It takes a lot of time, but its been worth the effort. If anything, the response has reinforced two long held perspectives I have had about entrepreneurs and those who would like to be entrepreneurs. The first is that 95pct of people are dreamers who really don’t want to do the work. They would like to think they have the “next big thing”, but don’t realize that the “next big thing” that impacts their potential success is preparation and effort. Note to those who want me to consider their businesses in the future…READ THE ORIGINAL POST. It wont take a lot of time, but it at least gives me the impression that you have a clue.
The 2nd reinforced belief is that the American Dream is still alive and well, even in these tough economic times. There are still many, many of you that know that success can be defined in many ways, but that it’s earned through preparation, hard work, love of what you are doing and a thirst to be the absolute best at what you do. It’s not only refreshing, its exciting to learn more about some of the companies that have been presented.
The following are several of the companies that we are pursuing further and hope to close deals with. None are closed with checks written yet, but the paperwork is in process.
1) Naked Pizza – Simply the Worlds Healthiest Pizza. Based in New Orleans, it tastes good. They work their asses off. Try the pizza for yourself
2) Wickler – Takes the ability to track patrons in venues, from bars to restaurants to concert venues to the next level. Their product is selling well and the funding will take them to the next level. A strong product with hopefully a unique future.
3) P5 Foods – They make an original food, Stuffed Chicken Wings. Its a unique product that tastes great and could provide an attractive upsell to specialty restaurants and for groceries
4) Tycoon Online – Just as it appears, an online game that makes money from subscriptions. They have subscribers around the world and will use the investment to increase their marketing efforts
There are quite a few others we are still evaluating and discussing with the entrepreneurs involved. Keep the opportunities coming. As you can see, if you are up and running, we can move quickly ! If you have a businessplan, it might take longer, but I will take a look at it.
And one more thing, just to save all of us time. Some businesses I have decided not to pursue:
1. Real Estate. I realize that there are properties that can be bought cheap out there. So do many companies who specialize in doing just this.
2. Stock/Options/Futures Trading. Enough said.
3. Anything Illegal. Even if you think it shouldn’t be illegal
4. Franchises. I don’t see the value in being just one more franchisee
5. Restaurants. While there have been some very interesting concepts, it is too tough a business and there are better places to put capital right now.
Anything else ? Im happy to review
Well Mark I found an investor for…what used to be known as “Dinner & Movie Delivered” I had to change the name to Not Just Games because the focus of the business is gaming.
My question is this…first off the terms are sweet…too sweet
I am a little scared of terms this good….appreciate your advice here.
Having concluded my review with the support of my financial advisers, below are my investment terms:
1. Amount: USD$167,000.00
2. Combined debt and equity investment @ 2.5% interest rate per annum with monthly interest payments plus a 10% equity stake with your company. The 10% equity stake would serve as my collateral as well as yielding returns at the end of every fiscal year until maturity of investment.
3. Upon complete repayment of invested amount, the 10% equity stake collateral would automatically revert back to you, however on default; it will be converted to full equity with voting rights.
4. No early pre-payment penalty.
5, Investment would be for a period of Five years. If the above terms are acceptable to you, let me know so that my attorney will start drafting the investment agreement.
Comment by Denton -
I am trying to get a book started, also. It is a humorous look at dietiing. I will give 50% of the net to the homeless in Denton. estevenish.wordpress.com
Comment by estevenish -
Hello Mark,
I have been a top seller in the retail business for the past thirty years.
Instead of selling other people’s products, I decided to become a children’s picture book writer. I have written four books and now I am looking to publish them and sell it to the public. My theme: Reading is Fun. If I can sell products manufactured by others, imagine what I can do with the books I have written. I have places I can set up to sell, the only thing missing is the investment to publish the books. By using my communication skills and my selling techniques, not only can I educate the public how important reading is for kids but it will also stimulate the book industry. Dallas would be an ideal starting point.
Henry
Comment by Henry Porada -
Hello Mark,
I love to see your support for the entrepreneur. Also, I am excited for the Mavs in the second round of the playoffs. Good luck!
We are currently in the funding stages of a new biofuels company to supply wood waste biomass as feedstock, to fuel the new 100% wood burning electric power generating plants in East Texas and Louisiana. In addition we will be supplying wood waste biofuel to existing coal burning power plants that will co-fire wood and coal to greatly reduce their emmission problems. Obviously, wood is a very sustainable natural fuel that has a zero carbon footprint. We have received firm long term contracts already from several power generating plants and are currently focused on east Texas, and Louisiana, but are already talking with numerous other opportunities throughout the southeast.
We are located in Dallas, soon to be with operations in Angelina and counties in Texas. We are acquiring two companies initially with excellent forest knowledge. Another interesting part of our plan is the use of Urban wood biomass waste as fuel. Believe it or not there is more wood waste generated in our urban settings than can be extracted from our east Texas forest. The municipalities love to deliver their wood waste to us (and pay us to take it), to keep it from filling up their landfills.
Our conservative plans show we can exceed $100 million in annual revenues after 4 years with excellent profitability. We are looking to raise $15 million initially. Again, we have currently just begun talking to local Angel investors and are getting great initial response. We would be very interested in sending you our entire business plan and financials, if you are interested in the growing “green” biofuels industry.
We will be profitable day one with the acquisition of two profitable companies. We are a serious entity and would be very interested to have Mark Cuban as an investor in our venture.
Thanks for this opportunity Mark.
Scott Smith
COO
BioEnergy Solutions, LLC
Comment by Scott Smith -
Hi Mark,
I just read this article while I was getting my brakes fixed (which cost me $141 ouch that hurt my wallets!) in the INC magazine, and this is how I found out about your stimulus package. I am an senior at East Carolina University(Go pirates!!) and I am majoring in business with a concentration of small business and entrepreneurship and me and my dad are trying to get our computer web design company to take off, right now we don’t really have enough clientele or the capital to really market or advertise like we would hope for. Another problem we are having is that it is based in a small town Thomasville,NC (I know you probably never heard of it but it’s an horrible spot to have a builiding for a computer web design company I know all profesors always preach location,location,location). That’s why I thoguht to myself hey this article and stimulus package sound like a good idea maybe I should follow it up and so here I am, honestly I didn’t really think there would actually be a website here but to my suprise it is! I also I thought I should mention that I am a fan of Dirk and your team I was a little disaapointed at their performance last years playoffs, but I would like to wish your team much success this year (they are headed on the right track you guys just made it past the first round yay!!) Enough of that I also thought I might should mention that I was starting my own venture in the fashion industry (t-shirt line or printed t’s) but again the issue is not enough capital,and advertisement. I wanted to end by saying thanks for this great opportunity even if you guys don’t decied to move foward with our company this is still a great thing just to have you read my little post.
Thanks again!!!
Impris Manning a Ecu Pirate!
Comment by Impris Manning -
Please review our solution by clicking on our link at: http://www.ahfis.com/AHFISventures.pdf
Comment by Allen Cooper -
Hello Mark
WE ARE HERE TO BRINK FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE TO AN INDUSTRY THAT WILL HAVE A GLOBAL IMPACT.
Real Estate (PLEASE READ ON) can be viewed as a toxic word nowadays that is why we call our new environment Your Estate. However, in order to turn around this economic crisis a new environment must be created in the housing market.
This is the perfect time to create that new environment. Mark Cuban/AHFIS will accomplish what Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac failed to accomplish and we encourage other developers and entrepreneurs to do the same.
How? By providing a mortgage product that instantly contributes to the economy.
Housing prices have tanked, however, the glut of homes on the market allows AHFIS and other developers and entrepreneurs to utilize that inventory in a responsible way.
Purchasing homes at 40 to 50 cents on the dollar, allows us to accomplish the following:
1) Take REO/Foreclosed homes and carry the mortgage for a responsible Family, Individual, Senior.
Banks are moving REO’s at 40 to 50 cents on the dollar. (What good is that you ask?) Purchased intelligently, we find low price homes in area’s that are sustaining a good market value. For example, a bank REO will eventually pull down the value of the neighboring homes. We purchase those homes at 40 to 50 cents on the dollar, sell it to a responsible Family, or Individual at the market value (Market value could be the median home price or the comp value of neighboring homes). AHFIS carries the mortgage paper, creating a note for the property at Market value. AHFIS will give the buyer a 10% equity gift and give the buyer a low fixed interest rate over 30 years, however for the first 30 to 36 months all payments will go directly to the mortgage principle.
What you have just done is begun a home value stabilization process:
a) You have recorded a note on a recent sale for market value. (This creates a new Comp. in the community)
b) You have started off a new responsible home buyer with a 10% equity gift.
c) You are helping the home buyer to build additional equity by allowing 100% of the first 30 to 36 payments to go directly to the principle, thus building more equity.
All notes will be structure as above. These notes can be held or sold to the secondary market. By holding the notes we are building a responsible empire:
AHFIS will service and collect on all notes with monthly deposits going into our designated joint escrow account.
Monthly income is unlimited.
If we sell the notes, we are contributing to good paper in a bad market:
AHFIS will become known for producing and moving good paper. Companies that purchase notes will seek our notes.
Selling the notes will also allow us to turn our profit rather rapidly as we acquire more properties to feed into the AHFIS program.
The AHFIS program will become far more popular than Fannie Mae or Freddy Mac. Our housing inventory will be searchable on our site and applications can be taken online.
We will not be a fico driven product. There are many people out there who are very responsible, however, their fico scores do not reflect this. Despite a low to average fico score, these individuals are current on all bills and payments. The problem has been that their fico scores have prevented them from qualifying to purchase a home.
With AHFIS, these individuals will become home owners. We will introduce responsibility back into the economy.
The AHFIS program is generous, however, during these tough economic times, generosity is necessary to turn things around.
All facets of our operation are ready to go.
Please review our solution by clicking on our link.
We offer 50% of the net profits after seed capital is recouped by investor.
I.e:
$100,000 Market Value of Home
-$40,000 Purchase and Development Cost
-$10,000 Gift Equity to Buyer
-$2,000 Misc. Operational Cost
= $48,000 Profit Margin
Look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.
Comment by Allen Cooper -
Oh by the way say Hi to Matt for me “Arrogantdisaster”on twitter!
Comment by Denton -
By the way I have ha naked pizza…love the concept but my Spicy Italian Pretzel Pizza…kicks yur butt…and my Hotwing & Chorizo potato super burrito is heaven and as big as yur head!
Comment by Denton -
I only need 57000 to open will borrow the rest…you will have your money back before I get paid plus 35% for the next 2 years.
Comment by Denton -
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddh6cph3_4dw9s98g2
well have done some more work…had to change name to fine tune focus will be opening in Texas….this is Gamestop on steroids!!!!
Comment by Denton -
My business plan is called “The “Next big thing” is outside the United States of America and outside the Internet”
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dtsgfzs_0cg72b9cp&hl=en
Comment by Alejandro Guillú Mendoza -
Pingback: Physics and Ideation: When Does A Breakthrough Idea Become An Acceptable Idea? – Frog Blog
Given the documented unreliability of ignition interlock devices, the TransBioTec should include a means to prevent false positive interlock
readings which can lead to suspended licenses Users should be careful and document any unusual ignition interlock issues. In the event of a reported blood alcohol test failure, the user should immediately go to a police station or hospital for a comparison blood alcohol test.
Comment by Brian E. Simoneau -
Occasional reader and first time poster.
I particularly like all the people who flagrantly disregard the instructions and preferences of the man providing the capital.
paraphrasing, of course.
“I know you don’t like restaurants/real estate/illegal things but here’s why my concept is going to change your pre stated preferences.”
OR the more subtle “We need a tremendous amount of capital but this is the killer app of the century, OMG.”
And my personal favorites. “I want you to give me money to buy a business, despite the the fact that you could probably do the same thing and put in professional management with or without my help.”
On a related note, this is an excellent idea. This this project could keep a team of individuals busy, and is certainly a better way to go about investing than most VC firms do it. So, I take my hat off to you sir, for what it’s worth.
I’d wonder if you wouldn’t mind going a little more into what made you choose one startup/existing firm over another? Are you most focused on a compelling product? Are you looking for a firm that has a sustainable competitive advantage or perhaps strong barriers to entry?
It seems like you’re focused on businesses that have low fixed costs (hence low capital needs) but may not be able to leverage up margins because of the variability of most of the cost structure. What motivated that? What is your planned holding period (6 months or 10 years)?
I’m very interested in hearing what your personal investment criteria are, as opposed to the guidelines you’ve set out for the folks who are submitting plans for your approval.
Comment by JY -
Wonderful idea, Mark. I’m developing a plan right now. It’s two months late, but if I told you that my firstborn son was born in February, would that make it okay?
The world needs more innovators like you. I wish more people could see you as more than just a guy who owns an NBA team.
Comment by Andy Hynds -
Mark
I have a small subcontractor business in the fire alarm/security trade.Been in business for myself for 4 years.Also have 15 years in the electrical trade.I want to provide service and installs for commercial buildings in the dfw area.We have 4 employees and including myself have over 35 years experiance installing all differant types of alarm/security/electrical systems.What I want to do is provide service,inspections,installs for fire alarm,security,monitor,electrical,telephone,network, systems. Currenty have been doing around 16000.00 per month as a sub. I know i have the contacts and knowledge to make this work.We have all the proper insurance and licence in place.Just need some funding to take this thing to another level.Also looking into providing fire watch at arena and high buildings. Have TX fire license and electrical license.Just thought since you are doing this would run it by you.thank you for your time and consideration
steve
GO MAVS
Comment by stanner -
I realize that you are interested in stimulating some interest for some new businesses….would you consider helping fund food!? I know this may sound crazy but there are hungry folks in Burleson,Joshua, Alvarado, Lillian, and Keene. I know what you are thinking why should I care….well, as humans we have basic needs that need to be met. I work for Harvest House(yourharvesthouse.org) and we feed the hungry in our community. I am passionate about taking care of the people who walk in the door. This is the folks that do not qualify for aid, the ones that slip thru the cracks. We have been incredibly busy, we have had record numbers walking through our door in the last 6 months. We are barely able to keep up with the demand and our donations are waaaay down. We would use the money first to pay the operating costs-electric, water, trash, then fund our thrift store employee. It is the light at the end of the tunnel. If you could help fund the employee, it could help us generate revenue in the store that is sorely needed to buy chicken, beef, and basic canned fruit and vegetables, and most importantly peanut butter and jelly(it’s like gold around here). I invite you to come and visit the Harvest House, I would love to give you a tour. We have been around for 25 years and this economy has hit us hard. Several oil field workers have been laid off and are struggling to feed their families. Our building is a house that has been configured to our needs. Don’t be alarmed when you see that we have added on(several times). Some have commented, “Hey, where’s the cheese?” It’s a bit of a maze 🙂 Our future holds big aspirations of opening a free medical clinic for our community. We have been trying to team up with doctors that are willing to donate their time to the needy. Heck, it always amazes me that we send all of our money when there are appeals in other countries, but we have needs RIGHT HERE! We had a lady that came in and lost limbs to diabetes because she could not afford to go to the doctor! It’s so maddening. We helped her to get the proper food she needs and a decent wheelchair, but, man, I know there is more out there like her. What really breaks my heart is the kids that are not getting taken care of. I know I sacrifice everything to get my kids to the doctor, it is hard to imagine if I couldn’t do it or to come home to an empty pantry after a long day of work. I hope that you would consider 30,000. That would be 25,000 for salary and 5,000 for operating costs-basic bills and some food for the pantry.
Comment by Jill Acklen -
Pingback: Mark Cuban’s Open Source Venture Capital Plan | The Starnes
— Business —
This business is in motion and looking profitable. We have seven-figure investor capital (people are running from the market.) I don’t want to be cryptic, but also don’t want to put much info out there other than some targeted marketing. The entrepreneurial spirit resides in the joining of 2 interrelated disciplines to produce a single profitable model that will pay investors, produce 100s if not 1000s of jobs, and, of course, produce wealth. Please email for info if you are interested and I can give specifics. Your “sphere of influence” would be as valuable as your dollar to us. I would be honored to share website / corporate info at that time.
personal email: bscult@charter.net
— Idea —
Mobile Virtual PC – MVP (this is only an idea and need $$, inventing process expertise, and advice.) Make me your apprentice and lets build, together, the next generation of computing devices. Oh yes, there IS a next generation.
personal email: bscult@charter.net
G O M A V E R I C K S ! ! ! ! !
I’m convinced that this team is a conglomerate of superstars; move over Celts. 270 points in 2 games…seriously!? What is this, the Globetrotters?
Comment by Brian -
I, along with my business partner, own a drive -thru beer store near American Airlines Center. Our business concept , Ice Blue Beverages, revolves around our fast paced world. People are constantly in a hurry. We go through fast food drive -thru’s, banks, car washes. We even get our doctors prescription through a drive-thru.
Ice Blue Beverages is unique in that it is a drive-thru with girls serving as car-hops. The girls take the customers order and take it to them without the customer ever having to get out of the car. This makes it convenient especially on rainy or cold days.
We began with an initial investment of 20,000 and in one year ranked in a little over 400,000 in sales. We have re-invested in our company to make it better. We are now one of the top 20 stores in Dallas with the most beer sales. We are still building our name but slowly but surely with all of our business ideas we’ll set ourselves apart from other beer stores.
We want our business to grow and build others like it with the same concept. Build others like Ice Blue Beverages but bigger and better and eventually a one stop shop incorporating gasoline pumps, car washes, etc. to bring in more business.
Some of our ideas that we have incorporated already or are wanting to:
* Car washes done by Ice Blue Beverages Girls. Percentage of those sales goes to a charity of our choice.
*Ice Blue Girls: Marketing the girls/business through posters, calendars, and web cam access on myspace
*Myspace.com: Offer Bio’s of Ice Blue Girls, offer and online store of Ice Blue Beverages Products Example: T-Shirts, Key Chains, bottle-openers etc.
* Special Sport Events: Have the girls wear Dallas Maverick/ Cowboys outfits to promote each season. Or every time they have a home game.
We’re wanting to change how people feel about beer stores by providing a new, fun and convenient way to serve people. Even if this business idea is not in line with what you are looking for please e-mail me back with any thoughts or suggestions. You are more than welcomed to check out our myspace page at myspace.com/icebluebeverages.(currently under construction). If u have any questions pleases email me.
Comment by David -
Newspaper Distribution
Thumb drive with encrypted timed subscriptions codes for the news of choice. Purchased in any convenience,grocery,vending, point of purchase.
Bundle subscriptions to region and sports.
Comment by Dave Rapp -
id-Atlantic sales & service llc was established to secure a GSA contract at their home base in Goldsboro NC just down the road from Seymour Johnson AFB .As work progressed the need to facilitate a portal for government agencies and financial institutions to access the many services available through the internet was realized .Specializing in real and personal property management and disposition., the owner Lawrence William,a decorated minority war veteran, partnered with Rbids.com to offer a national listing service and online auction as a supplement to all entities with surplus and disposition needs. Imagine one site on the web to see all of the assets the government and banks have to offer . Live sites across the nation for asset management,storage, sale prep. and live/internet bidding will increase the bottom line for the seller
Rbids.com was conceived and set in motion by a group of individuals who are passionate about the sales and auction industry. All those involved in the creation of rbids.com, be it in sales, auctioneering, information technology, programming, and administration have decades of collective experience in the industry. We have consulted with the leaders in the industries listed above and would welcome your input as we have a fresh and exciting way to sell or buy real property, merchandise and most any thing in between .
Currently an agent/broker lists a property at what should be fair ma rket value and decreases the sales price until reaching the point of activity (i.e. an offer). Our site will provide a 2 week inspection period prior to the start of the auction, then the property will go to auction (or bidding) decreasing as set by the seller (e.g. $1000.00 an hour until sold or removed). With our model , the point of activity will come very fast, perhaps with in a couple of days, thus turning the money for everyone involved very quickly. The excitement is generated by the speed at which it all happens. Not knowing what is on the other bidders minds will create an atmosphere of urgency for the bidders highest and best offer. This was an example of a Dutch auction model. This method will help shore up values by creating a competitive experience thus revitalizing the ailing economy .
