Projection as a Source of Innovation 08/02/2010
Projection is one of the easiest ways to conceptualize new venture ideas. Step 1: Find a successful business model. Step 2: Project that model onto another industry or country. If you watch the startup space, you see this kind of thing all the time. Not only does projection allow you to leverage a known quantity to an extent, it also paves the way for forming an analogy when pitching. "We will be the Southwest Airlines of X industry." Or, "Our company is like Facebook for X." While it can be used for the wrong reasons (jump to 13:00), as Gary Vaynerchuk points out, analogy is a great way to form associations quickly and get people to grasp your concept. Over the past week, I have come across a few examples of this and I thought I would share them with you:
SnapGoods: SnapGoods was recently featured in an article on TechCrunch and the company is being slated as "the ZipCar for gadgets." Now, I'm not sure if this is actually the pitch the company is using, or if this is John Biggs' analogy, but either way, you get the point. The idea is that you can rent objects and tools for a short period of time.
Exclusively.in: Today, PSFK featured Exclusively.in on their blog and used the analogy that they are "The Gilt Groupe of Indian Designs." Right now, "flash-sales" and deal sites like this are proliferating at a ridiculous rate, so, in this case, projecting onto a niche market may be the smart way to go.
PopSugar's Retail Therapy: Featured on TechCrunch TV, Retail Therapy aims to be the "Farmville of Shopping." Although the online gaming space is crowded, I think that this idea is getting at something really interesting. As I mentioned in my post about the Greening of Game Mechanics, I think we are going to start seeing game mechanics flow over into real world actions. For women interested in fashion, something like Retail Therapy has the potential to turn interests into action. Will running a fashion boutique in the virtual world motivate people to actually start a fashion boutique? I don't know. But, I think that games have the potential to start converting virtual interests into real world action.
SnapGoods: SnapGoods was recently featured in an article on TechCrunch and the company is being slated as "the ZipCar for gadgets." Now, I'm not sure if this is actually the pitch the company is using, or if this is John Biggs' analogy, but either way, you get the point. The idea is that you can rent objects and tools for a short period of time.
Exclusively.in: Today, PSFK featured Exclusively.in on their blog and used the analogy that they are "The Gilt Groupe of Indian Designs." Right now, "flash-sales" and deal sites like this are proliferating at a ridiculous rate, so, in this case, projecting onto a niche market may be the smart way to go.
PopSugar's Retail Therapy: Featured on TechCrunch TV, Retail Therapy aims to be the "Farmville of Shopping." Although the online gaming space is crowded, I think that this idea is getting at something really interesting. As I mentioned in my post about the Greening of Game Mechanics, I think we are going to start seeing game mechanics flow over into real world actions. For women interested in fashion, something like Retail Therapy has the potential to turn interests into action. Will running a fashion boutique in the virtual world motivate people to actually start a fashion boutique? I don't know. But, I think that games have the potential to start converting virtual interests into real world action.
