Just after the last post ‘Geni: A $500K Virtual Investment’, Geni were kind enough to respond with the following:

“Geni JoAnne Feb 26th, 2007 at 4:46 pm Edit

Hi Andrew. Excellent blog. We are considering adding premium services to our site in the future–the basic service will remain free.”

JoAnne – Thank you for letting us know. It would be great to understand what Premium services Geni will be offering – but I’m sure they will be as value add and innovative as the core site itself.

Have your say here: http://www.andrewive.com/mdsg-forum/

Great job Geni!

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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Geni is a very interesting online service that leverages an easy to use flash interface and viral tools to create family trees.  One interesting concept to prove or disprove is that the whole world is related in one way or another. Could Geni be the solution to world peace?   

Business Model:
I have been unable to determine how Geni makes money but there are a number of obvious ways Geni can see the green as they quickly hit critical mass i.e. adsense, monthly subscriptions, follow on ‘pay for’ services and there is such a strong potential growth curve that this make sense as a ‘virtual’ investment:

Some Core Functionality:

• An easy to use interface asks you to add your name and email address.  You can update your profile now or later.
• You add your parent’s names, aunts, uncles, cousins and their email addresses and Geni begins to create a private access family tree. i.e. only visible to people invited to input into the family tree.
• Geni is ‘viral’ so any people you add to your family tree with an email will be able, in turn, to see and add to your family tree.

Likes:
There are a number of reasons why I think Geni will be going ganbusters in six months or less:

The user interface is VERY easy to use and intuitive, I find it hard to imagine that any user will not be able to instantly understand how to use ‘Geni’

Its one thing to be asked to join a ‘networking’ site via a friend, work colleague or distant contact – its quite another to be asked to ‘join’ by Auntie Flow or Cousin Rupert. There is also something immediately to be gained by participating…you get to find out about YOU! A subject at the center of everyone’s universe.  Can anyone really turn up their nose at such a site?  I think not!

Like most sites that go from zero to 180 miles per hour in 6 seconds or less, members only gain value if they bring others to the system.  Hence the reason why Match grew well but slowly (i.e. you could use the system without needing to ‘Add’ to the system) versus LinkedIn where its necessary to bring people onboard to gain value. Geni is the later…in a significant way!

As each person within the family tree has a profile, its also a good way to keep up with those relatives that you don’t get to see too often…now if it could only remind me to send a birthday card, life would be even better.

Dislikes:
What’s the revenue model? Yes, Geni will grow in leaps and bounds but how will they make cash?  Will we start seeing annoying addsense ads beside Grandpa Joe’s photos advertising denture cream?  It isn’t obvious at this point. The setup and tools within Geni will ensure the site will grow…no question!  But like many 2.0 companies – when and how they get to revenue is a question.  Without understanding the roadmap to revenue, I’d make a big bet on Geni based on how many users I think they will have by 2008.  There are always ways to monetize significant membership level.  So a big bet but not a huge bet until the revenue crystalball becomes less opaque.

A little nitpick – what about those people who do not email?  I know…I know…but my grandparent’s aren’t online.  So I potentially ‘lose’ that information unless I get on the phone and talk them through it.  May be worth it though…

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would put the phone down on my Mother to invest $500K in Geni.

http://www.geni.com/tree

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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uWink is a restaurant concept that blends affordable food, hip surroundings and a digital screen that can be used for ordering food, playing games, hitting the internet and getting more ketchup.  The brain child of uWink is Nolan Bushnell, former CEO of Atari and founder of Chuck E. Cheese.

Business Model:
uWink seems to be driven by a similar customer insight to Chuck E. Cheese, that video games and food work well together, but this time the environment has been created for the young and the hip…allbeit older than the Chuck E. Cheese 5 year old crowd. 

The food is ordered through digitial screens on the tables and instead of waiters, they have ‘runners’.  Want more ketchup?  Dive into your computer screen. Oh, and while your there…play the various computer games.  Who’s that sitting across the table from you? Who cares!  You can play a neat new game while eating your cob salad.  Doubles anyone?

Or even better, assuming you ever get to talk to the people you came to the restaurant with and they start to get boring…challenge the table over to a table vs. table tournament.  You never need to talk to another person at dinner, lunch or brunch again…unless its ‘Take that you swine and die like the weakling you are!’ before blasting them into 2050 with your virtual weapon of choice!

Some Core Elements:

• Table top food ordering that goes straight through to the kitchen which supposedly reduces ‘human’ error
• Games, internet, videos and so on within the table top screen on your table
• The menu is reasonably priced and has a good range.  Tasty!
• Restaurants are divided into different ‘zones’.  The larger restaurants have areas that can become an instant quiz show venue or presentation stage

Likes:
As a computer junkie and gamer, the uWink environment attracts and is a great place to while away the hours on a wet and windy winters Sunday afternoon. The food variety is good and the prices are not too bad.

