Jul. 27, 2012 at 6:47pm
afghanistantechnologycommunicationmiddle eastbusinessstartupentrepreneurshipcultureshainoor khoja
Afghani telecommunications company proves that for-profit businesses can improve the community. It seems like Roshan picks up new projects as it goes… like you identify a problem and then start working on that. How do you identify problems? What steps do you take to figure out what to do? Very early on when the strategy was set, we knew there were so many problems in Afghanistan that we couldn’t do everything. We said we’d look at problems that the community was facing and then evaluate which problems we could tackle with our expertise: business expertise and tech expertise (…) Shainoor Khoja, Telecommunity Leader Read the Interview »

Afghani telecommunications company proves that for-profit businesses can improve the community.

It seems like Roshan picks up new projects as it goes… like you identify a problem and then start working on that. How do you identify problems? What steps do you take to figure out what to do?

Very early on when the strategy was set, we knew there were so many problems in Afghanistan that we couldn’t do everything. We said we’d look at problems that the community was facing and then evaluate which problems we could tackle with our expertise: business expertise and tech expertise (…)

Shainoor Khoja, Telecommunity Leader

Read the Interview »

Mar. 20, 2012 at 4:05pm
businessentrepreneurshiparound the webtechnology

The Creators Project hit on a new trend in a recent article about The Cyroscope (a device which changes temperature to let you know what the weather is outside). Writer Kevin Holmes says:

While you may think it seems pointless, the aim is to convey the temperature in a way that’s more immediately obvious to us humans than a bunch of numbers. It seems like it’s part of a new wave of thinking about products, like BERG’s Little Printer, [shown above] that seek to physicalize the intangible data we come across in our informationally overwhelmed lives.

What other examples of this will we see before the end of 2012?

10:16am
small businessentrepreneurshipentrepreneurbusinesseconomyfixyoungamerica
Today in the Daily BR!NK’s #FixYoungAmerica Week, an entrepreneur sees the Silver Lining in small businesses, promotes SLAP-ing. Tell me about Silver Lining. How did you come up with this business and the SLAP, its main product?  That first year in business I was 22, and I realized I had no idea what I was doing. I decided I’d interview one small business owner each day for a year. I talked to 365 small businesses in 365 days. I loved trying to figure out the patterns in small business growth and, more importantly, trying to understand why it was so hard to make a small business grow (…). Carissa Reiniger, Small Business Builder Read the Interview »

Today in the Daily BR!NK’s #FixYoungAmerica Week, an entrepreneur sees the Silver Lining in small businesses, promotes SLAP-ing.

Tell me about Silver Lining. How did you come up with this business and the SLAP, its main product? 

That first year in business I was 22, and I realized I had no idea what I was doing. I decided I’d interview one small business owner each day for a year. I talked to 365 small businesses in 365 days. I loved trying to figure out the patterns in small business growth and, more importantly, trying to understand why it was so hard to make a small business grow (…).

Carissa Reiniger, Small Business Builder

Read the Interview »

Mar. 6, 2012 at 10:00am
appsbetaentrepreneurshipstartupinternetwebsiteslady gaga
5 Great Apps Still in Beta

1. Pinterest: Pinterest has been getting lots of attention lately, but it’s still in Beta; sign up now while it’ll still get you hipster points!

2. Loudlee: This Israeli start-up is a little like Pinterest for music. Browse to find new songs through its album-friendly interface.

3. Continuuity: A former Yahoo! VP is behind this tool, which will help developers make data-focused cloud applications.

4. Little Monsters: This sharing community backed by Lady Gaga and her manager Troy Carter still has a cloud of mystery around it, but it seems everyone in the industry promises we’ll be impressed.

5. Exec: Startup guru Justin Kan is taking on sites like TaskRabbit by screening runners and pairing them with people who need basic tasks done within ten minutes of a request. The beta is limited to about 300 right now, but we’re eager to watch this scale.

Mar. 5, 2012 at 10:02am
on our radarcafecoffeerestaurantbusinessentrepreneurshipcrowdfunding
“
Assuming membership sales go as expected, we are going to synchronize the openings so that all thirty stores open at the same moment. Ideally, part of the draw of crowdfunding is the feeling of excitement, and that large groups of people can each, individually, do a small thing to cause a big change.
—

Jon Stewart, President of New Perspectives Cafe

New Perspectives Cafe is opening up crowdfunded cafes across the country, exploring what will happen when consumers get to vote on every aspect of the cafes, including its menus and events.

The website for the project is still a little rough around the edges, but this experiment is definitely on our radar.

Feb. 22, 2012 at 2:03pm with 1 note
small businessentrepreneurshipmoneystart ups
Brilliant entrepreneur builds a service to protect small business owners from delinquent clients. So for those annoying customers, Business Beware acts like the principal at school who might scold you or eventually fail you if you don’t deliver. Sort of! [laughs] It’s really effective leverage. We’ve found that 96% of customers who get the letter will pay. It’s just so much easier than going to court, having to deal with litigation, yada yada yada (…). Ashley Bodi, Small Business Sweetheart

Brilliant entrepreneur builds a service to protect small business owners from delinquent clients.

So for those annoying customers, Business Beware acts like the principal at school who might scold you or eventually fail you if you don’t deliver.

Sort of! [laughs] It’s really effective leverage. We’ve found that 96% of customers who get the letter will pay. It’s just so much easier than going to court, having to deal with litigation, yada yada yada (…).

Ashley Bodi, Small Business Sweetheart