Idea factory

2021-10-27 12:09:26 ​#BusinessEducation
How to grow a startup and sell it to a larger company?

It often happens that entrepreneurs decide to sell their idea or a ready-made business. There are a number of reasons for this, from a reluctance to develop in a certain sphere to the need to urgently receive benefits.

But how would a business plan satisfy a potential buyer? How to build a startup so that it sells well? Let’s find the features which cannot be ignored!

Paradoxical as it may sound, in order to successfully sell your business, you need to build it for yourself from the very beginning:

The story behind your idea should inspire your future customers
Maintain clean documents, pay taxes and salaries to employees, do not cooperate with scammers. Who wants to deal with financial fraud or hiding from the tax service?

Look for loyal but flexible employees
As we said earlier, it is very important to create a team that shares common interests and views, even regarding the development of the company. Employees should believe in the idea, not in the people behind it. At any moment, you need to be prepared that the bosses may change, and be ready to continue working for the benefit of the concept.

Market volume is sometimes more important than earnings
Any business is a big waste in the early stages. You may lose money for months! However, all expenses will pay off in a very short time if more people find out about you. Expanding your zones of influence is exactly what will allow other entrepreneurs and companies to know about you! Otherwise, no one is interested in small companies, even if they have a modest but stable income.

Would you like to sell your idea to a large company? Text below Open / Comment

2021-10-18 12:11:34 ​#StartupNews
McDonalds: how to reach a worldwide popularity

Country: the USA
Valuation: $230 billion
Business model: restaurant/ franchising

Today nearly everyone once has visited this fast food chain. Their restaurants are located almost in each town all over the world. Moreover, many people got used to have a meal in McDonald’s on a daily basis. Though, this is for a reason: the company has developed an efficient marketing system and managed to conquer the niche. Let’s work out how the founders reached a worldwide glory.

Background
Brothers Dic and Mac McDonalds opened their first small restaurant for motorists in the 1940-s. Initially, it brought a decent income — $200,000 per year. However, after a while the situation suddenly changed. In order to stay afloat, the brothers came up with a new concept of the restaurant business in California.

It was based on a fast service and low prices. They implemented a self-service system, redesigned the kitchen for the mass production. The menu was quite meagre: two types of burgers, milk, coffee, and French fries. Though, California went through a true revolution: for the first time people didn’t sit at the tables waiting for an order but served themselves.

Overwhelming expansion
Ray Kroc suggested expanding the business by means of franchise selling and opening a restaurant chain. This led to great success: the income exceeded $350,000 a year. Later, Kroc purchased McDonald’s for $2,7 million.

Problems
Besides a bunch of McDonald’s lovers, there are its opponents as well. In 2008, Paul McCartney urged people to boycott the company as they used the Beatles’ pictures in the restaurants to attract customers. Moreover, in 1994, an old American woman got a third-degree burn from McDonald’s coffee. The company had to pay $640,000 and added the warning about hot drinks.

McDonald’s today
Now more than 30,000 restaurants in 120 countries operate under McDonald’s brand. The menu includes both classic meals like a hamburger, French fries and typical ones for each country. For example, in Germany you can buy beer and in Hong Kong rice burgers are offered.

What do you think about McDonald’s idea? What is the main factor of its success? Text in the chat Open / Comment

2021-10-17 16:29:11 ​#StartupNews
Slice: how to benefit from a 3-day workweek

Country: India
Valuation: $200 million
Business model: banking

IT companies have to compete for specialists due to the shortage of workforce in this field. Thus, Slice came up with an attractive solution — set a 3-day workweek for employers. The aim is to make it a competitive advantage and subsequently attract more IT specialists to expand. Let’s insight into the startup idea and see if it works.

Background
Rajan Bajaj was 22 when he founded the firm in 2016. He realized that dealing with credit cards for young Indians was too complicated. Rajan could relate to the problem faced as he was a youngster himself. Basically, he had been keen on the banking space from his college days, and decided to tackle a problem that affected his generation, particularly those brought up in middle-class families in Tier II and III cities.

Idea
This is an e-commerce startup specializing in credit cards for millennials. They help users track the delivery of goods and keep the purchase history. Rajan Bajaj claims it has 3 million registered members, whose average age is 27. The first physical card issued in 2019 implied registering within a minute, cash-back, and several pay options. For September 2021, Slice issued 110,000 cards, which made it one of the leaders in the FinTech industry.

Investments
A number of high-profile investors are willing to invest in Slice. Some of their investors are Gunosy Capital and Blume Ventures. A number of other firms, including Insight Partners, Ribbit Capital and Greenoaks, are interested in the startup as well. So far the company has raised $30 million in the previous rounds.

Advantage
Slice is very good at understanding millennials and gen z. The approach to solving their issues has been something brand-new. The Slice super card has the potential to critically change the way the next generation view the concept of credit cards.

A 3-day workweek
The startup offered some of their workers a new schedule. They can work only 3 days a week for 80% market rate. Though, the staff can work both at the office or remotely. In their spare time they can do whatever that want to: develop their own startup or enjoy favorite activities.

The workers employed within a 3-day program form small teams. They are supposed to work on cryptocurrency projects and products, based on the principle ‘buy now, pay later’. However, the staff selection for the program was rigorous. The company asserts that a 3-day workweek is a perk that even large tech companies like Google and Amazon don’t offer. That’s why it allows them to recruit talents of a certain kind. This way, Slice seeks to employ 450 employers and 1,000 engineers in 3 years.

