Biztorm is a bi-weekly newsletter sending you a fresh a batch of business and product differentiation ideas, based on the latest happenings in tech, business and current events.
Why I started this newsletter
Because of my burning envy of that damn genius Pieter Levels, that's why.
When he started selling AI generated profile pictures a couple of weeks ago I wished I had thought of that idea too. It felt like it was right up my alley, and so obvious.
But alas, I didn’t think of it.
Don't get me wrong, I played around with AI image generators as soon as they came out, just like everyone else. But then I got side-tracked and moved on without giving a single thought on how I could turn this amazing tech into profitable product ideas.
And that’s no good.
So, the main motivation behind me starting Biztorm is that I don’t want to miss another obvious opportunity like that again.
No! I’m now going to get intentional about it, and force myself to generate fresh, new business ideas on a bi-weekly basis. And lucky for you, you get profit from my angsty bit of FOMO too.
Another reason I'm sharing my ideas publicly is that I hope it would serve as a form of motivation. As the subscriber base (hopefully) grows, I’ll feel increasingly obligated to stick to it and to commit to delivering quality results.
I hope this wee bit of social pressure helps me exercise my idea-muscle and opportunity-eye to olympic proportions, and come up with better and better gems with every passing week.
These ideas will not be constrained to the purely digital realm, but will nevertheless be centred around the worlds or tech, remote working and product development, since those are my primary interests. But who knows what the future holds.
Paid Brainstorm Sessions
This newsletter will be 100% free, but each addition will have a link to an accompanying Full Session of brainstorms, where I’ll riff on different ways of monetising, executing and differentiating offerings in a more in-depth manner.
Sometimes brainstorms will be long and extensive, other times just short and sweet. It all comes down with how helpful my muse was that day.
You can purchase the full session using links under the Brainstorms sections.
PS, previous sessions will automatically discount with the release of new ones, meaning fresh sesions will go for a premium price(time to market and speed of executing is hella important, after all) and older ones will become progressively cheaper, until they reach a flat, base price.
I’m super excited to get started. I hope you are too.
Let's start.
Business Ideas for December 22
Contiki tours for Digital Nomads
Art generated with Stable Diffusion
Collaborative authoring between authors and their readers
Airbnb for co-working spaces
Rewards App for small businesses
Let’s dig in!
#1 Contiki tours for Digital Nomads
Contiki tours changed the traveling industry by creating fun, social, group travel packages that run over a period of a week or two.
The focus is on creating a whirlwind of adventure and fun, without the shlep of wondering what stuff will cost, where you’ll be meeting new people, where you’ll stay, or figuring out what you would be doing on a daily basis. It’s fun traveling on rails, basically.
The value prop is that everything is organised and planned out for you, you just need to pay, strap in, and enjoy the ride.
Digital Nomads - especially new ones - experience very similar needs.
But there are some differences, of course.
For one, they’ll likely want to some exotic location for longer than just a week of two.
Also, they’d likely be more interested in awesome co-working spaces than (just) visiting tourist sites. Reliable wifi and good coffee would obviously rank high on the checklist too.
But essentially, when you think about it, the problem space is very similar;
where to stay?
where to meet fellow nomads?
what to do when you get there?
where can you work?
how will you get around?
where to eat?
what will it all cost?
So why not start a Contiki tour like services for digital nomads?
Specific tours and packages could be set up by an experienced nomad guide who already knows the ropes for the usual nomad hotspots, like Bali, Portugal and Thailand. It this sounds like you, I hope your ears perked up.
Nomads noobs could then buy a rapid introduction to the local scene, work at the most happening co-working spaces, and meet all the most interesting fellow nomads and entrepreneurs, without the stress of trying to figure it all out themselves.
Brainstorms
The first obvious idea that comes to mind would be to just take the idea literally and create Contiki-like packages, pick some dates and have people book and pay you.You’d just need to pick out the best locations, plan out...
#2 Art generated with Stable Diffusion
The gold rush for AI generated interior decorating and profile pictures have pretty much been cornered. Sorry.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there’s still room left in those markets(I have quite a few ideas brewing, myself), but rather go where the competition isn't as intimidating.
But AI image generation assisted businesses are just getting started, IMO, you just need to think of who spends money on visual imagery.
Think stock photos, loading screens, device background images, screen savers, book covers, blog featured images, social media asset generation and more.
Brainstorms
The obvious pace to start would just be a web app where people who can’t set up Stable Diffusion themselves can describe what they want, like “a synth wave city landscape at dawn”, choose their image size, and get sent a bunch or images via email.You could niche this down by focussing on...
#3 Collaborative authoring between authors and readers
My wife likes reading books by self-published authors on Amazon Kindle. These books are usually quite cheap/free, and are relatively popular. But they have a certain lack in quality and finish, and are often desperately in need of some basic editing. They are often also a bit rambling and unstructured.
Readers often complain about these issues in the comments and reviews, but indie authors just don't realistically have the resources to have their passion work professionally edited.
What if these authors and their readers could help each other out by working together on a collaborative platform?
Picture a site where authors can write and publish beta versions of their stories, where registered readers(or true fans) could then read for cheap(or even free), vote on the concepts and plots, and even submit editing, spell checking and other suggestions, which authors could merge into their books, like pull requests.
When the authors finally consider the books complete and sufficiently edited, they can make the books public and sell them at decent price. And credit their reader-collaborators automatically.
This would be a win-win scenario where readers get to be personally involved with their favourite fictional worlds and characters, while authors get to tweak their art to perfection, with the help of their true fans(and target market).
Brainstorms
Obvious first thought - use GTP-3 or something similar to help authors brainstorm and write faster...
#4 Airbnb for co-working spaces
Some remote workers have enormous homes and fast internet connections, especially some engineers. But yet they still go out to co-working spaces and coffee shops, just because they miss human interaction.
What if they could bring the co-working environment home, to them?
Also, some businesses have spare desks and office space available, and could likely earn quite a bit of extra cash by making those spaces available too remote workers.
In other words, what if you do for co-working spaces what Airbnb did for holiday rentals?
Brainstorms
It could work exactly like Airbnb, where renters and hosts need to register profiles and then book spots via an app.Hosts would need to specify things like amount of desk space, internet connections speed, availability of coffee/tea, and possibly parking space available...
#5 Rewards App for small businesses
Starbucks have a rewards program mobile app which, when scanned at checkout, will reward you with free coffee after every couple of visits.
It’s a great way to encourage repeat customers, especially for businesses that rely on one-off sales.
But not all small businesses, like bakeries or mom-and-pop coffee shops(or even street food vendors!) can afford to get their own rewards mobile app developed.
You could create a mobile friendly web app where small businesses can sign up and offer their own rewards programs with a custom-branded rewards profile.
The app would track usage for them, likely with the help of QR codes.
Participating businesses could also send promos and discount codes to their most loyal customers via push notifications or email, without worrying about creating, managing or maintaining the infrastructure that such a service would need, themselves.
Brainstorms
By recording date of birth on signups, the rewards program could notify the business owners when specific customers have upcoming...
Conclusion
And that’s it for the first edition, folks! I’ll be back in about 2 weeks with a fresh batch of ideas and brainstormings. Until then, happy making!
If you have any feedback or suggestions please feel free to reach out to me on @riknieu on Twitter or hello@riknieu.com
Rik