Revolutionizing the Restaurant Business

Each day, Inc.'s reporters scour the Web for the most important and interesting news to entrepreneurs. Here's what we found today.

The next generation of Groupon competitors? Since Groupon launched just three years ago, the Chicago-based company has attracted scores of "me-too" competitors offering similar discount services. But many small businesses that use Groupon question its actual value, says Mike Periu in a post today on OPEN Forum. "There have been many well-documented horror stories of mom and pop stores being flooded with “Groupon groupies” that lead to thousands of dollars in losses," he writes. Enter Village Vines, a New York-based start-up that takes an alternative approach to selling: they partner with restaurants, who then are able to offer discounts to customers in off-peak hours through their service. The goal? Fill excess capacity. "Unlike Groupon, your restaurant won’t have 500 people knock down your door at once to obtain the 90 percent discount on your appetizer special," Periu says. "You are selling your excess reservations. Once they are filled, there is nothing more to sell."

Apple sues Amazon over "App Store." What's in a name? On Tuesday, Amazon's Appstore went live and it appears Apple is less than thrilled. "Last week, Apple sued Amazon in a California federal court, asking a judge to block Amazon from using the term "Appstore," CNN reports. "Three years ago, Apple applied for—and was granted—a trademark on its own "App Store," an online software emporium that now offers more than 350,000 applications for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch and has delivered more than 10 billion downloads." Apple claims that customers are likely to confuse the difference between the two "stores," but it's also easy to imagine Amazon's frustration. After all, it doesn't take a marketing guru to come up with the simply-named "App Store."

The best education for an innovator. Is it engineering or the humanities? Vivek Wadhwa, a professor at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, weighs in on the issue on TechCrunch. Wadhwa once agreed with the hard-science teachings of Bill Gates, but now supports the logic of Steve Jobs, who once said, "It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing and nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices." While Wadha acknowledges the the role of the liberal arts in technology, he also notes that jobs for liberal arts majors are harder to come by. Ultimately, he advises people to study the subject that appeals to them most. After all, many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs came from fields other than engineering and mathematics.

Entrepreneurs test the waters. Water shortage is a truly global issue: The World Health Organization's report last year found about 884 million people worldwide lack access to satisfactory drinking water. Increasingly, entrepreneurs and business leaders are finding ways to make water usage more efficient, and maybe even finding some profit in between. According to The New York Times, entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors are stepping up to solve some of the most prevalent issues in the water industry, such as micropollutants, leaks, and aging infrastructure. Start-up companies like Seattle's Hydrovolts, Philadelphia's BlackGold Biofuels, and Toronto's XPV Capital are all working on solutions to utilize water power and even putting "waste water" to use. "The ways we solved water issues in the 20th century are not going to work in the 21st century," David Henderson, a partner at XPV Capital, told The Times.

The birth of boomer start-ups. Rates of entrepreneurship are 50 percent higher for people between the ages of 55 and 65 than people between 20 and 34, according to a study by the Kauffman Foundation. But why? The Wall Street Journal ponders that question, after publishing questions about working during retirement. So, are start-ups by "mature workers" born out of creativity, curiosity, and boredom ... or out of necessity—say, a layoff, or the sour economy. What do you think is driving entrepreneurship among baby boomers these days?

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NuevoStage Brings Groupon Type Buying To Band Bookings (Blog Herald)

NuevoStage wants to do for band bookings what Groupon has done for retail
shopping. The site, currently in Alpha testing allows bands to sell tickets
for their shows through the website, while sharing those upcoming gigs with
fans. Site founder Maxwell Wessel and co-founder Chris Allen�came up with the
idea when they realized that many [...]

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How Do You Figure Out The BIG Picture?

Source: MiriamBuhr.com | Author: Miriam Buhr

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Is the "Check In" Era Nearly Over?

Each day, Inc.'s reporters scour the Web for the most important and interesting news to entrepreneurs. Here's what we found today.

Is the "check in" nearly dead? Could location-aware check-in services such as Foursquare, Gowalla, and Facebook Places have already jumped the shark? Blasphemy, you say? Well, ReadWriteWeb's guest author Mark Watkins performs a pretty in-depth analysis of user bases, traffic, and check-in rates for Foursquare and Facebook Places—and the numbers might just speak louder than your sniffles, social-media junkie. Watkins, who is the founder of a "fun-things-to-do" recommendation engine, writes that while Foursquare has shown impressive year-over-year sign-up growth, "this means check-ins per user declined from 0.5 per person to 0.4. It also suggests that many of those five million users aren't active." Think about it: How many of your friends actually check-in regularly and post that on Facebook? Is it about 1 percent? Are check-ins going the way of the Hacky Sack and the eight-track?

