaplee has been working on creating consumer software to provide small and medium sized companies with call center functionality via the Skype service.  This gives Zaplee the capability to offer a other companies call center capabilities without painful and expensive setup costs and processes and like Skype, gives users very low monthly costs for ongoing call center services which have tradtitionally been unreachable by many young companies.

There are many exciting elements to the Zaplee business model but as they are still so ‘fresh’ I’ll need to wait a month or two before getting into details.  Zaplee is currently going through an angel investment round.  This is one of those ‘once in a decade’ opportunities so if there is anyone out there that wants to explore this opportunity…send me an email and I’ll pass it on.

http://www.Zaplee.com

Andrew
Founder – Advisor Garage
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

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Plaxo is already following us.  We launched web searchable digital business cards before they did.  We had the social aspects before them.  But that doesn’t matter.  We like Plaxo.  We even like Goliath LinkedIn.  Both companies are good at what they do.  We are focused on the small and independent businesses, the entrepreneurs, the consultants who wants to get more out of the web and have better visibility.  Best of all, we’re asking for nothing in return.  If we help you and you find the site useful, you might upgrade.  It’s a pretty simple value proposition.

With regards to messages, our system is primarily open.  The downside to open is that if anyone can message you freely (or you message others freely)  we’d be setting up a system for abuse.  Nobody has time for “hot webcam chicks” when you’re out trying to find new business and opportunity.

I’m glad you’d have a willingness to put a “Virtual $100k” behind us and I’m looking forward to putting that virtual check to good use!

http://lieflarson.lyro.com

++

Thanks for the update and feedback Lief!  I really do appreciate your business and it’s business model and agree with almost all your points. The low ‘virtual’ valuation was driven by nothing more than wondering where the market potential was given the two goliaths we’ve discussed.  The irony is that I’ve been working on a site for sometime that is meant to address some of the weaknesses of the ‘blanket’ or everything to everybody approach by Linked In etc.

I’d like to increase the virtual investment to $350K. After all, us little guys have got to stick together.

Good luck and let us know how you get on with your great business: Lyro

http://www.Lyro.com

Andrew
Founder – http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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I can’t tell you how much I love this business concept!  I’m not 110% convinced about the capability to make significant amounts of investor revenues but frankly…that’s just not the point of this neat new business.  So, let me tell you about “It’s Your Movie”.  The basic idea is for the online community to fund, audition and vote for characters in a movie called “The Flirting Club”.  It’s a complete mashup of a number of popular ideas…think “The Producers meets American Idol” and you are some of the way there!

Business Model:

• Members of the public can buy a ’stake’ in the movie of $10, $100, $100.  What’s not clear on the site is what stakeholders get for their stake although the site does say the higher the stake the more ’say’ in the movie.
• Advertising is another revenue stream for “Its Our Movie” although as the site currently has a 4,000,000 Alexa ranking the revenue is likely to minimal at this point.
• Movie Rights and Sale:  I could find no reference to movie rights or sale as it relates to stakeholders but it is a new business so that may appear in their FAQs.

Some Core Functionality/Elements:

• Auditioning:  To audition for a part, members download the script, choose a character and video themselves. After uploading the Audition to http://www.youtube.com / http://www.metacafe.com / http://www.dailymotion.com the code is then re-pasted within the “Its Our Movie” Website so the community can review and vote on the auditions
• Characters: A summary of each character is included in the site and video auditions can be added against each character
• Voting: Members can vote on a 1-10 scale for each audition.  They will also be adding the ability for people to vote via text message/SMS
• Photos/Videos: Photos and videos of each person auditioning
• Member blogs
• Member forums (Is this a Drupal site with a skin? Hummm)

Likes:
Sometimes new business are not about money…OK, rarely new businesses are not about money because money is oxygen for startups but in this case, its about the excitement of being involved in creating a movie. Doesn’t EVERYONE want to be involved in creating a movie? Even if it’s a bad movie for goodness sake.  Now here’s a little prediction, as momentum grows for this new site then it won’t be long before Simon Cowell and the rest get wind of it.  Before you can say “Teletubbies” I’m guessing that this process may move from the web to other mediums.  When that happens then this could become a significant opportunity for the founders.  If I was a stakeholder, I’d be looking for some reassurances that I’m buying a tiny piece of that potential success. 

Dislikes/Suggestions:

• Be explicit about what stakeholders are getting!  It’s great that you’ve raised $100K but if you want to hit the $1M target then I would outline what those folks were getting…really clearly! 
• My understanding is that the Director is Alex Jovy. Is it THE Alex Jovy that received an Oscar-nomination for his film Holiday Romance who also went on to produce and direct the thriller Sorted starring Matthew Rhys and Jason Donovan? If so, let us know people! At the moment it looks like some obscure guys idea that is absolutely exciting but we need to know it’s legitimate and this isn’t paying for someone’s extended vacation in the South of Spain.

Additional Opportunities:

• Plug this into the TV machine and turn it into a show.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would personally stake a virtual $500K providing someone gave me virtual percentages of the revenue.

http://www.itsourmovie.com/

Interested in other articles about Its Our Movie?

• http://www.crowdwisdom.de/2007/08/15/crowd-casting-fuer-einen-spielfilm-itsyoumovie/
• http://www.klhagen.com/provokingthought/2007/08/using-creative-new-ideas-crowdsourcing.html

Andrew – Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

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Lyro is a new web based application that allows people to create and share online, searchable digital ‘business cards’ across multiple.  It isn’t so much a social network as much as personal ‘branding’ and broadcasting but saying that, as well as the core elements of creating a digital online business card (think a micro Plaxo) there are some typical social networking elements such as people creating interest and geography groups. I would really like to hear back from the Lyro folks because I’m not seeing how this differs substantially from Plaxo, especially given Plaxo’s recent moves into the ‘connections’ territory and their longstanding digital business card creation, sharing and searchability. If I’m missing something, let me know!

Business Model:

Four account types with increasing functionality. 

• FREE: 1 Free Card and 3 messages that can be sent to other members per day
• Basic: $5/Month – 3 Cards, 7 messages per day, 50MB file storage, professional bio, logo on card
• Premium: $9/Month – 5 Cards, 15 messages, 75MB storage, other elements of basic plus notes on card
• Elite: $20/Month – 8 cards, 25 messages, 200MB storage, all other elements of Premium plus saved searches and visible email addresses

Some Core Functionality:

• Create searchable online digital business card
• Internal email to other card members according to numbers above
• A Dashboard ‘Pocket’:  Drag and drop business cards that interest you for future retrieval
• Download card
• Create Groups – and invite others to join your group
• Invite Friends
• Send card to friend
• RSS feeds of cards etc

Likes:
The user interface and usability has been created with thought.  Navigating and using the site is very intuitive.  More focused on developing new business relationships than Plaxo with similar functionality to Plaxo early days plus some tried and tested social networking elements.

Dislikes/Suggestions::

• I just am finding it a real challenge to see this as a step change from a very ‘early days’ Plaxo and we of course, already have Plaxo and a significant number of people have been using it for sometime.  It is true that Lyro is less about creating your own online contact book from your existing contacts and has a focus on creating new contacts through joining groups plus browsing and reaching out to members.
• Although the usability is nice and simple, the interface has a lack of ‘personality’ i.e. it’s more functional than sticky. With Linked In there are a number of hooks that get you diving into the site and staying around.  Lyro does not really have those hooks yet but it is early days…maybe version 2 guys?
• I understand the need for a business model but limiting the amount of messages is limiting the perceived value of the system.  By all means encourage upgrade through a strong more personalized ‘branding’ on the site but have people use it…alot…so they want to improve their presence and are prepared to pay for it.  Key to that is messaging each other…take off the ludicrous limits, get real activity and they’ll upgrade when this site becomes a staple of their online activity.  You are restricting your growth!

