As the first book I’ve read on entrepreneurship, The Republic of Tea tells the true story of the birth of a business, from an idea to launch. Chronicled through exchanged faxes, personal notes, illustrations, and business plans, it was exciting to read how co-founders Bill Rosenzweig and Mel & Patricia Ziegler (founders of The Banana Republic retail clothing stores), developed the company over two years.

The concept and business plan needed to mature at its own pace without any force or rushing. In the beginning, this entailed a concrete brand purpose, market research, and product development, then progressing into operations, distribution, funding, and financial analysis.

What I found most interesting was how much research (market & operations) was involved from beginning to end, a journey that led Bill from being an excited newcomer, to nearly an industry expert at 4 months before the company launched.

Although you or I may never be involved in launching a product company, it will give you appreciation for the process and what it takes to get there: patience, perseverance, curiosity, a critical mind, and a team of smart partners and advisers.

Fantastic business model that’s a viable alternative to the Banana Republics and other middle to high-end clothing brands and their associated 3rd party textile manufacturing partners abroad. The part that resonates with me is the values branding at hand here, without all the traditional subjective marketing talk. As the video demonstrates, a complex story can be made concrete and likeable. Here’s the official description:

“The IOU Project produces unique, handmade apparel based on fabrics handwoven in India. Because each textile is unique, we provide end buyers with the ability to trace the production process from finished goods right back to the weaver that hand-wove the fabric. The stories of how that item was created, of the people involved, of the customers who purchased them, are the essence of the the e-commerce social network which The IOU Project has built as a meeting place for a community that shares our brand values of authenticity, transparency, uniqueness and both social and environmental responsibility. Visit us at www.theiouproject.com or follow us on twitter at @theiouproject“

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I like the “Buy One, Give One” business model embodied by Tom’s Shoes. It’s very intuitive, and not some limited promotion like some cause marketing programs. So long as the price and value are aligned, it’s all good. Here’s another interview I liked from BBMG, this time with a local NYC company I find fascinating. While cognizant that 14min is a long investment, you can listen in the background too.

“Mitch sits down with Neil Blumenthal, co-founder of Warby Parker, to discuss how the disruptive eyewear company delivers on style and substance. By designing their own frames and selling direct to consumers, Warby Parker saves customers hundreds of dollars per frame. By adopting a “buy a pair, give a pair” model, they embed a sense of purpose into their business design.”

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So earlier this month, I attended my first NY Tech Meetup event and was impressed by the various presenters’ work. Sometimes they were just really cool concepts. Others were startups. Getting a ticket isn’t hard, but they sell out really fast so you have to act fast on 3 window slots they offer with a set number of tickets. Here’s my notes from the noteworthy examples:

Etsy Shopping Network

The concept was a browsing application for Etsy.com that would work on your net-enabled TV, in this case, GoogleTV. Without a visual, the easiest way to describe it would be a vertical product category menu bar on the left, and a huge image on the right. Clicking a category would bring up various items for sale, with the option for item-level views too. It took about 20 hours to build and is a viewing app only, as the Etsy API (and very few others) allow for transactions.

ComeAtMeBro

Instead of trying to use Twitter for finding & engaging with people you like, BroComeAt.me is an engine that tries to match people with dissimilar interests in an effort to provoke verbal online fights. Included are suggested insults

Uber

Startup for a black car taxi service in NYC, which connects signed up drivers with registered users who have their credit card info stored online. Accessed through a mobile app from iPhone and Android, or via SMS, users can see available drivers, set a destination, and request a pickup. This then sends a message to the nearest available driver with a status as “on duty”, who then has 15 seconds to accept or decline. An accepted pickup then sends the user a picture of the driver, their ETA, and an option to call the driver if necessary for additional details. One neat thing is that both passengers and drivers can rate each other through the service for feedback.

Clique

A dating website for friends-of-friends. Facebook profile info is pulled in (opt-in), with additional social feed integration opportunities. When viewing someone’s profile, one can see how you’re connected to them, similar to how LinkedIn shows degrees of separation. Lastly, there’s a Wingman profile feature for those non-daters who’d like to play matchmaker, for which there’s an actual game with yes and no answers.

RezScore

Personal resume grading service based on brevity, impact, and depth. After an analysis, it provides you with a summary, tips for improvement, and strongest keywords. Kind of like Grader.com for websites.

MatchBook

This is a useful app that I downloaded and liked for its utility. Have you ever jotted down a place you’d like to visit someday in your city or area? This takes care of it all for you with a beautiful user interface, categorize your bookmarks (mostly food, dining, and nightlife in NYC), map integration, tagging, and the ability to alert you if you happen to be nearby. Also syncs with your computer if you’d like to user the web interface, for which there’s a bookmarklet. Very useful, since I don’t have to put this info in my Notes application anymore.

