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

Related posts:

1. Lyro: A $100K Virtual Investment
2. 3Luxe Speaks Back: A $500K Virtual Investment
3. Geni Speaks Back: Update

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

Related posts:

1. Ning: A $500K Virtual Investment
2. Farecast: A $500K Virtual Investment
3. 3Luxe: A $500K Virtual Investment

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

Related posts:

1. Lyro Speaks Back: Update~ $350K Virtual Investment ‘Restatement’
2. Cherrypicka: A $100K Virtual Investment
3. ILikeTotallyLoveIt: A $100K Virtual Investment

Bringsome is a pre-beta, very early stage company and website that has ‘legs’.  By legs, I mean it has the potential to expand it’s service offering and revenue streams as the business grows.  So what is BringSomes business?  Helping people connect together to BringSome products from one country to another.  No, don’t think illicit drug trade mules importing bad white powder from obscure countries, think someone with a passion for flavored liquid non-dairy coffee creamer in China that would pay a small fee if anyone from the US happens to be about to jump on a plane to Beijing.  Imagine the scenario ~Mum, Dad and the kids have decided to live and work abroad but little Johnnie has a twinkie fetish – that’s where BringSome comes in. But not only that, given the price differences across country boundaries, the enterprising can use BringSome to make some extra cash.

Business Model:
BringSome does not, at this point, take a ‘piece of the action’ i.e. there are no fees for ads, no percentage off the top if someone ‘buys’ a product from another member, in fact the revenue model is currently limited to:

• Paypal donations
• Ads (Google and a few locally generated image ads)

Some Core Functionality:

• Place ads and a little ‘please bring me X because’ note along with a product shot of the item you need
• Contacts are kept private.  If you can deliver the desired product, you can ‘email’ the requestor via the site and sort out how to trade
• Very simple, quick and easy signup.  No long ‘tell me your inside leg measurement’ forms.
• Personal message center along with forums, a place to ‘Hurrah’ when you get the adored item
• Search by text or location / country or just browse
• Polls and Who’s Online

Likes:
A nice niche which could be easily expanded as BringSome gains traction.  The BringSome system is beta and somehow the lack of control and member driven content gives it a real people helping people feel.  Makes me feel closer and less removed from the community.  It would be great if Dave could somehow keep that ‘feel’ as the site scales.

Dislikes:
Just a few questions/concerns:

• There’ s very little traction building tools within the site i.e ‘Send to Friend’ or similar on each ad or page.  There are some slight elements of bookmarks and one overall ‘ Send to Friend’ but that is site wide rather than on each product.  I would recommend more member driven traction building tools especially as I may not be traveling soon to Beijing but may have a friend who is.  A perfect opportunity to send the ‘Creamer’ ad to them so they can help out the Beijing creamer fetishist!
• The site requires some logistical challenges on the back end to work.  Example, I’m travelling to Beijing and want to take that desired creamer.  I email the Beijing member and we agree where to meet so I can give them the item.  This means I have to take time out while in Beijing and find a place that I may not know to meet a person I may not know to give them creamer.  In some ways this could actually be quite interesting. It could also be a pain in the rear.  One idea – I would definitely bring the creamer to Beijing in exchange for a local person to show me briefly around Beijing.  A great way to see a new place and perhaps make a new contact or friend.
• Is there any responsibility for the site to outline legal restrictions? Are there certain goods that are illegal in one country but not in another?  If this is left to the individuals to figure out, there could be some issues down the line for a small number of members and perhaps the site (?)
• Web 2.0 sites are tough to really get going even in one country – for BringSome to work it requires decent numbers of members in multiple countries which is tougher! But you know what…I think Dave and BringSome will actually do it and I think it will because of the member driven, personal ‘feel’ that the site has through user created ads without the ‘Ebay’ish’ template other sites have.

Suggestions:

• Lost revenue opportunity:  Not requiring members to set a finders fee for the item they need and taking a little piece or charging for ads.  But perfectly understandable as it’s very early days for BringSome.  Something tells me the site will probably go that route when they reach what they feel is critical mass.
• The site requires the ad creator to write where the item they need is from.  There is a field for their location but it would help ‘matches’ if members can search not only the requestor’s location but where the requested item is from.  So, I’m in the US and I’m about to travel to China.  If I go search China ads I’ll need to wade through ads from people in China wanting items from everywhere before finding ads for items needed from the US.  Not a problem now as it has a small membership, will be an issue when BringSome skyrockets!

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would BringSome virtual investment of $2o0K! Especially if someone can bring me some Cadbury’s Crunchies from the United Kingdom to the United States (NJ/NY). Crunchies in New York just DON’T taste the same! Try not to sit on them during the flight over, they melt!

http://www.BringSome.com

Interested in other articles about BringSome.com?

