As never before the ability of online networks has the potential to shape the world.  Tumpang is preparing to take advantage of this dynamic by offering people who come together online the ability to put their joint purchasing power to work.  The Tumpang model is interesting.  Manufacturers are asked to discount their products if Tumpang [...]

Lyro is a new web based application that allows people to create and share online, searchable digital ‘business cards’ across multiple.  It isn’t so much a social network as much as personal ‘branding’ and broadcasting but saying that, as well as the core elements of creating a digital online business card (think a micro Plaxo) there [...]

Bringsome is a pre-beta, very early stage company and website that has ‘legs’.  By legs, I mean it has the potential to expand it’s service offering and revenue streams as the business grows.  So what is BringSomes business?  Helping people connect together to BringSome products from one country to another.  No, don’t think illicit drug [...]

Social Flowers is an innovative idea!  If you are part of a social network (and let’s face it…who isn’t nowadays) then using ‘Social Flowers’, you can send flowers, gift baskets, balloons to another member of your social network even though you don’t necessarily have their contact information, name, address etc. Business Model: Like most online [...]

PlanHQ.com is an online Business Planning and startup development tool.  Doesn’t sound very sexy does it but you’d be wrong. Having been crazy enough to start three different businesses, I can painfully testify that writing and even more challenging…sticking to the thinking within a good Business Plan is extremely tough.  Plan HQ is an innovative web application that helps [...]

The creative guys behind the recently reviewed ‘HireThings’ were kind enough to answer some of the questions that came up and give us a sneeky peek into how they will be moving their already exciting business foreward…Thanks HireThings! “Nahum Wild | hirethings.com | IP: 131.203.101.14 Hi Andrew, great article. You’ve obviously done your research and [...]

Continuing on with online P2P hire theme, here’s a new one from New Zealand.  HireThings is a P2P rental marketplace across multiple categories spanning products, places and services that offers hourly, 4-hour, daily, week, and month rates.  HireThings has a nice ’look and feel’, and easy to use and intuitive interface.  Nice design & UI guys!   Business [...]

ILetYou hasn’t even launched yet but this site is going to be HUGE! HUGE I tell you!!!! Cackle…Cackle! What’s the basic idea?  People with DVDs and games at home set up their own ‘online rental stores’ and rent their own DVDs and games to others. The more people who sign up the more variety and eclectic the [...]

Farecast is a new way of approaching online travel purchasing that could change how we all shop for online travel. This could be a real winner if they can get the average consumer to buy into the concept.  It’s about time that there was some real innovation in the online travel space.  My personal experience [...]

CherryPicka is a very early stage South African site that has an innovative business model.  CherryPicka is an online new product showcase which allows customers to purchase and try new and recently launched products at a significant discount to the recommended retail price and encourages them to write reviews. Business Model: CherryPickas encourages companies with new products [...]

Auction Ads is a company which has just launched some new technology which places items within eBay auctions within blogs according to the blogs content. I LOVE this business in terms of the potential win/win for customers and the company and the potential revenue stream for the investors. Business Model: Auction Ads business model is [...]

Quintura is a new search engine that has chosen a tag cloud metaphor as the means of search.   Business Model: This is a beta site launched in the last few days so its not too surprising that there are not too many obvious ways of generating revenue for Quintura.  There are a number of tabs beneath [...]

Ning is a new’ish company with some recently released technology that will skyrocket this company into the stratosphere.  It’s the first company that I’m aware of that has created an easy to use, drag and drop, easy configuration site for users to create their own Social Networking site.  Literally within minutes you can have your own Social [...]

Just after the last post ‘Geni: A $500K Virtual Investment’, Geni were kind enough to respond with the following: “Geni JoAnne Feb 26th, 2007 at 4:46 pm Edit Hi Andrew. Excellent blog. We are considering adding premium services to our site in the future–the basic service will remain free.” JoAnne – Thank you for letting [...]

Geni is a very interesting online service that leverages an easy to use flash interface and viral tools to create family trees.  One interesting concept to prove or disprove is that the whole world is related in one way or another. Could Geni be the solution to world peace?    Business Model: I have been unable to [...]

After scratching my head for a few days considering what more could possibly be added to the already significant contributions made by the blogging community, I came up with the following idea.  The Million Dollar Startup Game! The basic idea is that I’ll take a look at new, buzz ridden startups or early stage companies [...]