The Dutch auction method is by no means new, just not utilized in the general public. The Dutch auction method has been used for decades by the Dutch (hence its name), and by the big players in the derivatives market. Now you can buy and sell like the big boys at todays fair market value. In a Dutch auction the property will be opened up for a period to be inspected then will begin with an offer to sell. If the offer to sell is not accepted, the price will be lowered by an amount set by the seller in predetermined time intervals. For example: $1000.00 per hour every hour until a buyer accepts the sellers offer to sell. When a buyer accept the sellers offer the sale is over. No more long, drawn out bidding wars or waiting month after month for the price to come to you. Set in your offer and you will know quickly wether your in or out. This method gives the buyers and the seller a quick way to establish a fair market value today.
For the sellers it is a very quick and expedient way to establish a fair market value based on what the property will sell for in todays market and make a decision wether to hold on or liquidate now. For the buyer you will no longer have to keep up with the property for long periods of time because it will be under contract within a 3 week period of going to auction at a price that is attractive . The state of Indiana through the sale of surplus real estate has proven that the Dutch model brings a greater recovery over standard methods. Buyers and sellers should love this site because it will stimulate activity on even the most aged listing.
To satisfy a national contract Rbids and Mid-Atlantic associated with the National Real Estate Board (a non governing message board with a minimum annual fee) bringing auctioneers, real estate brokers/ agents and appraisers together under one umbrella to blanket the marketplace with sales people .
Rbids will house the database of professional listings and FSBO’s (for sale by owner) , leasing the listing service database to the NREB giving a true wide open forum for professionals and the public to do business at an affordable price point online .This will give us true cross section of the day to day market by having real time data from all segments of the marketplace.
A simple finance plan has been designed to go hand in hand with this auction system that will MAKE the taxpayer money.
We have been asked to present this program to the current administration – Scott Wells (deal designer) 919-223-4799
Comment by Scott -
Pingback: Mark Cuban, Naked Pizza, and Being Passionate and Persistent about Your Dreams
I have a curiousity question. I submitted my business plan exactly as you required carefully meeting all of your stipulations including an upload of the documentation. It did not appear in the comments. I waited. After a week I resubmitted. It still did not appear. I waited. After a week I querried and submitted a new updated version. Again it did not appear in the comments and you did not respond. It seems odd that you are not permitting the comments through so that at the very least other people can benefit from my very detailed business plan which I had been good enough to open source as per your request. I am puzzled. Can you please explain. My business fits in exactly with what you specified. Nothing illegal. Not advertising. Returns in 90 days. A product and all that good stuff.
Comment by Deja Vue -
Sorry for the confusion. I am new to blogging. I have posted my business plan at: Your document is publicly viewable at: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgmwxr5x_1cjqn4p6n for all to review. Should you have any questions or comments feel free to do so at your convenience.
Regards,
Mary
Comment by Mary Blake -
MyOnlineToolbox.com is a DELL TOP 10 INNOVATOR for the small mobile contractor in home repair and remodeling.
MyOnlineToolBox™ is an Internet-based platform promoting an online business-to-business–to-consumer (B-2-B-2-C) network in the repair and remodeling industry. From a product perspective, MyOnlineToolbox is an Internet solution where contractors log in to an online application to help organize the daily operations of their business. The application piece does what any business application should: maintain a contact database, schedule work, and create estimates and invoices. From a platform perspective, the collaborative piece connects the contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, homeowners and other professionals together.
There are 128 million existing homes in the U.S., a huge base of ready business for home-improvement professionals. The average age of the U.S. home is 32 years – prime remodeling age, and a time of needed repair or replacement. With the slowdown in the housing market, people are more likely to keep their existing home and maintain it rather than buy a new home. The target markets of our platform are the two million small mobile contractors servicing the sector, product manufacturers who want to sell to contractors and homeowners.
Our goal is to create a self-propagating platform attracting 70,000 paying customers in 5 years, along with hundreds of thousands of non-paying users supported by advertising generating over $30 million in sales.
New construction is predominantly grounded for the near future, especially when there is an abundance of available homes on the market. Drafts of the stimulus package include billions in funding for improvements to government buildings and many remodeling firms do this type of work. This leads to a perfect opportunity to capitalize on the recovery and rebound of the home repair and remodeling market.
The founders and a few sophisticated angel investors have invested $2 million and we have assembled a solid management team and founding board.
Please contact me if you are interested in joining our current investor team.
Comment by Brian Javeline -
Mark,
We’ve got a very good business plan and model. We can continue and be very successful without funding but have come across some compelling scenarios to either seek VC or a loan.
We are a network security focused software reseller. We are setting the application up to be as fully automated as possible. We have hosting solutions and business partnerships to bring our costs next to nothing. VERY high margins.
We also have an extremely powerful B2B marketing database that has some other competitive advantages. We are in the process of redesigning the site and building out the application on the back end. We will be ready to launch within 30-60 days. We will be profitable withing your required time frames.
If you would be interested in something like this please let me know and I’ll make our b-plan and slide show available.
Paul
Comment by Paul Huff -
Hi Mark,
My idea is for a trageted referral company that focuses on mental-health and addiction services. The main income source will be the paied subscription for interested providers. The entire industry is going through changes with the passage of laws requring coverage parity from the Health Insurance industry.
I do research at UCLA on addiction assessment and want to use our findings to provide the tools for assessing callers (or online visitors). Each individual will then be placed with a specific agency from our databse. The service is far superior to current mental health referral options, and the need increases as the economy suffers. Projected volume of calls in southern CA alone is over 20,000 per year, and I expect to charge $500-$1000 for inclusion in the databse with thousands of providers in the LA area alone.
Thanks for your consideration.
Adi
Comment by Adi Jaffe -
I thought I would share this with you as well http://www.mmogchart.com/charts/
These charts show the number of people who play a number of online games. With charts showing games with 0-120,000 players, 70,000 – 700,000, and 200,000+.
Thanks
Comment by BIll -
Despite the economy millions of people still play online games. I have an idea for an MMORPG that’s takes the user-friendliness of World of Warcraft and simply applies it to the futuristic genre.
The reason so many have flocked to World of Warcraft is how easy it is to play. That’s where it has many games beat! And I’m not talking about “stealing their interface” only making an interface that’s as user-friendly.
Point 1. Warcraft is losing players and not because people can’t afford it but because people are going to other games, so there’s a real opportunity to grab that gamership.
Point 2. I think the price that current major MMORPG’s charge for their subscriptions is severally overpriced. And you attract more bee’s with honey. I would consider cutting the standard $14.95/month price by 1/3rd or even 1/2.
Point 3. Another area that could make profit is selling items and even gold through an online market. I know many gamers who have jobs, real lives, and things of this nature and have discussed with me before that they simply don’t have time to earn the gold or items needed as quickly and as well as other gamers. So I would setup an online market place where maybe select items and game money could be purchased.
We could discuss this further but I’m not sure if I could promise you a return with interest in 90 days… it would take that long to make the product I think. But if you’re interested we could discuss this further, maybe extend the plan, and do 10-15% return.
Thanks
Comment by BIll -
Is this submission link still active?
Comment by Dr. Ted Gambordella -
Mr. Cuban
If you are still looking for ideas to fund. Here is one. I am the guy you see at the Lifetime Club, doing Karate and talking to you sometimes.
I think that this project will produce a profit within 60 days, or less. It is a project to do a series of DVD’s and Books to train people to be a MMA fighter. You already have all the necessary ingredients to make it very inexpensive to do. You can use your production facilities at HD net to film the DVD’s and you can use your HD Fights shows and HD Fights internet presence to promote and sell the DVD’s. So your expenses will be very small. I have a detailed spreadsheet if you want to look at it.
Do not take any of the Productions numbers below as facts, as you can write most of them off. All we need to pay is a little to the “talent” for the DVD sections, and many of them will do it for the back end money potential.
Would love to talk to you about it, not at the club, where I bother you, but to one of your people at an office.
Dr. Ted Gambordella
http://www.blackbeltinabox.com
The Ultimate Mixed Martial Training Program DVD’s
So you want to be a Mixed Martial Artist?
Think: Mixed Martial Arts is Hot and there is NO comprehensive Training Program that teaches all aspects of what it takes to be a Great MMA Fighter. Until Now.
Synopsis:
So you want to be an Ultimate Fighter? The MMA Training Program is the first and only MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) training program that teaches All training that is needed to be a Great MMA. . Each DVD we will feature interviews, highlights and training with the World’s Best MMA Fighters and Teachers. It will be the first time that the huge MMA audience can receive actual Training in MMA techniques, not just videos of fights, but actual fighting techniques from the World’s Best Trainers.
We will train young men and women who want to be an Ultimate Fighter and show them in training with the best Teachers in the World. They will learn ALL the techniques and training required to become a World Class Ultimate Fighter or Mixed Martial Artist Fighter.
There are millions of young men and women who watch MMA fights each week and who would like to learn some MMA techniques. And there are 1,000’s of martial arts schools teaching Some of the MMA techniques required to become a World Class Fighter, but most MMA teachers simply do NOT know all the techniques. This is the first time that full MMA training will be taught in a DVD Series. We also intend to feature the entire training program Online with full access to training and downloading of videos.
This will be the first time that Actual MMA Training will be done by World Class Teachers. Each show will feature several full training scenes where they competitors will learn to do actual techniques along with the audience. Chokes, Take Downs, Boxing, Throws, Kicks, Conditioning, Weight Training will all be taught. Everything one needs to become an Actual MMA Fighter will be taught on the show.
We will feature on site training from the World’s Best Trainers. Each DVD will showcase specific skills, techniques and training for individual aspects of becoming a Great Mixed Martial Artist. The audience won’t want to miss a minute of the exciting training and interesting interviews and demonstrations.
12 Set DVD Program Includes:
1. Wrestling Takedowns: Featuring Olympic Wrestling Gold Medal Champion, Kenny Monday. Mr. Monday will show us some effective Take Downs. How to set them up, make them work , and practice alone and with a partner.
2. Kick Boxing: Featuring former the only World Kick Boxing and World Boxing Champion, Troy Dorsey.
3. Muah Thai and Tae Boxing: Featuring World Champion Muah Thai Boxing Teacher. Saekson Janjira • 6 Time Undefeated World Champion
4. Weight Training: Featuring 8 times Mr. Olympia, Ronnie Coleman. Ronnie will show us how to lift weights and get the body ready for competition.
5. Boxing Training: Featuring the trainer of World and Olympic Champion Box trainer. Dan Campbell
6. Judo Throws and take downs: Featuring Piotr Chelstowski
Yo-Dan – 4th Degree Judo and San-Dan – 3rd Degree Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt is a professional European martial arts trainer, who graduated from the Polish Academy of Sport and Physical Education and holds a Masters Degree, with a Judo Specialization. As a competitor and a Martial Arts instructor he has studied several hand-to-hand combat systems including judo, jiu-jitsu, sambo, kick-boxing and aiki-jitsu.
7. No Gi Jiu Jitsu: Featuring World Champion Carlos Machado. Carlos will show us how to do finishing moves and how to protect yourself on your back.
8. Conditioning: Featuring World Famous Trainer Larry North. Larry will show us how he conditions the body to be able to go 3 rounds at super high intensity.
9. Mental Conditioning: Featuring Grandmaster Ted Gambordella. Author of 38 books and 24 DVD’s.
10. Nutrition: Featuring World Famous Nutritionist, Terry Ashford. Terry will tell us what to eat to get the maximum training benefits and to stay fit for the fights.
11. Clothing: Featuring Art of War clothing and equipment, for male and female.
12. Kicking and MMA techniques: Featuring former World Kick Boxing Champion and UFC Champion. Guy Mezger.
12 Set DVD. Cost $120 to $240. Or $20 individually.
Production Costs:
Talent: $6,000 to $12,000. $500 to $1,000 per teacher for filming. Plus 10% of 10% of profits from sales. Plus 50% discount for personal use or resale.
Filming and Editing: $6,000 to $12,000. $500 to $1,000 a DVD. We plan of shooting each teacher 4 to 8 hours and getting 1 to 4 hours of usable video.
Production Costs: $2,500 artwork, packaging, literature
Executive Producer: $5,000. Grandmaster Ted Gambordella. Plus 25% gross profits from all sales. Ted will produce all the shows, write scripts, do editing and posting and arrange production of final products.
HDN Organization: 65% of all Net Profits. To be shared as they see fit with investors.
Profit Potentials: Wal-Mart, Best Buy 10,000 units in 6 months. 50,000 in 2 years. $12,000,000 Net
Online: 1,000 monthly subscriptions in 6 months. 10,000 active in 1 year at $25 a month. Or $120 downloaded. $2,400,000 net.
International: 10,000 units in 1 year. $2,400,000
Comment by Dr. Ted Gambordella -
Mark,
I posted an idea of mine on a previous thread but thought I would re-post again. I am working on opening up a dance studio within my area. Currently, if I were to take my child to her dance studio, I would have to drive about 20 minutes away since the only other form of recreation within our area is the local YMCA. Being that I have over 20 years of dance experience both in teaching and professional competition, I believe that now is the time to take advantage of the lower suite rental prices and open up my own studio. My area is a growing community within the Orlando, FL vicinity with multiple hospitals and medical plaza’s being built (yes even within today’s economy). I have a Master’s in Management and 150% confident that I will be successful within my studio. The only thing that I am lacking is the financial backing to start this business. While I am trying to obtain funds through the SBA loan process, I would love to not have a “loan” on my credit. I have a strong business plan for your review and can provide some demographical background of my area. Please let me know what you feel is best.
I appreciate your time,
Shannon Smiley
Comment by Shannon Smiley -
Mark,
This is a proposal to fund a HOUSEBOAT MANUFACTURING COMPANY for trailerable sized boats no larger than 8’6″ wide by 40’0″ long, and although this would be considered a start-up, the reasearch and development has been ongoing for several years. I already have the complete construction documents (eleven final pages and 118 voided or revised pages) along with vendor sourcing and pricing. I have begun to establish the needed relationships with these vendors, they have had input into the design process, and all assure me that my small initial orders will get the best OEM price.
I have been to the major houseboat conventions to learn marketing and distribution. I have also studied the competitions’ sales, distribution, and construction techniques as well as their production numbers. I believe that not only can I compete with them, I can “blow them out of the water”.
There are two reasons that my product would have a distinct advantage in the market. First, the boats of the competition look like a shoebox with pontoons. This is somewhat the nature of the product, but my designs have a much more graceful appeal. Second, and more technical, are the on-board systems. Without getting too detailed, all of the systems of a self contained houseboat are basically the same as a travel trailer. The systems are fresh water, waste water, electrical, and propane. The only difference is in the waste water system. A travel trailer uses gravity feed to discharge, and a boat, because it cannot discharge through the hull, must be pumped out. A travel trailer can be discharged at any recreational vehicle dump station but the pump for the boat is typically found only at marinas. If the boat could be discharged by gravity feed, then the boat can be used as a travel trailer when it is on its’ trailer. I have designed, built, and tested a system that can use either method for discharge.
This is an important feature because it opens new markets. Now the potential travel trailer purchaser may wish to spend a few dollars more and get a travel trailer and a houseboat all in one. It also opens markets for dealerships as well. In addittion to conventional boat dealerships, motor home and travel trailer dealerships can now sell a travel trailer with pontoons. I have talked to some large dealerships and they believe that this is a very sellable concept. I do not know if the offer would still stand, but one was willing to give me a purchase order once they had inspected a prototype.
I have all of the paperwork in order for the proper Texas state licencing, Coast Guard hull certification, and other requirements needed for the manufacture, and wholesale and retail sales of boats.
This is the business plan to meet your guidelines. The first boat is going to cost $30,000 in material and maybe as much as another $10,000 in overhead such as licensing. I have a place to build the first ones, the tools to do it, and can build the first ones myself. I do not expect a paycheck for the first ones and as these things are not in the overhead, most of the $40,000 investment is in the boat of $55,000 retail. However, the first boat is going to have to be used for testing and a prototype and cannot be sold at retail, $40,000 is more like it. Sell it on Ebay, raffle it off at a Mavericks game, or run it through the auction, and turn the money in order to meet the 60 day deadline.
Use the prototype to generate purchase orders and the second boat meets the 90 day deadline. I have some past experience with financial institutions that “floorplan” dealerships and they are willing to do this for houseboats. After about three boats, the deal supports itself. Ultimately I see a factory of six to eight employees building 50 to 100 boats a year. Including cost of material and overhead, a $35,000 boat should retail for $55,000 and wholesale for $45,000. I have all of the research to document the above numbers.
As a side note, when it is time to move into a warehouse and hire employees, there are some reasonably priced and adequate locations in the Deep Ellum district of Dallas. I would love to have the address of a shipworks company on MAIN STREET, DALLAS TEXAS.
I have experience in all of the manufacturing techniques required as well as experience in running this type of fabrication shop. I am familiar with all aspects of this including logistics, sales, marketing, reaserch and development, and managing eight employees. I am also knowledgeable on this type of material construction where maintaining close tolerances is a necessity in order to provide the fit and finish that is not just required to be a competitive product, but will also be required in order for me to put my name on it.
I anticipate the biggest question to this proposal would be the sensibility of starting a company selling a luxury item like a houseboat in the current economic market. I would suggest that a better question might be whether a company like this could be profitable enough in the short term and then position itself to be very successful when things turn around in the long term. That I think I can do.
And now to meet the final guideline of specifying your return on investment. As you can see, I have done a little homework and feel pretty knowledgeable about everything to this point, but beyond this I don’t have a clue. Certianly I am willing to go by the Golden Rule here that states that the man with the gold makes the rules. I am willing to give to you your fair share of profits but I do not think money is the motivation here. What else can I do? Can I build you a houseboat? I would like to give you a National Championship. Maybe I can give you something that is a distant second. If I make a little money with this, I am going to go back and try a few more Nascar races as a team owner. With a little luck, you might be able to say that you were directly responsible for a victory in Nascar.
So here it is. I think that I have followed your instructions and met your requirements. Imagine that! What a concept! I look foward to your reply.
Charley
Comment by Charley -
I have read with great interest your ‘Stimulus Plan’. It is more than just a little encouraging to see an entrepreneur take this direct approach.
I would like to add to your list of possible investment opportunities.
By the size and scope of the project I represent, it does fall above the parameters of what you had requested on this blog. However, the reason I have decided to inquire here is that the industry in question is one I believe you are well entrenched in (the entertainment industry), and I also believe it would compliment your interest exceptionally well.
And yes, I do think it is a well thought out and profitable project, as well.
With your permission, I would be happy to supply the details (including a fully developed Business Plan). As mentioned above, since the scope of the plan is well above the maximum level you posted, and since I do not have a direct entre’ to you, I wanted to start here as opposed to other means.
If there would be an interest to know more, than perhaps you could direct me on how you would want details directed to you.
I look forward to offering you the information at your request.
Sincerely,
Thomas Lengner
Comment by Thomas Lengner -
Are you still accepting applications for stimulus funding and if so which post on your blog should I post to with my business plan? Thank you – Jeremy.
Comment by Jeremy M. -
Pingback: My three-fisted economic recovery package. | Mike Ryan, ITV, code and writings.
Mark,
I share your belief that it isn’t the politicians, or bankers, or even industry leaders that will stimulate our troubled economy. The aforementioned bunch created this mess. It is only individual human minds that will create the stimulus – with imagination and honest ambition.
As an angel investor I appreciate the sharing of ideas and strategies. Your “open source” criteria is an interesting spin. Based on the response to date, there are many people still focused on “creation.” I live in the world of creation – new ideas, news inventions and innovative thinking. I believe creations are solutions and we need them more than ever. America is not doing its best – we can do much better, we’ve just lost focus.
During the last few decades the focus on innovation has shifted to Wall Street, economic development schemes and entitlements-for-all. Even the State of Texas puts most of it’s economic development funds into existing companies, often times competing with other States for a Company’s loyalty. Beating California with millions in job-retention funds for an existing business is a zero-sum game. It’s not innovative or productive. At the same time inventors beg for attention and funding.
it is discouraging that we don’t see enough interest in those rare people who embrace a problem and work tirelessly to create a solution. Their pursuit of freedom and independence IS the American Dream. As a Nation we should seek, support and celebrate these mavericks. Their new ideas should inspire us to do better – each of us and all of us.
