Chris Crompton

In the very little promotion I did for LaunchCap (basically just this blog and my Facebook friends), it wasn’t taking off.  Not to worry, the whole premise behind LaunchCap was to gauge market interest before building your product.  I hadn’t invested too much time.

Last week someone emailed me this feedback, which significantly altered my direction: (more…)

A while back I learned about a new bakery in New York City:  Butch Bakery.  Basically it is cupcakes for men.  They have flavors such as “Beer Run” and “Jackhammer”.  This reminded me of how Hardee’s revitalized itself a few years ago by positioning itself as fast food for adults with their 1,400 calorie Thick Burger.

The whole “we don’t care how bad it is for you; our food is a novelty” attitude is endearing.

There’s one industry that could really use a player with this attitude: pizza delivery.  The name of this business will be Mean Pizza.

(more…)

I had my first “fly-there-and-back-in-the-same-day” business trip last February.  (I spoke on Google AdWords at a seminar in Atlanta.)  The hotel hosting the seminar was a 30-40 minute drive from the airport.

A few days before the trip I searched Google for “airport transportation in atlanta” or something to that effect.  One of the ads caught my eye, so I booked the reservation right there.  I had heard that luxury cars are often cheaper than a taxi from the airport, so that’s what I reserved.  Turns out it was cheaper.

(more…)

I love coming up with new business ideas.  The most exciting part after the idea itself is coming up with the domain name. Wordoid, ajaxwhois, and NameStation are my favorites for coming up with domain ideas.  Then for $9 or so on Namecheap (with an ever-ready coupon from RetailMeNot) I can continue the dream on the cheap.

How many abandoned ideas do you have?

The most exciting part of an idea is often in the first 3 days.   Everything is possible.  Yet there aren’t many businesses that can actually be off the ground and profitable in that little time.  Be warned — that initial excitement may actually be sabotaging your success.

(more…)