Zaplee – very exciting software that gives small and medium sized businesses access to call centers via Skype which does away with expensive infrastructure and significant delays in setup.  A free trial has literally just been launched via Skype Extras. Check it out!

http://www.startupcallcenter.com/ (Zaplee Free Trial)

Recent Post:
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. 

http://www.Zaplee.com

Andrew

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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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Our Million Dollar Startup Game blog covered ‘Amie Street’ back in February.  I hate to say “I told You So” but Amie Street has just finalized it’s Series A funding round and the interesting piece of information is that Amazon.com lead this funding round.  Our blog gave Amie Street one of the highest ‘virtual’ investments to date.  I’m sure Amazon invested more than $750K and this should be the sign of an interesting relationship between Amie and Amazon.  Great news but don’t sell out to quickly guys.  Good Luck!

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

++

 Aime Street recently responded to the recent post ‘Aime Street: A $750K Virtual Investment’ with the following important point:

” Lucas Feb 23rd, 2007 at 12:03 am Edit

Hey Andrew,

Thanks for the 750K. Guess we’ll have to see what happens when that situation pops up. An important point along those lines is that we don’t tie down artists who upload their music with any sort of exclusivity agreement. The more people that hear the music, the better.

Lucas”

Thanks for the clarification and update Lucas.  The fact that Aime Street is focused on the good of all sides of the customer equation is clear.  Its great that a company is putting its customers first and this should ultimately ‘pay off’ for everyone.

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

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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Continuing on with online P2P hire theme, here’s a new one from New Zealand.  HireThings is a P2P rental marketplace across multiple categories spanning products, places and services that offers hourly, 4-hour, daily, week, and month rates.  HireThings has a nice ’look and feel’, and easy to use and intuitive interface.  Nice design & UI guys!  

Business Model:
HireThings has a nice and simple business model…if the item you put up for rent is rented by someone, you pay HireThings either a percentage or a percentage plus cash combination depending on the value of the hire.

Value of booking*     Proposed success fee (incl. GST)
Up to $100               5% of hire/rental fee charged. Min charge $0.50.
$100 – $250              $5 + 4% of hire fee over $100
$250 – $500              $11 + 3% of hire fee over $250
$500 – $1500            $18.50 + 2% of hire fee over $500
$1500 +                   $38.5 + 1% of hire fee over $1500.

Max fee per booking = $100.

In my opinion, simple and transparent business models are always the best and this one is nice and clean given that people only pay when they have secured a hire and make money themselves.  No speculation investment required. This should help adoption…oh yeah, and they do not seem to be getting involved in the visually distracting adsense model. Thanks Guys!

Some Core Functionality:

• Members can created a ‘trusted network’ and can choose to only offer items within that network or the broader full site network
• Listing, photo upload, multiple categories including services and place hire…
• Customers can view listing’s details and submit a quote or booking request
• The Hire Things website calculate an estimated cost for the booking
• Renters are notified by email of the new customer request, and can confirm or respond with a firmer quote.

Likes:
A nice and simple concept, business model and execution -

• I like HireThings UI and the clean, fun graphics – it was a simple site to figure out and use
• The ‘Trusted Network’ is a nice angle that could help adoption and friend referral
• If a person rents an item, the renter has the fee deducted from their topped up account – simple

Dislikes:
Not so much dislikes as potential ‘watchouts’ or concerns:

• If the fee is deducted from the topped up account when the transaction is confirmed, what happens if there are challenges with the rental? i.e. item not received, received but not functioning, item not returned, item returned broken – you get the idea. 
• Are any of the above challenges on HireThings to resolve? If so, hope they have a big admin staff…
• The ‘Trusted Network’ is a nice idea but assuming you add your ‘friends’ and ‘contacts’ to this network – why wouldn’t they just contact each other outside of the system and offer to lend them the articles without incurring the commission?
• Keeping the quality of the listings is going to be a challenge as this grows…for example, there is already a listing for “Soft or Hard Hugs” in the services section – now I like hugs as much of the next guy but to hire a 3rd party? Hummm….see that blue flashing light yet? Shame there’s no photo…

One little suggestion for the HireThings guys…the front page of items is hard on the brain given the range and categories of products meshed together…you may want to create a categorization or perhaps quick read icons for the different categories.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would ask them to ‘Let’ me virtually invest $350K. 

http://www.hirethings.co.nz/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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Farecast is a new way of approaching online travel purchasing that could change how we all shop for online travel. This could be a real winner if they can get the average consumer to buy into the concept. 