I’m also afraid we’ve become a bit fat and lazy. We tolerate mediocrity in many areas of our lives, including business/industry. We settle for less than optimal results – we simply settle or survive. But, each of us knows we can do better. We didn’t get here by surviving and we won’t escape our current troubles “settling.”
This is a time for big thinking and bold actions – the kind of thinking that created America. I’d suggest we need a renewed respect for the crazy entrepreneurs that believe in exceeding expectations and have a willingness to take on big problems. Like many, I am at a loss in trying to find today’s version of Thomas Edison or Henry Ford. We must encourage young minds to imagine a better future and then pursue it. Knowledge and experience have there place, but imagination is what has always lead to the biggest discoveries.
Five years ago I began investing in a group of young men from Texas that chose to fix the last industry in America that hasn’t innovated – construction. The construction industry hasn’t changed in 100 years, in fact worker productivity has actually declined, while every other industry has seen significant progress. (REF: http://www.BrokenBuildings.com)
Everyone knows, but nobody does anything about it. These “kids” did. They created a new delivery system for the design, construction, marketing, financing and management of new buildings. It’s called SynergySystems and it’s a huge paradigm shift for the delivery of buildings. Recently, they confirmed 30-50% savings in both cost and time (schedule) for their innovations. All of this with no reduction in quality or impairment of design. Any building gracing the Dallas skyline could be created with this system – for half the cost and in half the time. It will be disruptive. It’s a game-changer.
Like you, I have spent a lot of time in the technology arena. We all hope for “disruptive.” We know its value and it’s exciting to participate. The construction industry has never embraced innovation because they could see the incentive – these young thinkers did. If they succeeded in changing an industry, the reward would be unlimited.
SynergySystems will launch soon. We are focused on schools, high-rise living and senior housing. Because of the savings we can offer the same product at prices 30-40% less than traditional methods, while generating more profit than existing methods. It will be disruptive and an entire industry will be challenged to rethink their century old methods – the same way the automotive industry was transformed by Henry Ford 100 years ago.
So, I wanted to applaud your efforts and share this story with you. I think the future is bright if seen through the eyes of young, ambitious minds. While I spent more than $3.5 million on this effort, each of these young creators received only $1,000 per month, plus room and board. They had to remain focused on “winning,” instead of earning (surviving). They figured out they’d reap significant rewards if they could transform an industry – I think they will.
For all of the respondents to your Stimulus Plan, please keep thinking, keep creating and keep trying- our collective future depends on it. America needs winners – willing to learn, solve, create and fight to win.
Andrew W. HonestAmbition@gmail.com
Comment by Andrew W. -
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddh6cph3_4dw9s98g2
my updated proposal & docs…maybe I’ll even get a comment
Comment by Denton -
I’m reposting here in case Gloria P. is watching this thread instead of the older one…
“Gloria P” had the idea of having Disney and other characters “call” children to persuade them to do their chores, eat their food, etc… You said the characters would have to be licensed but I’m not certain this is the case. Certainly the visible likeness of a character is copyrightable, but I don’t think a mere voice claiming to be Cinderella is. On another front, trademarks protect names, but only when associated with specific classes of goods and services. That is why, for example, there is a “Cinderella Shoe Company” that can exist with no permission or license from Disney. Disney doesn’t make shoes and doesn’t hold a trademark on the name for that class of goods. I might be wrong but I’d have an attorney look at this idea before concluding too quickly that a licensing deal would be necessary.
I am a software developer for a Fortune-500 and my background is in inbound and outbound telephony applications. What Gloria P has proposed is VERY doable in a short timeframe. Could you please pass my e-mail address along to her? I would be very interested in helping her with the technical aspects of this project in return for an equity stake. I even have several thousands of dollars worth of outbound dialing equipment gathering dust in my office closet – it could be put to work on a project like this. Gosh, talk about an idea. This thing could just sit in a computer rack and generate cash.
Comment by Matt R. -
Hi Mark,
My nephew and I have a business. For the last four years, we set up production, manufacturing, warehousing, web-sites, etc…Our first big customer was Sears Craftsman (Models 79538,79539,79540) and Ingersol Rand which we started selling in Oct.2008. Unfortunately, in Jan. the economy tanked and sales slowed down.
What the product is, is a way to organize air tools. No one has ever thought of organizing their air tools before (that’s part of the problem). We developed a series of Adapters. One of these adapters is the Roll-away Pegboard Adapter. This attaches to your existing Roll-Away Tool Chest. Over 40 million roll-away tool chests have been sold by just Sears alone over the past 40 years. NO ONE EVER THROWS AWAY A ROLL-AWAY. The potential sales to those existing 40 million roll-aways is huge. This pegboard also allows you to add a 50′ retractable air and 40′ retractable extension cord all at the same time. A portable work station if you will.
The other major component is the Universal Air Tool Organizer which can be seen via the link below. It stores 8 air tools.
Part of the problem is; if nothing like it exists, it’s not in the mindset of the people that use air tools, therefore they don’t know or think about it and the benefits it derives.
What we are looking for is marketing money to go out there and educate people that there is a better way to store your air tools.
Info-mercial, trade magazines, etc…
We already have inventory. I checked with Billy May and he wants 30 grand for an info-mercial, ouch. We can’t afford that. The farmers of America could really benefit from this Air Shop Solution System because they all use air tools to repair their equipment.
Your profits will be derived from a percentage sales.
Product can be seen at
http://www.gmflabs.com or http://www.airtoolorganizer.com
Hope to hear from you.
Gary
Comment by energylottery -
Our product is about to be released within the next 60-90 days.
We need additional capital for marketing/sales and general expenses. We cater to IT shops and are a tool based SaaS solution.
There are other competitors, but none in the SaaS space. This gives us a HUGE advantage from a number of different angles. The current owner is currently working at a very profitable SaaS provider located within the Dallas area. Our arrangement with Mr. Cuban would be flexible.
Comment by SaaSman -
Mr. Cuban, I admire your plan to help others go into a profitable business. I could come up with several “get rich quick” ideas and maybe they would be considered. What I would really like you to consider is a long term business of urban farming and marketing in Dallas. This nation needs serious help returning to producing our own food. I moved to TX from Iowa in ’81 because the bottom fell out of the farming industry. Right out of high school I could not find work there because of the number of farmers who had to get regular jobs. Farmers had to start selling shoes and working at the gas station. The ONLY people at the time who wanted to help the farming industry were Willie Nelson and John Melancamp. They tried but politicians only listened to the music, not the message. With the fallout of the farming industry came the trickle down of many other previously profitable businesses. Now farming and farming supplies are mostly funded by foreign countries. We are feeding our children horrible factory grow foods laced with chemicals and hormones. We are importing our food from far away. Our foreign dependence on food is ridiculous and a serious loss of capital in this country.
Why not start a movement in Dallas to be the first urban farming and market friendly city in The US. I promise you it will not be profitable in 60 days, but it could win you the Nobel Prize (: Mostly what it would do is invest in the future of this country from the ground from which it grows. Down the line it could revolutionize the way we grow, distribute and sell food for ourselves in this country and make an incredible profit.
Please consider this project and contact me if you are interested in investing in the future of America.
Thank you.
Comment by wendy -
Hi Mark.
http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=d45zbpf_116md49mvgz
Using $150,000 of our own money, friends and family we opened up our membership based salon/spa almost 3 years ago (3/27/09 is our birthday!).
The first month we tested selling memberships to our salon/spa we had 40 new subscriptions. We paused it immediately.
I decided to invest ahead of our growth curve and invest the money into our infrastructure, accounting and point of sale to handle our goals of having 1000 members at our store. I needed to make sure we could provide quality service without having a breakdown in our payment systems, staffing, etc…
We don’t need extra capital, but heck, you’re offering so why not? =] haha. j/k. We would consider allowing you to invest with us to scale, hire additional staffing and aggressively advertise for membership sales.
We can achieve break even within 60 days because we are in the beauty industry. Despite the bad economy, Women and Men spend a ton of cash on waxing, manicures & pedicures, and short clean haircuts.
We’ve been quietly testing and refining our systems and we are ready to take it to the next level. Our internal focus will be a source of sustainable competitive advantage.
You took over the Dallas Mavericks and said it was stupid not to invest in your players. Well, we all know the benefits of feeling good and getting pampered and the direct effects it has on corporate culture.
This is why our concept is capturing everyones imagination. It’s simple to understand, profitable and relatively recession proof.
So here, is our investment opportunity for you…We hope it will be a good fit for both of us =]
go here:
http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=d45zbpf_116md49mvgz
Good luck!
-Robert Luu
robluu@mac.com
PS “Biters will be eaten” -jabbawockeez
Comment by Robert L -
Mark – would love to help P5 develop their brand identity and packaging – we are ADDY award-winning experts at it, and are DFW-local to boot! Would it be too bold to ask for P5’s contact info?
Regards,
-eddy-
Comment by eddy -
Mark,
Here’s mine:
The idea behind my business is to provide an asset cataloging and documentation service. Its a very simple concept.
I have a background in risk management and security, and a common issue that arises whenever an insurance claim or police report must be filed after a fire or theft is the inability of the owner to accurately detail their possessions and/or prove ownership. My business idea is to remedy this issue by providing the service of inventorying and documenting the assets of an individual or business and then securely storing the information. This solves the primary obstacle that is faced when attempting to recover stolen property or claim insurance: proof of ownership.
The process is actually rather simple. Individuals or businesses that request our service will have their assets photographed (and/or videotaped), cataloged with a detailed description including any serial numbers, identifying features, estimated value, proof of purchase, etc (Obviously the more detail, the better). This information is then stored, redundantly of course, and retrieved at the request of the owner. Revenue is based upon a one time fee. Rates may vary depending upon the scope of the project.
The strength of this business idea is the possibility of a very diverse client base. The possibilities are truly limitless. For individuals, it may be a coin collection, jewelry, antiques, electronics, and so on. For businesses, any piece of machinery, vehicles, equipment, product inventory, etc. Also, partnerships with insurance companies to provide this service are another possible source of revenue.
If this sounds like something you would be interested in, let me know.
thanks,
Seth
Comment by Seth -
Hi Mark,
Great concept and I have enjoyed reading comments and ideas from some great people. This is, however, a side note because I actually work at a small investment firm. We have an offering that is investing in companies that will get the contracts from infrastructure spending. The companies pay us back and we pass on to the investors. Not quite what your “plan” is all about but I welcome feedback from you or anyone else!
Warm Regards,
Al
Comment by Al Vickery -
My two cents…
Purchase Screenvision (www.screenvision.com) and Cinedigm (www.cinedigm.com), merge the two and create the jugernaut of the Cinema equipment/Advertising/Alternative Content industry.
If you would like someone to help put it together and run it for you, call me. Otherwise, I think it’s a good investment play nonetheless.
Best regards,
Bob
Comment by Bob -
I liked the drive-in theaters. We need more of those.
Comment by Chris Nystrom -
Mark,
I currently work for a private wealth management firm in New York and am exposed to the tumultuous activity of the market every day. Given the uncertainty and lack of real valuation in the last 15 months, particularly within the equities markets, I find it odd that investors fail to discern the benefits of the sports gambling industry, a perfectly fair market with much better (and less misleading) information available than the stock market can provide.
My brother owns his own sports handicapping service and has yielded exceptional returns ITD in his 8 year tenure. My goal is to consolidate his expertise in the industry along with my professional experience in the hedge fund/PWM industry to create Balfeview Capital. Balfeview Capital will create a customized asset allocation plan for each investor based on their risk aversion and liquidity preferences. Many investors in the equities markets have minimal knowledge within this industry. With the proper education, they will be able to see the correlation between the securities industry and the sports gambling industry. We will incorporate straight wagers, futures, parlays (which have recently been legalized in the state of Delaware), moneylines hedged with wagers on the opposite side with spreads and capitalize on areas of arbitrage between different sports books. Futures wagers will be hedged with straight bets. The selling point for potential clients is to show them the proof of my brother’s track record, which outperformed the DOW approximately 65% in 2008. There is a misconception in the marketplace that engaging in the sports gambling industry is too risky and conflicts with the concept of simple and safe long-term wealth preservation. With an MBA in Finance and years of exposure to the best practices in maximizing wealth for clients, my customized allocation model for each investor will prove to yield positive results and negate many of the risks associated with the average gambler. In any multi-billion dollar industry, profitable opportunities always exist. As investors become decreasingly confident in today’s market environment, my job is to introduce them to a much more sound and structured market, where “good news” isnt considered being informed that you only lost 30% of your wealth instead of the 35% of your benchmarks.
Initially, our client base starts with the the existing clients that have been with my brother since inception. Collectively, they will comprise a general pool and will each become LP’s. The next set of clients will be professionals within my network in the hedge fund, private equity and real assets industries.
Revenue will be generated via management and performance fees. If Balfeview Capital was operating in 2008 and we used the Dow as our benchmark, for example, profits would have been astronomical. Investors will receive weekly reports, complete with performance metrics, capital account statements as well as a brief market update.
We have already designated $50k to fund Balfeview. The capital required to become operational would be for an office in New York, Philadelphia or Las Vegas (rent/lease/buy) which you would have 100% ownership as well as $40K to budget for administrative, travel and entertainment expenses for purposes of onboarding prospective clients. Your ROI will be 40% of all profits and if we fail to be profitable after 90 days, we will refund your investment with interest. These terms can obviously be modified at your discretion.
I definitely appreciate your time. Please contact me for additional details as I have a complete business model available.
P.S. We would obviously exclude any wagers pertaining to the Dallas Mavericks.
Comment by Ryan -
Have not officially launched and will not until next week. Check it out. Bavooka.com …. thoughts?ideas?investment?
Comment by matt meredith -
Pingback: Open source funding now available for the American dream
Stuffed chicken wings!? I’m sold already! Any business that can keep cost down in this economy will have the biggest advantage. Whethering the downturn from consumers opening up their wallets is an attractive feature. Not sure if food is it though. Isn’t he margin on food slim anyway?
Comment by Charlotte SEO -
Hi, i’m brazilian and i have a good idea to developer a great SaaS (Software as a Service).
I think about create one website, “twiculum.com”. This website will index all posts in Twitter with the hashtag #twiculum. Example:
@edergobbi #twiculum #php #mysql #linux #etc #etc #etc.
This is my professional curriculum with no more then 140 chars, like Twitter. But see:
If you search for a programmer in php with mysql etc, you find it in our website. Something you need is filter. Then, when you find me (@edergobbi), you can now see all my microposts about #php and #mysql it i post in all time. My “micro-curriculum” (Twiculum) now is a very large curriculum.
This service can be integrate with databases of twitter by APIs. The Twitter.com recomend us to use this service, and we can fly with the twitter bird.
Note: Twitter is now in negociation to sell your services to Google, and it can be real in 3 weeks. Next, our database can be the Google database.
We can too integrate our service with another services, like Openjobs, Linkedin, etc..
Sorry for my english.
I search for developers and for a little investment. This software will be totally free and opensource, and we will help the world for the best world.
Thanks for this place.
Comment by Eder -
Hi Mark, a novel way to help America and the World go Green with jobs.
National Emergency Energy Farming Lottery
To the American Citizens,
NATIONAL LOTTERY HISTORY as quoted by Scientific Games Lottery-Museum
http://www.scigames.com/sections/lottery-museum/
“For almost 400 years the lottery has played a significant role in American history. From 1612 to 1621, it provided the colonists at Jamestown about 8,000 pounds a year that helped them pay passage for many of the new settlers. In 1776, a lottery authorized by the Continental Congress brought in revenue that helped offset the high cost of the Revolutionary War.
Lotteries held during the decade following the war allowed Congress to repay foreign and domestic loans made to the United States in the interest of the Revolution. Before, during, and after the war, state legislatures authorized lotteries that paid for the construction of buildings at Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, and many other prestigious universities. In the 1790s lotteries subsidized state and private buildings in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York.
For the next century lotteries built roads, bridges, railroads, and schools, as well as helping the poor, elderly, and destitute. Although lotteries were banned in the first half of the twentieth century because of isolated cases of fraud and abuse, community leaders and citizens never lost sight of the potential benefits of the lottery. In 1964, the lottery, protected by stringent legislation, re-emerged and once again this recreational “voluntary tax” provides revenues for public education, senior citizens, transportation, roads, and parks.”
As you can see by our history, our proposal below isn’t so much new as just rejuvenating a system that has worked for us in the past. Let’s do it again!
VISION FOR NATIONWIDE EMERGENCY ENERGY FARMING LOTTERY
GOAL:
To take 100 million structures off the grid (meaning reduced consumption-not batteries) in ten years and at same time have those same structures start producing back into the grid. A net difference of two. There are approximately 100-110 million homes. At 50 Million homes producing same amount or close to back into the grid would balance the other 50 Million homes thus taking us to a “Neutral” carbon footprint.
THE PLAN
It is a simple plan. Have a 24/7 $1 dollar national lottery ticket that would be run in all 50 states. The winners would be issued a $25,000 voucher which could be used for any energy generating product or “GREEN” appliances. Give it away. To a relative, friend or business. It doesn’t matter as long it goes “GREEN”. Would be fully transferable to any person or entity should the winner already have such items as: Solar, Wind, etc….
The Fed’s could help by some form of matching funds or tax credits.
Now, if $1 Billion tickets sold per week, (52.1 billion lottery tickets sold nationwide in 2008) it will generate 40,000 winners per week or 3.968 winners every minute. Every single week of the year, another 40,000 people would be “eliminating grid consumption”. 20.8 Million
Structures in 10 years effectively pumping electricity back into the grid, effectively dropping our carbon footprint at twice the speed to a neutral position. If we could get matching Federal Funds, we could double that number. Think of that! That’s 41.6 Million Structures. How many “GREEN” jobs would that create? Millions & Millions in all sectors of GREEN technologies.
The collection of monies will be fully 21st technology. After signing up On-Line; Phones, cell-phones, blackberries, TV sets, email would be but several ways of being notified upon winning. No store terminals will be required.
The day-to-day operations of the lottery would be run by a non-profit organization. For every $25,000 voucher, $10 would go for running operations and increase expansion of this non-profit organization. Therefore, the voucher would be $24,990. The organization purpose would be to help people with Disabilities, Veterans, Homeless, etc…get back on their feet.
ADDENDUM: (2-20-09)
In giving the above paragraph some thought. Here is what I’m envisioning. It is only a concept.
Tickets would be bought via a dedicated web-site. Purchasers would have the option of having their bank accounts debited on an individual basis. $1, $5, $10, $25, $50, $100 max. per month. The money debited against your account turns into Lottery Voucher Credits. They would have the option of a “window” so if they wanted to play at 5:00 pm every day, week, month, etc…they would have the option provided that window is available. Remember, a drawing is approx. every minute for 3.96 winners.
Every time $25,000 is collected, a random drawing from 00001-24990 would issue the winning number.
Thus, this lottery would be a 24/7 operation. Every 3.96 minutes another winning number would be issued. Since each drawing is only 24,990 players, we would need a method of notifying players that they are in the next drawing of 24,990 players and their number is 00001-24990 to prevent confusion as to what game they are entered in, based upon when debit from account occurs, kinda like Keno.
Upon winning, a message would go out to every player announcing the winning number for that drawing. Email, Iphones, cell-phones, text messaging, TV, website, blackberries, Ipods, etc…would be involved based upon players sign-up on the website. Should they win, a message would come up “YOU ARE A WINNER” $24,990 has been deposited to your account.
We would have an “APPROVED VENDOR LIST” on the website. Winners would then go to web-site and buy Solar Panels, Wind Turbines, Energy GREEN appliances, Hybrids, Solar Fans, etc…The company that they buy from would debit this account and ship product to the winners.
Since it’s fully transferable, this web-site account will have a method of transferring balance to another person, entity, corporation, etc…of their choosing provided they have an account on this web-site.
Since most people have a morbid curiosity of “how close” they came to winning, it would be fun to post the results as to how close they came. For example, I receive an email that says “your are number 12,345 the winner number was 12,347. You missed by two numbers. Please try again.
