Mar
23
This entry is going to give a “real”analysis of the entrepreneurship bootcamp elevator pitch contest that took place in
The elevator pitch competition allegedly had the 10 biggest ideas there were in the room that night where selected hopefuls had the opportunity to win cash prizes (1st place $1K, 2nd place $500, 3rd place $250).
So here are the 10 biggest ideas of the 350 plus students that were in attendance (not everyone submitted ideas):
1) Pooyou.com. This is a website where you can send non-smelly biodegradable “poo” to people electronically or in real life. This isn’t a big idea, it’s a big @ss gimmick. This is a Facebook Zombie application in real life. And this bad boy won the whole elevator pitch contest. Are you kidding me? Ask me if
2) Dinner plate attachment. You can attach some type of material to dinner plates to turn them into bowls. The guy who pitched it wasn’t really sure of how to do this, so this reflected sort of bad on him. Nonetheless, this is hardly life changing.
3) Video game for I-Step. This is a video game for Nintendo DS to help
4)
5) Electronic Receipts. Whenever you purchase something with a credit card, you get an electronic receipt. Doesn’t your online credit card statement tell you this information? Let’s ignore all the technical and practical challenges (e.g., getting the big credit companies to cooperate) . Can somebody explain to me why this electronic receipt idea even makes sense–I mean doesn’t your online credit card account include your purchase information? After much thinking I’m guessing that itemization of what was bought may be useful to folks, but then this introduces privacy concerns. She wins 2nd place.
6) Freelectric. Essentially the idea is to create exercise equipment that can power appliances in your house. He claims that he can get this built (mass production level I’m assuming) for about $1K. If this is true, this could be disruption on the scale of Henry Ford. I liken the presenter’s idea to Henry Ford, because, currently rich people already have exercise equipment that can power their homes. If this technology could be made available to the masses, then that would be a HUGE disruptive innovation.
7) Soy-based Play-doh. Now children can ingest play-doh. This is a big idea…period.
8 ) Web Video for Doctors to communicate with patients. I didn’t really get this one. Doctors will talk in general terms to patients about the common problems? WTF?
9) Enagewear. Using flash-based games for education. Without a demo, the presenter really couldn’t “change my pulse” in the words of Bill Joos.
10) After school program for robotics. Okay, I’ll be honest, I couldn’t listen to this one. Apparently it was good enough to get 3rd place.
There were some big ideas in the bunch, but there’s no reason why they all shouldn’t have been big ideas. And if all the ideas presented, if the judges are going to be pick pooyou.com to be potentially be the biggest thing to come out of Indiana, Indiana is in some serious trouble.
Mar
17
V3DM: Virtual Events Anyone?
Filed Under Virtual World | Leave a Comment
V3DM.com is a virtual events creator that’s based in Indiana. So if you need a training session for your team members, a job fair, a trade show, whatever, they got you covered. Definitely a neat thing they’re doing & it’s totally cool that this type of company is in Indiana…BUT. What separates these guys from the Sequoia Capital backed unisfair.com? Or how about the IL-based inxpo.com? These are the just the companies I could come up with off the top of my head.
Based solely on V3DM’s website, it’s unclear what their point of difference is in comparison to others. Then been in business for at least a year or so, so maybe the market is nascent enough that it can support everyone, but sooner or later a leader will emerge, if one hasn’t already.
Mar
14
Got any friends that constantly pester you about checking out their performance? Yeah, me either, but do you support the underdog?! Heck yeah! Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock, the music industry is undergoing some huge changes. One of which is DRM-free music offerings. The industry is actively looking for new ways to monetize music.
Fanfound intends to capitalize on tides of change currently sweeping the music community. A company coming out of the Purdue Technology Center in Merrillville, IN and led by Chris Bauman, is a Website dedicated to helping fans connect with their favorite artists. In turn this site allow artists to connect with their fans more directly. This also offers rich information for venues. If fanfound becomes large enough, venues could make decisions about what artists to bring based on an artist’s fanfound fan base.
When I visit the Fanfound pages, I’m reminded of Facebook mixed in with some Myspace. This then begs the question, why isn’t this Website a Facebook application? There should definitely be a Myspace widget. Is there any famous music artists associated with Fanfound? If so, I think it would do Fanfound some good to flaunt that person (e.g., have a video of them saying how much Fanfound rocks on the homepage).
In short, I wish the folks at Fanfound the best. The concept definitely makes sense. The right people need to find out about it. If anybody has any suggestions do leave comments. Now Fanfound…get those widgets built!!
Mar
5
It’s always nice when “webpreneurs” decide that they will actually try develop an application that’s useful. 8aweek, is Y Combinator backed startup that wants to make all of us more productive. They’ve created a Firefox plugin that can track your Web surfing habits (this feature can be enabled, enabled locally, or disabled). If you have the logging enabled you’ll be able to see where you’re spending most of your time on the Web, and adjust accordingly. For example, you can set timers on sites that you know you spend too much time on.
I so wanted something like this; it is nice to know that somebody else wanted this too :o). Thanks 8aweek. I’m wondering where I spend most of my time online? I just installed the plugin, so I guess I’ll find out pretty soon. Maybe you should check it out and see where you’re spending most of your online time! Still curious about it? Check out their blog here. Better yet, check out their demo here.