Transcript

YOUR WEEKLY FIX OF ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS

06-12 March 2014

Top 10 business ideas & opportunities for 2014

We’ve selected 15 new business ideas that will provide

entrepreneurs with plenty of inspiration. Spotted from

countries all around the world, these ideas offer a taste of

what’s to come.

YOUR WEEKLY FIX OF ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS

06-12 March 2014

This is part of a series of articles that looks at

entrepreneurs hoping to get their ideas off the

ground through crowdfunding. At the time of writing,

each of these innovations is currently seeking

funding.

Many people think that games are a

waste of time, especially for kids, but they

can offer learning opportunities when

they’re designed in the right way. We’ve

already seen Primo teach coding to

preschoolers, and now Koe is a JRPG

that requires players to learn different

kanji symbols in order to progress through

the game.

Read more about Koe »

1. Indie RPG teaches players Japanese

Weird Of The Week: This is part of a series of

articles that looks at some of the most bizarre and

niche business ideas we see here at Springwise.

How much use is a city-load of urine?

Quite a lot, it turns out. So much so that

the Netherlands’ Waternet utilities

company has placed some pee-collecting

urinals in Amsterdam, with the hope of

turning it into fertilizer for the city’s urban

roof gardens.

Read more about Waternet »

2. Public urinals harness pee to grow food

In the UK there are 85,000 prisoners, but

only 10,000 of them are doing valuable

work with their time. In order to change

this, Gaolhouse Denim is now

collaborating with a number of British

inmates, giving them meaningful, paid

work while also creating premium jeans

for consumers.

Read more about Gaolhouse Denim »

4. Jeans are made by prison inmates

Rooftop gardens are not only a solution to

enabling space-scarce cities to create

produce locally, but — when combined

with specific venues — can be especially

convenient, such as Dakboerin‘s farms

atop restaurant kitchens in the

Netherlands. Now Japan’s Soradofarm

scheme is placing allotments on top of

train stations, to allow commuters to more

seamlessly fit growing their own

vegetables into their busy lifestyles.

Read more about Soradofarm »

6. In Japan, train station allotments let commuters garden on the

move

In the recent past, we’ve seen Soldsie

leverage social conversations as a

payment platform — enabling users to

buy fashion products by simply leaving a

comment on the relevant Facebook

photos. While a flight is typically a much

larger purchase, KLM Royal Dutch

Airlines is also now enabling its

customers to confirm and pay for a seat

on one of their flights through social media

platforms.

Read more about KLM Royal Dutch

Airlines»

7. KLM passengers can now buy a flight through Facebook and

Twitter

As with almost all previously offline

products, bikes and their accessories are

now getting smart. We’ve already written

about Helios handlebars, which feature

exercise tracking and GPS location

services. Now the MindRider helmet is

using EEG technology to enable cyclists

to see how their thought patterns change

over the course of their journey.

Read more about the MindRider »

8. Bike helmet reads cyclists’ minds, tracks their stress levels on

the road

Dining is more than just a treat for the

tastebuds and takes in a whole range of

sensory thrills, which explains the

popularity of themed film events such as

Toronto’s Mise — which matches its menu

with on-screen dishes. Now the

Netherlands is serving up The Bookish

Banquet, a culinary event for bookworms

that takes inspiration from popular fiction.

Read more about The Bookish

Banquet »

9. Book-themed food event matches meals with fiction

Hunger is a real problem, not only in the

poorest parts of the world but even in

major US cities. In fact, 50 million

Americans are meal insecure and one in

five kids in the US faces hunger,

according to Jon Carder — co-founder

and CEO of Mogl, a startup that hopes to

do more to stop people going without

food. Its new app now enables diners in

San Diego to enjoy a ten percent discount

on their meal at participating restaurants,

which they can either keep or donate to

food banks and hunger charities.

Read more about Mogl »

10. App lets diners keep a 10% bill discount, or give it to food banks

For those pitting themselves against the

elements, practical clothing isn’t just

useful, it can be lifesaving. While it may

not be able to stop gunfire, like Garrison

Bespoke’s Bulletproof Suit, the Life

Tech jacket from Seymourpowell is

designed to double as an extreme survival

kit that uses smart tech to help wearers in

a variety of dangerous situations.

Read more about the Life Tech »

11. This jacket could save your life

This is part of a series of articles that looks at

entrepreneurs hoping to get their ideas off the

ground through crowdfunding. At the time of writing,

each of these innovations is currently seeking

funding.

Bottles water has become an

environmental concern over the past

couple of decades, even leading to

organizations such as Ban The Bottle.

While an outright ban is unlikely to

materialize any time soon, a new startup

called Treeson Spring Water is aiming to

make its bottles as eco as possible,

including a free mail-back system to

ensure they get recycled.

Read more about Treeson »

12. These water bottles can be mailed to a recycling plant for free

Getting kids to read can sometimes be a

difficult task if they don’t have a lot of

options to choose from or — what’s more

likely — they’d rather play on their phone

or tablet. While ideas such as the

scannable Smart PJ’s have embraced

new technologies to make picking a new

story at bedtime more engaging, a new

service for kids called Epic! offers a large

digital library of children’s titles, complete

with rewards for finishing chapters and

embarking on reading marathons.

Read more about Epic! »

13. Netflix for kids’ books makes reading fun with unlockable

achievements

Vehicles are usually designed to serve a

particular purpose, with different functions

calling for completely new designs. While

in the past we’ve seen the hybrid

Sealander caravan work on both land and

water, the Ethos E30 modular boat can

be reconfigured for different purposes,

from tour boat, to fishing trawler, to family

cruiser.

Read more about the Ethos E30 »

14. Modular boat is for both work and pleasure

The rise of white collar industry in

developed countries means that the

majority of workers spend most of their

days sitting down, often with bad posture.

As a result, we’ve seen a few innovations

attempt to bring micro-exercise into the

office environment, such as the Stir

Kinetic Desk, which occasionally rises to

encourage users to regularly get up from

their chair. Now Tao WellShell is a smart

device that enables anyone to carry out

resistance exercise from their seat, while

also tracking their progress.

Read more about the Tao Wellshell »

15. Handheld device enables workers to sculpt their guns at the office

What is Springwise?

Springwise scans the globe for the most promising, unique and innovative business

ventures, ideas and concepts that are ready for regional or international adaptation,

expansion, partnering, investments or cooperation.

Springwise headquarters is in close contact with more than 17,000 Springspotters in over

150 countries worldwide, who provide us with details of the latest innovations in their

countries. These are compiled and assessed by our editorial team, and the best examples

are published to provide entrepreneurial inspiration to our readers around the world!

Springwise publishes a Daily and a Weekly newsletter, to which you can subscribe

for free, they are sent to more than 170,000 people.

Established in 2002, Springwise is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.

© 2002-2014 SPRINGWISE FOLLOW SPRINGWISE


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