As the lottery evolves, additional methods of play could be added. Imagine Senior Citizens around the nation playing a Wii Bowling game together and at same time helping the nation go 100% GREEN. You could have Senior Wii Bowling leagues at Senior Centers around the nation. Great for social interaction, morale, excerise. At end of game press button and the 13 frames (perfect game) spells out the word YOU ARE A WINNER. They are having fun, getting exercise and helping their kids and grandkids by winning (Don’t forget it’s fully transferable) and helping the Nation all at the same time.
POTENTIAL ADDITIONAL OPTIONS FOR ENERGY TICKET SALES:
Industrial Complexes, Mobile Home Parks, Apartment Complexes, etc…would require much more monies than a $25,000 voucher. Would probably need $100,000 to a million. Have the potential for a checkmark for where people could check off where they want to participate meaning if I check off Industrial Complex, the monies collected for that check-off would get substantial more monies ($250,000 max) for installation. Buy in would be $100 dollar minimum. Remember, these are vouchers and only good for buying renewable energy
A TYPICAL SCENARIO IF I WON A $25,000 LOTTERY VOUCHER:
I would install Solar in my home which costs around $16,000. The balance of $9,000, I would buy “energy GREEN” appliances. A new Refrigerator, Washing Machine, Dryer, Freezer, Heating systems, etc…creating additional energy savings. The extra energy now generated would go directly back into the “Grid” creating additional credits to my account along with generating electricity nationwide back into the grid. The savings of approx. $3000-$6000/yr that I had been paying for monthly energy bills, I would probably buy a Hybrid because I could use my credits for charging my Hybrid. Now my home and vehicle/s would take us to a “0” carbon footprint for our home. As a side benefit of this proposal for Americans is with increased energy output nationwide, it should drive down cost per Kilowatt thus helping the Nation as a whole.
BENEFITS: (Why I would buy a lottery ticket)
1. Increases home values
2. Excess power creates “credits”. Approx. $0.09 cents per KWH ($avings) to homes
3. Increases disposable income by having minimum or no energy bills.
4. Starts to reduces carbon footprint immediately
5. No new power grid requirements
6. Get to buy new Energy GREEN appliances, bulbs, etc…
7. Use Balance for Hybrid purchase to create a “0” carbon footprint.
8. Spreads installation jobs evenly nationwide; installers, mfg’ers, sales
9. Increases energy GREEN jobs for American workers
10. Increases re-cycling of old “non-GREEN” appliances
11. Even distribution reduces risk of terrorist attach against our grid
12. Resistant to energy disruptions due to national disasters ie; Hurricane IKE
THE ODDS: (25,000 to 1) At 25,001 another lottery drawing is done, etc…
A billion per week is 40,000 winners, 3.96 winners every minute. Side Note: Approx. $1.04 Billion of yearly disposable income could be realized by elimination of monthly energy costs.
Winners Minute Winners Hour Winners Day Winners Week Winners Year
3.968 238.08 5,713.92 39,997.44 2,079,867
$99,200 $5,952,000 $142,848,000 $999,936,000 $51,996,672,000
ROAD POWER (Our Vision Part II)
As a small time inventor, my nephew and I have come up with a way to generate electricity along side the roads of American. Every single road of American could start producing electricity to our grid structure. We are so confident in our approach; we have just recently applied for a Renewable Energy Grant to take this prototype to the Manufacturability level. These devices would be sunken alongside the road and connected to the grid. Wherever there is traffic, there will be electricity being produced. The jobs created for Local, State, & Federal highway installation, maintenance & service would be substantial.
Addendum 3-06-09: SELLING ELECTRICITY (A goal to strive for) (Part III)
With the Automotive Industry moving into hybrid technology, battery life, storage, recharging capabilities will continue to expand. There are reports that a Japanese company has come up with a Hybrid Lithium Ion battery that can recharge in 10 minutes. With that being said, existing gas stations are the likely candidate for the recharging of Hybrid. This saves the oil industries infrastructure of stations, employees, jobs, etc…so as not to shock the economy. Road Power storage would be designed for lithium Ion storage technology for a more balanced Grid.
As the Road Power and the National Energy Lottery takes hold, excess electricity will start to become a reality. This, along with the Stimulus Bill, T. Boone Pickens & Al Gore’s plan will make the Nations Goal of Renewable Energy a reality. Thinking forward 10 years, the nation should consider building up our Cargo Container Fleets for storing and transporting electricity to Foreign Lands using the battery technology of the year 2019. Ironic, that America would go from a consuming oil nation to a exporter of renewable excess energy.
HOMELAND SECURITY
The visions outlined above also defends against the possibility of terrorism regarding our energy grid. With a universal grid distribution, America disruption would be minimal due to the uniformity of energy being produced thru every home, apartments, mobile home parks, industrial complexes, local, state and federal buildings, etc…. nationwide.
NON-PROFIT WORKSHOPS NATIONWIDE (Our Vision Part IV)
Our personal goal is to create non-profit workshops nationwide to be used by every American inventor wanting to bring a product to market. Being a small time inventor, I know the hardships of trying to get something to market. Patents, Tooling, Marketing, Distribution, Inventory, Manufacturing, etc…all costs way more than the typical inventor can afford.
These workshops would have State-of-the-Art equipment for making prototypes, small run productions, and generally helping get the product off the ground. COST WOULD BE FREE! HOW IT WORKS; Inventors that use the workshop and bring a product to market would donate “X” amount of profits on a sliding scale for 3 years to the non-profit workshops. This would allow for growth and sustainability nationwide. Would create high-paying hi-tech jobs for the on-site personnel that would assist the inventors with their products.
Let’s release the spirit of the American Inventor. The ideas and products that would come out of America could once again lead the world in innovation.
CONCLUSION
In time of need, the American people have always stood together. This lottery would give the chance for the people to feel involved for a good cause to a new future.
By the People, for the People seems appropriate in this situation. Even President Abraham Lincoln used lotteries to advance America’s destiny.
The spike in gasoline prices showed us how vulnerable the American people is when it comes to disposable income. We can’t keep the econoour going if we don’t have any extra money to spend. When $800 billion leaves our economy for oil every year, it’s no wonder.
Our proposals above would put substantial monies in your pockets. Instead of a tax rebate for a small amount, our plan would release that $300-$600 monthly electric bill every month allowing for a gradual influx of cash-flow back into the economy. More disposable income forever. Buy a Hybrid?
The visions outlined above would help America (and the world) in bringing about a cleaner environment and a new direction for the 21st Century.
The ripple effect of pumping $52 billion into our economy for GREEN jobs & products is self evident.
God bless America, God bless Planet Earth.
Grass Valley, CA
Comment by energylottery -
Vegetader.com. allows local farmers, mom and pops and urban gardeners to network with local consumers to buy and sell fresh produce year round through a virtual farmer’s market. This will allow many people to immediately increase their income and put money back into local communities.
During these rough economic times most consumers seeking fresh, organic and bountiful produce are left by the sidelines. The pleasure of a safe and healthy meal with one’s family is being thrown by the wayside due to high cost of trafficking produce. A large percentage of the produce a consumer purchases is actually grown thousands of miles away.
Vegetrader.com cuts out the ‘middleman’ and enables growers keep 60 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer unlike grocery-store food where only 3.5 cents of each dollar actually goes to the farmer.
Although we are able to buy an array of produce at any time due to a huge global marketplace, these are not the most sustainable or nutritionally beneficial. Most consumers are unaware of the location and treatment of sustainable lands where their produce is grown.
This process of embracing local produce promotes the concept of “Food Security”. Buying from local growers is more efficient, healthier, requires less chemical treatment to preserve food and reduces the carbon foot print of mass commerce. The consumer reduces their cost and unwittingly opens their horizon to new food choices.
By utilizing Vegetrader.com, Local Communities can gain more economic benefits from the presence of small farms than they do from large ones. Studies have shown that small farms re-invest more money into local economies by purchasing feed, seed and other materials from local businesses. Families striving to serve healthy and hearty meals will be better able to serve healthy meals at a lower cost and significantly reduce the carbon footprint as well.
Thinking and buying local is quickly moving from a novel idea to a mainstream activity the natural progression of this is to use the power of the internet in bringing farmers, gardeners and consumers together to buy and sell the freshest, healthiest produce throughout the season and keep money, jobs in their community.
This person to person concept is proven and works extremely well. The evidence social buying works has already been proven with the advent of Craigslist.com and etsy.com and many other smaller sites which allow person to person sales and bartering. There are very few if any concepts currently like vegetrader.com that address the opportunity to allow backyard gardeners and local farmers to connect with local consumers in an online community based setting to buy and sell their produce. One notable concept that does extremely well is CSA crop share programs which usually sell all of their yearly crop shares rapidly and many have waiting lists of consumers that would like to participate. Vegetrader.com would fill this void. 18% of small farms are located in urban areas making them readily accessible to millions of people.
Vegetrader.com would generate revenue from several sources. Buyers and sellers can always sign up for Free and become part of the community. Revenue would be generated from listings created by sellers. A minimal % fee would be charged at the end of each month based on the total weight or quantity of vegetables offered by each seller. In addition to this a small listing fee could be charged for each type of vegetable offered regardless of quantity or weight. A third opportunity for revenue exists by offering auxiliary items such as reusable grocery bags and gardening supplies and self promotion materials such as small yard signs that would promote the vegetrader concept.
Expanding on the concept could also open up retail partnerships, or even small storefront locations where other local goods could be made available for purchase by local consumers.
The overhead to get the concept off the ground would be the cost of putting a website together, developing a marketing plan and advertising to get buyers and sellers involved.
I can post a more detailed breakdown online upon request.
Thanks,
Andy
Comment by Andy -
Mr. Cuban,
Please check out our Real Estate site, http://openthehome.com and if you are interested in funding a project that is already under way and already has a quarter of a million behind it and money coming in, then contact me at
chris@mycorporateblogger.com
Thank You.
Comment by lethebashar -
“NakedPizza!” Hot!
I’m sold! I did go just a little too far I think with the “white gloves” thing. Sounds like I need a butler wearing white gloves from Beverly Hills handing over the merchandise at the front door.
The car lighter. Love it. The plug in “heat bags.” Love it. All I wanted to hear about is for once, SOMEONE, addressing the issue of arrival of the product at the front door. Is it going to be hot? Is it really going to be a mouth watering, complete anticipatory piping hot pizza. With or without the reconverted “expensive” mini’s as delivery vehicles, I’ll order your delivery.
The microorganisims. Absolutely. Agreed on here. They actually attach themselves to your body, if I rememember correctly from college Bio class that I was “forced” to attend. They defend against outside bacteria arrivals. Don’t they? I’m not up on this as much as you, but just reading through your web site, I ate it up alive.
Just a personal note. Why all the germ free concerns. I had a family member, not me, diagnosed just over nine months ago with cancer. An operation, and full recovery prevailed. Everythings alright. But she cannot, nor any doctor figure out, where this cancer came from. ALL healthy food products is mostly to almost always consumed in our household, before I think, healthy dieting was even on the map. Your product only endorses a movement as like you stated on the web site. Which is; “Americans are shifting in masses to healthy products.” Overdrive shifting.
There is a whole populace out there, numbering in the millions to multi-millions today, that right now “always” go for the apple, or the salad at dinner, above any fattening hamburger or chili cheese fries, or steak and fried onion rings. We, all of us in this mindset, will be your humungous potential client customer base. No doubt. The blogger earlier who mentioned that he added a healthy pizza product to his restaurant lineup and found that the customes still went for the fat pizza? Well, that was because he still housed “temptation” alongside a healthy product in his unit. I will repeat that word, “TEMPTATION.” It gets them every time. A Mars chocolate candy bar at the checkout counter of a grocery store gets picked up probably one in every 15 to 20 customers. I’m not exact on that stat but I do see the kid at my grocery store always stocking those items. Unloding boxes of candy bars.
Your entirly new concept, of a “NakedPizza” franchise unit, in this mindboggling health issue oriented and educated atmosphere, is going to take the markets by storm. I think. For the reasons of attacking the health product issue head on. Providing documented backup information following all of your declarations. And you have a perky, very new, very memorable unforgettable tradename. “NakedPizza.” If I win the lotto, I’m in! A unit for my nephew in Montana.
Lastly, just passing along some financial info. Having lived at one time at Sandhill Circle, in Menlo Park, CA. Right next store to the prominent and very famous “Sandhill Road Venture Capital Offices and Community.” I was at he time, working in Silicon Valley, for a while at Stanford University. Selling Apple Computers and playing with an internet startup. These professionals at Sandhill actually took up in meeeting my proposal. It was not funded as it was too early in any stage development whatsoever.
Don’t neglectthe fact that these Ventura Capitalists do take a look into other areas of interest for venture funding besides technical such as the Google’s, Sun Microsystems and Yahoo’s! of the world. It could be a down the road second source possibility. That is, if you intend to expand nationally. They look for big players. Breakouts.
It’s a free shot to send one of them a business plan and proposal. Firms like Sequoia Capital, Don Valentine, Menlo Ventures, or Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Beyers. You’ll find them all on the web. They’ll walk you through the entire submission process. Criterias and requirements. They usually only invest in on-going established businesses. You are just that. On-going, not a pipe dream.
I’ll certainly keep reading/watching the trades, waiting to hear about market expansion outside of New Orleans.
Pat –
Comment by Patrick - -
Here is a business for you.
Create & Sell content with online subscriptions to Maverick Games.
If you can pass thru the NBA rules..
Create a video booth in the areana..where you can pay $$ to go into a video booth and get video taped and uploaded to the maverick website..you can talk trash about a player, team etc..
Put high quality cameras and microphones in your areana.
Hire some interviewers.
Have the interviers go around and interview the audience in which the content would get uploaded to your maverick site..
Allow on court audio (players talking trash etc)
Hire announcers that can follow the game without language limiatations and produce that content online..
todd
Comment by todd -
RE: Pat (March 7, NAKEDpizza):
Pat, thx for the exhaustive post on delivery etc – your interests/comments/concerns seem to be related to cleanliness – i.e., germs. And by germs, I assume you mean microorganisms. Just a quick note on that: all pizzas are passed/cooked in an oven at 525 degrees. Note all microorganisms are terminated in temperatures at or around 140-160 degrees. Once cooked, the pizza is placed in a box and cut. From there, it is placed in a “heat bag” that is plugged into the wall – with the idea of always keeping the product at or above 160 degrees – again, temperature high to assure “dead bugs.” Once the bag is moved by the delivery driver to the car – it is then plugged into the cigarette lighter – keeping the pizza ta 160 degrees. In short, when we hand you the pizza – gloves not needed – it has been above the critical 140 degree mark. On a side note, you may want to rethink your concerns of germ exposure. Nice body of research demonstrating that our overuse of antimicrobials and general scrubbing of microbes from our “every day lives” is contributing to an explosion in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. A quick search on the “hygiene hypothesis” will get you up to speed. Our species has evolved a symbiotic and organic relationship with the microbial world – as long as we play by the rules. Our procedures and methods at NAKEDpizza are sound. Paradoxically, your concern over cleanliness (bugs etc) is ironic when you consider that we actually “add” bugs (probiotic microogranisms) to our pizza – a genus of probiotics that can survive our oven and heat bags to be delivered to you hot and healthy – so that they may improve your health and well-being.
Jeff and Randy and _____
Comment by Jeff and Randy (NakedPizza) -
The program of the transmitting of particles by computers is included in my fund raise program. If you are interested in it, please e me to get the detail. Thank you.
Comment by Gloria C. Liu -
The working title of this project is TexasChippers
This business is a portable chipping service available to homeowners who have no way of getting rid of their trimmed tree limbs other than bundling them according to various city requirements and letting them end up in landfills.
The benefits are:
being environmentally responsible
putting people to work
reducing costs to municipalities
giving homeowners incentive to trim trees, etc
providing raw material for mulch and businesses to reuse
The startup cost:
$6000 for a small used utility truck, a wood chipper, and tools
Goals and plans:
First truck to be profitable within 90 days
Expansion to other parts of metroplex to be 100% financed by profits
$6000 to be repaid within first 90 days
All work to be done by me and my son
Eventual expansion would include bigger chippers and the trucks would be like to pool service trucks you see now
Get contracts with homeowners, businesses, cities, and landscapers
All business obtained by direct contact or simple flyers
Offer Mark Cuban 20% of all future net profits after investment returned
Cost to customer is $50 per hour with a $50 minimum
Plan is based on 160 hours billed per month
Additional cost for removal of shavings
Start in Denton County and expand throughout Metroplex and then…
Some cities do their own recycling but most do not. So TexasChippers has a large potential and can put people back to work doing responsible work!
940.300.5932
Comment by Steven Parks -
As for the Bakery idea…you need to know a couple of things your plan does not address.
First off you will be pouring out money for the first 9 to 10 months…without making any. That is standard in starting a bakery.
Second, just to make it most bakerys need to offer a lunch or breakfast menu. This helps generate the needed revenue to help them get their name brand off the ground.
Third have you approached local hotels & restaurants?? These can carry you further and get your name brand out there faster.
Imagine a guy who has tasted your product at the hotel now many miles away demanding your product…these are customers that spread you name. They ask their grocer to carry your product.
Comment by Denton -
Profitable businesses that borrow every month to operate, are effected by banks pulling letters of credit. Creates new unemployment. OUCH! Unemployed people can not spend money which creates less demand… This situation fuels itself.
Start a business that funds profitable businesses. Just don’t call it a BANK…LOL
BTW I need a job…
Comment by Mark Griffin -
Hello Mr. Cuban. This is the first of two business plans that I’ll be posting. This one is for a football spread options market, and must be operated in a state with legalized gambling.(I know you said you won’t invest in investing, so don’t be disengaged by my Wall Street vernacular. My concept has nothing to do with investing in the traditional sense. The business is rather an open source marketplace with roots in investing principles).
My market will host trading in options that give individuals the opportunity to buy or sell football game point spreads other than the one delineated by the official Vegas bookie market.
For instance, if Dallas is at Philly minus 7 ½ then our market will trade options at minus 10 ½ , 13 ½ etc. at price points somewhere less than the bet amount that stratum of the market is trading around (i.e. if the actual bet on the game is $1000, then the 10 ½ option may cost $500, the 13 ½ , $285, etc.). The prices of the options will have to be established by an initial pre-trading session, or underwritten by an Options Clearing Corporation-esque risk manager.
My market’s functions will be to assist in speculation with added liquidity, leverage and price discovery; to add hedging capacity to both bettors and bookies; and to add an efficient mechanism with which to structure spreads.
My market will facilitate three distinct angles of relative value bets. 1) spreading bets and/or options across various bet amount stratums (e.g. long the game at $1000, short two options on the $2000 stratum). 2) spreading options across the same game on the same bet stratum (via backspreads, strangles, or volatility arbitrage). And 3) spreading Team A against Team B, from one week to the next, with Team C as the proxy you’re betting on them to perform against, one way or another.
I envision the options beginning trading a few weeks before each respective game, so many more outperformance bets could be placed than actual teams meet.
Our revenue model will consist of commissions on each contract traded, and as we grow, the business will scale.
Thanks for your time.
Comment by Texas Inmate -
Fly in the naked pizza “healthy” thing is that research is showing that weight gain is all about insulin response to carbohydrate. So unless by healthy you mean crustless, the research isn’t backing up the claims….
Comment by Haberajans -
Hi. I am trying to work out if there is such a thing as a return on investment calculation for a big player contract. I wrote about it in my blog re Manny and the Dodgers. And, I would appreciate your opinion.
Best . . . Barry
Comment by Barry Deutsch -
Pingback: International Educational Directory » A private stimulus plan for startups
This isn’t a business, but it’s an interesting read for those in need of a laugh.
http://wwww.blotterman.com posts several comical police blotters each day from around the country.
Comment by DK -
Naked Pizza co-founders, Hello!
Based in New Orleans. Healthy Pizza. A growth nitch in a very crowded field. It is a tough go with a startup, for sure. Congratulations on your funding. Really, a big congrats! Can’t wait to try it when it gets over her to the West Coast.
Question: It is both takeout and delivery based. Correct? How is it delivered?
