Tweet What You Eat

The Idea
Use Twitter to lose weight by tweeting to track what you eat; get motivational messages and tips via Twitter.

Origins

A friend at my gym today had an electronic device to measure Body Mass Index (BMI), and another guy said, "I wonder if they have a cell phone app that does that." The phrase "Tweet what you eat" popped into my head.

How It Works

Freemium model: customers sign up via a website and enter basic body information (to get recommended daily calories) and their Twitter handle. Every time they tweet an item with "#calories" and a number as well as "#tweetwhatyoueat," the website adds that amount of calories to the tracking. When the number of calories is higher than recommended for the time of day or the total calorie count for the day is high, the user gets a tweet back with a message warning about intake. Premium members get the ability to enter any item and have the site automatically calculate calories as well as adding custom motivational messages, integration to update automatically other dieting sites and health sites and advanced tracking. Gold members get individualized advice from trained dietary and fitness professionals.

Resources Needed

Software programming expertise

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (If Any)

Network effect in that people see #tweetwhatyoueat and think of that site first as the source for free health tracking.

Middle East Telemedicine Service

The Idea
Build a "telemedicine" presence for wealth patrons in the Middle East through reverse outsourcing (providing services to foreigners through employees in the U.S.).

Origins

I saw a photo essay in CNN on Iraqi immigrants who live in El Cajon, California working relatively menial jobs even though many used to be physicians and attorneys in Iraq. This community seems tailor-made for an outsourcing community, as many of these residents would likely be thrilled to have their old, more respected professions back.

How It Works

Starting in Bahgdad, deploy a set of nurses and advertise "second opinion" services to the wealthy. Starting with Skype and building through an infrastructure that would allow x-rays, tests and other critical information to be transferred easily and quickly to the U.S., offer medicine services through Iraqi doctors living as immigrants in El Cajon, California. Once the service has been established in Bahgdad, deploy the model to other wealthy cities in the Middle East such as Riyahd, Saudi Arabia, Amman, Jordan or Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Resources Needed

Software programming expertise, Arabic fluency, knowledge of Middle East cultural and business practices for primary care medicine

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (If Any)

Deploying a stable, trusted community of Iraqi Arabic speakers in a community in the U.S. in conjunction with a nursing and sales staff in the Middle East would be hard to set up but also hard to replicate. Establishing a stable business and reputation with Iraqi immigrants possibly translates successfully to other insular immigrant communities such as Persians in Los Angeles; Iraqis, Lebanese and Yemeni communities in Dearborn, Michigan; and Jordanians, Palestinians, and Syrians in Patterson, New Jersey.

Market Research Service for Home Improvement

The Idea
Offer manufacturers market share and market basket analysis based on scanning Lowe's, Home Depot and Menard's receipts and deriving market share from these receipts.

Origins

At PPG, I used the Paint Consumers Research Program. We employed a giant consumer survey to gauge what brands consumers bought in home improvement. The data were inaccurate and variable, and I often wondered why we couldn't just get market share directly from the retailers.

How It Works

Employ individuals using a service like Amazon's Mechanical Turks to go to the parking lots of various Lowe's, Home Depot and Menard's locations at assigned times to take cell phone photos of customers' receipts for a small fee. Use pattern recognition or just plain data entry to enter the items on the receipt. Collate the results in market share reports to be presented to manufacturers online. Sell to home improvement manufacturing market research departments.

Resources Needed

Software programming expertise, market research expertise, start-up capital to collect the first few months of data

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (If Any)

The longer the business collects a consistent set of accurate data, the harder it would be for a competitor to present value in comparison. Manufacturers want to see market share, in particular, over a period of time to see if it is increasing or declining. In order to increase switching cost and increase "share of wallet," the company could introduce other services over time such as matched sample testing for new programs (comparing the results at specific stores where a new product came out, for instance, versus similar stores without the new product).

Technical Documentation Translation Service

The Idea
Use off-the-shelf translation such as Google Translate combined with human editors to translate technical documentation into foreign languages for software and hardware companies.

