So INSIDERS has "Fastlane Ideas: Executioner Needed" and we have "
100 Unsexy Business Ideas: Name as many as you can!"
I thought it might be interesting to have a freeform / brain dump thread for just ideas in general. Remember no crying foul if someone executes on something you post. I'll start.
1.)Outsourced agriculture / crowdfunding :
So outsourced agriculture is a thing, its also a thing you can invest in , you can also do "donations" via microtransaction with sites like kiva (you dont keep the profits)
So I was thinking of sort of merging them , you use existing microtransaction and charity infastructure as point of contact / followup and a springboard.
Small farmers pitch the idea or folks in contact with them put them into the directory (we have x amount of land, with y yearly rainfall in z environment etc) and then folks bid on a farmer or an idea.
You could even customize it, maybe they grow golden pineapples right now but you need to secure a source of tea in 5 years time, well, you use this system to buy into the farmer and work with them to transition things. Maybe they grow cassava but you need it organic, well 'voila'
You're allowing small scale farmers to access cash and international markets but they get to retain control of day to day operations (and turn a higher profit hopefully)
2.) Subscripotion based hotel booking
So I just googled it and "finalprice" does something similar but...
Monthly flat rate subscription for x days a month hotels accomodations meeting y and z criteria for amenities.
Someone who travels a lot , be it a high power insurance company vp or a salesmen living out of his car , this person needs hotels and needs them a lot. Now people who travel a lot have "preferences" for certain hotels but brand loyalty isn't as big as it is in say, car buying or something (they aren't married to hilton or motel 6 as long as were in the ballpark)
You charge a flat monthly or yearly rate (different tiers of pricing) and they just give you say a weeks notice "ill be driving / flying in on this date" with their required amenities.
That info gets sent to a VA who arranges accommodations.
I think you'd lose money on the subscription, having to overpay for last minute bookings (although maybe with enough subscribers you could get discounts), I think the money here would be in the lead generation (up-sell) / data acquisition.
I now have a verified traveler and a date of arrival, can I upsell dining? lyft and uber? what about entertainment? , I can have a gift basket waiting in the room full of fruit and wine shooters and brochures. Who did they fly with last? southwest? I bet delta would be interested in offering them some kind of discount for next time, did they rent a car and do a red eye trip? who did they rent through? sure bet the competitors wish they could contact this person...
On the back-end I now have a customer profile probably worth something to someone and contact details, high power vp guy has great credit prefers xyz dining over abc, he never dines at the hotels but often uses the spas...
So we have a sort of "traveling business person" directory that we're able to build up and resell or sell access to.
3.) Rent Deposit Bounty Hunter service
So when you rent a place you put down a deposit, apparently this often doesn't cover damages , from the tenants point of view that last minute hustle to clean and try to get that money back is a major pain point, they already have to move boxes , now they have to clean as well?
So the company has say 3 person teams with a team lead, all of them generalists, carper removal and install, drywall repair, painting (you could even have those computerized paint match machines they have at hardware stores and walmarts and things in the back of the van to do touch ups on the spot)
Heres the pitch (and we pitch both tenants and owners) , we come in that last day and fix everything to predefined requirements and we take [INSERT BLANK] <- either a flat fee or a % of the deposit
So you'd need to do walk troughs and get something in writing beforehand on what constitutes "good enough" but I also think that as long as a deicison maker (for the property owner) is available last minute you could get them on board.
Focus initially on rentals around college campuses , the kids parents are the cosigners and they sure as hell arent flying down to help and they probably already thought that deposit money was a goner anyway (and of course college kids are destructive) , easy sell, easy win for everyone.
Low income areas, these people consider the deposit to be just another cost of living, for the most part they just presume they wont get it back, so what do they have to lose by letting your team take a crack at it?
The catch here is of course , if its a flat fee then why wouldnt they just do everything but the worst part themselves (say the carpet) then hire a carpet cleaner? , and low income folks wont have money for the fee.
If its a true "bounty" service , you might go to lots of sites where you can't possible fix things and turn a profit for the deposit amount, just wasting time.
But, that money is their sitting and waiting for someone to deliver on better / more efficient/ faster cleaning.
4.)VR Art Gallery
So this idea is sort of being executed on, but not in the way I envisioned.
So what if you could put on a vr helmet and go peruse galleries from the comfort of your own home?
Boom, ok so, We have a website with a directory of galleries to tour in virtual reality, you can buy the things you see .
Execution :we get a headset and vest setup (covered in cameras) and tie it into some AI run software (to detect painting and sculptures and capture lots of photos from different angles and such)
You send those to galleries all over the world for free , you send them another piece of software you've created for free as well, this software updates the main websites when they've sold a piece of art to someone on their end (so you dont sell a piece twice accidentally)
Someone at the art gallery walks around and the cameras take photos of all the pieces and capture artist bio's and prices, we send that info back to the gallery owner for verification and then publish it onto the website.
The gallery owner gets free exposure and more sales, you take a cut of any sales made via the website.
The initial out of pocket is huge of course as we've got 2 software programs and the hardware to integrate but I had this idea walking around the galleries in sedona arizona, definitely room for someone to come in and synchronize all these different players.
So when I said this was "sort of" being executed, I see companies that will either charge you an arm and a leg for a boutique experience (they'll make your gallery virtual) or companies advertising to get galleries onto their vr gallery platform, but I dont see that anyones made this a no brainer for the gallery owners or easy to use for art buyers, that is, its too many steps, in my mind someone at the gallery slowly saunters about the place for an hour or two and the software does the rest, we ship the hardware, we pay for return shipping, we onboard them with the software that makes sure a piece isnt sold twice and we handle getting folks to look at and buy the art.
No ones connected the dots and made this simple yet.