How will Naked Pizza get my repeat my business? I’m sorry, but I and a few million Americans around this country are now more than ever and for whatever reasons, economic or not, turning into selective consumers. I personally have not ordered a delivery product in years to my house. Not a food product. Not anything.
I’d like to ask, what or where on your web site is a photo portfolio showcasing your new fleet of “Naked Pizza delivery vehicles” with a “Naked Pizza logo” splashed on the side of the small delivery truck? Where is the mini hot oven keeping the pizza piping hot until it reaches it’s final destination? And how spotless is the persons hands delivering this product or is he/she wearing maybe new plastic white gloves as this pizza box is delivered to the front door? I did not see any of these issues addressed on your web site.
Constantly, you allude to the “healthy” quality of your pizza product. How is this product eventually delivered though? Is it in an almost germ free hospital operating room type environment? Has this portion of your brochure been left unexplained? Why?
The only way to accomplish this end of the complete marketing cycle I think for “Naked Pizza” is to manufacture or purchse a fleet of exclusive brand new “Naked Pizza delivery cars” such as reconverted Mini’s from Britain or something small and equivalent. This alone would make you stand out in the very crowded world of Pizza delivery operators across the country. Each employee would wear a uniform. NOT is old jeans and t-shirt he pulled off his closet rack just before he throws it on and leaves for work. But a spiffy and very eyepopping colorful new outfit. Very trendy. With a visor. With the logo.
I personally want a spotless, cleanliness environment with ALL of MY food handling. And I don’t think I am alone or weird. That is why I usually only frequent the better restaurants in California where I can see and spotcheck the cooks say flipping the steaks, or preparing the meals. The upfront kitchens I love. Regarding pizza takeouts, I only pick orders for my Italian food. Again, never delivery. But thats just me. I know the college crowd in dorms and such swear by it. And don’t care hosw it’s delivered. But the neighborhoods out number the college crowd by millions.
To accomplish such an expensive new vehicle direction in the delivery operations of your business, it would require a second round of large funding. Take an angel investor of minor miracle. Lucky for you though, that miracle arrived by way of an incredible business tycoon, Mr. Mark Cuban.
I would suggest targeting some of your energies into the delivery process for “Naked Pizza”, because frankly, I did not see it addressed anywhere in your portfolio. You left that explanation, at lest to me, up to the consumer by addressing just one word, only taht the pizza is “delivered.” And we’re just OK with that? As If, “Alright, how ever it reaches our house is fine with us.”
Not me I’m afraid. If at the least, you are subject to have to use employees own vehicles, with milage allowance I suppose, then state that. State honestly that every single car that is used in the delivery of a “Naked Pizza” has been through a major car wash at the company’s expense. That all vehicles have been inspected by either Jeff or Randy, the co-owners, personally. And passed tthe cleanliness test. Once a vehicle has been approved then the employee is trained on cleanliness and health delivery issues.That alone would get my attention and probably my business.
Handling of the product is most important to me, and having a germ free delivery process from store oven to your front door. I want to know that All money is transacted on AFTER the pizza is handed off to you the customer. Therefore, money, dollar bills and such never come into contact with my food product. Even if it is in an encased box and hotsleeve.
If a pizza delivery outfit targets this segment of the entire delivery process, notifing the customer and the potential selling community that he is targeting, then that operation will give the other outfits, I think, a run for their money.
I read and heard about all of these healthy ingredients and
issues connected with your product, and it sounds great. you have a hit on your hands. Don’t stop short though. I did not see anything about how money, delivery and vehicles are handled in the final process of the sale. Because isn’t the final door transaction the last stop on the tour? That is where at lest 50% or more of your total unit gross income will come from. The first 50% is picked up by in store orders, correct?
Once I see a delivery business spelled out in it’s entirty, then and only then will I pick up the phone and order. Minus an emergency of course where I have to order immediately.
I’m just a potential customer. Don’t mean to butt in on your business. You did ask for feedback. I personally knew a very successful Italian family in this business who stared operations of an Italian Reataurant years back in and still have the business after having expanded to Scottsdale, Arizona.
I wish you guys best of luck and again can’t wait to try it. Hope to see “Naked Pizza” explode in sales across the United States either in franchise expansion or fully corporate ownership units.
And Please, let me know when the IPO trades. I’ll want to buy a slice!
Patrick – out in California
Comment by patrick -
There are millions of people with the ability to write lyrics, music, scripts, and books who don’t have the means to get their works produced. I am in the beginning stages of starting a middle man website to connect writers with producers. How does it work? Writers post their pieces on the site, the producers then pay a fee to be able to view and purchase them. The start up costs would include legal fees, advertising, and a couple root beers to celebrate making our first million, well at least my first. This site would provide an opportunity for many people to make some good money selling their work, therefore benefiting more people then just you and I. I have owned my own small business and know the challenges they come with and I am ready to face them.
Comment by Jared -
Not sure if you read my original business proposal regarding a device that guaranteed female G-spot orgasm. I am working with a female sex therapist. The research has led to a fantastic product that could heighten sexual experiences for all women. We are trying to find money to get it from its current state as a cottage industry into a more industrialized production model. It is a serious product with an incredible result. This is not a joke!
Comment by greg -
Tia’s Bakery
Scrumptious & Totally Healthy
1. Vision – Tia’s is envisioned to supply all major specialty retail food markets on the West Coast within the next 3-years.
3. Mission statement – Tia’s Bakery is dedicated to creating healthy, delicious desserts and pastries free of processed sugar and gluten to help improve the health of Americans, specifically those suffering from diabetes and food allergies, by bringing awareness to the benefits of a sugar free, gluten free diet.
4. Goals and objectives – Tia’s goal is to establish a profitable bakery that will ensure a financially secure company by supplying a great tasting dessert alternative to those seeking a healthier choice.
5. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities –
Strengths: The owner is a former baker who specialized in creating wedding and other custom cakes. She has created all of the brand’s recipes. All of our desserts taste great, hence our tag line: “Scrumptious and totally healthy”. Our products have been well received and are currently stocked in three specialty markets in the Los Angeles area. Tia’s is scheduled to begin selling in the Redondo Beach Whole Foods Market in early April. Our products generate a minimum of 66% gross profit per item sale.
Weakness: Our pressing challenge is lack of capital. Currently we rent space in a commercial kitchen to produce products. Although the kitchen contains quality commercial equipment, it was not designed to maximize processes unique to our particular needs. We lack adequate storage space for raw ingredients and finished products. We need to hire staff for production and distribution as well as purchase of vehicles and cooking/baking equipment. We desperately need funding in order to sustain growth and be able to supply this increasing demand.
Opportunities: We will begin selling at the Whole Foods Redondo Beach, CA. within the month and have received invitations from the bakery managers of the other 18 local Whole Foods stores.
Hotels, hospitals and restaurants could all benefit form the ability to offer great tasting diabetic friendly, gluten free dessert alternatives to their clients.
6. Strategic action plan – Four family members are working full time. Our total investment to-date is $ 15,000.00. We perform free taste sampling twice weekly at the three markets where we sell: Erewhon Natural Food Market – Los Angeles CA, PC Greens Gourmet Market – Malibu, CA and Santa Monica Co-Operative market – Santa Monica, CA. Our action plan entails hiring cooking staff, delivery staff and securing a larger commercial facility, where shifts can be run. After capturing the Southern California market, we would like to expand to the Northern California area, and then national. We are also interested in expanding out line to include frozen sugar free, gluten free desserts.
Comment by Marilyn King -
So many ideas… so little time.
Comment by Mike -
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddh6cph3_3c7m928fm
here is my research for Dinner & a Movie “Delivered”!
Comment by Denton -
Hi Mark,
I met you at TC50, you told me to email you next time I was in Dallas (btw, you know my friend blonde 2.0). I just arrived for a weekend meeting and am leaving on Sunday. Please email founders@noted.cc with you address; I can stop by and give you a demo. My number: 972-768-6434.
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcxhqn6b_0gtzmvkdk
Comment by Alex -
BY THE WAY…DINNER & A MOVIE “DELIVERED” IS GUESS WHAT?? “DELIVERED!”
Comment by Denton -
I can create a site to aggregate and organise these ideas if you like.
Comment by Avaz -
This is really impressive on many levels, impressive idea, impressive that you are using open source on the plans – very good overall, good job and good luck to all the entrepreneurs.
Comment by Bruce Fenton -
odd that 2 of the 4 are food related. Not much innovation there.
Comment by Shake -
My name is Daley Ervin, I am 23, a sales-professional, world traveler, and Ironman athlete.
Here is my start-up.
No matter how bad the economy looks, women do not stop working out, nor do they stop purchasing health related supplements. I have created a post-workout supplement that aids in muscle recovery and reduces soreness after workouts.
Recoveree is a post-workout supplement that helps women recover from exercise. As an Ironman triathlete I know more than anyone that if you are not recovering from your workouts you are not benefiting from them. When you finish a workout your body has used all of its internal energy that is stored in the form of glycogen, and if you do not replace your glycogen within a critical time period it can take anywhere from 48 to 72 hours for your body to fully recover and rebuild torn muscle tissue. With no immediate intake of correct nutrition in correct proportions, women feel general fatigue and muscle soreness.
Much like Sam Koch when he founded Samuel Adams; he did not brew the beer himself, he had it contract manufactured and focused on pounding the pavement and sweat equity advertising. By focusing solely on sales through grass roots and viral marketing tactics and relying on U.S. based manufacturers and freight forwarding companies as distributors I can get my product in the hands of women who have never realized their soreness and fatigue after working out was due to the fact that they did not replace the essential nutrients they lost during their workouts.
This product has been recreated and sold to to male endurance athletic market for the past ten years but the blue-ocean strategy is to get this product to mass market by demystifying the reasons of muscle soreness and educating women on the benefits of using a post-workout recovery supplement to aid in the natural recovery process.
I would love to share more about getting Recoveree in the hands of women who work out regularly everywhere. This market is under served and a product like this is relatively unknown beyond triathlon and endurance running circles.
If you would not like to fun my venture I would still be very interested in some needed criticism.
Thank you for the opportunity,
Daley Ervin
Comment by Daley Ervin -
Hey Mark,
On a slightly different tangent, I was watching the Nuggets / Mavs game on TV and was wondering where I could get that Mavs shirt you were wearing. That looked absolutely sick and I couldn’t find it on the mavs store on NBA.com
Also, looking forward to the Basketball analytics panel this saturday in MIT. I only just realised you and Hollinger were on the same panel, and was dissapointed Daryl Morey wasn’t there, as I would really like to see 2 GM’s compare analytic styles.
Thanks
-Garron
http://www.mavgear.com
Comment by Garron -
Mr. Cuban,
You have replied to my post twice, we are an operating C corporation over two years old, Federal Trademarks, etc. Since my first post on February 11, 2009 @ 11:01 am, we have done 39,434.00, collected on 12,252.00 and our accounts receivables rarely goes beyond 30 days.
We are going to expand to one corporate office in every state (in stages). Hiring at least 3 people for every state, 144 people back to work, two vehicles for every office 96 vehicles sold, one building for every state, 48 commercial real estate sales.
We have a real opportunity to put people back to work, help the auto dealers with sales, not to mention the real estate transactions.
What better way to help stimulate the economy by taking advantage of the three hardest hit sectors, Employment, Auto Sales and Real Estate transactions.
What most people see as gloom, I see as an advantage. We will not find a better time to expand, being able to work the best real estate deals, auto prices and there is an abundance workers right now.
I look forward to hearing from you, in any event this will be my last post.
Sincerely,
DM
Comment by DM -
Mark,
I am the founder of a profitable web hosting firm here in Dallas, in operations since 2001 with existing customers, staff, procedures and operations. Our website is fully automated and is integrated into an open source billing system we’ve modified to allow for real-time domain name registration, web hosting account setup including automatic email notices and setup information.
We reversed engineered the big boys like GoDaddy.com, NetworkSolutions.com and 1and1.com. It’s not pretty yet like theirs, but it does work.
As you know, web hosting is a fragmented marketplace. It cash flows positive until we have enough accounts to bought out. I’d be happy to share tax returns and bank statements to prove it.
Comment by Keith Bray -
Mark,
I have over a decade worth of experience in property acquisition in a variety of sectors. In the last 2 years, I have discovered a tremendous opportunity for a smaller company like myself to find (tie up, acquisition, hold proprietary ownership of) unique, hard to find non-renewable mineral deposits. Unlike the oil and gas industry, there are very few players like me in this market other than large global aggregate companies. Although these companies have their own “acquisition exploration” departments to locate large deposits, most of the time they end up purchasing existing finds or greenfield sites found by others. Whatever the reason, it creates a terrific opportunity for someone like myself. As an example I currently have a large site under contract for purchase that has main rail frontage. I found this deposit solely through hard work and determination. I have at least 2 other sites that look highly probable. This property would make an exceptionally safe diversified investment in today’s market, while still providing substantial upside. Subject site has 500M tons of high quality dolomitic limestone. The vast size of this deposit creates an opportunity to own a large track of land that will create enormous cash flow and wealth protection for several generations.
200k worth of drilling and option money has been spent identifying the quality and quantity of the deposit. A top 5 global aggregate producer had agreed upon a royalty agreement with me that was approved here in the United States, but their corporate office overseas put the project on hold until the US economy improves. Minimum guaranteed royalty payments under the agreement were 400k yrs 1-15 800k yrs 16-100.
The site has 2 values: 1) Surface Rights- CSX Rail + farm value as 498 acres are tillable. 2) Mineral Rights-500M tons of high quality dolomitic limestone.
Limestone deposit is worth 9.1M based on a 30year royalty agreement @ a 6% discount rate. Surface rights as farm ground are worth 2.4M based on 515+/- acres. Equals a total value of $11,500,000 + increased marketability due to CSX Rail. The surface rights could be resold within 90 days as agriculture land to decrease the total investment left in the project.
I would offer you a ground floor opportunity at MY option price of 3.2M+expenses. In return, I would like to expand this type of work and accumulate other holdings through revolving option agreements (to keep capital exposure down) or purchase as agricultural value with additional stiffs paid to seller once the economy turns and we get a user (mining company) in place.
These are basically similar to NNN leases. We own the properties and collect royalties off the opration which is ran by large regional or global aggregate comapnies.
All the best,
Comment by Tony Smith -
Stuffed chicken wings! I Love it. Best idea ever – and I am starving now. Good call, Mark. I can totally see you selling those at the AAC.
Comment by Josh -
Mark,
Thanks in advance for the opportunity and access to yourself that you are providing. You are most certainly one of a kind.
I know I can profit within 90 days. I do this for a living, every day. The only problem is… I’m doing it for someone else.
I believe a company can make money AND provide its customers with superior level of service and support. Often I’ve thought of taking the knowledge that I have in my field of expertise and establishing my own operation… and I am slowly but surely arriving at some of my early goals. With some help from you, I would be able to make alot of moves, and become not only a business that I make a profit from… but also provide relief to people from a community that NEED a few good jobs.
My business is web hosting. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_hosting_service
My plan is to start a shared web hosting company.
I have an extensive background in Information Technology and computers in general. I have also worked in phone support and sales basically since I graduated high school. I’ve also been designing and maintaining web sites for many years. There have been times where I was in a position of management, training technical support agents in this very field… Shared web hosting. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_web_hosting_service
I know I can make this company profit. I am confident I will do so.
Bottom line is I know I can make this business a success. I make it a success every day, but the real money goes to someone else. I’m not paid well enough to really get anything started on my own… That, coupled with the fact that I’m working for someone else 40 hours + per week, it’s hard to focus on any business ventures.
What I need:
1) Capitol
a) Server, telephone, computer, high speed fiber, office, and other equipment necessary to facilitate a support call center and web hosting data center. You are probably thinking, wait a second, this stuff is extremely expensive. But I am not looking to start huge. I only need a few good servers, a few good people on the phone, and a solid marketing plan. After these basic needs are met the business will be self sufficient and profit can be invested in company growth. Besides, if we want to secure further funding from you, we have to cut a profit. I am looking to spend as little as possible on initial hardware, and I KNOW I can make this thing a success early on.
b) Funds for a marketing budget, which will primarily be spent on advertising for specific keywords on major search engines. I have saw this work first hand, on a huge scale. I have done this sort of work for a company which maintains hundreds of thousands of web sites. With my experience and know-how, I can make this happen for my own business. I am absolutely sure of it.
c) Enough cash to quit my day job, hire a few employees, and keep the lights on and the bills paid at home… If you will take a risk, so will I.
I am willing to work with you on all the numbers… I’m not asking for a million dollars. You can determine an amount that you think is reasonable, as well as a fair amount you should expect in return.
I realize this message to you is a long shot. But I am convinced I am able to create a profitable shared web hosting company in 90 days or less. So if you are reading this and you truly want to make an impact on someone’s life, and not only that… but an impact on a community. Give me the opportunity!
On top of that, you are likely to make some money. The business WILL profit.
Thanks again for your time.
Comment by LongShot -
here a dumb question … how the hell you find posts on a blogg !!! im not tech challanged but sure feel like it about now … looking for something i posted several days back and cant find diddly on here ???
Mark: how in the world do you keep up with all this ??? you ever sleep???
Superman ??? LMAO
Comment by Dan -
Hi Mark,
I’d like to invite you to take another look at MyChurchSurvey.com – http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgn25vbz_31gzbpqhgx
I realize that you may be thinking that this is just another “survey company” but we have a market that is truly open. We’re getting calls daily about our product, and what’s stopping us now is the capital to really put out a quality website and advertise. Our current website has limitations, and it’s tough to try and sell it without all the needed features that these churches and faith-based groups need. We have 3 other feedback applications that we’d like to add to the our website, which would increase our revenue and secure us as the #1 survey application for churches and faith-based groups in the world. Please have another look. Thanks!
Comment by Dwight -
Hello Mr. Cuban,
I read your rules and agree to them. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.
Restaurants are a big thing that investors do not want to take a chance on, and for good reasons. One third of all restaurants make it, that leaves alot that don’t. I have a concept I believe would work and would love any and all feedback.
It would be called “The Parking Lot” and is a Tail gating themed place to eat. It would have all the items you find at tail-gates, from Brats to Ribs and all those special side items that you find in parking lot filled with hungry people. Some places do a bucket of beer, we would do a cooler of beer at your table.
When you first walk in you see the host stand. It looks just like that old shack that the parking attedent sits in. On the way to your table you see the bar. It has a huge four sided jumbo tron of Tv’s. You also notice the decor is just as a parking lot would look like. From the painted concrete with parking spots to the cement parking barriers to put your foot on while standing at the bar. You will also notice that painted on the floor around the bar in yellow stripes it says ” Loading Zone”. As you get to your booth that there is not a place to sit. As you wonder why, the hostess puts down the tail-gate from the wall. Don’t worry, there is a cushion on it. After eating a great meal and having a few beers it’s time to check out the head. You notice it looks similar to the blue porta potties (Without the smell). You also notice that painted on the floor it says ” Unloading Zone” Have I mentioned that every place that you look there will be a tv in sight so that you won’t mis any of the action.
Well, there’s my idea. What do you think?
Look forward to reading the feedback….I hope.
Thanks
Comment by James Wasney -
Pingback: Ruby on Rails, Other Developers: In Demand NOW! « this will be changed
Benjamin,
Some of my posts don’t appear either. it’s frustrating. Not sure if it is somewhere in the WordPress database, and I don’t think Mark will bother to search through it if it does not appear through no fault of ours.
But, of course, try submitting again, in bits and pieces. It might work.
Edgar
Comment by Edgar Enriquez -
MC;
I know this is a little off topic, but I hope you might be able to look into this case and maybe help these folks.
I’m living with cancer also and feel too close to these folks.
I haven’t missed a mortgage payment, but it’s never easy lately.
Anyway, their story on local tv website:
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/18862321/detail.html
Thank you for your time.
Comment by Eastern D -
Mark
TransBioTec is ready for production, we have orders and we are only looking for a small amount.