ShoutEm

Ever wanted to make a mobile app which you can easily update, without all the pain of hiring a developer and distributing updates? This service does just that. In some regards, I’d almost liken them as the Worpress for mobile apps. As of now, it seems best targeted for three types of end users: fans, artists, and news readers. Select the modules you want, background photo and 5-6 others for graphics, and a preferred layout. It provides realtime updates to the app without new downloads from the App Store. Subsequent application change approvals with Apple is handled by them.

Bridg.me

A conference call service that automatically calls and connects you in. No manual dial in and codes needed. As their slogan goes, “Never be late for another conference call.” Just set up the date and time in advance; data stored through Google Calendar. The concept was built in 48 hours on the Twilio platform, including the API, PBX, etc. If you miss the call, it’ll keep trying to call you back!

Shelby.tv

Easily discover and share web videos. Sign-in with Twitter or Facebook. Pulls from various online providers, includes a great user-interface without the usual page clutter, and videos can be commented on through your social networks. As of now, they’re in alpha testing and will be optimizing their service for the web first, then Boxee and GoogleTV.

Urtak

A better way to find out what people think. As a CMS plugin (or 3rd party service?) it lets everyone (publisher or audience) contribute a question on a webpage, with the option to answer as yes, no, or “don’t care”. The premise and claims are that 10x as many people will participate in comparison to leaving a comment, since user participation is dead simple. Allows publishers to create, collect, organize the info, use the service as a widget or on individual posts, and the ability to moderate user-contributed questions before going live. Service already in use by Newsweek among others including a big Colombian media co. too.

When it comes to sustainable materials, Andrew knows what to ask and look for. In this video, he provides us 7 key ideas for a balanced consideration of a product design or process.

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To rehearse:

1. Transparency & Honesty – Knowing yourself and being honest with others is the only way to progress forward.
2. Biopolymers – In an ideal world they’d be ubiquitous. Utilize them where their performance, cost, and system effects can warrant them.
3. Rethink Waste – Look for non-virgin material inputs and consider how manufacturing waste can be reused, repurposed, or sold.
4. Ask Nature – Efficiency and zero waste is nature’s modus operandi. Ask “what would nature do?”
5. Quantification – Only a Life Cycle Assessment will tell you what the lowest eco-impact on different indicators will be. Use it where possible.
6. Integrate into your Entire Process – To save the most money and generate the best product concept, start early.
   
7. Never Assume – Don’t judge a product or material by its properties or form, and don’t trust what a manufacturer says it is. Think for yourself based on knowledge and sound judgment.

When I examined Magnus’ detailed expansion of Peter Morville’s UX Honeycomb into a clockwise process with individual subprocesses, I was delighted to say the least. To me, this represents a complete picture of web and content development, and marketing. Excellent! Click on the image to see the details.

I modified his diagram to give proper credit to his work (in case you see this Magnus!)

Link to Original Post

What a neat concept! A kids backpack that turns into a chair with accompanying table. I suppose that as the child grows though, they’ll have to upgrade to a larger version too. See the full details including submission PDF and press release here.

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The Pratt Design Incubator is a very cool undertaking from an academic institution, helping designers and entrepreneurs develop & launch their sustainable innovation projects. Having visited recently for a reception and spoken to some participants, I’m happy for the assistance it’s providing. Here’s some info about Debera:

“Debera Johnson has been a catalyst for transformative change at Pratt Institute for more than 20 years and a lifetime advocate for collaboration. She currently is the Academic Director of Sustainability at Pratt Institute and is leading Pratt’s commitment to integrate sustainability through its academic programs.”

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Creating in the 1980s by Professor Noriaki Kano, its main objective is to help teams uncover, classify, and integrate 3 categories of customer needs and attributes into the products or services they are developing. Neat!

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As a marketing gent wearing hats for content development, community engagement, public relations, and sometimes for graphic design, there’s always a need to be self-critical. Because no matter what, the customer’s happiness counts. In terms of how your product, service, and relationship benefits them. But let’s face it: Value comes down to a variety of different aspects. A slightly unsatisfactory ongoing experience somewhere along the along the line may cause them to switch to someone else in the long run.

Peter Morville of Semantic Studios put together this concept of the UX Honeycomb back in 2004, which I believe represents a solid 6 aspects of the user experience that marketers, developers, and designers must try to maximize to the best of their ability. The terms are pretty self explanatory on their own, but if you’d like an interaction designer’s point of view, Peter explains them in the previous link. I’ve remixed his diagram to my own fancy. Enjoy!