160th 1M/1M Roundtable For Entrepreneurs: Joint Session with Startup Weekend
By Guest Post at February 9, 2013 | 9:07 am | Print
160th 1M/1M Roundtable For Entrepreneurs: Joint Session with Startup Weekend
Today’s roundtable was a joint session with Startup Weekend, Jacksonville, so we got a great glimpse of Florida entrepreneurs.
First up, Jose Fermin from Jacksonville, Florida, pitched Whata.tv. Joe is Venezuelan, and misses television content from his country. His research says that he is not the only one. Not only do Venezuelan immigrants to the US miss TV channels from their home country, so do every immigrant group in every country. Jose wants to address that by bringing TV channels from various different countries to immigrant populations abroad.
The market need exists. There are details to be figured out. Is this best done as an app, or does it need to be somehow on a TV monitor? Jose currently thinks his solution would be an app to be sold at $2.99. The business model, pricing model, delivery model are all to be validated at this point.
Firemen’s List
Then, Mike Carter, also from Jacksonville, pitched Firemen’s List, an Angie’s List of sorts but in this community, all contractors are Firemen. Interesting concept!
Did you know that Firemen are the most trusted people around? Makes sense, right? And they work 24-hour shifts, then have 48 hours off. A large percentage of them have side businesses. Mike’s idea is to make it easier for them to run these side businesses.
I like the concept a lot!
Next, Ryan O’Neill from Jacksonville, pitched BOHO, a buy one donate one concept. Ryan wants to help retailers run BOHO campaigns, making it easy for them to help consumers donate food and related products. Again, interesting concept. Needs some fleshing out, especially, whether it can be a for-profit business.
Our last presenter from Jacksonville, Karthik Kadirvel, pitched MOOJIC, a modern-day jukebox for bars and entertainment venues to engage customers in the selection of what music to play. Unlike the clunky mechanical jukeboxes, MOOJIC will be an iPad app on the bar side, and customers will interface with it through smartphone apps. Nice concept, potentially, a proven concept that is being reinvented on modern day technology.
My main questions are around financials, business model, and profitability of the business.
Aural Nation
Next, Ian Carby from New York, New York, pitched Aural Nation, another music related concept, whereby, Ian wants to enable live concert organizers to sell recordings of the event then and there to fans. What Ian outlines as a vision makes sense. Of course, lot of fleshing out still needed on pretty much all dimensions, including validation strategy.
You can listen to the recording of today’s roundtable here.
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She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant, she writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy, and is author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series and Vision India 2020. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. As an entrepreneur CEO, she ran three companies: DAIS, Intarka, and Uuma. Sramana has a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
