Biz Idea: Mobile Dog Washing

Mocha the Rescue Pup No one likes to wash their dog. But dog owners all have to after a visit to the dog beach.

After such a day myself, I wondered – wouldn’t it be cool if there was a way to wash, or at least hose down my dog? He’s covered in sand and salt water now. You would think there are washing stations at dog beaches, but not many have them, surprisingly. I’ve only seen one with a washing station – in Coronado Island Dog Beach. Haven’t seen any elsewhere.

The idea here would be a really quick & lightweight service. Just some water, dog shampoo, gloves, and towels. Local teens could be hired & trained for this, which some may love for the chance to play with some cute puppies. You could plant yourself by a dog beach and wait for the business to walk by. And you could expand to other sites too, like dog parks.

There are some major challenges though. How would you get the water? It’s not feasible to carry a tank of water around. You’d have to find a local source. This business is also seasonal and weather-based; bad weather would mean bad business.

But as a small summer offering, perhaps a little Mom & Pop outfit could do. I for one would sure pay for such a service.

Yelp’s Monocle: An Augmented Reality iPhone App

Talk about a purple cow.

Yelp just released a new version of their Apple (AAPL) iPhone app with an easter egg: Monocle, an Augmented Reality (AR) feature. This feature is only available on the iPhone 3GS.

According to Robert Scoble, to get this app, follow these steps:

  1. Download the latest version of the Yelp iPhone app.
  2. Enter the app.
  3. Shake it several times. Although Scoble says to shake it 3 times, I had to shake mine like 10 times.
  4. A message will appear saying Monocle was activated. Touch the OK button.
  5. Touch the Monocle button at the top right corner of the screen.

And that’s it. If you hold the phone vertical and point the iPhone around the room, you’ll see the camera working. An overlap of Yelp reviews will appear in the direction of that particular business. If you need more help, Mashable also has step-by-step instructions, along with screenshots and this video:

It’s a pretty neat feature. Major props to the Yelp team for pulling this off. They earn loads of geek cred for this.

If I lived in New York City, I could see this being somewhat useful. The compass-based directional map on the Google (GOOG) Maps iPhone app is more useful though. The prime benefit of Monocle is letting me know which direction a restaurant is located. Google Maps does that too, plus it includes zooming in and out. Sadly, the Google Map on Yelp doesn’t have the directional feature. Maybe Yelp should add that as their next feature.

Another nice benefit of Monocle is letting me know which restaurants are near me. That’s pretty nice, if I want any ole’ restaurant. But generally, I use Yelp to find me a good, high-quality restaurant. Being a little bit further away is fine because I’m looking for good food. I’m not sure what Monocle’s distance limit is, but what if a great place is just ten steps to my left? Would I miss out on it because I wasn’t standing close enough for Monocle to display it?

To be fair, the same could be said about Google Maps if, say, a great restaurant was just off the left edge of the screen. But it’s easier to scroll the screen to the left than it is to know to walk ten steps in some direction.

But enough criticism. Geek-cred-wise, this is pretty cool. Lots of people are talking about it too, which is even more cool. Awesome demonstration of AR technology, guys. I’m looking forward to other AR applications soon.

Recessions Are a Great Time to Hire

It’s true. When other people are downsizing and firing, you should be hiring.

In slumping economies, rock star employees are easier to woo. If you’re lucky, some may be less expensive right now – though you shouldn’t count on that. Most are finally available because their former employer foolishly laid them off, or they quit because out of a change of heart or growing disgust.

Methinks Facebook knows this tip and is hiring in full force. The story has even made Techmeme and the blogosphere. Smart move guys.

Back at Yahoo! (YHOO), I helped grow a new role from three people to forty, than to hundreds. This was during the last dot-bomb, when strong talent was out on the market and easy to find. We hunted for developers who specialized in advanced CSS and JavaScript development, doing what is now commonly known as AJAX. I don’t know if we could have attracted such a rock star team had it not been for the stunning availability of them in the market – though I like to think our supportive environment and industry-wide ambitions were a big factor too.

Looks like Facebook is another company who is doing that right now. I’m sure there are dozens more. If you are one of them, good luck and happy hunting!

Photo by: DrBacchus

mikeleeorg on Caffeine

I took a peek at Google’s new Caffeine update for their search engine today.

Just for yucks, I started to type in “Mike Lee” because I’m always curious about how I rank amongst the gazillion Mike & Michael Lees out there. Imagine my surprise when I saw the second result in the auto-complete dropdown for both “mik” and “mike”:

Google Search for Mike Lee

Google Search for Mike Lee

Then I noticed the “remove” links to the right of each. Apparently, these results only show up for me, based on my previous search history. Awww. (Oddly enough, I’ve never actually typed in “mikeleeorg twitter” into Google Search. I wonder how they came up with that result.)

And here I thought my Twitter account was ranking high on Google!

What to Do, and What Not to Do

“Time is our most precious asset, we should invest it wisely.”
– Michael Levy

I like this quote.

It’s from Dharmesh Shah and his VentureBeat article “10 Things Business Schools Won’t Teach You“.

There are always more things to do than there is time to do them. Startups are a continuous exercise in deciding what not to do. You can sometimes win by just not doing things faster than your competition.

