Nascent Business Ideas

Be a Social Entrepreneur

Brian Gabriel — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:54:43 +0000

A social entrepreneur is somebody who comes up with clever solutions for social dilemmas, such as poor educational outcomes and perpetual poverty. You can always work on social problems like these using the free market as your guide, so why do I bring it up now? Because right now the government is offering lots of money to social entrepreneurs who are working on social problems the government wants you to work on. Obama’s Social Innovation Fund (SIF) recently named its first 11 investments that are giving out $50 million over the next few years.

Where are the investments going?

The largest chunk, $7.7 million, is going to Jobs for the Future, which will train 23,000 workers and 1,000 employers; $4 million to teach broke families how to make better financial decisions; $2 million to “tackle” smoking and obesity in Missouri; $5 million to New Profit, which helps high school students make the transition to college.

The government is spending this money on social problems; why not collect that money yourself by coming up with clever solutions yourself? And you can call yourself a social entrepreneur, too.

Reverse the Formulation

Brian Gabriel — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:09:37 +0000

Redefine the problem by reversing it. Instead of saying, “The child is fat because he goes to McDonald’s.” Try, “He goes to McDonald’s because he is fat.” Instead of saying, “Too many dogs exist because not enough people have dogs,” go for, “too many dogs exist because too many people have dogs.”

Go try it on any market. Or any personal situation for that matter. Reverse the formulation and you will find new answers to the problems.

Afghanistan Battery Mines

Brian Gabriel — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 16:20:58 +0000

US geologists recently discovered vast mineral deposits in Afghanistan worth upwards of $1 trillion! It has some gold and iron deposits, but what is really exciting is the vast lithium deposits. In fact, one Pentagon official referred to Afghanistan as “the Saudi Arabia of Lithium.” Not a bad title. Perhaps these Arab Nazis will be skiing around the deserts on their four-wheelers without a care in the world just like the Saudis.

Lithium is a critical industrial metal, used prominently for making batteries for cell phones and laptops.

Nature Isn’t Superfluous

Brian Gabriel — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 15:25:05 +0000

“Human subtlety…will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.”

– Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

Human art always works with an unavoidable reserve of waste. Mimic always, the elegance of nature. The closer your product is to nature, the closer it is to perfection.

Night Light Bookmark

Brian Gabriel — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 18:00:13 +0000

While Reading

The Lampmark solves the two main problems associated with night reading: lighting and bookmarking. It lights up your bed space with an LED display and then, when you’re done reading, just cover the lamp with your book and the light goes out. Brilliant!

Think about using a product physically in a new way. The Lampmark opened a book and came up with a novel way to keep it opened. It also has a dual purpose. What can you create to combine actions to eliminate extra steps? With reading, they asked, “How can I turn off the light and save my place at the same time?” Take another problem and ask a similar question.

While Sleeping

Ask 500 People

Brian Gabriel — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:07:32 +0000

If you have an idea and you would like to ask random people what they think about it, then go to Ask 500 People. This tool will put the question to people all over the world or just in the US if that is your market. People can vote yes or no to your question as well as add valuable comments.

Analogical Thinking in Nature: Pringles

Brian Gabriel — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:14:33 +0000

Pringles Potato Chips are based on the observation of wet leaves, which can stack up in piles without tearing themselves to bits. They survive by stacking compactly together. Enter the immortal Pringles Potato Chip.

Look around at nature and ask yourself, What is like this in Nature? How has Nature solved this problem?

Beekeeping to Billions?

Brian Gabriel — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:35:08 +0000

It’s not that the honey bee population has declined in absolute terms. But in relative economic terms, the global market is more hungry than ever for honey and pollination. The major staple crops that are needed to feed the world– corn, wheat, potatoes– do not need bee pollination. The global population has doubled in the last 50 years, and production of staple crops has kept up with population. However, the world has developed a sweet tooth. And the production of pollinator-dependent crops has quadrupled, crops like watermellon, cashew, and cardamom.

The 45% increase in honeybees has not kept up with this 400% increase in demand. Not every country in the world is suffering from a low supply of honey bees. Turkey, China, and Argentina have the largest bee populations in the world. But the United States is having lots of trouble. So is Europe.

This may be the time for you to become a beekeeper so you can be the one supplying farmers. As demand increases around the world and in the US, which has been happening for decades, these honey bees will only become more valuable. Or how about getting the US Dept. of Agriculture to fund your research into finding ways to increase apiary reproduction, or how to reduce our dependency on crop pollination.

Get all the figures in Conservation Magazine