What do you think about Slice’s concept? Do you consider a 3-day workweek a wise decision? Share in the chat Open / Comment

2021-10-17 11:52:05 ​#BusinessEducation
Veganism influence on startups

As you may know, the trend of veganism is spreading all over the world — a lifestyle that excludes all animal products from diet and consumption. It strongly influences the global market and the needs of people, which gives room for innovations and new startups. If you haven’t read our trend about ecology, check it out

Why is veganism becoming so popular?
Well, scientists consider several reasons for such an interest in food of non-meat origin.
Firstly, the cost of meat is now rising in many countries. Some people can’t afford it, for example, in a small insular country like Japan there’re the most expensive meat prices.
Secondly, COVID-19 also made its own changes: most of the people who have recovered from this virus suffer from distortion of taste buds. In other words, they cannot consume their usual foods, especially milk, meat and seafood.
And thirdly — perhaps the most common option — people are simply rethinking their values: in developed countries, the number of people with new ethical convictions as non-violence is growing.

Veganism problem and solving innovation
However, meat is a rich source of proteins and various micronutrients. Avoiding it drastically can lead to health problems like anemia or strokes. So this particular problem has become the basis for the creation of new technologies to solve it. At the moment, there are the following areas of innovation:

1. Creation of effective bioactive food additives;

2. Enrichment of plant products with all elements and genetic biomodifications;

3. Growing animal tissues by cloning cells, "meat from a test tube".

Startups’ perspectives and competition
More and more enterprises refuse to consume or sell animal products. And that’s not only small business, but also global giants and unicorns. For example, in 2019, Beyond Meat, a big alternative protein company, which manufactures the plant-based burgers, went public at a valuation of almost $1.5B. Their net revenues were reported to be $407 million in 2020, taking the pandemic crisis into account.

Of course, the meat is still king — it has one of the top positions in profit in the food industry. The global meat market could be worth as much as $2.7 trillion by 2040.

Nevertheless, these numbers could decrease significantly if each of us becomes wiser about what, how and how much we consume!

Do you support veganism? Would you like to develop an idea in this industry? Share your opinion in the chat

An ecological project will be presented at Monthly Pitch 21.10.21. Join us to watch it! Open / Comment

2021-10-16 20:43:19 Dear community

We appreciate all your ideas and would like to make the process of applying as simple as possible for you.

Therefore, we have created a special bot where you can submit your ideas. Here it is @PitchYourIdeaBot

The procedure is very simple: just text the information which our bot asks you for. This way, you can receive a structured text of your idea and all the necessary information to move further.

Give it a try and let us know how you feel about it.

We do hope the process of idea application will be faster and facilitated for you than ever. Open / Comment

2021-10-16 19:15:12 #WeeklyContest #PitchYourIdea #ElevatorPitch

Smart home by @JoEthiopia1st
Idea:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Smart Home

Problems:
Due to the growing data breaches , hacking of home network connected devices , identity theft and direct robberies of houses become customers highly concern about the security of their house as well as institutions So , AI Smart Home platform Can solve these security problems by three capabilities.
1-AI Facial and Motion detector tech
2-AI Threat and Data analysis
3-AI home integration Voice Assistant

Potential:
The smart homes market was valued at USD 79.13 billion in 2020, and it is expected to reach USD 313.95 billion by 2026 and register a CAGR of 25.3% over the forecast period 2021 – 2026) so, it have large Marketing potential for all over the world. Open / Comment

2021-10-16 16:56:55 ​Top Canadian startups

Canada is famous for its favorable startup ecosystem. Government incentives, a growing tech talent pool and access to venture capital — all these contribute to startup boom in the country. Canada has been placed as the forth most influential hub in the world, behind the US, Israel, and the UK.

StackAdapt

City: Toronto
Valuation: $250-500 million
Business model: consulting&software

This is a company that assists other businesses via target advertisements. The aim is to increase their sales and attract the target customers through efficient advertising methods. Since StackAdapt was founded in 2013, the startup has raised investments amounting to $1,6 million.


ApplyBoard

City: Waterloo
Valuation: $500 million
Business model: integrator

The startup has become the largest educational platform for students. The company allows students to connect with recruiters and education providers. More than 120,000 students have used ApplyBoard in order to achieve their educational purposes. The startup has managed to attract outside investments in the amount of $180 million.

KOHO Financial

City: Toronto
Valuation: $250 million
Business model: thematic platform

This is a FinTech startup that provides an app-based banking system. The company seeks to simplify the process of assessing financial products. KOHO offers a wide range of tools for financial planning and controlling. The idea really appealed to investors which led to $110 million attracted.

Wealthsimple

City: Toronto
Valuation: $500 million
Business model: consulting&information services

The startup aims to help individual investors who are willing to increase their returns. The company creates a personal asset portfolio according to one’s requirements. This can help you accomplish your financial goals. Wealthsimple has successfully gained $1 billion outside investments. Such celebrities as Ryan Reynolds and Michael J.Fox are some of the company investors.

Ada

City: Toronto
Valuation: $250 million
Business model: software

This is a software development company. The startup provides chatbots based on the AI technology for other companies. The aim is to improve their customer support. Since 2016, Ada has become one of the major startups providing effective chatbots. The company has succeeded to impress investors and raise $190 million investments.

Idea Factory strives to enable each of you to reach the same success like them. We arrange Monthly Pitch on 21/10/21
Which startup idea do you like the most? Share in the chat Open / Comment

2021-10-16 15:53:39 #ElevatorPitch #PitchYourIdea #WeeklyContest
Agriculture technology by @Neudaaa

Idea:
Using embedded system technologies in agriculture to monitor crops

Problems:
-We can provide the optimum raw materials needed so that we can expand our productivity to the maximum level
-Time efficient
-Resource efficient
-We can control from remote areas
-solve's the shortage of food globally

Potential:
Agriculture is a thing that knocks every body's door so investing in this area and dominating the marketplace is of a huge benefit and this idea is able to transform the agricultural systems to another level and it will dominate the marketplace. Open / Comment