There is never enough time. I’m sure you’ve felt the pain of that statement. At the same time, it’s real easy to fall into the trap of wanting to do everything. “Otherwise,” you tell yourself, “we’ll miss something important and a competitor will do it.”

That kind of thinking is going to put you behind the competition. What you do is just as important as what you don’t do. Sure, you want to do everything, but that’s impossible. Time is a scarce resource in the marketplace. So what can you do?

Prioritize.

Prioritize prioritize prioritize.

For feature development, here’s an example:

  1. List all of the features you want.
  2. Prioritize the features according to what solves your customer’s problem best and what satisfies your business requirements. Defer to what your customer needs if there is a conflict, then change your business model to accommodate the customer. After all, without customers, you have no business.
  3. Ignore what the competition is doing. They may sway you in the wrong direction. Feature parity isn’t that important. Be a company that others emulate, not the other way around.
  4. Decide on the barest essentials that will solve your customer’s problem. Keep cutting features until you can’t cut anymore – until the next cut changes the fundamental nature of your product. This same advice is given to journalists & authors (cut until you can’t cut anymore).
  5. The barest essentials should be your next release. The other important features can go into future versions based on priority and effort.

In a world of time scarcity, it is not about doing it all. It is all about what you do AND what you don’t do.

Photo by: laffy4k

Feeling Positive About the Future

I’m feeling pretty pumped right now. Been watching lots of TED talks through their iPhone app lately. Damn good stuff.

I just watched Ray Kurzweil’s talk, “A university for the coming singularity“, where he discussed information technology’s growth being a series of S-curves that are exponential instead of linear. Moore’s Law, for example, is one such exponential trend that would fit into an S-curve. Once Moore’s Law ends (apparently around 2020, says Kurzweil), it will be replaced by another paradigm. Perhaps one governing green technology?

And speaking of green technology, this segment especially pumped me up:

…we’re all concerned about energy and the environment. Well, this is a logarithmic graph. This represents a smooth doubling, every two years, of the amount of solar energy we’re creating. Particularly as we’re now applying nanotechnology, a form of information technology, to solar panels. And we’re only eight doublings away from it meeting 100 percent of our energy needs. And there is 10 thousand times more sunlight than we need.

Eight doublings, where a doubling occurs ever two years. So in ten years, according to Kurzweil, solar harvesting technologies could be efficient enough to make all the energy we need.

Halle-friggen-lujah!

On a side note, there was an article today on Techmeme that was also positively-pumping: “Could this be the end of electric power cords?” by David Colker from the LA Times. Colker writes about how the company WiTricity has been working on technology to send wireless electrical power to remote devices.

This technology is based on the work of MIT physicist Marin Soljacic, who spoke at a TEDGlobal conference in Oxford, UK. According to Colker, the technology “works on something called resonant magnetic coupling and is safe for humans. And on an environmental note, [WiTricity CEO Eric Giler] said it could not only eliminate power cords but also tons of batteries used yearly to power household devices.”

Great strides in green technology. Enough solar power to relinquish the need for fossil fuels. And all happening in the next decade or so. Oh man.

Good times are coming!

Psychology and Business

Homer Simpson's Brain The foundation of business is psychology. That is to say, if you understand psychology – especially the psychology of your customers – you’ll significantly increase your business’ chances of success.

Yup, and the sky is blue. Pretty obvious stuff. Hopefully.

What isn’t as obvious is how the actually mind works, how psychology actually plays out.

Fortunately, I just found a gem of resources from PsyBlog – How the Mind Reveals Itself in Everyday Activities. This collection of articles offers explanations and insights into practical applications of psychology, each of which could lead to potential business benefits. For instance:

Ask for help: Why people are twice as likely to assist as you think

This research concludes that, “if you want help, just ask. People are much more likely to help than you think, especially if the request is relatively small.” Also, “the other side of the coin is that most of us don’t realise just how hard it is to say no to a request for help.”

I suspect this only pertains to real-world interactions, rather than online interactions. I’m not sure how this would play out online. Or perhaps Yahoo! Answers (YHOO) is a good example – meaning it would play out pretty well.

This insight also means you could enlist the help of friends and family during these days of economic distress. If you’re worried about being overbearing, give them an easy way to say No. But chances are, you’ll be surprised at how many will really say Yes.

Mondays are not as depressing as you think

Apparently, Wednesdays are the worst days of the week, with Tuesday actually being pretty good. Perhaps your business could take advantage of that.

Want to do a giveaway of free ice cream, smoothies, or pastries? Call it a “Feel Good” deal and give them away on a Tuesday! Or perhaps do it on Monday, since that’s the perceived worst day of the week. Sometimes perception go much further than reality.

Why loud music in bars increases alcohol consumption

I’ve heard that salty snacks like chips and peanuts can make people thirsty, and thus more likely to order more drinks. Well, guess what? So can loud music.

It’s just a casual relationship though; studies haven’t determined if the volume of the music itself is what causes extra drinking, or the fact that people can’t hear each other as well, and thus they drink instead.

I wonder if this applies to food too. Perhaps you could play loud music at a fast food restaurant, thus encouraging patrons to eat quickly and leave. Hmm!

And that’s just a few of the ways understanding psychology can help your business. Good stuff, everyday psychology!