Origins

I wish I had this service whenever I got a technical question from a non-English speaker using our English-language instructions at ANY of my past companies.

How It Works

Take technical documentation from a Website of a software or hardware company that clearly has business around the world but has documentation only in one language. Do a sample translation of the first page or two (by yourself or with the help of translators from Guru.com or Odesk.com) and send it to the client, quoting a price for the full translation.

Resources Needed

Knowledge of a particular hardware or software domain and editing skills.

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (If Any)

A slight advantage would accrue to the first mover in this space by developing a proprietary set of good translations of particular technical terms. Overall, this model is easily replicated and therefore does not convey much sustainable competitive advantage.

Best Practices for Sports Teams

The Idea
"The Corporate Executive Board" for sports teams: offer best practices research to professional sports team General Managers and/or Directors of Operations to deal with strategic problems in hiring, marketing, venue management, government relations, corporate relations, operations and other issues.

Origins

Tom Monahan, CEO of the Corporate Executive Board and my former boss, had this idea years ago but never executed on it.

How It Works

Sports teams pay a membership fee and get access to strategic studies as well as an archive of past studies. The membership at large determines the hot topics such as "Marketing During the Recession" or "Strategies for Salary Caps" or "Best Practices for Working With Architects for New Venues." The membership includes attendance at one of several annual meetings around the world at which the company would present the research and sports team executives would network with each other.

Resources Needed

Consulting experience, a core of "charter members" to get the program started, possibly sports management education or experience.

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (If Any)

This type of program operates on a network effect: once enough sports teams of various types are members, it is hard for a competitor to gain a foothold because it is always more attractive for a new member to join the larger group with the well-managed team GMs as its clients. Otherwise, the new member does not get the advantage of expertise from the industry leaders.

Consumer Capacity Alert Software

The Idea
Provide a software platform to industries with capacity management problems that would easily enable them to alert potential consumers to last-minute deals when their capacity allowed it. For example, a movie theater could provide last-minute tickets at deep discounts when the theater had empty seats.

Origins

Monica and I went to the movies the other night on a Monday night. Even though it was right after the Academy Awards and the movie had won an award (Argo), the movie theater was half empty. I reflected that I would come to the movies more often if I could come at the last minute for $1.

How It Works

The software needs A) an easy way to indicate the scheduled events (movies, flights, cruises, shows) and the capacity still left, B) an easy way to set up last-minute pricing, and C) a way to alert consumers about the availability and to allow them to sign up instantly (and a way to monitor when capacity was full). Ideally, the software would target a particular market such as movie theaters first but be structured as a platform that could be adapted easily to other markets.

Resources Needed

Software programming experience, some knowledge of capacity pricing

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (If Any)

The platform nature of the product would make it easy to expand inexpensively into new markets. Saving the ongoing data (by making it a cloud service or otherwise feeding data back to the central database) would provide competitive advantages in the information about how changes in price affect demand based on the particular date and time and/or characteristics of the product and/or customer.

Robotic Remote Picker

The Idea
Substitute human warehouse pickers (individuals who pick from the warehouse shelf) with robotic pickers operated remotely by a human.

Origins

In my job, I have heard warehouse managers complain about the vicissitudes of managing U.S. workers in the distribution center: attendance problems, on-time arrival, union rules and other workforce management problems. Some show interest in solutions solely because they provide leverage in negotiating with employees.

How It Works

Using the Crown motorized pallet jack or other similar interfaces that already allow for remote operation, build a robot that sits on the "standing area" part of the walkie-rider and has two robotic arms that reach out to grab items from the pick location. Build a software interface to see the pick locations and the front of the forklift in a remote screen. The concept is to have a remote, low-wage worker replace a high-wage warehouse worker by piloting the robot and pallet jack from their computer screen.

Resources Needed

Supply chain management experience, robotics expertise, software and machine vision expertise, capital investment for the robotics development required.