What are your half baked ideas?
100 Unsexy Business Ideas: Name as many as you can!"
I thought it might be interesting to have a freeform / brain dump thread for just ideas in general. Remember no crying foul if someone executes on something you post. I'll start.
1.)Outsourced agriculture / crowdfunding :
So outsourced agriculture is a thing, its also a thing you can invest in , you can also do "donations" via microtransaction with sites like kiva (you dont keep the profits)
So I was thinking of sort of merging them , you use existing microtransaction and charity infastructure as point of contact / followup and a springboard.
Small farmers pitch the idea or folks in contact with them put them into the directory (we have x amount of land, with y yearly rainfall in z environment etc) and then folks bid on a farmer or an idea.
You could even customize it, maybe they grow golden pineapples right now but you need to secure a source of tea in 5 years time, well, you use this system to buy into the farmer and work with them to transition things. Maybe they grow cassava but you need it organic, well 'voila'
You're allowing small scale farmers to access cash and international markets but they get to retain control of day to day operations (and turn a higher profit hopefully)
2.) Subscripotion based hotel booking
So I just googled it and "finalprice" does something similar but...
Monthly flat rate subscription for x days a month hotels accomodations meeting y and z criteria for amenities.
Someone who travels a lot , be it a high power insurance company vp or a salesmen living out of his car , this person needs hotels and needs them a lot. Now people who travel a lot have "preferences" for certain hotels but brand loyalty isn't as big as it is in say, car buying or something (they aren't married to hilton or motel 6 as long as were in the ballpark)
You charge a flat monthly or yearly rate (different tiers of pricing) and they just give you say a weeks notice "ill be driving / flying in on this date" with their required amenities.
That info gets sent to a VA who arranges accommodations.
I think you'd lose money on the subscription, having to overpay for last minute bookings (although maybe with enough subscribers you could get discounts), I think the money here would be in the lead generation (up-sell) / data acquisition.
I now have a verified traveler and a date of arrival, can I upsell dining? lyft and uber? what about entertainment? , I can have a gift basket waiting in the room full of fruit and wine shooters and brochures. Who did they fly with last? southwest? I bet delta would be interested in offering them some kind of discount for next time, did they rent a car and do a red eye trip? who did they rent through? sure bet the competitors wish they could contact this person...
On the back-end I now have a customer profile probably worth something to someone and contact details, high power vp guy has great credit prefers xyz dining over abc, he never dines at the hotels but often uses the spas...
So we have a sort of "traveling business person" directory that we're able to build up and resell or sell access to.
3.) Rent Deposit Bounty Hunter service
So when you rent a place you put down a deposit, apparently this often doesn't cover damages , from the tenants point of view that last minute hustle to clean and try to get that money back is a major pain point, they already have to move boxes , now they have to clean as well?
So the company has say 3 person teams with a team lead, all of them generalists, carper removal and install, drywall repair, painting (you could even have those computerized paint match machines they have at hardware stores and walmarts and things in the back of the van to do touch ups on the spot)
Heres the pitch (and we pitch both tenants and owners) , we come in that last day and fix everything to predefined requirements and we take [INSERT BLANK] <- either a flat fee or a % of the deposit
So you'd need to do walk troughs and get something in writing beforehand on what constitutes "good enough" but I also think that as long as a deicison maker (for the property owner) is available last minute you could get them on board.
Focus initially on rentals around college campuses , the kids parents are the cosigners and they sure as hell arent flying down to help and they probably already thought that deposit money was a goner anyway (and of course college kids are destructive) , easy sell, easy win for everyone.
Low income areas, these people consider the deposit to be just another cost of living, for the most part they just presume they wont get it back, so what do they have to lose by letting your team take a crack at it?
The catch here is of course , if its a flat fee then why wouldnt they just do everything but the worst part themselves (say the carpet) then hire a carpet cleaner? , and low income folks wont have money for the fee.
If its a true "bounty" service , you might go to lots of sites where you can't possible fix things and turn a profit for the deposit amount, just wasting time.
But, that money is their sitting and waiting for someone to deliver on better / more efficient/ faster cleaning.
4.)VR Art Gallery
So this idea is sort of being executed on, but not in the way I envisioned.
So what if you could put on a vr helmet and go peruse galleries from the comfort of your own home?
Boom, ok so, We have a website with a directory of galleries to tour in virtual reality, you can buy the things you see .
Execution :we get a headset and vest setup (covered in cameras) and tie it into some AI run software (to detect painting and sculptures and capture lots of photos from different angles and such)
You send those to galleries all over the world for free , you send them another piece of software you've created for free as well, this software updates the main websites when they've sold a piece of art to someone on their end (so you dont sell a piece twice accidentally)
Someone at the art gallery walks around and the cameras take photos of all the pieces and capture artist bio's and prices, we send that info back to the gallery owner for verification and then publish it onto the website.
The gallery owner gets free exposure and more sales, you take a cut of any sales made via the website.
The initial out of pocket is huge of course as we've got 2 software programs and the hardware to integrate but I had this idea walking around the galleries in sedona arizona, definitely room for someone to come in and synchronize all these different players.
So when I said this was "sort of" being executed, I see companies that will either charge you an arm and a leg for a boutique experience (they'll make your gallery virtual) or companies advertising to get galleries onto their vr gallery platform, but I dont see that anyones made this a no brainer for the gallery owners or easy to use for art buyers, that is, its too many steps, in my mind someone at the gallery slowly saunters about the place for an hour or two and the software does the rest, we ship the hardware, we pay for return shipping, we onboard them with the software that makes sure a piece isnt sold twice and we handle getting folks to look at and buy the art.
No ones connected the dots and made this simple yet.
What are your half baked ideas?
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