How to get stuff done. In the latest podcast for the Harvard Business Review, the hyper-efficient Bob Pozen speaks with HBR's Justin Fox about how to be highly productive. "Let's concentrate on results, not on hours clocked," says Pozen, a business leader who wears hats in finance, academia, and on numerous corporate boards. Pozen's principles for higher productivity include think before you read (i.e. don't read randomly; read with an agenda in mind.) He also says you must know your comparative advantage—that is, what does your organization most need from you specifically? For example, if your company relies on you for PR or sales or recruiting, you should look to see a., if you are good at these tasks, and b., anyone else can do them just as well. Do what you and only you can do.

Rent too high? Blame the start-ups! From the days of the Gold Rush in 1849 to the technology boom in the 1990s, San Francisco's consumer-driven economy has long provided a haven for business opportunity and innovation. However, the influx of new start-ups and Silicon Valley firms to the city proper has caused a spike in rent costs, GigaOM reports. The average asking price for a loft space in the SoMA (South of Market) district, a hotbed for tech start-ups, has nearly doubled over the last year. "Everyone wants these creative spaces," said Blake Luger, a broker at Kidder Matthews, a commercial real estate firm based in Seattle. "But demand is growing and the supply is not." We can't help but wonder: Is this really start-up gentrification of the cool neighborhoods?

"Secret sauce" for jobs. You know Uncle Sam is looking at you, entrepreneurs. For Tim Kane, it's not rocket science: Cutting taxes will help entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs will create more jobs, more jobs will boost the economy. Kane spelled out this theory in a lengthy Huffington Post column yesterday. He writes: "What's the secret sauce for job creation? Step one is to identify who actually creates jobs (hint: entrepreneurs), and it seems like all parties in Washington finally agree on this one. Step two is to find the best way to, if you can forgive the term, stimulate them." Stimulate them, indeed. Kane calls for a less progressive tax system to limit the tax burden on entrepreneurs with sole proprietorships or LLCs, a solution which he claims is "sure to please no one." Still, he draws from his own paper to prove that start-ups create 150 percent of new jobs in the United States. As existing firms lose an average of 1 million jobs, start-ups create an average of 3 million. But are lower taxes really the answer? Inc. investigated that theory last month.

Who cheats on their taxes? University of Chicago economist Casey B. Mulligan writes in the New York Times today that "some people pay taxes not because of fines that the I.R.S. might levy, but because a tax conviction would harm their professional reputation and that, in turn, would lower their income." He posted one of the most amusing charts we've ever seen on the subject of taxes, placing various professions along a graph measuring importance of integrity in profession against net tax misreporting percentages. Guess what, sales professionals and techies? You apparently, in Oscar Vela's data supply, rank lower in misreportings, and higher in integrity than us media folks (although you don't hold a torch to lawyers. Analyze that).

Who lags in tech adoption? According to an annual study conducted by the World Economic Forum, we do. The United States is behind other countries when it comes to communications technology and computing use. The study ranks the U.S. at fifth, behind Sweden, Singapore, Finland, and Switzerland (in that order). The New York Times notes that the study compares results from 138 countries and actually began after the collapse of the Internet bubble in 2001. It also notes that the U.S. had a lot of "uneven" results when looking at its technology economic competitiveness, one which ranked the country 76th in the rate of mobile phone subscriptions. Can you hear me now?

The double-sided future of smartphones? First we had giant phones. Then flip phones came around, only to be ousted by single-sided touch-screen smartphones. Now, it seems, the next big thing could be a combination of all three: Giant, flip, touch-screen smartphones. Seriously. The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the new Kyocera Echo from Sprint, which, at first glance, looks like a typical (albeit "chunky") flip Android. But when the top half is opened, it reveals another screen, giving the phone near-tablet size proportions. But will it stick? "Using two screens at once makes sense from a productivity standpoint," the Journal notes. But "I'd wager many people will use just one screen most of the time, since revealing the second screen requires the clunky step of folding back the top screen with an awkward hinge." In a broader sense, perhaps the real question that this phone begs is one of identity, that is, can a phone function as a tablet, and can a tablet function as a phone? Weigh in below with your comments and/or philosophical sentiments.

