As never before the ability of online networks has the potential to shape the world.  Tumpang is preparing to take advantage of this dynamic by offering people who come together online the ability to put their joint purchasing power to work.

The Tumpang model is interesting.  Manufacturers are asked to discount their products if Tumpang can guarantee a group purchase of a certain quantity of items.  Then, within their site, they offer the items for sale at the discounted price providing enough people agree to purchase the item at the discounted rate.  As individuals the customers may not be able to get these ‘bulk’ discount prices – as an online mini-purchasing group, they suddenly have more power.

Tumpang is currently focused on the Chinese market…but are making moves to go international.  There are two obvious challenges at this point:

Products are often country specific so although they have international plans, this may not translate well for the mini-groups.  Will a German purchaser be interested in a kettle for the Malaysian market? See my point?

Most of the products on the site at this point seem relatively low quality i.e. Tumpang does not seem to be striking deals with Apple, Panasonic etc but rather more unknown brands. However, as their purchasing power and traction increases this should give them more negotiation strength with the bigger, more popular manufacturers.

So, Tumpang is one to watch.  This crowd purchasing approach could create another shift in online purchasing.

Andrew
Founder -Advisor Garage
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

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I wish I could tell you all about Flixor but I’m not allowed to today.  What I can say is that Flixor is a very cool up and coming company focused on tools that have both consumer appeal but also the potential to revolutionize the advertising industry.  I recommend you go to http://www.Flixor.com, bookmark it and watch as this company moves from stealth to a very compelling young company. If you are a potential angel – reach out and I’ll forward on your contacts – you won’t be disappointed…

Andrew
Founder – Advisor Garage
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/Community

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For anyone that has read any of the posts on this blog, you’re probably used to seeing a review of the business model of an up and coming young company.  Today’s post is different. It’s a Startup ‘Quick Intro’. My goal is to intersperse the usual type of postings with ‘Quick Intros’. We’ll see what reception these quick intros get!

A friend has been working on a startup called Zaplee.com – so given that I’m particularly excited about the company and it’s opportunity, thought I would do a quick ‘drive by’ about Zaplee.

Zaplee has been working on creating consumer software to provide small and medium sized companies with call center functionality via the Skype service.  This gives Zaplee the capability to offer a other companies call center capabilities without painful and expensive setup costs and processes and like Skype, gives users very low monthly costs for ongoing call center services which have tradtitionally been unreachable by many young companies.

There are many exciting elements to the Zaplee business model but as they are still so ‘fresh’ I’ll need to wait a month or two before getting into details.  Zaplee is currently going through an angel investment round.  This is one of those ‘once in a decade’ opportunities so if there is anyone out there that wants to explore this opportunity…send me an email and I’ll pass it on.

http://www.Zaplee.com

Andrew
Founder – Advisor Garage
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

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Lief Larson here.  One of the founders of Lyro.  Thanks for taking a look.  If we lifted up the skirt on our long-term objectives, that wouldn’t be much fun now would it?

Plaxo is already following us.  We launched web searchable digital business cards before they did.  We had the social aspects before them.  But that doesn’t matter.  We like Plaxo.  We even like Goliath LinkedIn.  Both companies are good at what they do.  We are focused on the small and independent businesses, the entrepreneurs, the consultants who wants to get more out of the web and have better visibility.  Best of all, we’re asking for nothing in return.  If we help you and you find the site useful, you might upgrade.  It’s a pretty simple value proposition.

With regards to messages, our system is primarily open.  The downside to open is that if anyone can message you freely (or you message others freely)  we’d be setting up a system for abuse.  Nobody has time for “hot webcam chicks” when you’re out trying to find new business and opportunity.

I’m glad you’d have a willingness to put a “Virtual $100k” behind us and I’m looking forward to putting that virtual check to good use!

http://lieflarson.lyro.com

++

Thanks for the update and feedback Lief!  I really do appreciate your business and it’s business model and agree with almost all your points. The low ‘virtual’ valuation was driven by nothing more than wondering where the market potential was given the two goliaths we’ve discussed.  The irony is that I’ve been working on a site for sometime that is meant to address some of the weaknesses of the ‘blanket’ or everything to everybody approach by Linked In etc.

I’d like to increase the virtual investment to $350K. After all, us little guys have got to stick together.

Good luck and let us know how you get on with your great business: Lyro

http://www.Lyro.com

Andrew
Founder – http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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I can’t tell you how much I love this business concept!  I’m not 110% convinced about the capability to make significant amounts of investor revenues but frankly…that’s just not the point of this neat new business.  So, let me tell you about “It’s Your Movie”.  The basic idea is for the online community to fund, audition and vote for characters in a movie called “The Flirting Club”.  It’s a complete mashup of a number of popular ideas…think “The Producers meets American Idol” and you are some of the way there!

Business Model:

• Members of the public can buy a ’stake’ in the movie of $10, $100, $100.  What’s not clear on the site is what stakeholders get for their stake although the site does say the higher the stake the more ’say’ in the movie.
• Advertising is another revenue stream for “Its Our Movie” although as the site currently has a 4,000,000 Alexa ranking the revenue is likely to minimal at this point.
• Movie Rights and Sale:  I could find no reference to movie rights or sale as it relates to stakeholders but it is a new business so that may appear in their FAQs.

