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	<title>Hot Koehl &#187; fail</title>
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		<title>BusinessWeek&#8217;s most promising startups. Seriously?</title>
		<link>http://frankkoehl.com/2009/11/businessweek-most-promising-startups-seriously/</link>
		<comments>http://frankkoehl.com/2009/11/businessweek-most-promising-startups-seriously/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:51:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Frank</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[For entrepreneurs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[For everyone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[For techies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[startups]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frankkoehl.com/?p=989</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Came across this BusinessWeek article (published on Yahoo!) today discussing companies that &#8220;embody the creativity and resiliency common among today&#8217;s entrepreneurs.&#8221; They do make it clear that it&#8217;s a new recurring segment, so maybe they&#8217;re still getting their feet under them. That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m hoping anyway, because I see nothing but a bunch of me-toos [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Came across this <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/108094/americas-most-promising-startups?mod=career-salary_negotiation">BusinessWeek article</a> (published on Yahoo!) today discussing companies that &#8220;embody the creativity and resiliency common among today&#8217;s entrepreneurs.&#8221; They do make it clear that it&#8217;s a new recurring segment, so maybe they&#8217;re still getting their feet under them. That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m hoping anyway, because I see nothing but a bunch of me-toos and also-rans in this list. </p>
<p>Read the article, and see if my summary (and accompanying snarky comments) jive with what you read:</p>
<ul>
<li>Name: <strong>Batter Blaster</strong><br />No-BS Summary: <strong>Late-night infomercial</strong><br />I can see the demonstration of the &#8220;old alternative&#8221; now, where they make some doofus have a spasm while pouring Bisquik on a skillet.</li>
<li>Name: <strong>InterShelter</strong><br />No-BS Summary: <strong>Portable dome housing</strong><br />This never-ending dome idea needs to be dragged out back and shot.</li>
<li>Name: <strong>ParkingCarma</strong><br />No-BS Summary: <strong>Website for parking spots</strong><br />I see &#8220;Website for [insert handy information].&#8221; Handy, but nothing special here.</li>
<li>Name: <strong>Mota Motors</strong><br />No-BS Summary: <strong>Sell cars online.</strong><br />Another &#8220;Website for [insert handy information].&#8221; A competitor to cars.com, eBay motors, and Edmunds, touting extra middleman-ness. Who <em>doesn&#8217;t</em> want more middleman in their lives?</li>
<li>Name: <strong>Greenmaker Supply</strong><br />No-BS Summary: <strong>A &#8220;green&#8221; Home Depot</strong><br />Similar to the last two, I see &#8220;Sustainable/green [insert physical product].&#8221; The green movement in general drives me nuts. There&#8217;s no proof any of it makes a difference on the planet (for or against), and some products actually create more waste and cost more to make than their &#8220;ungreen&#8221; counterparts.</li>
<li>Name: <strong>Wedding Payment Plan</strong><br />No-BS Summary: <strong>Financing Service</strong><br />They specialize in weddings, but how is this loan any different from any other loan? If you&#8217;re looking to finance a wedding, the economist in me says you need to dial the event back a bit.</li>
<li>Name: <strong>ExpoTV</strong><br />No-BS Summary: <strong>Video consumer reviews</strong><br />Yet another &#8220;Website for [insert handy information].&#8221; I would imagine that video-based reviews presents something of a hurdle for most consumers. I&#8217;ve known many a non-techie who could barely manage email, and you want them to shoot, possibly edit, and upload a review to the web?</li>
<li>Name: <strong>Freeline Skates</strong><br />No-BS Summary: <strong>New way to break your neck</strong><br />Come on, the guy isn&#8217;t even wearing a helmet! The clincher for me is this line: <em>Farrelly says he has turned down Wal-Mart Stores as a retail outlet. Why? Bad for Freeline&#8217;s street cred.</em> Yeah, and saying &#8220;no&#8221; is horrendous for your bottom line. Or do you like bumming on your friends&#8217; couches at, what, 30?</li>
<li>Name: <strong>HomeMade Pizza</strong><br />No-BS Summary: <strong>Bake at home pizza</strong><br />At this point I&#8217;m convinced the researchers were just looking to round out the list at an even&#8230;umm&#8230;nine. Good choice too, because where else can we go for make-at-home pizza besides Little Ceasars, DiGiorno, Red Baron, my grocer&#8217;s entire frozen food section and a limitless number of fundraiser catalogs?</li>
</ul>
<p>Don&#8217;t get me wrong, these aren&#8217;t <em>bad</em> ideas &mdash; except for the sneaker wheels, how much more hazardous can we make our free time? &mdash; but I certainly wouldn&#8217;t put them in the &#8220;most promising&#8221; category. They&#8217;ve all been done before, and/or being done right now! </p>
<p>Where are the game changers, the ones doing things that improve daily lives on a fundamental level? I don&#8217;t think <a href="https://fwdvault.com">Fwd:Vault</a> is going to shatter our world-foundation, but at least it&#8217;s a fresh approach for tackling a known problem. Who finds pancake batter to be a real blight on their lives?</p>
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