TransBioTec (“TBT”) has developed and patented a non-invasive alcohol sensing system (“SCANLOK”) which includes an ignition interlock. The alcohol sensing system offers a unique solution to the national drunk driving problem that can now be applied to new markets. SCANLOK consists of two parts: a blood alcohol detection system and an ignition interlock device connected through a microprocessor. SCANLOK detects the blood alcohol of the operator and does not allow the vehicle or equipment to start if the Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) is above a preset limit. In addition, random real-time monitoring also ensures that the operator cannot continue to operate a vehicle with an unsafe BAC. SCANLOK is the first product to the market which is entirely non-intrusive, non-invasive. The detection mechanism is specific to ethanol alcohol. The test is specific to the driver and not apparent to anyone else in the vehicle, which satisfies the crucial aesthetic need of the general population. The accuracy of the product assures safety, If installed today in all U.S. vehicles, SCANLOK could dramatically reduce most alcohol related vehicle accidents and deaths. TBT believes it may be possible to move for congressional legislation to mandate an alcohol sensing system similar to TBT’s System in all U.S. vehicles. If enacted this may save as many as 17,602 lives annually, which equals a $184+ billion savings for the U.S. Economy.From preliminary conversations, insurance companies indicate a willingness to offer automotive insurance premium discounts to consumers who install SCANLOK. A State Farm representative stated “DUI is one of my biggest, costliest issues and a personal pet peeve.” SAFECO says, “A 15% discount is doable.” This will provide a strong motivation for the consumer to purchase SCANLOK due to the anticipated reduction in auto insurance premiums. TBT’s patented technology encompasses three (3) existing patents with four (4) filed patent applications. Together, these patents address the currently known automotive alcohol sensing spectrum and are written to maximize TBT’s technological advantage. TBT is currently scheduled to install beta test units in the third quarter of 2008. Once the beta testing and system modifications are completed, TBT’s sales marketing program will be implemented. The sales effort will initially target the zero-tolerance alcohol market, i.e. public transportation, trucking industry, medical, aviation, and judicial mandates. Once the zero-tolerance sales effort is underway, the sales marketing program will be expanded to other areas such as teenage drivers, and the general public When TBT’s business plan is successful, its shareholders will receive repayment of their investment from two sources: 1) income distribution from profits which result from the sale of units and licensing of the use of the system to the automotive, medical and aviation industries; and 2) from the outright sale of TBT, merger or initial public offering of TBT stock.
Comment by Dj -
Hi, Mark:
I believe that the best kind of entrepreneur is the one who simply shares great ideas and sees where they go. The best idea I have for anyone on this comments list is to GROW FOOD. The federal stimulus plan is not going to work, and capitalism in America is already undergoing a major transformation. Those who provide fresh food for others will be highly useful in the post-modern economy.
Comment by Lawton Apartments -
Seems everyone here is looking 4 money for a new business. I have a small window of opportunity to purchase an existing, established, large cash flow business, nothing fancy, but practical and steady. Nets about 50k a month, room for some expansion, but not a get rich quick thing. Willing to pay a decent return to borrow 3.3mm, appraisal is 4.7mm, my purchase price is 3.6 mm, banks won’t lend, not enough “bricks and sticks”, but if Mark or anyone out there is tired of loosing in stocks etc, this may look good to you.
Dean
Comment by Dean Beaulieu -
Fly in the naked pizza “healthy” thing is that research is showing that weight gain is all about insulin response to carbohydrate. So unless by healthy you mean crustless, the research isn’t backing up the claims….
Comment by Matt -
I thought the original concept was to share small business ideas that could be relatively easily replicated across markets so that one idea springs successful copies as a way to stimulate economic recovery. While I’m impressed with the companies that have made Mark’s short list, unless I decide to invest in a Naked Pizza franchise (and personally I’d never buy a franchise – I used to work for one and see how inept they can be in providing adequate training, support and innovation to the franchisees), I’m not seeing how I can be a fast follower behind any of the companies.
Am I missing an opportunity here?
Comment by garyasanchez -
Hi Mark,
After re-reading the original, the follow-up and the last update, I believe that this proposal meets all your requirements.
Having witnessed your Sharesleuth efforts, and written myself on stock fraud in various newspapers for the last ten years, here’s my idea:
To set up (via reverse merger through an existing empty shell on the pink sheets or OTCBB) a listed company in order to prove to authorities that it’s possible to legally pump and dump a stock.
The effort would be profitable, but we should probably promise to pay most or all profits to support new laws in the stock market.
The main idea would be to follow what Rising B@nk did (http://www.rising-bank.be/home_en.html), basically building on the greed of investors.
Profits would come from the gullible investors whose only way to learn a lesson is to lose money. In this case, their money would at least support a worthy cause (new laws to prevent this from happening again).
The concept should get us plenty of air time on Bloomberg, CNBC etc. and politicians should be forced to react at some point.
Having studied and written about stock fraud in the US for ten years, I am willing to put my reputation on the line for this statement: for smart and knowledgeable people, it is possible to do pump & dump 100% LEGALLY under current U.S. laws.
It doesn’t fall under the stock trading category, as we are selling shares, not trading them.
It can be cash flow positive probably in MUCH less than 90 days (some case studies suggest six weeks, if well organized).
The cost for an empty shell should be less than $300k, perhaps even less than $200k in the current market environment.
On top of that, almost zero cost, i.e. the cost to run a virtual office. Anything expensive would be paid in shares.
Are you up to it?
I’d personally do it for $0, just for the pleasure of making some noise on CNBC and Bloomberg, and get some politicians excited. What about you?
Comment by Marc H. Mayor -
Shall we call this ‘Y Cubinator?’ 🙂
Comment by NameThatBiz -
I posted a plan yet it never did appear on the blog. Any idea as to why this happens? Is this text box limited in characters?
Thanks
Comment by Benjamin -
I currently work for a Philippine Civil Engineering consulting company with a strong academic background (based in the University of the Philippines campus) and we’re now in the process of acquiring Intellicad software instead of the more expensive AutoCAD. Intellicad software typically costs 70% lower than its AutoCAD counterpart without losing binary compatibility.
While conducting our due diligence on the new software, it struck me that there is a strng market for IntelliCAD in the Philippines and that existing Philippine companies are neglecting it. We’re now in talks with a Singaporean firm about being its lead user for its products in the Philippines and if things fall through, we’ll have direct access to the main developer of the software.
Now, what kind of business am I thinking of? Intellicad technical support and training. Existing Philippine companies are just either resellers or end-users. Local technical support is lukewarm at best and training almost non-existent. With the service we’ll be offering, we hope to address this market.
Comment by azneita -
Working title – Good Restaurant Bitches.
Comment by What about screenplays -
Franchises are a broken and horrible entity…these should have been re-tooled long ago. Why not let a franchise be what the person wants it to be?? They want their own name??? Fine name it your self….it saves them money not buying your name. They are only really buying your idea, your recipes, your product is only truly your knowledge, training, in a stream-lined package. What if they want to expand on your idea?? Why not?? What if they have the tools to truly elevate the franchise?? If you allow them to experiment only then can the franchise & everybody involved truly evolve as the industry itself changes. I have always felt a true franchise should be one group working together and sharing their knowledge. And yet nobody does this. The franchise fees are often inflated due to legal fee’s & vanity. Why not take these people charge them $7,000 flat?? They come and work for you, you take this opportunity to reward your best employee’s. You give them paid time off with a portion of the money, while you train this new person on how you run “your” personalized franchise. Keep a website where each franchise discuses their problems & ideas! Share the wealth!! Have different packages for different needs, they want your recipes, your name, your business plan, your fixtures & furniture…or let them mix and match add additional fees for each thing they want from you. $50,000 for a franchise is merely vanity!
Comment by Denton -
“The Cocoon”
2 of every 2 Americans are obese.
“The Biggest Loser” is one of the most popular TV shows.
People need help with their weight loss:
1. Consistent work-out instruction (with on-line tracking)
2. Team work-outs and “buddy” work-outs (higher success rate)
3. Diet planning and on-line tracking
4. Social assistance
“The Cocoon” is a facility/club for overweight people only. We offer advanced equipment (for overweight people), we partner everyone with a “buddy,” provide a trainer with each work-out, create a diet plan that works, and track everything through a web-site. Plus, we create a social club for our members. They can come to The Cocoon and not feel embarrassed or “out of place.”
Because of the higher attention they receive, web portal, and social activities, we would charge each member $500/month, with the majority of this covered by health insurance.
$500/month x 1000 members = $500K/month in member fees
We would start one location and expand to about 10-15 locations throughout the U.S. A partnership with The Biggest Loser TV show would be a benefit (one that you, Mark, could much more likely provide).
Mark Cuban would be 50/50 partner…
Shawn McCool
The Cocoon
themccools@mac.com
Comment by Shawn McCool -
Pingback: FrontBurner » Blog Archive » Leading Off (3/5/09)
“The Great Exchange”
1. Core business: To partner with high-traffic websites and offer subsidized price benefits allowing a cost advantage against competition that cannot be duplicated.
2. Ancillary benefits: Will fill immediate customer needs that cannot be filled otherwise.
3. Ancillary benefit (2): Will provide a customer with a price unmatched and unmatchable, branding our web partner as a true discount e-tailer.
Example:
+I will use Amazon.com as our partner.
+Customer A needs cash (and must have available credit card credit).
+Customer B wants to purchase an iPhone.
+The cash needed and iPhone are roughly the same amount (for this example).
Both register directly through Amazon.com and provide personal information including a credit card and checking account info.
Our software pairs these two customers together because of the amount each is pursuing ($200). We use available credit card credit from Customer A to buy an iPhone and it is shipped to Customer B, who wants an iPhone. There also is a 10% fee charged in addition to the price (say $200). So, we charge his card $220. Customer A is captive, and he NEEDS money. Plus, check cashing businesses are more expensive, embarrassing, and require a paystub. So, a 10% fee is a “bargain.”
We pull $200 from Customer B’s checking account (he was going to buy the iPhone and does not care how it’s paid for). This money is wired into Customer A’s checking account, or we overnight a check, or Western Union the money. Again, Customer A has a NEED for cash. We just filled this need.
Of the additional $20 we pulled from Customer A’s credit card, $10 goes to Customer B, so he gets the iPhone cheaper because of this subsidy. We keep the other $10. Amazon sells an iPhone at full retail, and this happens only because we can offer Customer B the exclusive benefit of a lower price, and further branding Amazon as a discount e-tailer, pushing more and more traffic to them because of this service.
I will become a 50/50 partner with Mark Cuban.
Shawn McCool
shawnmccool@sbcglobal.net
Comment by Shawn McCool -
i tried to submit, but it thought the urls were spam. click the website I submitted; click “Tamago” besides the copyright symbol. see if you can figure it out.
Comment by joel floyd -
Tycoon.com: Mark, I’m a huge fan of internet RPGs and I also enjoy business, investing, and economics. But the these things apparently do not really mix, and I was absolutely disappointed by this website. I’d rather play simcity
Comment by Layla -
To make a long story short, I started an online Christian bookstore. Did well for quite a while until 2008, was able to keep the monthly maintainence fee through Christmass. Didn’t have enough customers/money to continue in January and subsequently have suspended it. With a friends help I can still sign up people who want to buy their own online Christian bookstore. You earn between 5% and 30% on product sales from your bookstore. You save an average of 30% on all your Bible, Christian books, music and video purchases. You redirect dollars back to christian families, churches and missions instead of supporting big corporations and financing secular organizations. I’m basically looking for a way to get started again. i have a goal to sell three new bookstores in three months. I’ve been networking on Ecademy for some time now and have been promoting my bookstore on the blogs. If anyone is interested in their own Christian based bookstore check out http://www.rainbowmtnbooks.com. Thanks for listening. Rose
Comment by Rose Lewis -
Hi Mark,
I am working with Dr. Beck in pursuing an Aviation charter high school in the metroplex. Want to come aboard?
Steve Farrah
Comment by Steve Farrah -
Mark-
We are acquiring an 11-unit private “niche retail” company that is a perfect product for franchising (being the franchisor, not franchisee. i did read your rules….)
The business is located within the adult novelty/romance industry, which is thriving in this down economy (vice businesses are up…).
Bullet Points:
– Acquiring 11-unit existing retailer (established in 1993)
– Rebranding to appeal to mainstream audience (couples, soccer moms, etc). We want to be what Victoria Secret was to the lingerie industry. They made it mainstream, and okay for couples and “soccer moms” to shop. We will do the same thing for adult novely & romance stores. Move them from traditional urban settings to suburban retail centers. (perfect time to do it with desperate landlords for tenants)
– Very similar business model and franchise roll-out to Massage Envy
– Bringing in same franchise team that did Massage Envy (concept to 500 locations in > 5 years)
– Implementatin of best-in-class e-Commerce program
– Immplementation of best-in-class direct selling program through at-home “romance parties”. Our partners have taken multiple companies from $0-$100mm revenue through direct selling programs
– Implementation of best-in-class master franchise and franchise program(s)
– Implementation of internaional licensing
– Development of “reality TV” show to promote brand (similar to Sunset Tan objective for their franchise, but much more interesting with At-Home parties, adult novelty store drama, etc). Have to see details on this one, it’s interesting.
– 1st class team in place to execute
– Exit: Grow corporate-owned stores from 11 to 20. Sell 45 master franchise territories, sell 200 franchises, open 150 stores. Sell company year 4 or 5.
– Proposed Structure: Equity partner(s) will take 49% ownership in LLC. Equity to get 10% preferred return, 80/20 split until equity to 20% IRR, 50/50 split thereafter
– Pro-Forma: $4mm total capitalization. 76.4% IRR to equity, 4.84x multiple
– Company under contract to purchase, teams are in place, legal docs being drawn for review
Wondering if the concept will work? Research Adam & Eve. They started a franchise program 18 months ago. They have sold 130 franchies in their first 18 months. They did this with one internal sales person with no franchise sales experience, and a basic lack of sales skills in general. We have the best players in the industry leading our franchise development program and our franchise sales program. We have a better offering for our franchisees. We expect to surpass Adam & Eve’s pace.
23pg. executive summary with financials and 158pg. due diligence report available upon request by email to nhalsey@nwhmanagement.com.
Thanks for the consideration,
Nathan Halsey
Comment by Nathan Halsey -
Mark my business idea isn’t patented. However, all that will be required is a website! With an investment of less than one hundred thousand dollars my business will generate millions of dollars.
Comment by Herschel -
Dear Mark Cuban,
I take this opportunity as a huge advantage to get my idea out to you. I attend school in Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas, and was an avid football player and powerlifter. I was a varsity starter for 3 years in football and made All-State Academic. I was also a Regional Qualifier in Powerlifting where I came in 6th in the region. I am a senior in school right now, and look to open doors to help me for college. I am currently an 18 year old, and looking to help raise money for my college funding. I cannot place that financial burdern on my parents. I have maintained a 3.9 GPA and rank among the top third of my class. I have always been a hard worker, and am always looking to compete!
I am an avid Mavericks fan and am currently wathcing the game! You are the greatest owner of all time, and I love the support you show for this team! I wanted to run an idea by you to see if you would be interested in kick starting a major opportunity!
As a high school student with many friends and always looking for something to do on the weekends, I wanted to present you with the idea of building up a chain of drive in movies across the nation.
I am faithful in this idea because of the fact that I know and have many friends that would simply drive 2 hours away to go to a drive in located in a small town. Famalies of all ages could come, and I have an idea to make sure things run smoothly and how to operate these drive in movies and make them the best form of entertainment possible. This could open up many doors and make many future jobs.
The drive in located in the small town is starting to run down and from expereince of being there, it could use some nice hard work. This could help stimulate our economy in many ways by opening some of these drive ins in some of our major populated cities. These form of entertainment needs to be brought back and I hope you look at this is a huge investment! I am thrilled to present this opportunity with you and if you could just please get back to me, I would appreciate it greatly! I realize you are a very busy man, but any time spent on this will raise huge fortune!
Thanks for any time spent reading this at all. Best wishes.
Matt Carlquist
Comment by Matt Carlquist- -
Howdy Mark,
I understand you may not be interested in restaurants but how about the people? I am a diabetic and like to go out to dinner with my wife but it is hard to find items on the menu that conform to the restrictions of a diabetic. What if a casual Diabetic Restaurant was opened that all items conformed to the diabetics restrictions with foods that were palatable by all diabetics and non diabetics? I am sure any metropolitan area such as Dallas – Fort Worth would have waiting lines and have to take reservations.
Mike Z.
Comment by Mike Zrowka -
Pingback: Top Posts « WordPress.com
Mr. Cuban
I do not have some elaborate business plan and I do not want your money, but I have an idea that can help any community. There are so many empty lots or buildings in most of our neighborhoods across the DFW area. These buildings could be converted into community centers where there is job assistance and training programs, after school programs for those latch key kids and just somewhere for kids to go other than the streets. When I was coming up there was boys and girls clubs, YMCA, united way, and other non-profit organizations that provided these services. I believe with the current economic crisis that the private sector should aid in the funding of these types of programs.
For example, here in Mesquite, off Gus Thomason and Town East Blvd, there is an old golf course, which is perfect for basketball, tennis courts, baseball, soccer, football fields. There’s plenty of space for a community center that offers programs for the surrounding neighborhoods, like computer classes, English as a second language or Spanish as a second language, parenting classes, marriage and divorce counseling, financial planning and small business assistance. Instead of trying to get rich lets help our community out of poverty or keep them from drowning is debt and stress.
My wife always says that it is a great location for middle income housing, not apartments, but actual three to four bedroom homes for families that have some economic challenges and poor credit.
I know everybody wants to find that magic idea that makes their situation better, but what we need to realize is that unless ALL of us are doing better NONE of us are going to succeed.
Thank you for reading my comment, I wish you luck in this venture.
Anson D. Johnson
Comment by Anson D Johnson -
Hi Mark,
My idea is to make glass water bottles that appeal to environmentally and fashion conscious people. Companies like Sigg and Naglene have experienced an upswing in popularity due mainly to the unpopularity of disposable plastic bottles. However all of these water bottles are at the high end of the market – $15 and up. I think that leaves room for a mid priced contender to enter the market.
Please visit here to read more: http://www.masongentry.com/tapwaterbottles.html
Comment by Mason -
Mark,
First, please be assured of our acknowledgement of your disdain for “real estate” investments. I understand your position on this and frankly agree with it quite strongly.
There is an old saying along the lines of “don’t mine for the gold, just sell shovels to the gold miners”. When you think about it as a businessman this old saying makes a lot of sense, especially when there is gold fever out there!
Our company is a real estate auction firm. We don’t invest in anything; we simply FORCE liquidity into what everyone can agree is an illiquid, broken market.
While we do indeed provide a service to society through our efforts, the plain fact is that there are substantial and immediate fees to be made by servicing parties that are out of options and there is copious national evidence that supports our business thesis.
What makes us unique?
We work directly with distressed builder and developer CEOs to offload their excess inventory of NEW homes, condos and commercial buildings. I emphasize NEW because we don’t handle foreclosures and REO, just brand new, under warranty beautiful homes and buildings. The response to our business model as been nothing short of amazing as we are able to consistently sit across from these powerful players and get them to agree to make substantial business commitments to us without knowing us from Adam.
Radius Management, LLC (www.auctionradius.com) was formed in 11/08 and will be conducting its inaugural ballroom auction in April known as the BUILDER’S REAL ESTATE AUCTION EXPO. We presently have commitments for over 70 properties at this time. Because of its low cost structure, greater than 80% of the revenue will be booked as NET PROFIT.
We are looking to raise equity capital (150K) immediately to bridge the gap between what we have been able to deliver thus far and true solidification of the company. We are confident we can bootstrap, but we have already invested all of our personal capital and have exhausted those resources.
If your end goal is to generate triple digit ROE in a very short period of time please consider us. We work days, nights and weekends and everything is in place. We have created all the contracts and agreements, terms and conditions, negotiated relationships with third party lenders, title and warranty companies and last but not least, a very high profile and old school auctioneer. We have also established offices on the Dallas tollway.
My partner and I have college and master’s degrees, quite a lot of experience and many other attributes of a winning, entrepreneurial management team. We are passionate, realistic and have everything but the capital. We meet all your requirements.
Comment by Butler Jackson Nooner -
Pro football is a huge cash cow.