It’s about time that there was some real innovation in the online travel space.  My personal experience when jumping between Expedia, Travelocity, Opodo and others is the difference is often marginal (a few bucks) and often a few bucks more expensive than going to the airline directly.  My established habit is to find the best flight using these online services and then to go direct to the airlines and buy the flight. Am I the norm here?

Anyway, Farecast analyses fare changes of airlines over a significant period to ‘predict’ what will happen with ticket prices between 75 airports and makes a 75% accurate (?) recommendation regarding what is likely to happen with that ticket price.  i.e. wait, or all time low – buy etc.

There are a number of elements and value adds to this site that I wouldn’t do justice to here. I recommend you check it out. But a few key points, Farecast covers the top airlines, can save you money, you book directly so keep frequent flyer miles that other sites take and there is no booking fee.  I good deal no?

Business Model:
As there are no FAQs within the Farecast site, it’s a little challenging to determine the exact long term business model.  What’s noticeable is there is a shortage of ‘advertising’ and there is no margin added to the purchase of airlines tickets as consumers buy them directly from the airline.

They may have relationships with the airlines which give them some kind of monetary benefits for tickets purchased , such as through an affiliate program but that is unclear. 

One neat and obvious revenue stream is what Farecast is calling Fare Guard – with Fare Guard you basically lock in the lowest price of an airline ticket between two locations for a week.  This pricing ‘hedging’ costs you $9.95.  Book your ticket with any airline at any price within the week and if there is a price increase against your locked in lowest rate, Farecast will give you a refund of the difference between the lowest price and your ‘guarded’ price.

Given many could purchase this ‘option’ and not exercise and many could purchase and the price may not increase, this is money for peace of mind and involves no outlay that I can see from Farecast.  Great business model no?  They may decide to take out ‘insurance’ which will cost a fee but I would be surprised given the quantity of deals they will be involved with…my guess is they have just run the numbers and believe they can make a decent margin.  They may well be right.

Some Core Functionality:

• Fare Prediction
• Arrow: An indicator showing the price ‘trend’ for the flights you are interested in.
• Confidence: A percentage based on Farecasts accuracy of predictions for flights of the kind you are evaluating.
• Average Fare Change.
• Buying Tip: Farecast’s recommendation which is supposedly 75% accurate.
• Fare Guard: The ability to pay $9.95 to lock in the price of the lowest priced ticket for this flight against a guarded rate.  This hedge mechanism will give you a check refund. See below for more details. 

Likes:
Any site which can give me some indication that I can wait 24 hours and save money is worth using.  It’s annoying to purchase a ticket to find the price has halved two weeks later, this may be the answer to that consumer frustration.

Fare Guard is also a great idea and I would even use it, especially for personal travel.

It’s nice and simple which is especially good given how complex it could be. 

Dislikes:
A few little dislikes:

1. Will the average ‘Joe’ or ‘Joanne’ use this site?  Given the average is often a pretty low common denominator – I still wonder if its a little complex for the ‘average’. (Hopefully they don’t read this blog ‘cos I’m not sure I could cope with the hate mail)
2. Business travelers are often price insensitive – they would prefer to buy the darn ticket then focus on the key business issues and emergencies.  If this is the case, Farecast may have to rely upon the occasional personal travel of the business user that has suddenly become more price sensitive, or the Joe’s and Joanne’s outlined above.  But, if they are regular business travelers, they will likely have significant air miles and may not be in the market for waiting around for price shifts.
3. Farecast has something special here – I almost expected the site to look quite different to get the message home…but it looks similar to all the rest.  I guess there’s a fine line to be walked between being and looking too different.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would use $500K to predict Farecast’s success.

http://www.farecast.com/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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