Dislikes:
It’s not that I dislike the environment as much as the concept of going to a restaurant with people and then spending most of my time looking at a computer screen.  The positioning of the business seems to be that its bringing gamers out of the darkened recesses of their bedrooms and showing them that is OK to be a gamer and they do not have to ’game’ alone.  But the reality is…once a gamer’s eyes lock on a great new game, everything else disappears…even the $11.50 Vietnemese Salad sitting by their elbow delivered not by waiters but by runners and the projected images revolving on the wall.  That all becomes just a distraction.

If uWink positioned themselves to the world as the gamers paradise with great food and surroundings then it be telling it like I think it is…instead they seem to promote the restaurant and ‘oh yeah by the way’, there are computers too so you can play games.

One thing that amused was uWink promotes that fact that they have ‘At the Table Ordering.’  I’ve had ’At Table’ ordering at every restaurant I’ve ever been at. 

Do I think I’d enjoy an afternoon at a uWink…Yup! Do I think it will still exist as a business in 5 years….hummm, can someone press my screen for me and order some more bread…

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would lift my eyes from Quake III Gold for 30 seconds to invest $50K in uWink.

http://www.uwink.com/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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In my opinion Amie Street is one of the most exciting new businesses I have seen in a while.  So what’s the basic idea?  

Business Model:
There are a number of elements:

An ‘iTunes’ for Independent bands and musicians.  With Aime Street they can get an audience, get paid and perhaps get ‘discovered’.

Listening members join for Free and can download songs that start off Free but as those songs gain in download popularity, the price increases to keep pace with demand up to a .98 cent cap.

Bands receive 70% of all revenues for their songs after the first $5 to cover set up costs.

Some Core Functionality:

• There are no digital media restrictions so downloaders can use the files in multiple because there are no big labels or their lawyers breathing down downloaders necks.
• People who recommend music to others gain music credits when those songs begin to earn revenues.  Those credits can be used for more downloads.
• Amie Street has multiple music genres, single songs and albums and you can sample songs before download.

Likes:
Word of mouth will drive this business from a number of dimensions.  This is such a well thought out business model which gives significant benefits to all.  Aime Street makes money, the bands make money and listeners can download new songs for free and get credits if they recommend new music plus there’s a real incentive to spend time on the site and ‘discover’ great songs before the other Aime Street members.

Also this should really help musicians in a number of ways…the ability to get their music out to a potentially wide audience, make some money and if they regularly top the Aime Street charts, they could land themselves a contract with the smart record companies who should follow ‘chart’ activity within Aime Street.

Dislikes:
There really isn’t much to dislike about Aime Street.  A question I have is what happens when a band or vocalist gets signed?  Will Aime Street need to go and ‘pull’ those songs from their site? Also will this create true fans and followers for the bands or will they become a weekly fad as they hit popularity and then become passe.  What am I talking about?  That’s just the music business!  Sorry but I really am scratching my head and am not finding much to dislike.  I recommend you check out Aime Street.

Amie Street really does seem to be a great deal all around…especially if you are interested in ‘discovering’ a band before they go through the image machine.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would pull out my headphones to invest $750K in Aime Street.

http://amiestreet.com/welcome

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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Zlio is an interesting online service begun in France but seems to be making its way to the US and other countries. 

Business Model:
Users of Zlio can set up their own online store for Free in under five minutes even if they don’t have anything to sell by choosing products from a catalog of thousands of products.  The users earn commissions for every item sold within their store and Zlio takes responsibility for all fulfillment of the purchased items.  The core role of users is:

1)  Create an appealing ‘store front’
2)  Choose the right products that work with their store’s personality
3)  Promote the heck out of their own store among friends, search engines, blogs you name it.

Everything else is handled by Zlio.

Some Core Functionality:

• Store Setup
• Submission to search engines
• RSS feed for each store
• Inclusion in Zlio Directory
• Unique store URL for promotional use

Likes:
There is a strong viral element to this business model which is driven by its ease of setup and use combined with the inherent need in the online community to create a personal presence.  As Zlio gets a ‘cut’ for every item sold, providing they have negotiated decent margins with the product providers then this should be a revenue heavy business. 

My guess is that Zlio has struck a number of deals with product fulfillment houses and therefore never actually ‘touch’ a product.  This is likely a pure order pass through business where the usual costs of marketing are not required – the marketing occurs virally through individuals creating their Zlio store and promoting the heck out of it within their own networks. A very efficient model!

Dislikes:
There’s a certain ‘pyramid’ flavor to this business but the realty is they are on to a winner and will make significant cash providing they have struck the right deals and have an efficient backend.  One slight challenge will come if the price points of the products offered are not competitive with alternative ‘stores’ online.  If no one actually sells product through their stores then the viral marketing will eventually dry up.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would jump over burning baguettes to invest $500K in Zlio.

http://www.zlio.com/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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