the birth of an idea: 48 Hour Launch
Have you ever wondered how companies launch? Well, it's not usually like this, but then again, how many people do you know who have the #hustle to stay awake for 48 hours?
Yesterday evening, I went to the 48 Hour Launch presentations hosted by The Company Lab - and I have rarely seen so much genius in one room. Granted, it was one REALLY big room in the gym of the Southside Industrial YMCA (future home of Basecamp Chattanooga) - but nonetheless, there was more #hustle and brilliance per capita than most any other event I've ever had the honor of attending.
The 48 Hour Launch is a non-stop, no-sleep, two-day entrepreneurial blitz in which skilled entrepreneurs pitch business ideas that they've seeded in hopes of taking home a $5,000 launch grant. The criterion for the prize seemed to be based on what biz would be most attractive to potential investors, and the winner was chosen by three jurors (75% of decision) and a live mobile-phone-based audience vote (25% of decision).
All ten of the pitches were quite impressive, but a few of them really stood out to me for their innovation, new angles, and marketability. Cumberland Signal Flight Hub, Low Country Boil in a Box, Snappy, and Boxatomic all rocked my world, and addressed problems near and dear to my heart.
As a former Lockheed-Martin student insider, AFROTC nerd, and lover of all things aerospace, Richard Hardin and Cumberland Signal Labs/Cumberland Signal Flight Hub (the winning contender) really excited me. The idea behind this is replacing the masses of wires related to a flight instrument control panel. When an airplane goes into a repair station for a major refit, rather than spending 4-8 weeks there having generations of wires and such soldered, crimped, and tended to, all of the old wiring simply comes out, and the Cumberland Flight Hub goes in, connecting all instruments to the hub through a sleek pre-assembled system. Rather than $10-$15 K in labor alone, the Cumberland package would only be around $7K, all-inclusive, and doesn't require minor tweaking or reworking time afterward. Hardin says this is a revolution in aviation, and he's not bragging - it's just a fact.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kvcXWdPowY&w=640&h=390]
Equally delicious an idea is Allen Clark's Low Country Boil in a Box. If you've ever shelled out mega-buck$ catering an event, and dealing with finicky delivery, prep, and setup logistics, prepare to be amazed. Low Country Boil is a one-stop e-commerce shop for catering events of every size from 4-person dinners to community-wide cookouts. With five different meal options (so far), including clam boil, crab boil, shrimp boil, and more, it's hard to beat the functionality of this model. All you have to do is supply the date of your event, your food package selection, and how many you have attending, and two days later you'll have a DELICIOUS low country meal that can be prepared by anyone with an hour to spare and enough skill to boil water. What will I be serving at my housewarming party? - Low Country Boil fare, no question.
As a highly social photog, David Shellabarger's Snappy application was definitely a cause for applause. This mobile app allows multiple users to tell stories online by contributing to customized event photo albums through automatic photo uploads from your smart phone. For example, if myself, Casey, Bijan, and McManus are all at a baller event together, and are all contributing users to an album for the event, then we will all be able to access and contribute to the album at the same time, in real time. I feel that with the new accessibility of media contribution (via blog, flickr, etc.), that David's app has a LOT of potential to redefine the way we create and share documentation on the go as mobile citizens.
Last but certainly not least, Boxatomic will rock our worlds, verily. The product of Kyle Posey, John Prevost, Morgan Freshour, Tianna Buckwalter, and Matthew Keasling, this web-based discount portal is going to shake up the way you think about your Groupon and LivingSocial deals. With Western consumer trends in mind, my money is on them being a serious contender and perhaps an even higher-trafficked biz than Groupon and LivingSocial in the future. Big dreams - but on par with the intellectual #hustle these guys display. The presentation was fantastic, but perhaps a stronger explanation is one Kyle offered up during a chat at the office (ie, The Stone Cup): whereas LivingSocial and Groupon are geographically-based and limited to a given city and ALSO interest or lack thereof in a daily deal, Boxatomic has NEITHER limitation - upcoming iterations of Boxatomic (which currently targets Crossfit affiliates + lovers) could target ANY interest group (the art industry? hint hint?), and have no geographical limits, as products, etc. are available via shipping. As a lover of coupons, I'll be watching with intent to see the heights to which these guys fly in the near future.
If you missed 48HL this year, don't make the same mistake twice - start brewing and stewing your ideas for next year! And in the meantime, keep up with the goings-on of The Company Lab.