Additional Opportunities:

• Consider adding some personalized scripts for each member so they can add the fact that they are a Lyro member to their websites or blogs.

Last thought:

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would personally broadcast my interest to the tune of a virtual $100K.

http://www.lyro.com/

Interested in other articles about My DNA?

• http://www.coolbusinessideas.com/archives/lyro_cards.html
• http://getentrepreneurial.com/recommendations/lyro_online_business_cards.html

Andrew – Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

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And now for something completely different! Not a neat and innovative website but an actual, real product…something you can touch…well, not so much ‘touch’ as smell. My DNA fragrance is a new company which offers individualized perfume based on your own individual DNA. Each fragrance is a one of a kind product which My DNA creates after you submit a swab of your saliva. My DNA then uses a patented and revolutionary new process to create your individual fragrance which arrives in a clinically approved 4oz. aluminum bottle with a fine midst sprayer and if you want to do it properly, create your own bottle too.  As My DNA puts it, it’s not self centered, it’s self scented!

And yes, I know the swab sounds kind of a gross way of giving My DNA your DNA but you only do it once and it’s alot more pleasant than some of the alternative ways of giving up your DNA. 

Business Model:

• A one time swab kit and lab fee: $99
• Your own 4oz bottle for women: $89
• Your own 4oz bottle for men: $59

Some Core Functionality:

• One time swab process to give your DNA via a kit my DNA send then just re-order
• Patented fragrance development

Likes:
Why smell like a guy who’s played polo all day?  Why smell like a suit designer? Wouldn’t it be better to have a fragrance that is in tune with your own smell…sort of like buying white wine to go with the fish? I’m not sure that metaphor actually works but as regular fragrances are created without ‘you’ in mind then how can they compliment your personal fragrance notes? Alright, that’s enough…my real point is this is different and believe or not, my belief is that there are enough people out there who will make a concept like this work and help create a sustainable profitable business.

Dislikes/Suggestions::

• The website needs to be significantly improved. The design is fine but not in keeping with the potential strength of where this brand needs to position itself.  It looks like a website created by a one week contractor. This takes away from the ‘Selling a Dream’ approach and brand that will translate into real and significant revenue. And guys, please use the whole page and pretty please take off the ‘Disney’esk’ sparkles that appear when you move to a navigation button.
• The price point is a lot less than I expected.  This is NOT a business where you gain traction through a lower price point and increase your prices later.  Increase your prices now!  Double your prices and you should see an increase in volume. 
• In the website descriptor at the top of the browser it says ‘Discount Perfume, Discount cologne’…no, No, NO!  People don’t spend money on a unique and exclusive fragrance if they’re told it’s discount.  Make it super exclusive…better yet, get some photos at some exhibitions with celebs. Seriously – avoid discount and double your prices.
• Allow website users to refer others to your site – you’ll be glad you did.
• DOUBLE YOUR PRICE!
• The only real worry I have is ‘is this real?’ Will a fragrance be unique because of my DNA or just unique because it get’s pulled out of that moments fragrance catalog – a fragrance lottery if you will.  And if it is created specifically for me and will smell better because of it. Prove it on your website or at least outline the rationale.

Additional Revenue Opportunities:

• Consider launching personalized shower gels, soaps etc 

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would bath in my very own citrus notes a virtual $250K and pass it over.

http://www.mydnafragrance.com/

Interested in other articles about My DNA?

• http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com/2007/08/dna-personalized-music-fragrance.html
• http://www.mundochica.com/obten-el-aroma-de-tu-adn/

Andrew – Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

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Bringsome is a pre-beta, very early stage company and website that has ‘legs’.  By legs, I mean it has the potential to expand it’s service offering and revenue streams as the business grows.  So what is BringSomes business?  Helping people connect together to BringSome products from one country to another.  No, don’t think illicit drug trade mules importing bad white powder from obscure countries, think someone with a passion for flavored liquid non-dairy coffee creamer in China that would pay a small fee if anyone from the US happens to be about to jump on a plane to Beijing.  Imagine the scenario ~Mum, Dad and the kids have decided to live and work abroad but little Johnnie has a twinkie fetish – that’s where BringSome comes in. But not only that, given the price differences across country boundaries, the enterprising can use BringSome to make some extra cash.

Business Model:
BringSome does not, at this point, take a ‘piece of the action’ i.e. there are no fees for ads, no percentage off the top if someone ‘buys’ a product from another member, in fact the revenue model is currently limited to:

• Paypal donations
• Ads (Google and a few locally generated image ads)

Some Core Functionality:

• Place ads and a little ‘please bring me X because’ note along with a product shot of the item you need
• Contacts are kept private.  If you can deliver the desired product, you can ‘email’ the requestor via the site and sort out how to trade
• Very simple, quick and easy signup.  No long ‘tell me your inside leg measurement’ forms.
• Personal message center along with forums, a place to ‘Hurrah’ when you get the adored item
• Search by text or location / country or just browse
• Polls and Who’s Online

Likes:
A nice niche which could be easily expanded as BringSome gains traction.  The BringSome system is beta and somehow the lack of control and member driven content gives it a real people helping people feel.  Makes me feel closer and less removed from the community.  It would be great if Dave could somehow keep that ‘feel’ as the site scales.

Dislikes:
Just a few questions/concerns:

• There’ s very little traction building tools within the site i.e ‘Send to Friend’ or similar on each ad or page.  There are some slight elements of bookmarks and one overall ‘ Send to Friend’ but that is site wide rather than on each product.  I would recommend more member driven traction building tools especially as I may not be traveling soon to Beijing but may have a friend who is.  A perfect opportunity to send the ‘Creamer’ ad to them so they can help out the Beijing creamer fetishist!
• The site requires some logistical challenges on the back end to work.  Example, I’m travelling to Beijing and want to take that desired creamer.  I email the Beijing member and we agree where to meet so I can give them the item.  This means I have to take time out while in Beijing and find a place that I may not know to meet a person I may not know to give them creamer.  In some ways this could actually be quite interesting. It could also be a pain in the rear.  One idea – I would definitely bring the creamer to Beijing in exchange for a local person to show me briefly around Beijing.  A great way to see a new place and perhaps make a new contact or friend.
• Is there any responsibility for the site to outline legal restrictions? Are there certain goods that are illegal in one country but not in another?  If this is left to the individuals to figure out, there could be some issues down the line for a small number of members and perhaps the site (?)
• Web 2.0 sites are tough to really get going even in one country – for BringSome to work it requires decent numbers of members in multiple countries which is tougher! But you know what…I think Dave and BringSome will actually do it and I think it will because of the member driven, personal ‘feel’ that the site has through user created ads without the ‘Ebay’ish’ template other sites have.

Suggestions:

• Lost revenue opportunity:  Not requiring members to set a finders fee for the item they need and taking a little piece or charging for ads.  But perfectly understandable as it’s very early days for BringSome.  Something tells me the site will probably go that route when they reach what they feel is critical mass.
• The site requires the ad creator to write where the item they need is from.  There is a field for their location but it would help ‘matches’ if members can search not only the requestor’s location but where the requested item is from.  So, I’m in the US and I’m about to travel to China.  If I go search China ads I’ll need to wade through ads from people in China wanting items from everywhere before finding ads for items needed from the US.  Not a problem now as it has a small membership, will be an issue when BringSome skyrockets!

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would BringSome virtual investment of $2o0K! Especially if someone can bring me some Cadbury’s Crunchies from the United Kingdom to the United States (NJ/NY). Crunchies in New York just DON’T taste the same! Try not to sit on them during the flight over, they melt!

http://www.BringSome.com

Interested in other articles about BringSome.com?