Newsweek chairman dies at 92. Less than a year after acquiring the struggling magazine, businessman and philanthropist Sidney Harman died Tuesday. He had been suffering with acute myeloid leukemia, according to The Daily Beast, the news website also owned by Harman. He made his fortune with Harman Kardon, an audio equipment manufacturer he co-founded in 1953. As The Daily Beast writes, "His stereo was a monster hit—the iPad of its day. Soon every educated music-lover in the country had to have a Harman Kardon and static became a thing of the past." He used that success to support the arts, education, and, in August 2010, to buy Newsweek from The Washington Post Company for $1. When he did so, his daughter Barbara told The New York Times "He’s a man who needs a project…He will die working—if he does die—and he'll love every minute of it, because he’ll pick things to do that are worth doing."

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Windows Sales Weaken for Second Time in a Row (websphere.sys-con.com)

Microsoft came in with its fiscal Q3 numbers Thursday and Windows revenues
were off for the second quarter in a row. This time they dipped 4% compared to
last year settling at $4.44 billion because of Apple and a nasty 40% year-
over-year decline in netbooks. Two weeks ago IDC called PC shipments off 3.2%
in calendar Q1 and Microsoft, unlike Intel, figures that the market was off
1%-3%, making its performance roughly in line with analysts? findings. Still
and all total revenues cleared $16.43 billion, up 13% over last year, against
Wall Street expectations of $16.19 billion, with earnings up 31% to $5.23
billion if only because of a nickel-a-share tax credit. Actually EPS came in
where the stock market predicted at 56 cents a share.

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The Man Behind Quirky

Ben Kaufman'>

A start-up called Quirky draws upon a community of 57,000 members to invent, develop, and market products. On the company's website, users can select a product's name or color palette, suggest design tweaks, and vote the most appealing prototypes into production. The company's wares—including iPad-friendly gloves called Digits, spoons that hook on to coffee mugs, and various power-cord-taming equipment—are sold online, and the most popular of them have grabbed airtime on HSN and shelf space at Bed Bath & Beyond. Revenue topped $1.2 million last year. Founder Ben Kaufman recently spoke with Inc. contributing editor Donna Fenn.

What has been your most successful product?
It's shifting all the time. The inventor of the Cloak, our iPad case, has earned between $40,000 and $50,000. The PowerCurl, a cord wrap for Mac power adapters, has been popular. And Cordies, which keep the cords on your desktop organized, were a huge surprise to me. I thought we would sell 10,000, and we'll sell hundreds of thousands this year. A new product, Pivot Power, is an adjustable electrical power strip that can hold large adapters in every outlet. The inventor is Jake Zien, who's a senior at the Rhode Island School of Design. The kid doesn't know it yet, but he's going to make six figures on that.

What about your biggest disappointment?
Sometimes our timing is off. We created a case for the iPhone 3G and 3GS with a built-in LED flashlight. We launched it the same day Apple introduced the iPhone 4, which has the same thing built in. So I was a little bummed about that.

And the weirdest product suggested on Quirky?
An edible Frisbee. The guy passionately pitched it. Fortunately, we had 12,000 community members tell the inventor that his idea was the stupidest thing they'd ever heard.

How did you go about marketing your products to retailers and to partners such as HSN?
This has been the easiest sales gig I've ever had in my life. Retailers are looking to buy more products from fewer people, and Quirky solves that problem. They also want newness and, at Quirky, we're set up for that. We create two products a week. Third, we have this amazing community, so we can tell people exactly where to buy our products.

What about your manufacturing process? It seems as if that would be a nightmare.
It is. It's the side of the business that gives me the most frustration. We really changed the way the front part of the process works. The back part is still stuck in 1975. Currently, we do 70 percent of our manufacturing in China. I'd like to do more here, and my goal is to have an innovative factory in the New York City area in the next year.

You're only 24. How do you envision the next 24 years?
Are you kidding me? I have no clue. I'm three months away from this being my longest gig ever, but I am nowhere near bored yet.

For more articles on innovation, go to www.inc.com/innovation.

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Good morning, Boston! (zeldman.com)

Aerial view of Boston's Back Bay and Prudential area from 36th floor of the
Marriott. Good morning, Boston! | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

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