Proposal: Minor League Football
Very Tentative List of Teams and Stadiums:
Los Angeles – Los Angeles Stadium
San Antonio – Alamo Dome
Milwaukee – Miller Park
Orlando – Citrus Bowl
New York City – Yankee Stadium
Portland – PGE Park
Salt Lake City – Rice-Eccles Stadium
Las Vegas – Sam Boyd Stadium
Sacramento – Hornet Stadium
Memphis – Liberty Bowl
Oklahoma City – Boone Pickens Stadium
Played on mostly Sundays in the Fall just like the NFL with mostly the same rules.
Marketing Slogan: “Real Football, Real Cheap”
Key to Success: Control Costs
Comments:
Might be able to get a TV Contract from the off NFL network or local TV stations not carrying NFL games. Franchises need to prove to be solvent enough to completely fund salary cap and at least one full year of team expenses. League franchise fee paid out over the course of a number of years after each season (ie, pay after successful year or nothing owed). If we are successful we might be able to connect to the NFL in the same way that Major and Minor league baseball is connected.
Player pool: Marginal NFL players, Local college stars that cannot make the NFL, High School players that are not college material, etc.
Comment by Chris Nystrom -
Pingback: i know geronimo :: get your idea/project funded…now :: March :: 2009
I am probably one of the 95% of the dreamers, but when else would I get to pitch a concept to Mark. This probably breaks every one of Mark’s rules, but at the very least it will be entertaining!Here it goes…
Mark since the Cubs didn’t work out why not think a little out of the box. I read that one of the reasons you fell in love with the Cubs is because of the incredible Wrigleyville/Bleacher experience. The energy there is unbelieveable. Now combine that with the energy of a Las Vegas hotel. Simply put, you should put together an investment group to pursue a Las Vegas, Baseball themed hotel. One in which you could create any environment that you wanted. Just think about the possibilities.
Imagine the exterior of the hotel resembling the exterior of any ballpark. Probably a brown brick similar to the ballpark in Arlington. Upon entering the hotel, you notice that you really didn’t enter into the stadium, but rather you are now in the neighborhood outside of the stadium… kind of like being in Wrigleyville. There are many bars and corner shops throughout the neighborhood/hotel. This would be similar to the NY,NY Hotel.
In the middle of the hotel would be a little league sized stadium (probably with an exterior similar to the outside of the hotel).
Here’s where it gets fun. When creating your ballpark you’ll have a blank slate to create the coolest park in the world. Imagine, Waveland ave (of course it would be something different like Cuban St) beyond the LF bleachers with rooftop cafe’s, gambling, and lounges at the top. The street leads to a big yellow bridge (like PNC Park) that crosses over the hotel pool in CF. Right field may have a throwback upper deck like Arlington. Beyond the CF bridge is a Skyline (again like Pitsburgh) very similar to the NY,NY Hotel. This can be where some of your guest rooms are.
Speaking of rooms, your suites could be located anywhere throughout the hotel including the ballpark themselves such as where the skyboxes would be. They could even be in the rooftop or other neighborhood buildings.
The field, with the new fieldplay turf, could be used for anything. Since it is little league sized, it could be used as a field for Little league Tournaments and Camps. Heck, you could even host premier baseball and softball camps including aspects such as strength and conditioning. The kids would be accounted for the entire week. They would get their own rooms as part of the camp while Mom/Dad are in their own separate room and essentially on a separate vacation. At other times of the day you could have adults pay for 5 minutes of batting practice with softer/nerf type balls. They get excited trying to hit them into a section of the pool where fans are eagerly trying to catch the balls with your hotel logo on it. How about nightly whiffle ball tournaments or even father/son play catch time? Everybody could feel as if they are special. Maybe they have to walk through the dugout and tunnel to get to the workout areas or Spa.
Many people do plan their vacations around baseball. I’m not even talking about traveling to see their kids. What I’m saying is that people will plan a trip to San Francisco just to see the people in the kayak’s beyond the RF wall. They’ll vacation in Chicago just to go see the ivy in Wrigley, and Boston to see the Monster at Fenway. You’re stadium/hotel wouldn’t have one defining charasteric, it would have many. You could have the architectural firm HOK design the hotel… they have designed all the cool ballparks over the last two decades. This would be the coolest ballpark/hotel in the world and one that both families and 20-70 somethings would be able to identiy with.
Instead of being a part of the MLB and taking over something that has been previously established, you would be making a name for yourself as only you could. This project has Mark Cuban written all over it.
What would I expect in return? Well since a concept like this is not patentable (believe me I checked)… Hopefully a token compensation for striking the idea, alone with maybe some input on the creative side of the project. Oh, and maybe ownership of one of the suites. Finally (if I’m not being too greedy), maybe a job on the baseball side of things. Here’s me resume… Master’s in exercise science. I train athletes for a living, was offered a strength and conditioning job by the White Sox, and played minor league baseball.
Mark, at the very least I hope I entertained. Please let me know what you think or if there is another avenue that I can take.
Thanks and stay creative!
Thurman
Comment by Thurman Hendrix -
err, would be nice if folks posted biz plans to original post, but not my call obviously. those 5 business look really good.
Mark: Since this is open source, are you going to disclose initial investments?
hope you continue to read through and respond to posts, we where a bit late, but def looking forward to the feedback on our startup.
Comment by Hasan Luongo -
Buy Ubuntu for $100 million dollars and offer Microsoft the opportunity to shut down the company for $200 million.
Worked for Yahoo.
Comment by Rich -
Some great ideas. Would you look at entertainment ideas? New tv shows, etc? Let me know. I’m ready to pitch a few ideas and HDNet would be great for one of them.
Comment by Matt Monson -
Mr. Cuban,
I have sent this message in your “Contact” section and so I apologize in advance for sending both.
It is my understanding that even for a high-powered CEO, you are a man of the people. I wouldn’t even send this message if I didn’t think you might actually respond. I just read about your deal with Naked Pizza and think that is wonderful. I hope the entire thing goes through without a hitch.
My name is David Cariello. I am 27 and a graduate of Tulane University. I own a store just blocks from the campus that specializes in screen printing and embroidery. We have been around for 30 years and I am the third owner of the store. We also happen to be a few blocks from Naked Pizza.
Our company does a lot of work for local businesses, supplying custom shirts and apparel for them with their logo. I’m sure you probably will have absolutely no input on such a small decision like this, but I ask that you please pass along our information to whomever does. We would love to have Naked Pizza as an account. New Orleans is a unique city that takes pride in itself. I always ask that local businesses support other local businesses, particularly following the hurricane.
Thank you for your valuable time. As a young entrepreneur yourself, I am hoping you can appreciate my request.
Sincerely,
Dave Cariello
Campus.Connection@yahoo.com
(504) 866-8552
Comment by Dave Cariello -
Mark,
Here is a link to my business plan. It is a very profitable concept. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks.
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=F.56b54859-2ae6-451e-a446-feef9bdb4bac
Comment by Glen Wilson -
Hi Mark:
I reviewed a lot of these ideas, and I would like the opportunity to express my own; I have about 6 ideas that could be gold or could be s*#%, but they are all original. I realize this blog is for people to take ideas and build off them, but I would like to express them directly. Not one has a business plan of action (yes I read the specifications), but I need a little more insight as to whether they’re worth the time & effort before I decide to move forward. Thank you for time, and contact my email if you’re interested.
Kyle
Comment by Kyle -
posteryzed.com
This is a new line from an existing business. We are a sign and graphics company in Berkeley, California and have been established for over 24 years. We were an early adapter when computers were first used in the sign business in the 1980’s. There are lots of possibilities from the latest technologies being developed now. This is one that we feel has potential.
People will use the proprietary technology of posteryzed.com to upload their videos and break them down to a single frame image. They will be then be able to set up that image for T shirts, posters, magnetic signs and “fathead” type of die cut reusable decals, among other items available.
The product we sell is very scaleable as the customer will handle every aspect of the sale. They will provide the image, generate the design for print and approve the proof (using our software), they will write the production work order, create the shipping label and pay with credit card for products with pricing automatically generated by the piece or size.
Our costs besides labor, equipment and overhead (all existing) is the material and the technology. The material costs for decals, etc.is under $1.00 per square foot. As an existing manufacturer of these types of products we are experienced in the production side of the concept. Comparable costs for a “Fathead” type image are over $100. per unit, and those are stock images only. Copyrights and licensing are issues to be researched.
We will also sponsor a fantastic dunk at each Mavericks game. That play will be known as the “Posteryzed.com dunk of the Game”. There will be a promotion tied into the play and the concept to create traffic to the website, where the video clip will be available to break down and create your own take on the play. This could extend to other pro sports as well. Instead of buying a stock image of Dirk, you could get the exact frame you like of him dunking on someone’s head! Athletes could adopt the name as a new “trash talking” term: You got posteryzed.com!
Our investor will lease the state of the art digital printer and the necessary upgrades to our computer graphics system. We will be counting on you for management and technology expertise and leadership. You will be an equity partner in posteryzed.com.
Athletes and coaches have been breaking down film for as long as there has been film; now we will provide a place for anyone to break down film and create different products of the images they choose. Sports fans, youth sports players and their families are among the potential customers.
Thanks for your consideration.
Comment by Bart Schultz -
Hi Mark, reposting our BP 🙂
http://www.slideshare.net/wixi/wixi-feb09
Thx
Arthur
Comment by Arthur -
Pingback: The Entrepreneur’s Handbook
One I agree…95% don’t want to do the work. They think you open a business…and the money comes flowing in! It takes a minimum of 70 hours a week. Your life becomes the business…sacrifice, work, planning, research…all of these things and more. I did the research over 4 years of it. I have worked for over 15 years in this industry at every single single position. And yes, restaurants are ROUGH…thats why I developed my hybrid! That way they have a restaurant that funds itself through 4 separate avenues. In a sense it becomes self funding after start-up. Yes the food must be above reproach excellent. I won’t give up…over 4 years I have invested my time. Unfortunately being the little guy…this idea will die with me because I lack the funds to make it a reality.
Comment by Denton -
Mark,
Thank you for the opportunity. I have a master plumbing license and a state plumbing inspector license. I had a successful plumbing business for six years before my wife passed away. I needed insurance and took a job as an inspector.
I used to work for a local city as a plumbing inspector. While there, I noticed families having to pay exhorborant out of pocket expenses to replace water heaters and plumbing repairs.
I was told by one plumbing company they installed 200 water heaters a year.
For instance, some citizens told me they paid 1800 dollars for a water heater, not a tankless water heater, to be replaced. There was one woman who paid 1800 dollars for a 3/4” water line to be installed in her front yard.
A water heater bought at wholesale cost can be obtained for 250 dollars. It takes 4 hours to install maximum. Here is a breakdown of the actual cost of the installation:
• Materials: (water heater, misc. parts) $350.00
• Labor: (plumber and helper 4 hrs.@$40 per hour): $160.00
• Payroll taxes and insurance (30%): $ 48.00
• Total Raw costs: $558.00
• Overhead (20%) $112.00
• Total cost before profit: $670.00
The water line to the person’s house if the same above formula was implemented would have a total cost before profit of $ 640.00
My business plan, Maverick Plumbing would offer plumbing at an affordable price to those who could afford to pay the cost upfront. For those who could not though, especially with this economy, people would be able to finance the repairs similar to the way “Aaron’s” does. For instance a computer you could buy for $700.00 ends up costin around $1200.00 before it is finally paid for. While this is in the long term more expensive to the consumer it allows them to have the repair done.
Imagine for instance, the water heater which cost $670.00. If a person could pay up front the installation would cost them $1000.00; a 33% profit. If the customer could not afford the total cost they would pay $700.00 and $100.00 a month for 6 months. This would bring and additional $300.00 in profit or a margin of 48%. If they needed more time they could pay $75 a month for 12 months for a invoice of $1600.00 or a 58% profit.
Even if every customer paid 1000 dollars for a water heater alone this would bring in $200,000.00 gross income and a profit of $66,000.00.
1. It can be an existing business or a start up.
• This Business would be a start up.
2. It can not be a business that generates any revenue from advertising. Why ? Because I want this to be a business where you sell something and get paid for it. Thats the only way to get and stay profitable in such a short period of time.
• I would be hands on and at first do much of the work myself before hiring workers. This would have to have start up cost of a truck(s), insurance, and advertisement
3. It MUST BE CASH FLOW BREAK EVEN within 60 days
• I am an excellent salesman. In addition to the repair business I could sell commercial plumbing jobs. The quality of work done in the industry today is very poor. I have enough contacts to obtain work almost immediately.
4. It must be profitable within 90 days.
• Although it would not pay off the cost of the initial start up, there would be profits coming in almost immedidately and eventually would be lucractive. The start up cost could totally be written off taxes.
5. Funding will be on a monthly basis. If you dont make your numbers, the funding stops
• I would make sure the numbers are achieved.
6. You must demonstrate as part of your plan that you sell your product or service for more than what it costs you to produce, fully encumbered
• See above
7. Everyone must work. The organization is completely flat. There are no employees reporting to managers. There is the founder/owners and everyone else
• See above
8. You must post your business plan here, or you can post it on slideshare.com , scribd.com or google docs, all completely public for anyone to see and/or download
9. I make no promises that if your business is profitable, that I will invest more money. Once you get the initial funding you are on your own
10. I will make no promises that I will be available to offer help. If I want to , I will. If not, I wont.
11. If you do get money, it goes into a bank that I specify, and I have the ability to watch the funds flow and the opportunity to require that I cosign any outflows.
12. In your business plan , make sure to specify how much equity I will receive or how I will get a return on my money.
• You would receive 50% of all profits for a period up to all intitial costs are recovered and 20% profit for a period to be decided between us.
13. No mult-level marketing programs (added 2/10/09 1pm)
Mark, there could also be a fee for people to be able to be in the program if it was desired. People pay $500.00 a year now for “home repair” insurance which practically pays nothing.
The company, Maverick plumbing would be a hit because of the name recognition. It would have a million dollar liability insurance policy which would erase any liability to you.
Comment by Jay Parr -
RE: NAKED Pizza
My son goes to Tulane University in New Orleans. On a recent visit I was able to try Naked Pizza. I have to say, it was not what I expected after being told it was healthy pizza. It was excellent. In fact, it’s the best pizza I have ever had. And healthy to boot! These guys are on to something and look forward to Naked Pizza in Colorado.
Sam
Comment by Sam Walters -
Mark —
Loved your post. It is getting so frustrating to see the lazy, irresponsible and do-thing crowd being rewarded while the producers are continually punished via high taxes and other theft.
WE HAVE NO VOICE ANYMORE!!!
Comment by David -
Pingback: SLAM ONLINE | » Mark Cuban’s Warning to Lazy Mavs
Response to Tom Kelly posting above about NAKEDpizza.
Tom – good point. But, two of every three adults in the US are overweight or obese, 20 million people have diabetes, our joints and guts ache, our arteries are clogged, hypertension is common, Alzheimer’s is on the rise, as are autism, asthma, and we are popping more pills than any generation in human history. Americans are sick people. Game over. We lost and its time for everyone in the food chain to step up to the plate – and that means fats food as well. We ate our way into this problem and we will need to eat our way out. As you know, the mood of the country is shifting. This is why nearly 70% of the adults in a recent poll said that are actively seeking healthier choices while dining out. This is also why you see an explosion in “healthier” foods – even though most of them on our supermarket shelves do nothing to change our health in a meaningful way.
Pizza business is an interesting animal – as you know. Given that we only do carry out and delivery – we limit our competition to others doing the same. Pizza joints who expand their menu to offer a diversity of food items automatically expand their “competition” to include very restaurant in their area. Stay with me for a second. For example, in the Uptown area of New Orleans where we are located – where some 30,000 plus people live in our delivery area – there are approx 250 restaurants. If we had a pizzeria restaurant with wine, pasta, dessert, etc – we would be competing with 250 or so other businesses for customer dollars. However, we only have 2 competitors (1 Papa Johns and 1 Dominos). By limiting our business to carry out and delivery, we can focus our healthier product with laser beam like precision – something that is hard to do in a full-scale restaurant.
Our business model is not built on “pleasing all the people all the time” but rather “offering 100% of what a small percent of the population is seeking with increasing frequency.” In other words, the movement is underway and we are positioning for that wave. What our data and the published data suggest is that within a given delivery area – say, like within the area of the pizza place you owned (or still own) – there is an increasing number of those customers who are 1) moving away from traditional pizza because of its negative impacts to health and 2) seeking healthier alternatives and, importantly, looking for “reasons” to eat pizza again.
Interestingly, we find that most pizzerias who attempt a healthier offering do so by simply offering a wheat crust or reducing a little of this or a little of that. They then rely on the customers understanding of that healthier product to sell that product – that is, they do nothing to educate their customer. We see this over and over. As with anything, it requires some heavy lifting to educate the customer. It also requires a sophisticated understanding of 1) your customer base (ie, drilling down into their data) and 2) the realization that offering both only results in the obvious – ie, some of your customers will chose and some will not. And this, though most people do not realize it when viewed from the position of a pizzeria owner who has a full menu offering, is the opportunity.
As stated above, we focus our business in a laser-like way by 1) only being carry out and delivery (which is a more nimble and adaptive model), 2) only offering healthier pizza and; 3) offering a healthier pizza in a meaningful way. Said differently, we are carving out that percentage of the population that goes into those small pizzerias looking for the wheat crust, or those customers looking for the little hearts on the menus at their local Bennigans or TGI Fridays and saying, “hey we do 100% of what you looking for and we know you are gonna eat pizza at least once a month or more.” Importantly, we go way beyond a wheat crust and built a product on sounds food science, nutrition, and forward thinking in its health impact in our customers. Our background in nutritional science allows us to analyze the “field” in a very different way from science, food policy, consumer trends, food technology, medical science, marketing and so forth. In other words, we did not create a healthier product by simple throwing an organic tomato on the top or add a few scoops of wheat flour to the dough mix – we went way beyond that. And the pizza, of course, must also deliver on taste – which it does, and is not by accident. Its a sophisticated process that does not involve adding more sugar or salt to please the pallet – its more interesting than that and more sustainable – and forward thinking. We take great pains to position our product to take advantage of food trends hat are 5 to 10 years in the future. That data is available now – but unless you move in that world or know that its important, you will not see it.
And lastly, we strongly believe that all pizza in the future – and all fast food for that matter – will be sold the way we are selling it today. However, in order for it to work, you must also believe in what you are doing and know “why” its important. We see our business as a moral imperative in that the pizza business has a positive role to play in improving the health of our citizens and we can do so with a great tasting product that at the end of the day, also make good business sense. As an industry, we need to stop hurting our customers and provide them a way to make healthier choices – but it requires effort from all sides in the provider-consumer dynamic.
***PS any pizza joint owner interested in what we are doing and would like some feedback on how you might improve your product offering to improve the health of your customers, please let us know. We would gladly help for nothing. We live and breath this stuff and truly want to change the industry. We come from a position of knowledge and want to help use that knowledge to help others.
Comment by Jeff and Randy (NakedPizza) -
Much Success to those entrepreneurs who make it past Mark’s
strict stimulus plan rules. I have no interest in being a
Mark Cuban stimulus plan bailoutee.
I run a business and I still work a regular job. If I can’t
make it on my own money I don’t deserve any bailout.
And I’m not stupid enough to play the suckers game, that
being the stock market. Work a job if you have to, and start a small business you can be an insider in and love.