• http://www.coolbusinessideas.com/archives/bring_some_over.html
• http://gridskipper.com/travel/everywhere/bring-some-foreign-goodness-finder-282176.php
• http://www.psfk.com/2007/07/hungry-expats-rejoice.html

Andrew – Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

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5. Social Flowers: A $150K Virtual Investment

TableXChange is exactly what the name implies – a website that helps people secure hard to get reservations at some of the most exclusive restaurants.  Want to impress by taking a date to Il Mulino’s to sample the divine Italian food of Chefs Fernando and Gino Masci but didn’t think to book ahead?  If you’re lucky then you can buy someone’s existing reservation – the price for a secured reservation for two this Friday at 8pm is $35 bucks.  Not too outrageous when you consider that’s the cost of three jars of Pomodoro Pasta Sauce through Il Mulino’s website.

Business Model:
Sellers can list as many reservations as they wish on TableXChange.  There is a $40 cap on the amount that they can charge reservation ‘buyers’.  How does TableXChange make money? Simple, for every reservation ’sold’ TableXChange makes 12% of the agreed price.  If the reservation does not sell, no harm no foul, it was free to list and the failed ’seller’ does not owe TableXChange any cash at all. So, sell a reservation for $30, then TableXChange takes a $3.60 cut.  You get $26.40 – not bad since you didn’t actually pay anything for the reservation – just five minutes on the telephone. Even at AT&T rates – that’s still a pretty good deal!

Some Core Functionality:

• Free to list and free to search by restaurant, date, time, neighborhood and price
• Free to cancel the sale at any time as long as it’s not sold. 
• No personal information is shared between parties – accept probably the name of the reservation i.e. Table for 2 for Smith but this only occurs when the reservation is sold
• Only three (3) reservations max at the same restaurant per night allowed
• Payment within 48 hours of reservation sale
• Pay and receive payment via Paypal. Easy!

Likes:
A neat idea!  Could do favors to buyers, sellers and restaurants especially if restaurants fill more tables if reservation makers sell their reservations rather than being ‘no shows’.  As a busy married guy the ability to get reservations at the last minute at great restaurants could really help…especially for this special days when I know I should have booked 45 days beforehand, but let’s face it, who really thinks that far ahead?  

Dislikes:
Just a few questions/concerns:

• As there is a $40 cap on the reservation price and a maximum of three reservations per restaurant per night, the very ’special’ restaurant, in high demand will not be at the real market rate and should be snapped up quickly. This means that the really great restaurants that should ‘drive’ the adoption of this site may not actually be on the site for too long.  If they are not there, why should I go?
• At some point these guys should try to integrate into a larger site that offers users the ability to see if there are reservations available without needing to buy it through the system.  It would be plain annoying if I find I could have just called and booked direct for free.
• One obvious one is that TableXChange is just New York City and the Hamptons at this time. More place please.

Suggestions:

• Lost revenue opportunity:  Members need paypal, they refer people to paypal but don’t use a paypal referral number. Odd!  They could be making additional revenue from paypal for referals. This doesn’t cost members anything but is a ‘thank you’ from paypal.
• The restaurant listings do not include restaurant website links, descriptions or reviews.  I know I should know every restaurant on the site by reputation but the reality is, I don’t! If I’m going to pay someone $30 for a reservation, I’d first like to check out the restaurant, the Zagat rating (here’s another potential revenue stream for TableXChange) and customer reviews.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would virtually invest $250K! Today New York and the Hamptons, Tomorrow the United States, and Friday the World! There are some obvious spinoff opportunities but I’ll leave that for dessert!

http://www.tablexchange.com

Andrew – Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

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2. ILetYou: A $1M Virtual Investment (The First!)
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4. Cherrypicka: A $100K Virtual Investment
5. uWink: A $50K Virtual Investment

Andrew
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

++

 Aime Street recently responded to the recent post ‘Aime Street: A $750K Virtual Investment’ with the following important point:

” Lucas Feb 23rd, 2007 at 12:03 am Edit

Hey Andrew,

Thanks for the 750K. Guess we’ll have to see what happens when that situation pops up. An important point along those lines is that we don’t tie down artists who upload their music with any sort of exclusivity agreement. The more people that hear the music, the better.

Lucas”

Thanks for the clarification and update Lucas.  The fact that Aime Street is focused on the good of all sides of the customer equation is clear.  Its great that a company is putting its customers first and this should ultimately ‘pay off’ for everyone.

Have your say here: http://www.andrewive.com/mdsg-forum/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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Social Flowers is an innovative idea!  If you are part of a social network (and let’s face it…who isn’t nowadays) then using ‘Social Flowers’, you can send flowers, gift baskets, balloons to another member of your social network even though you don’t necessarily have their contact information, name, address etc.

Business Model:
Like most online flower stores, customers are charged for the actual items along with a service charge.  Items range from around $35 and can go up to $200 or thereabouts.  If you wanted to be even more extravagant than that, I’m sure Social Flowers will probably create something just for you and your social networking pal!  Thankfully there is no distracting google ads etc so this is a nice clean site.

Some Core Functionality:
Here is how the process works.

• In a social network, the sender selects the Social Flowers application. The sender then selects the recipient of the flowers from their list of friends.
• When the recipient has been selected, the senders clicks on a link which takes the sender from the social network to the SocialFlowers.com website.
• At SocialFlowers.com, the sender chooses the flower selection, goes through checkout and enters credit card information.
• The sender is returned to the social network. The Social Flowers application inside the social network sends an email on the sender’s behalf to the recipient letting them know that they have been sent real flowers.
• In the social network, the recipient receives an email letting them know they have been sent flowers from the sender. The recipient clicks on the link in the email and goes to SocialFlowers.com where they are asked to provide an address for the delivery of flowers. The recipient is returned to the social network after a delivery address has been provided.
• Social Flowers fulfills the delivery of fresh flowers to the recipient from the sender using our network of over 30,000 local florists across the United States and Canada.

Likes:
This is a nice and simple business model and it’s interesting that a ‘traditional’ business like a flower delivery service is working to cross the web 2.0 digital divide and with luck capitalize on the relationships people are establishing online.

• A key ‘like’ is that I just plain haven’t seen this kind of business before so you have to tip your hat to the maverick that thought of the idea. For that reason alone, I wish them loads of luck!

Dislikes:
I have a few concerns:

• Will people really pay $40 to pay to send flowers to a person they have never met, don’t even know their real names or where they live?  Isn’t part of the joy of giving seeing the persons face after receiving your thoughtful gift?  My wife and Mother are lucky if I send them flowers using an online service – would I or most other people really be thoughtful enough to send flowers to someone they don’t ‘really’ know?
• The site is bland.  The design could be much more innovative, especially as it’s supposed to appeal to the web 2.0 crowd. At this stage it looks like a template that they have been given by an interflora type company. Social Flowers is part of Florist One who state they are first and foremost a florist. That’s good to know but come on guys – turn the visual experience up a notch!
• I’ve received phishing emails telling me someone has sent me virtual flowers and the like.  This may cause challenges for this business model given someone is receiving flower notifications from people they don’t know. Does Social Flowers still charge even if the flowers can’t be delivered or aren’t received?

Suggestions:

• As they are focused on web 2.0 market, try using some of the common tools of this space.  Customer reviews, send to friend, bookmarking, community etc – If community members send each other flowers, add a card with a special reference number to your website so the recipient can write a ‘thank you’ and start a more personal dialogue with the sender via your site.  This would create a lot more traction.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would virtually invest $150K as I don’t trust that virtual friends will really do anything more than send virtual flowers to each other.  But perhaps the world really is crazy and I could be VERY wrong about this!

http://www.SocialFlowers.com

Andrew – Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

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PlanHQ.com is an online Business Planning and startup development tool.  Doesn’t sound very sexy does it but you’d be wrong. Having been crazy enough to start three different businesses, I can painfully testify that writing and even more challenging…sticking to the thinking within a good Business Plan is extremely tough.  Plan HQ is an innovative web application that helps entrepreneurs and startups not only create a business plan, but allocate tasks and track progress across the key players. If Plan HQ gets the kind of traction it should then Plan HQ will be a great little business with any number of service and product extensions for the entrepreneur.  Move over 37Signals!