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (If Any)

A distribution center that tries the robotic warehouse worker could upgrade to an automated guided vehicle and eventually to a completely autonomous robot. The significant technical barriers would prevent competition, and the high switching costs would prevent customers from switching to another solution.

3PL for Disabled Veterans

The Idea
Create a third-party logistics (3PL) company offering warehousing capabilities and specifically employing disabled veterans home from deployment and trying to re-enter the workforce.

Origins

One of our customers at Vocollect is a 3PL facility for the blind. They use Vocollect Voice(R) to enable these workers to do the work of typical warehouse selectors. This customer spurred my interest in distribution center technologies for the disabled, of which there are many.

How It Works

Build a warehouse or purchase or lease a vacant warehouse. Contract with a warehouse management software (WMS) vendor, possibly "in the cloud" to save money initially, to manage inventory. Recruit disabled veterans and work with a licensed physical rehabilitation specialist to adapt the job to their injury. Many former military service members have supply chain management experience and would be able to manage the warehouse and the customer relationships as well. Market this business to corporations as a socially responsible 3PL outsourcing alternative.

Resources Needed

Supply chain management experience, physical rehabilitation experience, capital investment for the distribution center and technologies required.

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (If Any)

Productivity and accuracy are bound to be higher due to greater experience by the workers. The 3PL may be more likely to forge gain-sharing agreements with customers due to the socially responsible nature of the business, making switching costs higher as well as increasing profitability. Some subsidies may be available by the Federal Government for employing veterans, and Veterans Administration funds may be available for assistive technologies in the warehouse that may also increase productivity and accuracy.

Oil Change on Wheels

The Idea
Create a service van that goes to company parking lots and changes the oil in the cars.

Origins

I saw many vans that offered dog grooming services that came to the home. One day, I had to wait almost an hour at an oil change service station and wondered why they couldn't just come to me.

How It Works

The van would include a car and truck lift, a cover for rain or snow, and all of the equipment necessary to drain the oil and put in new oil. The business would market the service to companies as a convenience for their employees, charge the same as competitors, and earn more because of lower overhead costs and greater percentage of time working for employees due to the scheduled nature of the service.

Resources Needed

Large hardware engineering experience, investment capital for the van modifications, environmental regulatory knowledge (could be purchased).

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (If Any)

Some regulatory barriers around environmental concerns may prevent easy replication. For existing competitors, an installed base of stores presents a (false) barrier to cannibalizing their own business. Possible intellectual property protections for innovations on the van itself may be possible.

Diet Group Equivalent for Job Seekers

The Idea
Offer job seekers a weekly "group meeting" and specific plan for their job search to provide incentives for them to get motivated and feedback on their progress.

Origins

When I was in business school, the Career Center created similar groups for job seekers. Being in a group helped me be accountable about progress, gave me ideas, helped support my motivation and boosted my morale. Knowing the success of Weight Watchers for diets and counseling a lot of job seekers with poor organizational and motivational skills, I thought combining the two concepts would be key.

How It Works

Essentially copy the Weight Watchers model for job searches. Schedule regular groups. Offer service pricing for a certain number of weeks for that regular group. Promise "lifetime membership" based on progress against specific goals (e.g., number of documented interviews instead of weight loss). Research specific emotional blocks people have in the job search and find ways to get the weekly group to overcome them. Provide easy-to-use, simple and specific tools and trackers (like the Weight Watchers "points" system) to motivate people and help them track their progress in their job search. Offer "CareerCatchers at Work" to employers facing layoffs. Offer additional custom services (resume reviews, mock interviews, books, software) for a fee. License the brand name to other services using your "points" system.

Resources Needed

Nominal experience organizing groups and job searches, nominal investment to attract job seekers

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (If Any)

Brand name and proven results would be the only competitive advantage; like "Weight Watchers," knock-offs would be easy and common

Location-Based Grocery Cart Services

The Idea

Sell an electronic attachment using gyroscopic telematics and simple WiFi connections to see where a cart is in the store. Record the exact time the grocery cart went though the checkout to connect the shopping route with the receipt. Create a suite of analytics that help Marketing use the data to optimize store layout.

