

A business with a difference - christkv
http://christiankvalheim.com/post/1047361816/business-with-a-difference

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christkv
I have been thinking a fair bit about what kind of startup I would do some
day. It seems that there is two main themes around startups in the tech space.
The first is to focus on bootstrapping a service and flipping it and the other
one being to build large with pools of VC money and then flip or IPO it.
However once in a while you get a view of a different model like the one
37signals use. It got me thinking about what kind of startup I would want to
build when the time comes. I have spent a couple of years in one or the other
form of startup and I think it’s time to start a different trend. I’ll call it
the mom&pop internet startup with a social conscience. Confusing right, but
consider starting a company that’s your lifelong focus in our business. A
company you would work for the rest of your professional life. So what would
you want that company to be doing ? I came down to the following five points
that described what I would want that company to do.

1\. Provide a valued payed service

2\. Create a small loyal community of users to develop the service on and on

3\. Be socially responsible

4\. Invest in new startups to help grow the space of mom&pop internet
companies

5\. Transparency

My personal answers to the point above are fairly simple but will vary from
person to person.

1\. Provide a digital life vault service with focus on privacy(dropbox +
delicious +.. only the future will tell) as a paid service (no freeloading,
but 30 days trials available)

2\. Cap the number of customers to a max of 10 000 with a small growth each
year after that to keep the income in line with inflation. Invest in the
community organizing meetups, giving away prices etc.

3\. Provide micro-lending through services like Kiva, etc. Being completely
transparent and including the community where possible.

4\. Angel invest a big chunk of the profits and also provide help and
mentoring to new companies.

5\. Provide information to the users what their money is being spent on.

I think it would probably employ 3-4 people once it’s fully up and running,
and dependent on the pricing and cost structure would generate between 1.2 -
2.4 million euro a year once 10 000 customers are reached with a cost
structure of around 0.4 - 0.5 million eur. That would leave between 0.8 to 1.6
million eur for angel investments, micro-lending and community activities. The
idea is not to revolutionize a sector of our industry but to provide a
valuable service that people choose not only for the technical merits of the
product offered but also for the social and community aspect of it. Consider
it your local mom&pop shop you buy your coffee from each and every day. So
what do you think? Is it a viable way of organizing a business and would you
choose such a service if it was available?