Business Model:
Plan HQ has a nice and simple business model…all elements of the application are hosted by Plan HQ. No downloads, no maintenance, no hosting, no contracts – If Plan HQ does work out for you or you stop needing their service, just leave.  Think ‘Salesforce.com’ for business planning.  Plan HQ offers a 30 day free trial (http://www.planhq.com/signup/) and then the fees are based on number of users on a monthly basis.  So membership types and prices:

Mini   = $9 month / 3 users / 5 active goals
Small = $24 month / 5 users / 10 active goals
Professional = $49 month / Unlimited Users / 10 active goals

Some Core Functionality:
The Plan HQ Product is sub-divided into some management categories that are usually ‘key’ for most startups and early stage companies and of course there’s a ‘Dashboard’ so you can manage and track the imperative tasks. Management ‘uber’ categories include:

• The Dashboard - Covering main tasks, actions, upcoming goals, financials
• The Market  – Your Markets, the Competition, Customers and basic market and customer analytics
• Goals - Actual Goals, Add new goals, confidence of achievement and more
• Financials - Performance, Indicators, graphs 
• The Business Plan Document itself
• Team – Who have you got, who do you need

Likes:
I really like the Plan HQ business model and the product itself, it’s especially relevant for those businesses that are focused on moving towards significant growth and the Venture Capital route.

• The Product seems to cover the key elements of what a young company needs to focus on and allows enough configuration that the users are not ‘locked in’ to Plan HQ’s already good business management methodology
• I hate to put it like this but for those ‘new’ to building businesses from just a plan, the product can really help ensuring the key team members focus on what’s important to any business but especially the ‘young’ business…Customers, revenues, the team and fund raising.
• As its a web ap, this product is especially helpful for a distributed or virtual teams and also for bringing angels, other investors and advisors easily into the key decision making process.  It could actually help get Advisors pulling their weight by locking them into real trackable actions. Wow! Could this product really do this?

Dislikes:
Not so much dislikes as potential questions and ‘like to sees’:

• Paypal as a form of payment.  As a small business owner I don’t like adding my credit card to ongoing online services.
• The positioning is ‘Create, update, track and collaborate around your business plan’. Business Plans eventually fall by the wayside as the business scales and grows beyond a certain stage or size.  As a ‘virtual’ investor, I’d like to see how all the data captured through initial usage and the service ’scales’ with the business. i.e. beyond the business plan and becoming an ongoing discipline and tool for managing the business ongoing.
• I’d like to see a referral program and a ‘Reseller’ model.  For example, a startup I’m involved with ‘Advisor Garage’ (http://www.AdvisorGarage.com)  has 1000+ entrepreneurs, angels and VCs onboard.  This is a service many of our members would probably like to use – can our company ’subscribe’ and offer the Plan HQ service to our members for a fee?  I hope so! Let me know if any Plan HQ folks read this…

What’s unclear:

• how the data exports or integrates with other systems – i.e. quickbooks etc
• Are the ‘Permissions’ configurable? Will all signees be able to access all data? Would a CEO want that?

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would ask PlanHQ to include me in their ‘Virtual Investment’ plans to the tune of $750K. Once they establish this market, their are so many obvious product extensions that driving great revenues will be easy and hey…they have the tool to manage those new businesses.  Great job Plan HQ!

http://www.planhq.com/

Andrew – Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

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“Nahum Wild | hirethings.com | IP: 131.203.101.14

Hi Andrew, great article.

You’ve obviously done your research and flicked around our website. To answer some of your dislikes/questions:

We are in the process of pushing out the charging functionality in the next week or so which includes a couple of changes to our documentation on the site. The main change being that success fees for bookings will only be created two days after the booking has been completed. This gives the supplier time to update the booking with what actually happened – if it differs from the original agreement. For longer bookings we’ll actually charge a success fee two weeks into the booking and with longer terms we are investigating either a fixed rate or staggered success fees over the booking’s duration. We’ll be watching for people that always cancel their bookings too )

The administrative side is going to be a challenge, but I believe that we’re up to that and have the right people for the job. Controlling what is and isn’t on the site will set the mood for the whole concept, it’s a delicate balance of professionalism / business and community. Do we allow hugs or not? We’re still pondering that one.

Yes, obviously repeat customers bypassing the system once they and a supplier have made the initial contact could be a problem for us. Same type of issues that auction sites undoubtedly have. We plan to learn from them and offer a service with awesome value and features that keeps people coming back to and using the site.

Recently a fantastic User Interaction expert joined the team which we are very excited about as this allows the experience to jump up a notch, including tidying up some of the obvious clutter etc…

We’ve got heaps of cool additions planned, so watch this space!

Regards,

Nahum Wild
Development Manager
www.hirethings.co.nz“

++

If you would like to have your say or ask any questions, come along to the “Have Your Say” forum above.

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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Business Model:
HireThings has a nice and simple business model…if the item you put up for rent is rented by someone, you pay HireThings either a percentage or a percentage plus cash combination depending on the value of the hire.

Value of booking*     Proposed success fee (incl. GST)
Up to $100               5% of hire/rental fee charged. Min charge $0.50.
$100 – $250              $5 + 4% of hire fee over $100
$250 – $500              $11 + 3% of hire fee over $250
$500 – $1500            $18.50 + 2% of hire fee over $500
$1500 +                   $38.5 + 1% of hire fee over $1500.

Max fee per booking = $100.

In my opinion, simple and transparent business models are always the best and this one is nice and clean given that people only pay when they have secured a hire and make money themselves.  No speculation investment required. This should help adoption…oh yeah, and they do not seem to be getting involved in the visually distracting adsense model. Thanks Guys!

Some Core Functionality:

• Members can created a ‘trusted network’ and can choose to only offer items within that network or the broader full site network
• Listing, photo upload, multiple categories including services and place hire…
• Customers can view listing’s details and submit a quote or booking request
• The Hire Things website calculate an estimated cost for the booking
• Renters are notified by email of the new customer request, and can confirm or respond with a firmer quote.

Likes:
A nice and simple concept, business model and execution -

• I like HireThings UI and the clean, fun graphics – it was a simple site to figure out and use
• The ‘Trusted Network’ is a nice angle that could help adoption and friend referral
• If a person rents an item, the renter has the fee deducted from their topped up account – simple

Dislikes:
Not so much dislikes as potential ‘watchouts’ or concerns:

• If the fee is deducted from the topped up account when the transaction is confirmed, what happens if there are challenges with the rental? i.e. item not received, received but not functioning, item not returned, item returned broken – you get the idea. 
• Are any of the above challenges on HireThings to resolve? If so, hope they have a big admin staff…
• The ‘Trusted Network’ is a nice idea but assuming you add your ‘friends’ and ‘contacts’ to this network – why wouldn’t they just contact each other outside of the system and offer to lend them the articles without incurring the commission?
• Keeping the quality of the listings is going to be a challenge as this grows…for example, there is already a listing for “Soft or Hard Hugs” in the services section – now I like hugs as much of the next guy but to hire a 3rd party? Hummm….see that blue flashing light yet? Shame there’s no photo…

One little suggestion for the HireThings guys…the front page of items is hard on the brain given the range and categories of products meshed together…you may want to create a categorization or perhaps quick read icons for the different categories.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would ask them to ‘Let’ me virtually invest $350K. 

http://www.hirethings.co.nz/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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ILetYou hasn’t even launched yet but this site is going to be HUGE! HUGE I tell you!!!! Cackle…Cackle!

