The Failed, Stolen Venture

Hearkening back to an earlier entry, I would like to restate the importance that, for a new business to succeed, EVERYTHING MUST GO RIGHT. The people who stole my business could have some small flaw in their plan that is upsetting the whole of the operation. Lack of advertising, a poor application, shoddy service are just some of the possible problems.

Exactly as I would have, this company (I can’t remember the name or find The Economist article) is giving the service out for free. Price cannot be the bane of its problems. Furthermore, the company doesn’t plan to charge for its service in the distant future. It will only make money via advertising revenue. This is an interesting approach that I think will greatly hinder profits in the long run. The company should understand the precedent that people readily pay for cellphone services and should charge money for their service to boost long run profits.

I am very interested to see how this company performs. Perhaps it will fail and I can start a similar company in a couple of years taking into account why the current company failed.

New Venture: Stolen

I didn’t envision starting this business for more than five years. I want to finish college, work for a company, and travel. After about five years I envisioned creating the company like so: I would raise money, commission engineers to build the technology, cut deals with cellphone companies, make the service free to start with, and, as the client base reached a sizable amount, begin charging for the service. Lastly, I would take the company public, have a huge IPO (hopefully) and sell the company. But… MY IDEA WAS STOLEN!!!

A couple months ago, I read in The Economist magazine that the technology associated with my idea had been INVENTED and incorporated into a business. The great thing though: the business was struggling mightily. It could not get that many customers, which may suggest that people are not as curious about who is in their proximity as I thought. More likely though, the business had not been perfectly operated.

A New Venture continued

…Third, I would have to cut deals with cellphone companies. Whats to say that the companies would want such a technology on their phones and why wouldn’t they create it themselves to stiff me out of the profits? I believe that the cellphone companies would see this product as a potential profit source so they would be inclined to work with me. As for the second part of this conundrum, I would have to patent my technology and hope that what I create is superior to what the cellphone companies create. It is a gamble to bank on the creation of a better piece of technology, yet not an unfathomable gamble. It still has a high probability of success.

Fourth, many cellphones are low grade. For a cellphone to handle an extensive profile, it must be a somewhat advanced model. From what I have seen, however, cellphone technology improves quickly and there are enough good cellphones on the market for a substantial customer base to form.

Lastly, how can this venture make money? People have come accustomed to paying for cellphone services. A precedent has been set: people pay for internet on their cellphones, text messages ect. Unlike the internet where people infrequently pay for services (ex. Facebook, Myspace), people seem to have few qualms with signing up for fee based services on cellular technology.

A New Venture

About 6 months ago I devised a new idea for a business. The idea was such: I would invent an application that would allow people to create profiles for themselves on their cellphones. The profiles, at the very least, would include pictures of the people and their names. A person could include in the profile additional information such as interests, job, favorite movies, age ect. Through the application, the person could see other people’s profiles (quite similar to Facebook) of people within their immediate proximity; about 50 feet. The application would serve two major purposes. First, it would satiate peoples curiosity. From my experience, everyone is always interested to know who is around them. Second, it could help people in bars or clubs find other people with similar interests and, therefore, unite these people and give them a talking point.

I identified a number of issues with this idea, but I came up with ways in which the issues would be neutralized. First, people may be concerned about privacy. To combat this, the profile can be as extensive and revealing as the customer desires. Furthermore, Facebook and Myspace success suggests that people are not concerned about privacy to the point that such an idea couldn’t become popular. Second, can such a technology be invented? I certainly cannot invent things for cellphones, but in my planning I took it for granted that talented engineers could invent whatever I asked of them. This may be flawed thinking, nevertheless, I have an inkling that this kind of technology is possible to create and I would definitely do more research to ensure it could be created before I invested any money…