My friend Harish shared with me a powerful observation this evening. It took me a while to get it but the more I thought about it, I felt that it was a great example of the power of the narrative. Harish was at a car wash where they made an “amazing” offer – “Buy two… Continue reading
Posts Tagged → Business Models
How much should you spend to save a dollar?
First a quick note and some background information. Note: I love RedBox and have nothing against them. I think they have a cool service. The example here is only to make a point. For those of you who don’t know about Redbox, you can rent the latest DVDs at the redbox terminal for $1 per… Continue reading
What should a printing company do in a green world?
There is so much talk about going and being green. I see so many emails that ask me to “print responsibly”. What would a printing company do in this environment? It would be odd if they start asking people to print “irresponsibly”. That won’t work. One way is to help people create more materials that… Continue reading
DVD Rental Battle Zone – Netflix vs Blockbuster+RedBox+Hulu+Cable Networks…
It is interesting to note that long ago Netflix ignited the change in the way DVD rental market worked. Netflix model was simple and the core still continues to be the same. For a flat monthly fee, you can rent as many DVDs as possible and you can keep them for as long as you… Continue reading
Dating Business: Pursuit of perfection in something that can never be perfect
Some background first: We will be working with a few dating companies as there is an OEM opportunity for one of my portfolio companies. So I started thinking about this business a bit. Fundamentally, the promise of a dating website is to find the “right” match for you. Let’s think about some other businesses who… Continue reading
Can you assign seat numbers for standing?
Sounds like an oxymoron but it’s not. Southwest Airlines may have bee the first airline to do away with seat numbers. So they operated like a bus. You were assigned a group (A, B or C) depending on when you checked in. If you wanted good seats, you check-in early so t Ouhat you are… Continue reading
The Extra-mile Exercise: Selling scented candles
Disclaimer: I am not involved in selling scented candles nor do I know anyone that is involved in that business. I picked this example so that we can brainstorm the concept of “walking the extra-mile” Scenario: Lisa is an entrepreneur who has just set-up a business of manufacturing and selling scented candles. She approaches you… Continue reading