What’s the basic idea?  People with DVDs and games at home set up their own ‘online rental stores’ and rent their own DVDs and games to others. The more people who sign up the more variety and eclectic the catalog becomes – I wouldn’t be surprised if you will ultimately be able to find DVDs and games here that you can’t find anywhere else but Ebay…plus the rental prices are less than Netflix etc…does anyone see an industry shift over the horizon?

Business Model:
ILetYou will let users set up their own online rental store and list DVDs and games for FREE.  Their business model is to charge a small slice of the transaction fee for each rental so in the 40 cents range.  Not huge but multiply that by 100,000+ rentals and this business becomes a cash cow overnight.  Not too hard to imagine if they have the referral/viral elements right.

What do they provide?  The platform, the credit card processing engine and the marketing – WOW! What a business! Wish I had thought of it!  Damn!

Some Core Functionality:

• Members can create their own online rental ’store fronts’
• ILetYou handles credit card transactions
• Orders are passed through to the store ‘owners’
• …will need to see the site live to comment on the viral elements… 

Likes:
Like, Like, Like…what’s not to like?

• DVDs & games at cheaper prices than the ‘high street’ rental stores & mail to rental companies
• The ability to rent my own DVDs and games without selling them once at an Ebay or similar – ongoing revenue stream…wow!
• All the hassle of finding renters dealt with by someone else…double wow!
• Will likely result in a range of DVDs and games that I probably cannot find elsewhere
• And I can choose what I rent rather than making a list of my top 10 and being suprised according to what the other online rental companies have in stock…triple wow!

Dislikes:
The only itsy bitsy potential dislike is when I rent via ILetYou I’m dealing with an unknown vendor – I’m not to concerned about the quality of the DVDs being sent (although some may be), but I am concerned about the scenario where you get a DVD, watch it, send it back and start getting angry emails or whatever from a ’scammer’ who complains the DVD is broken, its my fault and I need to pay for it.  May not happen but when you are dealing with individuals – you just never know.  Does ILetYou have an answer for that kind of scenario? Perhaps a guarantee or something? Don’t know but if they did, it may make the reticent dive in!

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would mail the whole amount to ILetYou tomorrow if they would take it! And they wouldn’t need to return it after a week either…what a business! BTW, this is my first $1M virtual investment! Congrats ILetYou! As if you care…you soon to be VERY wealthy guys!

http://www.iletyou.com/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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ILikeTotallyLoveIt is a new website where people post objects that they ‘Totally Love’ and include links to where the items can be purchased.  As the objects get voted on by members using a ‘Digg’ similar approach, the more popular items get moved to the front page. So its a popularity site for products people adore… 

Business Model:
The business model seems nice and simple for this new site – Google Ads and vertical banners served up on the right margin which seem relatively targeted to the twenty somethings that are posting the items that they ‘Totally Love’.  There is currently no fee for posting an item and believe or not, there are a few hundred items already posted.

Example:

Totally Loved

http://www.zappos.com

Converse All Star Deluxe Mary Jane Ox
posted by bdavies 16 hours ago view profile

A cute, cute Converse! These are a blend of the classic Chuck Taylor shoe and a traditional Mary Jane silhouette. These have leather uppers and an arch support.

Some Core Functionality:

• Product Voting – popular products move to main page 
• Multiple categories and price ranges
• Tell a Friend
• Comments on items
• Tags
• Trackbacks
• RSS feeds 

Likes:
This site is cute in that it brings ’design’ into the product mix and combines it with product recommendations and voting.   

Dislikes:
A few little dislikes:

1. TotallyLoveIt is a little messy from a design perspective but it is new so hey they’ll get there or perhaps that’s part of the charm. You decide.
2. The construction and set up of the site seems a bit too much like all the other ‘voting’ websites out there and it probably leverages Pligg software so there’s little real innovation.  It’s literally just found a nice little niche of young users who want to recommend, vote and sell items to others.
3. My key concern for this site is one of long term sustainability – is it adding enough value to stay around for years 2, 3 and onwards?  I think that depends on the founders and where they decide to take this site – right now, its cute but I don’t see alot of long term incremental value and the members will likely get bored after a few months. 

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would invest $100K as I only just ‘TotallyLoveIt”.

http://www.iliketotallyloveit.com/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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Farecast is a new way of approaching online travel purchasing that could change how we all shop for online travel. This could be a real winner if they can get the average consumer to buy into the concept. 

It’s about time that there was some real innovation in the online travel space.  My personal experience when jumping between Expedia, Travelocity, Opodo and others is the difference is often marginal (a few bucks) and often a few bucks more expensive than going to the airline directly.  My established habit is to find the best flight using these online services and then to go direct to the airlines and buy the flight. Am I the norm here?

Anyway, Farecast analyses fare changes of airlines over a significant period to ‘predict’ what will happen with ticket prices between 75 airports and makes a 75% accurate (?) recommendation regarding what is likely to happen with that ticket price.  i.e. wait, or all time low – buy etc.

There are a number of elements and value adds to this site that I wouldn’t do justice to here. I recommend you check it out. But a few key points, Farecast covers the top airlines, can save you money, you book directly so keep frequent flyer miles that other sites take and there is no booking fee.  I good deal no?

Business Model:
As there are no FAQs within the Farecast site, it’s a little challenging to determine the exact long term business model.  What’s noticeable is there is a shortage of ‘advertising’ and there is no margin added to the purchase of airlines tickets as consumers buy them directly from the airline.

They may have relationships with the airlines which give them some kind of monetary benefits for tickets purchased , such as through an affiliate program but that is unclear. 

One neat and obvious revenue stream is what Farecast is calling Fare Guard – with Fare Guard you basically lock in the lowest price of an airline ticket between two locations for a week.  This pricing ‘hedging’ costs you $9.95.  Book your ticket with any airline at any price within the week and if there is a price increase against your locked in lowest rate, Farecast will give you a refund of the difference between the lowest price and your ‘guarded’ price.

Given many could purchase this ‘option’ and not exercise and many could purchase and the price may not increase, this is money for peace of mind and involves no outlay that I can see from Farecast.  Great business model no?  They may decide to take out ‘insurance’ which will cost a fee but I would be surprised given the quantity of deals they will be involved with…my guess is they have just run the numbers and believe they can make a decent margin.  They may well be right.

Some Core Functionality:

• Fare Prediction
• Arrow: An indicator showing the price ‘trend’ for the flights you are interested in.
• Confidence: A percentage based on Farecasts accuracy of predictions for flights of the kind you are evaluating.
• Average Fare Change.
• Buying Tip: Farecast’s recommendation which is supposedly 75% accurate.
• Fare Guard: The ability to pay $9.95 to lock in the price of the lowest priced ticket for this flight against a guarded rate.  This hedge mechanism will give you a check refund. See below for more details. 

Likes:
Any site which can give me some indication that I can wait 24 hours and save money is worth using.  It’s annoying to purchase a ticket to find the price has halved two weeks later, this may be the answer to that consumer frustration.

Fare Guard is also a great idea and I would even use it, especially for personal travel.

It’s nice and simple which is especially good given how complex it could be. 

