SportsYap! is a fun sports-centric social networking app that allows users to challenge other fans, find your favorite sports loving celeb, view real-time scores, and much more.
I created a business plan for SportsYap! which allowed them to secure funding for app development costs, overhead expenditures and other startup expenses.
Corrio is a fantastic service that provides messaging services to prison inmates. I created a pitch deck for Corrio which they presented to a well-known global investment community of accredited private equity angel investors. Furthermore, they were invited to the road-show which will allow them to raise a subsequent seed round. Members of the investment community provide early-stage capital in the range of $250K-$2m.
Huawei gave out free power banks to those waiting overnight for the release of the iPhone XS and XS Max iPhones.
Read more about it here.
Wishful Events is a fantastic on-side childcare service for events such as weddings, company BBQs and other outings. Wishful Events provides a high quality service with customized age-appropriate games and activities so parents are free to enjoy the day.
FYI, if you’re greentech or cleantech company, there may be some capital available for your business.
Read more about the Investor Agenda here.
Often entrepreneurs come up with their business idea because of their own personal experiences or that of someone in their circle of friends & family. This is a great strategy but sometimes doesn’t tap into a market large enough.
In episode #850 of Planet Money, The Fake Review Hunter the hosts interview Tommy Noonan, creator of SupplementReviews.com. SupplementReviews.com is a highly popular website that provides unbiased user reviews of health supplements. However, Tommy soon found that there were reviews that were suspiciously positive. Because Tommy’s entire website was based on authentic user reviews, fake reviews became an existential threat. After a lot of research he found that some of these reviews were being written by the supplement companies themselves. He uncovered so many fake reviews that he started noticing a pattern; almost like a modus operandi. They were often single product/brand reviews, used fake pictures, lots of reviews in a short period of time, and/or only had one review. Sometimes the “reviewer” would give positive reviews for one brand and negative ones to competing brands.
This is when Tommy had his a-ha moment. If his website had fake reviews, others would also probably have them too. So he created another business that aligned with one of the juggernauts of the internet, Amazon. Tommy’s site which uncovers fake reviews is called ReviewMeta.com.
How to find a need
As mentioned at the top of the post, most rely only on their personal experiences or that within their network. Sometimes the need is obvious. For example, at a 7-Eleven in Shirley, New York one 7-Eleven sell more coffees than any other franchise in the US; all because of one store manager than knows virtually every customer’s name and greats them. No special location mojo or customer flow algorithm, just old fashioned customer service. You can read more about it in my post Competitive Advantage and Coffee.
Other times it is not that obvious. In that case you have to hustle in a different manner. How do you do more “work” when you’re already working to the bone? Find efficiencies: know your customers, know your competitors, lower your expenses, by working to learn more doing more research in episode #700 of Planet Money, Peanuts and Cracker Jack. In Boston’s Fenway Park, Jose Magrass is the top seller. One year, on opening day he sold 500 hot dogs, $2750 worth of hot dogs in a single game. In fact, Jose has been the top seller for over 5 years. Part of his secret? He has a spreadsheet where he analyzes many factors beyond just the weather such as what his competing vendors are selling and what fans are likely to purchase depending on the price of their seats. For example, behind home plate diet coke sold better because possibly that is where the “vain people” sit. That kind of analysis is impressive.
According to data from the Census Bureau and IRS the average age of successful business founders is 42; so the 20 year old entrepreneur is a true rarity.
The team looked at data around the 2.7 million people who founded businesses between 2007-14 and went on to hire at least one employee. Along with average entrepreneur age, they also learned those new ventures with the highest growth had an average founder age of 45.
The researchers broke out the data into high-tech employment, VC-backed firms, and patenting firms. Across the entire United States, the average founder ages were 43, 42, and 45, respectively for those divisions.
Part of this reason is because experience, social capital, skill sets, etc. play a large factor in the success of a business. So even if you’re over 40, roughly 50% of successful entrepreneurs are above that age.
Read the complete article here.
Sans Bar is a one-of-a-kind sober bar in Austin, TX. Their mission is to provide a safe, sober environment for adults to celebrate life while promoting personal and social wellness.
I had the pleasure of creating financial projections for founder, Chris Marshall. With the help of this important document, entrepreneurs can see how much they need to make and save in order to meet their financial needs; in addition to many many other uses. You can read more about the importance of a financial plan.
