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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