I had a dream to operate an under-water brothel in some shady always-summer country.

edit: Norwegian combat divers as bodyguards and an underwater sound-system.

the language online thing, isn't that basically http://livemocha.com?

Hmmm... appears to be.

I guess all the good ideas on the Internet are already taken. hehe

I only know the site because someone suggested the same idea to me and we were pretty excited about it until we found it

no comments on my idea

Any comments on my idea? We just launched our kickstarter.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...oker-kothpoker

^ GTL? Really?

What if the idea is good, possible and there is no one doing it, do I see if patenting is possible and license it?

You cannot patent an idea. Rephrase/rethink the broader idea into a comprehensive method.

And, believe me, even if you believe that you have thought about everething regarding your "invention", there will be many times more overlooked details/scenarios.

Pitch it to everybody you sort of trust. To the industry insiders and also to completley random people regarding the industry. Collect lots of feedback and take it into consideration.

Most of what seems obvious to you can be very illogical and confusing to different people.

I had an idea about 4 years ago and thought about it for about 2 years in general terms. Then spent another 2 years writing and rewriting everything, already in talks with a patent-attorney. Later I managed to get a little funding from EU and I was ready to file the application. Maybe 3 months before the application went in I realised that the math of it, which i had done and redone in 2 years was completly wrong and basically the entire method changed.

Now it´s pending and basically what I have to show for it are lots of consepts and papers, 2 animations about the UX and lots of calculations about the profitability + an comprehensive example about an implementation that could/should work well.
So, it´s just the beginning.

One thing you could to if you are serious about it:

Take a big-ass paper. Write the name of the method to the top of the page and write any general idea or direction under it and start expanding every one of those lines. It might help you to get a better grasp on it, although I don´t know what you are planning.

How about a Webvan-type service but instead of delivering to your home they deliver to your office? I'm thinking of business parks and such where many large office buildings are clustered in a small area.

The primary focus would be providing goods from Trader Joes, Whole Foods and Costco. Have designated days for each store, so for example on Wednesdays you deliver from Trader Joes. People place their order by 3 pm and you roll up around 5 pm, park in the lot and people come pick up their stuff. Use prepaid accounts so you're not handling cash.

Charge, what? Maybe $10? Different rates depending on how many items? I'd gladly pay $10 to save myself a trip to Costco after a long day at work. I have co-workers who pay $25-$30 a pop for TaskRabbits to shop for them, and know a lot of people who work long hours these days in an effort to keep their jobs who I believe would fork over a few bucks to save themselves an hour of shopping after work.

My buddy and his wife are thinking of trying this. He's fixing up a Sprinter van and they've also got a minivan.

Webvan-type stores already deliver to your place of work, if you so desire.

But do people want to go down the street, wait around in a line to garb their stuff, then fill their office fridges with their personal stuff, and finally schlep it back home? How do you expect to handle 75 customers -$750 revenue for the day - coming by your van at 5pm?

I don't see how this is better than scheduled home delivery.

To me, the only value of this service is that it would have Trader Joe's products. But I would still want home delivery.

These sorts of businesses are great for a customer, but a logistical nightmare with very tiny profit margins for the provider.

this is kind of a mess.

I don't spend much time on Kickstarter. Do iPhone games do well at all there? It seems like a hard product to get people to donate too.

Most products that I have seen do well on Kickstarter seemed to give the actual product to someone for the most basic donation. I don't see that here. Maybe it's because you can't gift an app like that, I dunno.

All valid issues. The concept is for people to pick up their stuff, get in their cars and go home, but obviously there would be timing concerns. As for 75 customers a day, they're thinking on a much smaller scale, at least initially, but this is definitely something to consider.


Home delivery is better in most respects. The draw would indeed be Trader Joe's (and Costco and Whole Foods). The margins may be thin but the start-up costs are low, and the people involved have plenty of time and live near the aforementioned stores and business parks. But I see the logistical nightmare as well. Thanks for the feedback.

I've had an idea for a while ever since I saw those flat screen tables that have an interactive touch screen (I'm pretty sure its on youtube somewhere).

Basically imagine that you're at a restaurent and you get seated at a table which lets you:

1) View the menu and ingredients, calories, other nut facts etc

2) Watch the chef in the kitchens actually make the food (this would be optional ofc, not everyone likes to see a live lobster getting cooked). I would imagine there would be a camera over the chef's prep area which would indicate wether or not they're being watched.

3) Have some interactive games that small children could play basically just to give them something to do while waiting for the food.

4) Have other information for tourists detailing different venues around the area or giving brief overview of fun facts about the restaurent

Obv this would take away alot of jobs from waiters who earn tips based on this kind of stuff ex; Giving advice about places to go etc.. However: Not everyone likes to deal with staff, they could have an unplesant experience which ruins their evening. Not to mention different language barriers. The technology of the tables could allow them to be available in several languages. The high tech tables would be a astetic factor as well and it would probably increase efficiancy.