• http://www.coolbusinessideas.com/archives/bring_some_over.html
• http://gridskipper.com/travel/everywhere/bring-some-foreign-goodness-finder-282176.php
• http://www.psfk.com/2007/07/hungry-expats-rejoice.html

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

Related posts:

1. HireThings: A $350K Virtual Investment
2. Lyro: A $100K Virtual Investment
3. Ning: A $500K Virtual Investment

Social Flowers is an innovative idea!  If you are part of a social network (and let’s face it…who isn’t nowadays) then using ‘Social Flowers’, you can send flowers, gift baskets, balloons to another member of your social network even though you don’t necessarily have their contact information, name, address etc.

Business Model:
Like most online flower stores, customers are charged for the actual items along with a service charge.  Items range from around $35 and can go up to $200 or thereabouts.  If you wanted to be even more extravagant than that, I’m sure Social Flowers will probably create something just for you and your social networking pal!  Thankfully there is no distracting google ads etc so this is a nice clean site.

Some Core Functionality:
Here is how the process works.

• In a social network, the sender selects the Social Flowers application. The sender then selects the recipient of the flowers from their list of friends.
• When the recipient has been selected, the senders clicks on a link which takes the sender from the social network to the SocialFlowers.com website.
• At SocialFlowers.com, the sender chooses the flower selection, goes through checkout and enters credit card information.
• The sender is returned to the social network. The Social Flowers application inside the social network sends an email on the sender’s behalf to the recipient letting them know that they have been sent real flowers.
• In the social network, the recipient receives an email letting them know they have been sent flowers from the sender. The recipient clicks on the link in the email and goes to SocialFlowers.com where they are asked to provide an address for the delivery of flowers. The recipient is returned to the social network after a delivery address has been provided.
• Social Flowers fulfills the delivery of fresh flowers to the recipient from the sender using our network of over 30,000 local florists across the United States and Canada.

Likes:
This is a nice and simple business model and it’s interesting that a ‘traditional’ business like a flower delivery service is working to cross the web 2.0 digital divide and with luck capitalize on the relationships people are establishing online.

• A key ‘like’ is that I just plain haven’t seen this kind of business before so you have to tip your hat to the maverick that thought of the idea. For that reason alone, I wish them loads of luck!

Dislikes:
I have a few concerns:

• Will people really pay $40 to pay to send flowers to a person they have never met, don’t even know their real names or where they live?  Isn’t part of the joy of giving seeing the persons face after receiving your thoughtful gift?  My wife and Mother are lucky if I send them flowers using an online service – would I or most other people really be thoughtful enough to send flowers to someone they don’t ‘really’ know?
• The site is bland.  The design could be much more innovative, especially as it’s supposed to appeal to the web 2.0 crowd. At this stage it looks like a template that they have been given by an interflora type company. Social Flowers is part of Florist One who state they are first and foremost a florist. That’s good to know but come on guys – turn the visual experience up a notch!
• I’ve received phishing emails telling me someone has sent me virtual flowers and the like.  This may cause challenges for this business model given someone is receiving flower notifications from people they don’t know. Does Social Flowers still charge even if the flowers can’t be delivered or aren’t received?

Suggestions:

• As they are focused on web 2.0 market, try using some of the common tools of this space.  Customer reviews, send to friend, bookmarking, community etc – If community members send each other flowers, add a card with a special reference number to your website so the recipient can write a ‘thank you’ and start a more personal dialogue with the sender via your site.  This would create a lot more traction.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would virtually invest $150K as I don’t trust that virtual friends will really do anything more than send virtual flowers to each other.  But perhaps the world really is crazy and I could be VERY wrong about this!

http://www.SocialFlowers.com

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

Related posts:

1. Lyro: A $100K Virtual Investment
2. Ning: A $500K Virtual Investment
3. HireThings: A $350K Virtual Investment

ILikeTotallyLoveIt is a new website where people post objects that they ‘Totally Love’ and include links to where the items can be purchased.  As the objects get voted on by members using a ‘Digg’ similar approach, the more popular items get moved to the front page. So its a popularity site for products people adore… 

Business Model:
The business model seems nice and simple for this new site – Google Ads and vertical banners served up on the right margin which seem relatively targeted to the twenty somethings that are posting the items that they ‘Totally Love’.  There is currently no fee for posting an item and believe or not, there are a few hundred items already posted.

Example:

Totally Loved

http://www.zappos.com

Converse All Star Deluxe Mary Jane Ox
posted by bdavies 16 hours ago view profile

A cute, cute Converse! These are a blend of the classic Chuck Taylor shoe and a traditional Mary Jane silhouette. These have leather uppers and an arch support.

Some Core Functionality:

• Product Voting – popular products move to main page 
• Multiple categories and price ranges
• Tell a Friend
• Comments on items
• Tags
• Trackbacks
• RSS feeds 

Likes:
This site is cute in that it brings ’design’ into the product mix and combines it with product recommendations and voting.   