Origins

Years ago when I moved to Pittsburgh, a coalition of companies tried to execute this idea. Then, the bottom fell out of the venture capital market, and the coalition fell apart. It's still a great idea.

How It Works

Develop a location sensor with a time stamp and the ability to capture information about where in the store the checkout counters are located. Partner for everything else.

Resources Needed

Hardware product management experience, hardware engineering talent (possibly to hire), partner management experience, negotiation ability, preferably retail experience.

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (If Any)

Once the various elements have been combined, the service creates a network effect. This network can be expanded to include checkout counter coupon connections, connections to shopper marketing data and other services that already have a lock on retail.

Foreign Filming Voiceover Key

The Idea

Allow commercials and films to be filmed in a foreign country with lip movements that look like English through a software that would make English lip movements in the foreign language. For example, if you wanted to say "This is my favorite soft drink" in English but you were filming in Ukraine, the software would figure out that the sentence "Frog tree password archery" looks like the correct English lip movements. The Ukrainian actor would say "Frog free password archery" and the voice-over artist would dub in the English later.

Origins

I was showing my kids really badly dubbed kung fu movies and thought of this idea. Chief target market would probably be the adult film industry.

How It Works

Focus on a country in which it is cheap and easy to film. Work with a linguist to examine mouth movements and relate those movements to English sounds. Write software that breaks the English sounds into mouth shapes and then searches for the foreign language phoneme that makes a similar shape. Connect the phonemes to search for words in that language.

Resources Needed

Linguistics, software programming.

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (If Any)

This idea is so wacky, nobody would think to copy it. But there's no sustainable competitive advantage I can see.

Apps for Lawyers

The Idea
Design an inexpensive device with 10-15 buttons simply tracking the amount of time spent on various tasks, enabling a lawyer or other time-billing professional to push a button to switch billing to a particular client. At the end of the day, the time setting would read the hours to be billed to that client down to the second. Send this information to a mobile phone via Bluetooth and design apps to make the lawyer's life better. Make money selling the device as a conference give-away (promotional item).

Origins
Lawyers are not known for being particularly tech savvy, but they have lots of information tracking needs. They also spend lots of money on services. I heard a friend complaining about not being able to track his eleven different clients at the end of the day, and I thought of this idea.

How It Works
Companies selling to lawyers will want to use this item as a promotional item because it would be very likely to be kept. The manufacturer would make additional advertising revenue from the apps.

Resources Required
Hardware design expertise, app design expertise, contacts in the promotional items industry

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (If Any)
Brand will be an important differentiator, as lawyers are brand-sensitive. Having the device that integrates to the apps makes it harder (but not difficult) to break into the app space for a competing app.

Beer Brewer's Seconds

The Idea

Sell large beer brewers' damaged goods at a discount.

Origins

Today at work, I found out that large beer brewers throw out cases of beer if even one bottle in the case breaks. They send the cases to a "damaged goods" area in the distribution center. I thought about Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and their "factory seconds" store I went to a long time ago. Why not factory seconds for beer, arguably even more popular than ice cream?

How It Works

Buy cases from Anheuser Busch's distribution center and open a small store to re-sell at a markup, unopened. Tell customers, "Buyer beware, sale is final." Clearly communicate that some cases will have minimal damage, but some might be a total waste. Market the environmental impact of using rather than disposing the product, and project a cheeky, "in-the-know" brand image.

Resources Needed

Retail experience, alcoholic beverage license, startup capital enough for store leasehold improvements, agreement from at least one brewery.

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (If Any)

Relationship with the brewery; regulatory restrictions

Welcome

I have a new business idea every day. Some are great. Some are terrible. Here, I plan to catalog these ideas to sort through later. Feel free to take one and start the business yourself. Drop me a line if it works!