I mean there's a ton of stuff that a digital table at a restaurent could offer. Obviously it would be able to be covered when the food arrives. Also this could free up waiters etc to do other things. Or the person could have an option to want to order completely digitally or via an actual person.

Revenue would be from restaurents paying monthly fees in either a format of:
1) % of earned income through digital table ordering
2) Flat monthly fee based on revenue of restaurent Ex: Large chains etc..

What you guys think?

It sounds like you want to bring a 7-11 ordering experience to restaurants. I'm sure there is some gimmick appeal to this, but it's definitely not a cheap gimmick. The sort of setup you describe is going to be very expensive. A restaurant with 50 tables, with 2-6 screens at each table (or one big - but very expensive, screen) is looking at 50K at minimum. Plus all the programming, reprogramming, maintenance, and trouble shooting when something inevitably gets unplugged, crashes, or whatever...

This is definitely way more expensive than waiters that are earning peanuts and rely on tips to make a living... And it's not like this could replace waiters. While the ordering would be automated, you still need about the same amount of people for order fulfillment.

That said, your idea makes me think of some Asian restaurants that have little silent buzzers at the tables. Instead of waving your hand around trying to get the attention of a waiter, you just press the silent buzzer and a water appears. I wonder what kind of impact that buzzer has on waiter staffing numbers...

The screens could be slightly bigger than an ipad or tablet. Imagine Approx 4 screens per table. A table costing roughly 6-10k you're looking at about 500k for a whole setup @50 tables. If I tell you that digital menu's increase sales by 70% and you're a restaurent that has 50 tables, making approx 600k-1mil a year (med sized non upscale). You've just paid for the setup costs in the 1st year alone.

Also, most restaurents would probably want to test out a few tables first. See what the feedback is. There could be a trial period and clients that use the platform could fill out survey's indicating their overal experience.

I don't see this working everywhere. Probably Mid to high end classy resto's.

Why would digital menus increase sales at all?

If anything, they might lower sales because pricing would be more transparent and it would be harder for the restaurants to hide their overpriced drinks and cost of refills and other tricks that they do to increase revenue and profit margins.

Based on a sample size of 1 (myself) I'm not even sure that it would increase efficiency. When I go to 7-11 and use that ordering system, I end up standing there 5 minutes looking at all the options, going back and fourth to add and delete stuff and customize stuff and then having to catch my order as it's being made because I want to get extra sauce or extra pepper but only a little bit of onion. It seems to take me a lot less time just talking to a person at Subway, and I would imagine some older people would take even longer, necessitating a waiter to walk them through the system...

I'm just thinking out loud here... If there's a place in the market for Ice bar and Oxygen bar, there's probably a space for electronic tables too...

Well I've read online before about some reviews of hotels offering digital menu's to customers at their bars and they've said in some cases its increased sales by 70% at least. I was looking into the digital menu opportunities before i thought of this and there's already quite a market for that as well. The only problem that hotels seem to face is finding quality app designers and not ones that leave you with a buggy//overpriced PoS.

Customers get a more detailed outline of the drinks their getting (taste, alchohol level, popularity etc..), if someone isn't too familiar or wants to take their time they're not occupying the bartender. I guess they feel less pressured to order something on the spot.

If you had to decide between two different items on a regular menu without pictures, and asked the person serving you what their oppinion is, you're getting their oppinion. You might choose something that you end up really not enjoying. If you have a screen infront of you showing you a short 30 second vid or 2 min prep vid of the actual dish, you could get a more detailed picture of what it is you're ordering. You could still not end up enjoying it, but you had more information presented to you and the server is not tied up explaining something when they could be serving someone else.

Why not basicly the same idea but with cheap waterproof tablets (lock them to the table or w/e)? Would cut the price by a factor of 5 or more, more potential problems too (stuff breaking) though

I cant imagine finding cheap and hard to break tablets which could stand the heavy use they´re bound to get + what was already said, the maintenance and the entire infrastructure and UX needed to make it easy for customers.

Smartphone + "lapdock" combo where instead of porting somewhere stupid like behind the lapdock screen, the smartphone slides/clicks into place where the touchpad is normally located. The capacitive screen on the phone can then act as a touchpad and open the door for apps that provide user interaction across multiple screens. Simple example: a web browser that outsources the navigation menus and buttons to the 4" touchpad screen to maximize web page real estate on the 12" screen.

I have created a simple excel program for a niche diet. Users enter a couple of stats and then select a meal plan and get a grocery list.

Fiverr says that anything you sell a buyer becomes their property. So I am thinking this is a licensing issue? Anyone know the legalities here?

Also, at $4 a pop it's going to take a lot of buys (marketing) to make any money. Do you think it would be better to find an internet marketer to sell the program to?

You're never gonna be able to enforce copyright anyway, any investors will want to see some indication of ROI so put it out there on fiverr and ebay and anywhere else someone will give you a dollar for it.