Dislikes:
A few little dislikes:

1. Will the average ‘Joe’ or ‘Joanne’ use this site?  Given the average is often a pretty low common denominator – I still wonder if its a little complex for the ‘average’. (Hopefully they don’t read this blog ‘cos I’m not sure I could cope with the hate mail)
2. Business travelers are often price insensitive – they would prefer to buy the darn ticket then focus on the key business issues and emergencies.  If this is the case, Farecast may have to rely upon the occasional personal travel of the business user that has suddenly become more price sensitive, or the Joe’s and Joanne’s outlined above.  But, if they are regular business travelers, they will likely have significant air miles and may not be in the market for waiting around for price shifts.
3. Farecast has something special here – I almost expected the site to look quite different to get the message home…but it looks similar to all the rest.  I guess there’s a fine line to be walked between being and looking too different.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would use $500K to predict Farecast’s success.

http://www.farecast.com/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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2. Ning: A $500K Virtual Investment
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CherryPicka is a very early stage South African site that has an innovative business model.  CherryPicka is an online new product showcase which allows customers to purchase and try new and recently launched products at a significant discount to the recommended retail price and encourages them to write reviews.

Business Model:
CherryPickas encourages companies with new products to offer a certain number of these products to CherryPicka for free, CherryPicka then adds a small percentage and in turn offers them to their membership to try and review.

In addition, CherryPicka intends to leverage banners ads and other forms of advertising as this site picks up traction.

A smart and interesting element to this is CherryPicka does not take ownership of these items but rather agrees the quantity of new products or services to be donated and then passes on the customer contact details directly to the companies.  Smart because it reduces their costs and also because the companies gain:

1)  A series of customer reviews online (creating buzz and links)
2)  The contact details of customers interested in their products

…at no cost aside from ‘donating’ a certain number of trial products that they would likely need to offer to start the buzz rolling through more traditional, perhaps less impactful channels.

Some Core Functionality:

• Each product has a dedicated page which ’showcases’ its uniqueness, selling messages. user reviews and link backs to the launching companies homepage
• Send to Friend functionality for each product, alongside the capability to review and find out more information
• RSS Feeds of new items so customers can be updated. Necessary as items seem to sell out quickly

Likes:
By offering deep discounts on new and innovative products the customers are getting a great deal. This should encourage the early adopters and first movers to try the products with little risk.  As they are getting a great deal, they should feel encouraged to review the item.

The companies are getting their products out to interested consumers and this can help provide the data they may need about customer acceptance to help secure new distribution channels – particularly useful for young service and product companies that are struggling to penetrate new retailers, catalog companies and so on.

The reviews are not controlled so they can be positive and negative – better negative comments are instantly seen by the manufacturers and inventors than a grass root negative campaign takes hold without their ability to consider the feedback, respond or change. 

Dislikes:
A few little dislikes:

1)  Great concept but mostly limited to South Africa – Anyone want to tackle other countries?
2)  As its new this could explain it but a significant number of the items are sold out
3)  More items required. Stay tuned, this seems to be because its a new site

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would use $100K to pick CherryPicka.

http://www.cherrypicka.com/index.php

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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Auction Ads is a company which has just launched some new technology which places items within eBay auctions within blogs according to the blogs content. I LOVE this business in terms of the potential win/win for customers and the company and the potential revenue stream for the investors.

Business Model:
Auction Ads business model is compelling:
1)  EBay has an affliate marketing channel which pays affiliates when they refer customers to their site
2) The eBay affiliate program is tiered.  As the affiliates monthly revenue increases, so too does the percentage of revenue. It begins at 40% of the fees ebay earns and caps out at 65%.  But to hit 65% you need to refer at least $1M to eBay.

Ebay Tiers:

Some Core Functionality:

• Cut and paste ad codes straight into your blog
• Customized ads based on blog subject matter
• All ads include a referral link so if anyone signs up you get credit 

Likes:
There is so much to like even though its such a headslappingly obvious business model:

• By consolidating the monthly revenue made across multiple blogs and sites it should not take took long to hit and pass the $1M monthly revenue number.  It should therefore be possible for Auction Ads to give their blogging channel a higher monthly payment than they could capture directly through eBay.
• As all ads have a referral link their channel partners (the blogs) can also gain revenue from other blogs who sign up via their ads. Another incentive to stay with the Auction Ads program
• There are viral marketing elements to the business model which should spread the Auction Ads program quickly and ensure the highest monthly tier rate is achieved within eBay.
• In a previous article I mentioned how I believe people are mentally blanking out adsense ads on the web.  This is an alternative that will not be instantly categorized as ‘adsense ignorable’ and should have better click through rates.

Auction Ads in Action:

Dislikes:
The only concern I have is eBay sells alot of stuff, but how much of it is absolutely relevant to the breadth and depth of subjects covered by blogs and are the blog readers in the market for whatever is being sold?

For example, let’s say there’s a blog about cars…easy to have an eBay ad.  No problems at all to imagine.  What about a blog on cat neutering – I know, perhaps one of my more obscure examples but that’s the point.  Yes you could sell eBay books on the subject, but are cat neutering readers going to be interested in bidding on an eBay book on the subject? So, a great model for obvious and mainstream’ish blogs and sites…maybe not so for quite a few blogs out there and even if they do place ads, will they generate any volume?

Saying that which blogs have most traffic?  Are there 100 blogs out there that have the lions share?  If so a)  this ad program makes sense especially for the top 100 b)  but why would they use Auction Ads rather than just having their own affiliate links?  Because its easier than doing it themselves it probably the answer but what’s the difference in revenue for them to go with Auction Ads rather than direct?  If I was Auction Ads, I’d be striking some low margin deals with the top 100 which would also give them further exposure to the wider market.

Another question that makes me hesitate a few seconds is what are the barriers to entry for a company doing the same thing?  The barriers will get higher as Auction Ads gains more and more market penetration but they had better hope an exact competitor does not come out of the woodwork very soon.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would hope my bid to invest $500K would be accepted by Auction Ads.

http://www.auctionads.com/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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” Yakov Mar 2nd, 2007 at 1:54 am Edit

Hello Andrew! Very interesting post as well as the other reviews! Don’t you know that Quintura stands for quintessence or pure essence of searching. Try to make Quintura your homepage for a week and then give us your views!”

Yakov, I did not understand that this is the definition of Quintura, when I searched through the dictionary it had no definitions for Quintura.

As I reconsidered my review, I wondered if I had been too harsh with the zero virtual investment especially as this is a beta site at this point.  Seeing today’s functionality, even with the ‘invite a friend’ element which could drive adoption, I would still not put my virtual cash in Quintura but I could be wrong. I will go back often and see how the functionality and the company develops.  It would be great if Quintura becomes the next hot company with significant revenues…but I just don’t see it today.

Have your say here: http://www.andrewive.com/mdsg-forum/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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Business Model:
This is a beta site launched in the last few days so its not too surprising that there are not too many obvious ways of generating revenue for Quintura.  There are a number of tabs beneath your search terms…web, image, video and AMAZON. So if your interested in finding out how your search for a particular subject parleys into a related Amazon product, click away.  So far…that seems to be Quintura’s business model.

Some Core Functionality:

• Type in your search term, hit enter and *poof* you have a tag cloud in half the page to navigate
• Your cursor hovers over one of the words and *poof poof* sub clouds of words appear
• The words seem more or less bold…perhaps that means something? I know, perhaps each words estimated relivance to the original search term.
• The second half of the screen is left for actual search engine standard format responses or images or video or Amazon goodies.  Yum!

Likes:
Quintara are courageous to try a different way of delivering search engine results and navigating through those results. 

One thing I particularly like is if you consider ‘ordinary’ search engines, most users have a limited attention span and expect the best results to be served up in the first few paragraphs.  If what they are looking for is on page 2…tough… it will probably never be found except by a few tenacious searchers.  We live in a ’give it to me now’ society after all!  Quintura allows some of those ‘deeper down’ results to be captured within the visual snapshot circulating the search term. It could be better for the searcher and for the information being searched if they can visibly see results that ordinarily appear on the bottom of page 1 or ugh…perhaps even page 2. 