Dislikes:
A few little dislikes:

1. TotallyLoveIt is a little messy from a design perspective but it is new so hey they’ll get there or perhaps that’s part of the charm. You decide.
2. The construction and set up of the site seems a bit too much like all the other ‘voting’ websites out there and it probably leverages Pligg software so there’s little real innovation.  It’s literally just found a nice little niche of young users who want to recommend, vote and sell items to others.
3. My key concern for this site is one of long term sustainability – is it adding enough value to stay around for years 2, 3 and onwards?  I think that depends on the founders and where they decide to take this site – right now, its cute but I don’t see alot of long term incremental value and the members will likely get bored after a few months. 

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would invest $100K as I only just ‘TotallyLoveIt”.

http://www.iliketotallyloveit.com/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

Related posts:

1. Cherrypicka: A $100K Virtual Investment
2. Lyro: A $100K Virtual Investment
3. Social Flowers: A $150K Virtual Investment

Ning is a new’ish company with some recently released technology that will skyrocket this company into the stratosphere. 

It’s the first company that I’m aware of that has created an easy to use, drag and drop, easy configuration site for users to create their own Social Networking site.  Literally within minutes you can have your own Social networking site with video & picture functionality, forums and a host of other features that allow the non-tech savvy out there to potentially get in on the Social networking action.

Business Model:
Ning’s business model is simple:
1)  They add ‘Adsense’ to the right hand column of every Social networking site so as people promote their new networking site, it should, in principle create a multiple effect Ning’s ad revenue
2)  People who want to get the benefit of the Adsense on their own site can pay a monthly fee, currently standing at $19.95.  They can obviously stratify that later so the more popular sites have a rev share and the less popular pay the fee or take Ning’s ads and just get on with running their site

Some Core Functionality:

• Social Networking:  Invite, meet new people, privacy settings, address book importing
• Full Customization of Theme or take existing template and configure.  Add your own logos, photos and branding
• Photo sharing, video sharing, forums
• …and the list goes on. Not bad for FREE! 

Likes:
There are a number of reasons why Ning will sing from an investment perspective:

The user interface is VERY easy to use and intuitive, I set up a social networking site in under five minutes and was…with a shy smile…relatively happy with how my very own social networking site looked (Check out the results:  http://amateurs.ning.com/)

With a couple of hours – it would be possible to make the site really work as some of the existing sites within Ning show.

As people promote their site, they promote Ning, this gives them the magic fairy dust needed for companies like this to go from 2, 200, 200K in months.  Their adsense revenue should be pretty obscene soon. 

I am starting to wonder if people are starting to mentally phase out adsense and these ads become a almost invisible to the human eye. What do you think?

As members of Ning can seach the different Social Networks there’s the potential to pick up stray but interested members…not bad!

Dislikes:
OK, so I used Ning and built my site based on a crazy little idea I had a while ago.  Thanks guys…I have finally seen my idea live. 

I know Ning has done one side of the hard work for me…the tech side, but I still have alot of the hard work ahead.  How to get people onboard, especially the first few users.  With these kinds of sites, you need a few active members so that the shy and reticent don’t worry about joining too.  The more people onboard the more valuable the system, so you really do need those first few.

That works if the Social networking site is in an area that already relates to a space with which I’m involved…so for me, Startups.  But what if I’ve set up a site because of an idea I’ve had but where I have few contacts?  That is a big stumbling block for this to go viral with all social networking sites created.

I would imagine that 10% of the users sites will hit the volume big time, 20% will do pretty well and the rest will perhaps exist but in name only.  Just a guess! But if the 80/20 rule works here…the majority of adsense revenue will come from the large volumed 20% and those will be the ones that convert to the $19.95 monthly fee. They would be mad not too and where does the revenue come from then?

Also, if I do create a site that really starts to rock and roll…iId like to port it to my own server and do it for myself.  Arguably if I did that then I couldn’t take advantange of Ning’s new functionality releases but it would still be mine.  Ning does not seem to have that on their roadmap.  If they don’t someone will come along who will offer that.

It would be good if Ning could figure out a business model to allow that to happen and keep some of the revenue. Perhaps a premium service would be to host the site under a separate URL but share the revenue or charge a higher monthly fee.

Last point – how long until the Social networking site market is completely saturated?  When the point arrives (if it hasn’t already) then this functionality becomes a glorified Yahoo Group type service.  I guess that still gives them the potential to be acquired by Yahoo or Google sometime ahead so another reason for a big virtual investment.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would stop inviting all my friends to http://amateurs.ning.com/ to invest $500K in Ning.

http://www.ning.com/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

Related posts:

1. Geni: A $500K Virtual Investment
2. Farecast: A $500K Virtual Investment
3. Social Flowers: A $150K Virtual Investment