Honest Garage: Getting Paid to Keep Mechanics Honest
A couple of weeks ago I read an good paper in experimental economics (http://forum.johnson.cornell.edu/faculty/schneider/ ) and came away with an interesting idea for a small business venture.The paper is about asymmetric information in expert services and talks specifically about the car repair business. The question that is being asked is essentially ‘are car mechanics honest or […]
Living and Eating in IKEA For a Week
Now here is an entrepreneurial idea. Mark Malkoff needed a place to stay for a week while his apartment was fumigated. He couldn’t convince any of his friends to let him crash in their studio apartments and the hotels in New York City are much too expensive. So, he decided to approach IKEA and ask to […]
Ad-Supported Napkins
Giving away things for free has proven to be a profitable business, when the ‘free stuff’ is supported by ads. A couple of days ago I stumbled upon a great new business startup that capitalizes on this idea.
Napads.com gives away free napkins to its approved list of high profile bars, lounges and nightblubs. The napkins […]
Ted Leonsis, Vice Chairman of AOL on Entrepreneurship
The latest issue of Knowledge at Wharton talks about Ted Leonsis, the keynote speaker at the recent Wharton Entrepreneurship conference. Leonsis started his first successful company at age 24 and later sold it for $60,000,000 and later he realized money was not the metric to measure success with, but rather how much good you are […]
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Last year I read the book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. More than a year later I keep thinking about this idea. Here is an excerpt that explains this concept better than I could:
“Why are these things fun? Strangely enough, when we try to answer that question, it turns out that […]
20 Minutes: What Every City (and everyone online) Needs
Network news demands an hour of your time to get up to speed on the latest happenings, and the local paper takes at a minimum half of that. I don’t usually have that much time, which is exactly why I like the idea of 20 minutes so much. Here is what the company is all about:
“20 minutes is […]
Capitalism Cafe: Where there’s no such thing as a free lunch
When I was in college I had a great idea for a supply and demand based restaurant concept. I’m sure I’m not the first one to come up with the idea, but I haven’t ever seen or heard of anything like this.
Imagine this:
You’re an investment banker in New York City or London and you need […]