Dislikes:
So in the ‘likes’ section I mentioned a searcher being able to see results ‘circulating’ the search term and perhaps see results more easily that would have been missed in the results from ordinary search engines. True. 

But because of the tag cloud metaphor combined with appearing and disappearing sub words, its somehow challenging to really understand what you are seeing from a results perspective.  However, late at night, with a few drinks inside, it probably makes much more sense.

Its hard to explain but unless you know the subject matter well already, the tag cloud results seem so strangely unrelated. Good for novalty value, not so good if you need to find something and fast i.e. Give it to me now!

The other personal dislike is the name – like the swirling search result terms, Quintura just doesn’t mean anything…at least to me.  Does it mean anything or is it just another one of those web 2.0 company descriptors that sounds ‘hip’ but are nonesense?  Anyway, because it doesn’t seem to mean anything, I keep forgetting it and keep needing to look up at this blogs title to get the spelling right.  Not a good quality for the name of the search engine…perhaps when I forget the exact spelling I should use Google to find out the name of that new Russian search engine and while I’m there perhaps I should click a few adsense ads – perhaps a partnership between Google and Quintura along these lines would drive more revenue for them?

I have to say that this IS a beta and I love startups so hate giving this a ZERO virtual investment.  Anyone that has the courage to start something new and put their dreams on the line deserve success! I really wish this concept and Quintura well and much success but…

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would stay searching for ‘that Russian Search engine thing’ on Google and invest $ZERO in Quintura.

http://www.quintura.com/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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Ning is a new’ish company with some recently released technology that will skyrocket this company into the stratosphere. 

It’s the first company that I’m aware of that has created an easy to use, drag and drop, easy configuration site for users to create their own Social Networking site.  Literally within minutes you can have your own Social networking site with video & picture functionality, forums and a host of other features that allow the non-tech savvy out there to potentially get in on the Social networking action.

Business Model:
Ning’s business model is simple:
1)  They add ‘Adsense’ to the right hand column of every Social networking site so as people promote their new networking site, it should, in principle create a multiple effect Ning’s ad revenue
2)  People who want to get the benefit of the Adsense on their own site can pay a monthly fee, currently standing at $19.95.  They can obviously stratify that later so the more popular sites have a rev share and the less popular pay the fee or take Ning’s ads and just get on with running their site

Some Core Functionality:

• Social Networking:  Invite, meet new people, privacy settings, address book importing
• Full Customization of Theme or take existing template and configure.  Add your own logos, photos and branding
• Photo sharing, video sharing, forums
• …and the list goes on. Not bad for FREE! 

Likes:
There are a number of reasons why Ning will sing from an investment perspective:

The user interface is VERY easy to use and intuitive, I set up a social networking site in under five minutes and was…with a shy smile…relatively happy with how my very own social networking site looked (Check out the results:  http://amateurs.ning.com/)

With a couple of hours – it would be possible to make the site really work as some of the existing sites within Ning show.

As people promote their site, they promote Ning, this gives them the magic fairy dust needed for companies like this to go from 2, 200, 200K in months.  Their adsense revenue should be pretty obscene soon. 

I am starting to wonder if people are starting to mentally phase out adsense and these ads become a almost invisible to the human eye. What do you think?

As members of Ning can seach the different Social Networks there’s the potential to pick up stray but interested members…not bad!

Dislikes:
OK, so I used Ning and built my site based on a crazy little idea I had a while ago.  Thanks guys…I have finally seen my idea live. 

I know Ning has done one side of the hard work for me…the tech side, but I still have alot of the hard work ahead.  How to get people onboard, especially the first few users.  With these kinds of sites, you need a few active members so that the shy and reticent don’t worry about joining too.  The more people onboard the more valuable the system, so you really do need those first few.

That works if the Social networking site is in an area that already relates to a space with which I’m involved…so for me, Startups.  But what if I’ve set up a site because of an idea I’ve had but where I have few contacts?  That is a big stumbling block for this to go viral with all social networking sites created.

I would imagine that 10% of the users sites will hit the volume big time, 20% will do pretty well and the rest will perhaps exist but in name only.  Just a guess! But if the 80/20 rule works here…the majority of adsense revenue will come from the large volumed 20% and those will be the ones that convert to the $19.95 monthly fee. They would be mad not too and where does the revenue come from then?

Also, if I do create a site that really starts to rock and roll…iId like to port it to my own server and do it for myself.  Arguably if I did that then I couldn’t take advantange of Ning’s new functionality releases but it would still be mine.  Ning does not seem to have that on their roadmap.  If they don’t someone will come along who will offer that.

It would be good if Ning could figure out a business model to allow that to happen and keep some of the revenue. Perhaps a premium service would be to host the site under a separate URL but share the revenue or charge a higher monthly fee.

Last point – how long until the Social networking site market is completely saturated?  When the point arrives (if it hasn’t already) then this functionality becomes a glorified Yahoo Group type service.  I guess that still gives them the potential to be acquired by Yahoo or Google sometime ahead so another reason for a big virtual investment.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would stop inviting all my friends to http://amateurs.ning.com/ to invest $500K in Ning.

http://www.ning.com/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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“Geni JoAnne Feb 26th, 2007 at 4:46 pm Edit

Hi Andrew. Excellent blog. We are considering adding premium services to our site in the future–the basic service will remain free.”

JoAnne – Thank you for letting us know. It would be great to understand what Premium services Geni will be offering – but I’m sure they will be as value add and innovative as the core site itself.

Have your say here: http://www.andrewive.com/mdsg-forum/

Great job Geni!

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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Geni is a very interesting online service that leverages an easy to use flash interface and viral tools to create family trees.  One interesting concept to prove or disprove is that the whole world is related in one way or another. Could Geni be the solution to world peace?   

Business Model:
I have been unable to determine how Geni makes money but there are a number of obvious ways Geni can see the green as they quickly hit critical mass i.e. adsense, monthly subscriptions, follow on ‘pay for’ services and there is such a strong potential growth curve that this make sense as a ‘virtual’ investment:

Some Core Functionality:

• An easy to use interface asks you to add your name and email address.  You can update your profile now or later.
• You add your parent’s names, aunts, uncles, cousins and their email addresses and Geni begins to create a private access family tree. i.e. only visible to people invited to input into the family tree.
• Geni is ‘viral’ so any people you add to your family tree with an email will be able, in turn, to see and add to your family tree.

Likes:
There are a number of reasons why I think Geni will be going ganbusters in six months or less:

The user interface is VERY easy to use and intuitive, I find it hard to imagine that any user will not be able to instantly understand how to use ‘Geni’

Its one thing to be asked to join a ‘networking’ site via a friend, work colleague or distant contact – its quite another to be asked to ‘join’ by Auntie Flow or Cousin Rupert. There is also something immediately to be gained by participating…you get to find out about YOU! A subject at the center of everyone’s universe.  Can anyone really turn up their nose at such a site?  I think not!

Like most sites that go from zero to 180 miles per hour in 6 seconds or less, members only gain value if they bring others to the system.  Hence the reason why Match grew well but slowly (i.e. you could use the system without needing to ‘Add’ to the system) versus LinkedIn where its necessary to bring people onboard to gain value. Geni is the later…in a significant way!

As each person within the family tree has a profile, its also a good way to keep up with those relatives that you don’t get to see too often…now if it could only remind me to send a birthday card, life would be even better.

Dislikes:
What’s the revenue model? Yes, Geni will grow in leaps and bounds but how will they make cash?  Will we start seeing annoying addsense ads beside Grandpa Joe’s photos advertising denture cream?  It isn’t obvious at this point. The setup and tools within Geni will ensure the site will grow…no question!  But like many 2.0 companies – when and how they get to revenue is a question.  Without understanding the roadmap to revenue, I’d make a big bet on Geni based on how many users I think they will have by 2008.  There are always ways to monetize significant membership level.  So a big bet but not a huge bet until the revenue crystalball becomes less opaque.