Some Core Functionality/Elements:

• Auditioning:  To audition for a part, members download the script, choose a character and video themselves. After uploading the Audition to http://www.youtube.com / http://www.metacafe.com / http://www.dailymotion.com the code is then re-pasted within the “Its Our Movie” Website so the community can review and vote on the auditions
• Characters: A summary of each character is included in the site and video auditions can be added against each character
• Voting: Members can vote on a 1-10 scale for each audition.  They will also be adding the ability for people to vote via text message/SMS
• Photos/Videos: Photos and videos of each person auditioning
• Member blogs
• Member forums (Is this a Drupal site with a skin? Hummm)

Likes:
Sometimes new business are not about money…OK, rarely new businesses are not about money because money is oxygen for startups but in this case, its about the excitement of being involved in creating a movie. Doesn’t EVERYONE want to be involved in creating a movie? Even if it’s a bad movie for goodness sake.  Now here’s a little prediction, as momentum grows for this new site then it won’t be long before Simon Cowell and the rest get wind of it.  Before you can say “Teletubbies” I’m guessing that this process may move from the web to other mediums.  When that happens then this could become a significant opportunity for the founders.  If I was a stakeholder, I’d be looking for some reassurances that I’m buying a tiny piece of that potential success.

Dislikes/Suggestions:

• Be explicit about what stakeholders are getting!  It’s great that you’ve raised $100K but if you want to hit the $1M target then I would outline what those folks were getting…really clearly!
• My understanding is that the Director is Alex Jovy. Is it THE Alex Jovy that received an Oscar-nomination for his film Holiday Romance who also went on to produce and direct the thriller Sorted starring Matthew Rhys and Jason Donovan? If so, let us know people! At the moment it looks like some obscure guys idea that is absolutely exciting but we need to know it’s legitimate and this isn’t paying for someone’s extended vacation in the South of Spain.

Additional Opportunities:

• Plug this into the TV machine and turn it into a show.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would personally stake a virtual $500K providing someone gave me virtual percentages of the revenue.

http://www.itsourmovie.com/

Interested in other articles about Its Our Movie?

• http://www.crowdwisdom.de/2007/08/15/crowd-casting-fuer-einen-spielfilm-itsyoumovie/
• http://www.klhagen.com/provokingthought/2007/08/using-creative-new-ideas-crowdsourcing.html

Andrew – Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

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Lyro is a new web based application that allows people to create and share online, searchable digital ‘business cards’ across multiple.  It isn’t so much a social network as much as personal ‘branding’ and broadcasting but saying that, as well as the core elements of creating a digital online business card (think a micro Plaxo) there are some typical social networking elements such as people creating interest and geography groups. I would really like to hear back from the Lyro folks because I’m not seeing how this differs substantially from Plaxo, especially given Plaxo’s recent moves into the ‘connections’ territory and their longstanding digital business card creation, sharing and searchability. If I’m missing something, let me know!

Business Model:

Four account types with increasing functionality. 

• FREE: 1 Free Card and 3 messages that can be sent to other members per day
• Basic: $5/Month – 3 Cards, 7 messages per day, 50MB file storage, professional bio, logo on card
• Premium: $9/Month – 5 Cards, 15 messages, 75MB storage, other elements of basic plus notes on card
• Elite: $20/Month – 8 cards, 25 messages, 200MB storage, all other elements of Premium plus saved searches and visible email addresses

Some Core Functionality:

• Create searchable online digital business card
• Internal email to other card members according to numbers above
• A Dashboard ‘Pocket’:  Drag and drop business cards that interest you for future retrieval
• Download card
• Create Groups – and invite others to join your group
• Invite Friends
• Send card to friend
• RSS feeds of cards etc

Likes:
The user interface and usability has been created with thought.  Navigating and using the site is very intuitive.  More focused on developing new business relationships than Plaxo with similar functionality to Plaxo early days plus some tried and tested social networking elements.

Dislikes/Suggestions::

• I just am finding it a real challenge to see this as a step change from a very ‘early days’ Plaxo and we of course, already have Plaxo and a significant number of people have been using it for sometime.  It is true that Lyro is less about creating your own online contact book from your existing contacts and has a focus on creating new contacts through joining groups plus browsing and reaching out to members.
• Although the usability is nice and simple, the interface has a lack of ‘personality’ i.e. it’s more functional than sticky. With Linked In there are a number of hooks that get you diving into the site and staying around.  Lyro does not really have those hooks yet but it is early days…maybe version 2 guys?
• I understand the need for a business model but limiting the amount of messages is limiting the perceived value of the system.  By all means encourage upgrade through a strong more personalized ‘branding’ on the site but have people use it…alot…so they want to improve their presence and are prepared to pay for it.  Key to that is messaging each other…take off the ludicrous limits, get real activity and they’ll upgrade when this site becomes a staple of their online activity.  You are restricting your growth!

Additional Opportunities:

• Consider adding some personalized scripts for each member so they can add the fact that they are a Lyro member to their websites or blogs.

Last thought:

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would personally broadcast my interest to the tune of a virtual $100K.

http://www.lyro.com/

Interested in other articles about My DNA?

• http://www.coolbusinessideas.com/archives/lyro_cards.html
• http://getentrepreneurial.com/recommendations/lyro_online_business_cards.html

Andrew – Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

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