As well, just spend money in your business you can
afford to spend. Learn all you can and enjoy life.
peace and success to all,
Mark
Comment by mark -
Pingback: A private stimulus plan for startups | College-Startup
I’m back I need to finish telling you about my system now that we’re producing power those sunslates create heat so I have a solar thermal water system that is installed first and the sunslates on top heating the water in the thermal water heater now you have a system that not only creates electricity it also heats the water this product is available and ready to be installed there would be four work groups we could put to work some will end up solar and solar thermal water certified the work groups would be laborers carpenters plumbers electrical all could be trained to do each others jobs then we all work together to get these projects complete all hands on deck anyways back to the solar thermal water system why would you need you can take longer showers wash clothes more often heat your pool and spa also you could heat your house with it now your knocking off you electric bill if you heat you water another way you almost eliminate that bill which in the end when this system is turned on this house owner starts making a profit immediatly thier next bill will be alot smaller now they’ll have extra money every month to maybe buy groceries in some cases in Texas our summuer bills are over a thousand dollars a month that alot of money extra for a family to have so now we have a product just waiting to be installed and make a profit for everybody involved it fits your stimulus plan and President Obama Plan to create jobs and get the economy going also giving the American people a break on thier utilities I hope you think this is a good plan I’m open for feed back Thank You Thank You Very Much
Comment by David Hughes -
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfbws5pg_0gkhpxjdb
Dear Mr. Cuban,
It’s Ryan Girardot again. I am not sure if you have read my previous posts or not, as I am sure you have alot to look over (obviously). I am a senior at Forney High School, in Forney, Texas, and have been living in the Forney community for a long time. I also founded a 3 on 3 full court basketball league, the SBA (sbabasketball.com). In my time here in Forney, I have noticed that the one thing we lack most of all is entertainment, so I put together a business plan, and went out in my community to gather support. I have received verbal confirmation from many bands, the school for prom, and a church to hold services there on Sunday. We would also cater to the growing SBA and other leagues who wanted to hold games there. Please take a look at my business plan and tell me what you think, as we already have secured tenants, events, and a building, and we are now just lacking the initial start up fee. Thanks alot for your time, and again, please tell me what you think! http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfbws5pg_0gkhpxjdb
Sincerely,
Ryan Girardot
SBA Founder and Forney Event Center Planner
sbabasketball.com
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfbws5pg_0gkhpxjdb
Comment by Ryan Girardot -
Hi Mark. I have seen a lot of great “big business” ideas requiring hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars capital so far but I wondered if you are interested in stimulating the small business plans as well? I know a few thousand dollars return in 90 days may not mean a lot to your economy but there are many of us who are hard working who could use the break and help a few others along the way… What is your position on this? Thanks!
Comment by Adrienne Scott -
Mark my business plan coinsides with President Obama my product is solar sunslates there energy cells that are installed on a slate we import from europe it’s the roofing material they use in europe for centuries very durable so when we incorporate the solar energy cells with this slate we end up with sunslate which was designed for the weather in Texas and Florida our product is in production and is ready for Texas has UL approval once installed can start showing a profit for both parties the seller and the buyer the buyer has been offered from Oncor energey they will pay the first 1/3 of the initial cost of installation on a 26,000.00 that would be apprx.savings of 7,000.00 now that system costs 19,000.00 now the Texas Legislation want’s to ad more incentive and rebates so solar in Texas will have apprx.30%to50% off solar now after you have this system installed you now become a provider of electricity which goes into a bank at the of the year what’s left in the bank the electric co.will send a check for now you could say that’s a bonus from your solar system I had a projet ready to go so I could start training my crew and get this crew working well I can’t get a permit to install the system on my business roof or any roof because no one nows in Texas how to code the solar now I’m at a stand still I was told that maybe by the end of the year or possible next year well now I’m looking at another city that will accept my system I think I found one I’ll no for sure by this weekend this is the problem I’m running into again Mark I’m not asking for money I’m asking for guidance, to me right now,that’s worth a million dollars I have a product that’s ready to go to put people to work at a respectable wage and training if you leave my company you leave as a certified solar installer I think this is what President Obama wants but no body in Texas wants to throw thier hat in the ring to get things going Thank you again Howard
Comment by David Hughes -
Mark, am loving all the great ideas. Have you looked at them all? It seems to me there are some really great ideas and business plans out there that have not been addressed. Particularly the online poker room security one, thoughts?
Comment by Schoon -
I posted an idea late in the game (1500+) Did you continue to look at those later posted ideas? Mine originally was posted and the next day it must have been taken down, but I put it back up, but never heard anything. Does that mean pass?
Comment by Jon -
“Build your own CDN.” The concept is even simpler than it sounds. We can sell turn-key CDNs instantly, easily, and very cheap — we can make money on customers who spend under $1000 per month, and customers do not need to pay any non-reocurring fees, or invest any capital in servers or network. When I say turn-key, I mean it literally works immediately, all you have to do is install your application or upload your content. When I say easily, I mean you do not need any knowledge aside from running your app. Any Linux sysadmin can do it. And it’s hard to break in a way that would affect end-users. If you break your app on a node, we can detect that and reroute users to another node. You can’t break other users’ apps because you have your own, dedicated resources which are separate from all other customers. And you can do all of this with one single vendor, us. You do not need to go to 2+ different IP backbones, co-location companies that span 9 time zones, a supplier for servers and switches and routers, etc. There is only one company you need to deal with to create your CDN, and one company to blame if something goes wrong or you are not happy about performance.
Why would you want your own CDN? Aside from people who want to sell it to end-customers, who should probably just go get a sales job at AKAMAI or Limelight, there are many reasons. Cost — we will be very inexpensive. Control — it is your CDN and you can make it work exactly the way you want. Security — You can use SSL, HTTP or Cookie authentication, or whatever other means you decide. Flexibility — You aren’t just distributing your content, you can distribute your *application* That means AJAX calls, Adobe Flash client/server database queries, form submissions, etc. are all not just possible, but they are just like doing it on your own web server. Except your app is replicated globally, so it’s faster for end-users; and if a node goes down, your traffic is routed to a nearby node and end-users do not notice a problem.
We will be in business and generating revenue by April. We do not need to develop software, billing & collection platform, support tools, or anything else, because one partner has already done so for his existing business, and that is part of his contribution to this business. All the development needed is to extend his web portal to support a few more choices, do a small amount of integration with our network, and re-brand it with this new business name. This is “easy for us,” and we are very confident it will be ready in April.
We have used existing business relationships to get everything else we need very cheap, and in just the right quantities to get started without waste. We have a partner who is contributing the time of his 24×7 tech support personnel who are his employees that work in his offices, not out-sourced people in Asia. We have the needed technical resources, man-power, and business relationships to start this business with almost zero overhead and almost zero waste.
We also have the money we need to get started. So why am I posting here? Because we have to cut corners to fund it ourselves. If we have access to more capital, we can do a few more things right (still without waste) and we can confidently tell customers who ask, “Yes, we can handle your growth.” “Yes, we have enough resources for your application right now.” I don’t want to lose a $100k/year customer because we need a month to get things ready for them and somebody else can do it faster, or they lose confidence in us because we can’t do it right away. I don’t want to buy anything I don’t plan to use within a month or two, but I also do not want to lose out on opportunities because my resources are limited or I put off spending $5k because I would rather have cash in the bank than a piece of gear I don’t know if I will need right now or 2 months from now.
Can we make money? Yes, like I said, we can sell our service for under $1000/month and make money doing it, and we can do so with surprisingly few customers because we have all the right people, and some excellent existing business relationships that we are putting to work. And we know where the initial customers are going to come from, and are confident we can get enough of them not only to break-even, but to still break-even while doubling our initial footprint and improving our service, within 2 – 3 months from the date we go live.
We don’t need any employees, let alone managers. The partners are all participating, active partners who will each have a vested interest in the success of the business.
How much is it worth to us to have a “deep pocket” to share the risk and help us do this better than we can with our own resources? Everything is negotiable, but at least 10%, more depending on what the person brings to the table. There is value in a name. If I can tell people, “Mark Cuban is one of our shareholders,” that has value in itself. If I can say to a big potential customer who I don’t have enough resources to take on instantly, “Mark Cuban is one of our shareholders, and I have to take this proposal to him, because we need his authorization to buy some servers we need for your service,” that has value too. It means I’m not going to buy a bunch of stuff I don’t need, because I don’t want to give Mark Cuban (or whoever) more shares than he already owns; but if I need to buy some equipment to get a customer, and that customer is going to allow me to significantly improve my bottom line, Mark Cuban is probably going to say sure, I will invest the money needed for those servers, because I believe I will get a better return on that investment in servers than if I put my money somewhere else.” That’s worth more. If a Mark Cuban has a business that can benefit from owning a CDN but doesn’t have the technical skill or desire to do it themselves, but they can promise some revenue, that has value too. So if someone was just going to write a check and say, go work, earn us some money, 10% is about where I would negotiate from. If they are willing to attach their name to it, give customers confidence in the financial backing, commit some revenue, etc. then it’s easy for me to stomach giving up a bigger share of the business.
Finally, I would like to thank Mark for his economic stimulus posts. I had this idea on February 18th, the day I read his second stimulus post. At first, I was like, man, why would anyone post their idea on a blog so someone else can copy it? Then I thought, there are a lot of things that I can do, and that my associates and friends can do, that other people can’t copy very easily. There are things we could get together and collaborate on that none of us can do by ourselves, and someone wanting to copy those things would have to go hire employees or have relationships with talented people and established businesses like we do. Then I thought, what is something new I could do that really does suit Mark Cuban’s requirements? Break-even in 60 days? Well, it better not require complex negotiations with customers, or big customers who are afraid of small vendors. It better not have a lot of overhead. It better not take a long time to work the kinks out of it. It better be an idea that is almost obvious, but is hard or expensive for customers to do by themselves, and easy to do if the work and overhead is bundled up into a business.
Then I came up with this idea, and refined it by discussing it with the people who will now become my business partners in this new venture. So Mark, even if no one who reads your blog invests money in some of these businesses people are talking about, you are doing a good thing by giving people a framework to think in, and a little kick in the pants. I really want to thank you for making me think.
Finally, if any other readers here are interested in contacting me, my email address is jeffsw6@gmail.com. If you want to talk about investing, want to criticize my idea, tell me what you think is good or bad, how I might make it work better or reach out to more potential customers, or whatever, I am really excited about this concept, and it is what I have spent most of my free time on for the last two weeks. I’ll be happy to set aside an hour of phone time for anyone who wants to talk about it.
Thanks for reading
—
Jeff
Comment by Jeff -
Mr. Cuban
Alaskan Harvest is a mail-order Seafood company. We sell only Wild Alaskan Seafood, and have been introducing a few new products such as 100% natural Alaskan Beef.
We’ve been in existence for over 10 years and going strong in mail-order. We’re able to produce our own marketing materials because out of the 2.5 people that currently work there, we all have graphic arts or sales experience. Through the last few years we have obviously been downsizing and tweaking our products to provide the best products and we have large mailing lists and regularly send out mass mail material to our list.
Many of our customers are located in areas where access to fresh quality seafood is not possible, and many others have adopted the lifestyle of seafood twice a week, which we preach!
I’d love to share more direct information if you are interested further. I believe we are a great business because we are well established but just under funded. We handle all of our own marketing and advertising and this way can remain highly productive and cost effective.
Respectfully,
Aleksi L.
p.s. Please mind the website, we are currently moving over to a Magento-based system from our older Miva version.
Comment by Aleksi -
Hello Mark,
As you probably know the medical field is still going very well. At least it is in my area of expertise. We have a patent pending on our device and have been in business for 4 years. Every year we have doubled our gross revenue. We are currently serving Texas, Oklahoma and some of Louisiana. Please check out our website and see if we might be what you would be looking for in an investment. My business partner and I have a strong background in medical sales and know every aspect of our market. We have had several opportunities to go national but so far we have chosen to to grow slower and steady to this point. We have just recently invented some new technology that we are beginning to get inquiries all over the country about.
Best Regards,
Gary Hale
Comment by Gary -
Are you going to franchise Naked Pizza?
I’d like to open one in Dallas and would happily co-invest. Is this an option or will you seek right of first refusal?
Wickler: great idea when I read about it.
P5 Foods: Please make a gluten free version and sell these at Naked Pizza!
Tycoon Online:
I tried to use this site and no dice – I didn’t get activation code. I’ll try again later.
Thanks for posting this Mark. Great idea and it’s folks like you and other entrepreneurs (investors or otherwise) who are keeping are economy moving while it takes a short vacation.
Comment by Alex Leverington -
The operation of the Wickler is not clear to me. Do patrons carry it around with them?? Is there a business plan I can read somewhere? I did a bit of Google research without much information coming up. I would be interested in learning more.
-JP
Comment by JP -
Mark,
Concept: City for a Cure is a socially responsible start-up, that will make giving and donations a more fun and rewarding experience. The platform will encourage children to give at an earlier age and those that don’t give now, to do so. No longer, will your donation simply mean a tax write-off or a personal pat on the back. City for a Cure will offer you a brick in our new virtual city that you can admire for years, share with you family and friends, or use to memorialize a loved one. Similar to a walk of fame at your high school, City for a Cure will grant you a virtual brick every time you donate which you may personalize.
Donations will be held until the end of the month at which time your money will be given to the cause of your choice. This monthly interest plus a 1% fee is the way we keep the lights on. The color of your brick will identify which organization you donated to. For example an Aids organization may grant a red brick, while a donation to breast cancer will award a pink brick. The personalized word you add to your brick is your choice and can memorialize a relative who has passed away or may offer a word of encouragement.
Comment by J -
Pizza delivery = liability. I don’t for one second think I’m enlightening you 🙂 but if you open a place that flips pies and you deliver…and you run drivers not as independant contractors but as employees, get lots of that there bidness insurance. And even if they are 1099’s, our old buddies at the IRS are taking a very hard look at independant contractors vs. employees as we speak.
First time on your blog…this is really pretty cool what you’re doing.
Comment by Kevin Phillips -
Hi Mark,
I previously held this back because I didn’t feel I could in good conscience claim 60 days to break-even; however, I think you will find our “tremendous upside potential” is there. 120 days could be very doable with a cash infusion. We are currently updating our cash flow projections.
The product is http://www.SifakaWorld.com. Sifaka World is a subscription-based virtual world drawing many of our converts from Club Penguin (sold to Disney for $700M). We have a wildlife theme and have officially partnered with CCF (Cheetah Conservation Fund). Our eco-theme is more Lion King than PBS — we feature wildlife-themed avatars and games, but our central plot line does not revolve around recycling, planting trees, etc. There are enough sites out there trying to be green but not respecting the desire to have FUN and support a good cause. We let you have fun first, and then have a very explicit connection where your membership benefits an endangered animal. I personally can drool over a Prius, but have no interest in playing recycling games online.
Competing virtual have launched with budgets > $5M — we launched on $500k and believe our quality is superior. What we need now is more depth.
We have 3 founders, 3 servers and 2 moderators which cost us < $20k / month. We are a lean, extremely hard working team. Our CEO handles all of the accounting. Our lawyer is working pro-bono with the understanding that he would be involved in an acquisition talks. Our CTO is our database admin, web programmer, web designer, ad campaign manager, and a major contributor to the Flash development. In other words, we wear a lot of hats.
In terms of job creation, we are able to keep 2 game studious and 1 animation studio quite busy when we are in full product dev mode. In addition, our need to hire moderators scales directly with the growth of our site. Our moderators are responsible, computer savvy people who need some extra cash or are out of work. We have the potential to create many more work-from-home jobs for smart, hard-working people that need the extra work.
We have $150k in the bank, but we insist on staying a step ahead. With 3 founders, we can’t afford to cut it too close. With money in the bank, we stay efficient. Thus we are seeking money NOW and not in 3 months.
In 3 months, we have registered 120,000+ accounts. Just recently we started offering paid memberships, but have not yet expired free users’ free trials. Thus only members who wanted to immediately become full members have joined – about $2k in the past few weeks. By comparison, Club Penguin has a 6% conversion rate to paid subscriptions, which would represent at least $36k / month for us. We could break even with about half that rate, based on today’s signups only.
In order to start making (enough) paid conversions, we feel that we need a financial boost to accelerate a few key components to the site. We have existing relationships with multiple contractors ready to do this work. This is the one portion I really can’t share here — can’t be publishing our product dev plans.
Take a peak at the site if you can, and I would be very pleased to hear from you. I can of course supply more information by email, or would be EXCITED to discuss our company over the phone. I love to talk about Sifaka World, as it is exactly the kind of company I have always wanted to create.
Comment by Brian Yennie -
Hello Mark,
It is good to hear that you are actively pursuing your “Stimulus Plan.” I Have been monitoring your progress with respect to your plan and have been reviewing several of the presentations myself. Once you have the opportunity, take a look at Volare Gear Inc. (SlideShare) It is a excellent business idea, that will be profitable and provide the job creation impact you are looking for.
Comment by Dan Dorsett -
Thanks for finally addressing why you didn’t take to my proposal, Mark.
Comment by VonGuard -
FWIW, Tycoon Online looks like a good bet to me (online games are my field, and I did web-based management sims for a few years with a startup, it just wasn’t railroad time yet). Online games are poised for a huge surge as WoW cock-blocks everything Epic Fantasy, the industry branches out from necessity, and Digital Distribution finally supplants the retail channel for PC games.
I didn’t submit anything for your review because I didn’t have anything that could meet your turn-around requirements, but you could do a lot worse for dipping your toe into it.
Full Disclosure: This might be the unknown Swedish developer I was talking to through a recruiter before I decided moving to Sweden wasn’t an option. But I never got any money from them and not enough information to even be sure it’s them, so I don’t feel there’s a conflict.
–Dave
Comment by Dave Rickey -
Hello Mark, Thanks for giving us little guys a chance. I have already suceeded in a business I started 15 years ago so I now the expence and hard work that goes into such a venture. I don’t really look forward to strarting from scratch again but I have an idea I feel is just too good to stuff in a closet. I had a stroke 3 years ago and lost the left side of my body so many things are now very difficult if not imposible to do. When I was lying in rehab before coming home I began to think about my pets and how I would take care of them. The main concern being bathing. I therefore developed a powder that when apply not only cleans but smells good and kills fleas. I just need the capital for a small plant, material, packaging, etc. Lets Talk……
Creda
Comment by Creda Cox -
Pingback: There’s No Replacement for Hard Work | Adam McFarland's Blog - Musings of a Balding 26 Year Old Entrepreneur
Wow, I like the Wickler product. Data being infused into areas that haven’t had a lot of data yet – from the Oakland A’s and the Dallas Mavericks on down – provides such an immediate competitive advantage. If the price is right, I can’t imagine a bar or night club that wouldn’t be able to take advantage of this technology. Wish I could get in on it 🙂
Comment by Mike -
As a 20 year veteran of the pizza industry, I wish Naked Pizza and your investment well but I’ll be surprised.
Every attempt we made over the years to healthify our pizza was met with customer approval- but they actually kept ordering the regular fattening stuff.
Comment by Tom Kelly -
Isn’t Naked Pizza a restaurant? Am I missing something?
From MC> They are delivery based
Comment by Adam Fleischman, Los Angeles -
Hello Mark it is not to late to bail me out I’m a small insulation company. I need some capitol for advertising and materials. This is good business for our environment, because it saves energy. Radiant Barrier is a hot new product available to reduce energy consumption. I will really appreciated if you bail me out.
Sincerely:
Marvin Burgos
Comment by alex ochoa -
Interesting businesses. That Wickler is a particularly clever idea! Mark, have you thought about making this contest into a TV show on HD Net? There is a popular show in Canada called Dragon’s Den which is a group of rich investors who have people come in with business ideas and then invest if the business looks like a good one.
Comment by keldrin -
Mark, I have enjoyed immensely watching you cook up your own stimulus plan. I believe as of right now you are winning over the government in action that results in real accomplishment. I believe you are 100% correct in your assessment of those who talk and those who hustle in order to succeed. Thanks for your unique point of view.
Comment by Who's Got Room -
Hi Mark,
I am currently in the process of acquiring a BCHL hockey team and I would like to see if you would look at the possibility of investing in a team. I’m currently negotiating for the franchise for roughly $800,000, and I am in the search for a partner in addition to my $400,000 investment. The team is profitable primarily through ticket sales, and through additional revenue from sponsorships.
As you’re probably aware, the league has produced a number of elite players and prospects in the past (Brett Hull, Mark Recchi, Paul Kariya, Brendan Morrison, Scott Gomez), and more recently Kyle Turris (3rd overall) and Riley Nash (21st overall) in the 2007 NHL entry draft.
If you eventual become successful in acquiring an NHL club, it may provide some collaboration potential for scouting information and or facilitate scouting for Western Canada.
Please let me know if you would look at the possibility of this venture.
Sincerely,
Sam
Comment by Sam -