A little nitpick – what about those people who do not email?  I know…I know…but my grandparent’s aren’t online.  So I potentially ‘lose’ that information unless I get on the phone and talk them through it.  May be worth it though…

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would put the phone down on my Mother to invest $500K in Geni.

http://www.geni.com/tree

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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uWink is a restaurant concept that blends affordable food, hip surroundings and a digital screen that can be used for ordering food, playing games, hitting the internet and getting more ketchup.  The brain child of uWink is Nolan Bushnell, former CEO of Atari and founder of Chuck E. Cheese.

Business Model:
uWink seems to be driven by a similar customer insight to Chuck E. Cheese, that video games and food work well together, but this time the environment has been created for the young and the hip…allbeit older than the Chuck E. Cheese 5 year old crowd. 

The food is ordered through digitial screens on the tables and instead of waiters, they have ‘runners’.  Want more ketchup?  Dive into your computer screen. Oh, and while your there…play the various computer games.  Who’s that sitting across the table from you? Who cares!  You can play a neat new game while eating your cob salad.  Doubles anyone?

Or even better, assuming you ever get to talk to the people you came to the restaurant with and they start to get boring…challenge the table over to a table vs. table tournament.  You never need to talk to another person at dinner, lunch or brunch again…unless its ‘Take that you swine and die like the weakling you are!’ before blasting them into 2050 with your virtual weapon of choice!

Some Core Elements:

• Table top food ordering that goes straight through to the kitchen which supposedly reduces ‘human’ error
• Games, internet, videos and so on within the table top screen on your table
• The menu is reasonably priced and has a good range.  Tasty!
• Restaurants are divided into different ‘zones’.  The larger restaurants have areas that can become an instant quiz show venue or presentation stage

Likes:
As a computer junkie and gamer, the uWink environment attracts and is a great place to while away the hours on a wet and windy winters Sunday afternoon. The food variety is good and the prices are not too bad.

Dislikes:
It’s not that I dislike the environment as much as the concept of going to a restaurant with people and then spending most of my time looking at a computer screen.  The positioning of the business seems to be that its bringing gamers out of the darkened recesses of their bedrooms and showing them that is OK to be a gamer and they do not have to ’game’ alone.  But the reality is…once a gamer’s eyes lock on a great new game, everything else disappears…even the $11.50 Vietnemese Salad sitting by their elbow delivered not by waiters but by runners and the projected images revolving on the wall.  That all becomes just a distraction.

If uWink positioned themselves to the world as the gamers paradise with great food and surroundings then it be telling it like I think it is…instead they seem to promote the restaurant and ‘oh yeah by the way’, there are computers too so you can play games.

One thing that amused was uWink promotes that fact that they have ‘At the Table Ordering.’  I’ve had ’At Table’ ordering at every restaurant I’ve ever been at. 

Do I think I’d enjoy an afternoon at a uWink…Yup! Do I think it will still exist as a business in 5 years….hummm, can someone press my screen for me and order some more bread…

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would lift my eyes from Quake III Gold for 30 seconds to invest $50K in uWink.

http://www.uwink.com/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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In my opinion Amie Street is one of the most exciting new businesses I have seen in a while.  So what’s the basic idea?  

Business Model:
There are a number of elements:

An ‘iTunes’ for Independent bands and musicians.  With Aime Street they can get an audience, get paid and perhaps get ‘discovered’.

Listening members join for Free and can download songs that start off Free but as those songs gain in download popularity, the price increases to keep pace with demand up to a .98 cent cap.

Bands receive 70% of all revenues for their songs after the first $5 to cover set up costs.

Some Core Functionality:

• There are no digital media restrictions so downloaders can use the files in multiple because there are no big labels or their lawyers breathing down downloaders necks.
• People who recommend music to others gain music credits when those songs begin to earn revenues.  Those credits can be used for more downloads.
• Amie Street has multiple music genres, single songs and albums and you can sample songs before download.

Likes:
Word of mouth will drive this business from a number of dimensions.  This is such a well thought out business model which gives significant benefits to all.  Aime Street makes money, the bands make money and listeners can download new songs for free and get credits if they recommend new music plus there’s a real incentive to spend time on the site and ‘discover’ great songs before the other Aime Street members.

Also this should really help musicians in a number of ways…the ability to get their music out to a potentially wide audience, make some money and if they regularly top the Aime Street charts, they could land themselves a contract with the smart record companies who should follow ‘chart’ activity within Aime Street.

Dislikes:
There really isn’t much to dislike about Aime Street.  A question I have is what happens when a band or vocalist gets signed?  Will Aime Street need to go and ‘pull’ those songs from their site? Also will this create true fans and followers for the bands or will they become a weekly fad as they hit popularity and then become passe.  What am I talking about?  That’s just the music business!  Sorry but I really am scratching my head and am not finding much to dislike.  I recommend you check out Aime Street.

Amie Street really does seem to be a great deal all around…especially if you are interested in ‘discovering’ a band before they go through the image machine.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would pull out my headphones to invest $750K in Aime Street.

http://amiestreet.com/welcome

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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Zlio is an interesting online service begun in France but seems to be making its way to the US and other countries. 

Business Model:
Users of Zlio can set up their own online store for Free in under five minutes even if they don’t have anything to sell by choosing products from a catalog of thousands of products.  The users earn commissions for every item sold within their store and Zlio takes responsibility for all fulfillment of the purchased items.  The core role of users is:

1)  Create an appealing ’store front’
2)  Choose the right products that work with their store’s personality
3)  Promote the heck out of their own store among friends, search engines, blogs you name it.

Everything else is handled by Zlio.

Some Core Functionality:

• Store Setup
• Submission to search engines
• RSS feed for each store
• Inclusion in Zlio Directory
• Unique store URL for promotional use

Likes:
There is a strong viral element to this business model which is driven by its ease of setup and use combined with the inherent need in the online community to create a personal presence.  As Zlio gets a ‘cut’ for every item sold, providing they have negotiated decent margins with the product providers then this should be a revenue heavy business. 

My guess is that Zlio has struck a number of deals with product fulfillment houses and therefore never actually ‘touch’ a product.  This is likely a pure order pass through business where the usual costs of marketing are not required – the marketing occurs virally through individuals creating their Zlio store and promoting the heck out of it within their own networks. A very efficient model!

Dislikes:
There’s a certain ‘pyramid’ flavor to this business but the realty is they are on to a winner and will make significant cash providing they have struck the right deals and have an efficient backend.  One slight challenge will come if the price points of the products offered are not competitive with alternative ’stores’ online.  If no one actually sells product through their stores then the viral marketing will eventually dry up.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would jump over burning baguettes to invest $500K in Zlio.

http://www.zlio.com/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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The Million Dollar Startup Game!
The basic idea is that I’ll take a look at new, buzz ridden startups or early stage companies and give my personal perspective on it’s merits and decide…

How Much of my ‘virtual’ $1M would I Invest in this new company!

As I’m just one person with my own point of view, so even more important…

How much of your ‘Virtual’ $1M would you slap down on the stock picking roulette wheel for each company?  I’ve included a Forum within the blog so you can put your…probably more insightful, thoughts forward.  Also, I’m looking for folks to add companies they think should be the benefactors of our ‘virtual’ cash by recommending hot new startups to the potential target list through the MDSG Forum!

So, lets start and see how it goes and if you have suggestions about which companies we should take a look at…add them to the forum.

Welcome to ‘The Million Dollar Startup Game’ blog.

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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