An great resource for entrepreneurs from Harvard Business School

Lately I’ve been looking at a number of different business models for the startup I’m working on and doing a bunch of competitive research. I’ve found a lot of useful resources but none as good as the cases from Harvard Business School.

Each case looks at a different business and an important decision they needed to make. They often go into detailed category analysis and give you background information that isn’t easy to find (I think each case is prepared with the help of the business being discussed). The best bit?… the full searchable list of cases are available on the HBS website and they only cost $6:50 US each. We’ve brought a few, and I tell you they are definitely worth it!

Metropolis

I haven’t seen Fritz Lang’s Metropolis for a few years now but a friend reminded me about it over the weekend. What a film! It’s one worth seeing a few times so you can try all of the alternative soundtracks. I tried the Jeff Mills version a few years back. Incredible.

Slightly related: Rosalynn and I once looked at an apartment in Vancouver. We didn’t rent it but it stuck in our minds because the place had an incredible Metropolis poster on the wall. For the next 2 years we looked everywhere for that poster. We check out all of the poster websites, scoured the poster stores in Vancouver and then Toronto. We even took a special trip to Haight-Ashbury when we were in San Francisco thinking a store there might have it. No luck so far. (If you’re interested – the poster looked a bit like this but had a lot more color in it)

C’mon!

This isn’t funny.

Second installment of Companies I Wish I’d Thought of Starting

I signed up to ThisNext today. The site helps you keep track of products you think are cool and see what other people like the look of. It looks like it’ll be a great way for me to recommend products to friends (check out my ThisNext page) and to keep track of new products in categories I care about (search the community and then subscribe to an RSS feed of the search).

Basic functionality = Tag and save products you like – either through a link on thisnext.com or using a nice little browser plug-in (think del.icio.us). The products you like populate a profile page and the tags mean you can search for the most popular products being saved by the whole community. Nice.

The revenue model isn’t immediately apparent but with all of that shopping information the ad targeting potential is huge. For example, it’s very easy to find the taste-makers on the site – the ability to advertise to them, send them product samples or conduct research with them should be pretty lucrative.

iPhone coming to Canada

Looks like Rogers will be bringing the iPhone to Canada. I’d love to know how soon and for how much?

I wasn’t designed for this

Today my car told me it was 12 degrees below on the way to work – which means it’s actually 20 below with the wind chill. I come from New Zealand where 12 degrees ABOVE zero is a cold day. I don’t think my body was designed for this.

Six months ago my car was telling me it was 38 degrees! This city is crazy.

Algonquin

Another reason I love Toronto: You can drive 3 hours north and be here, in Algonquin Park.

First installment of Companies I Wish I’d Thought of Starting

Every once in a while a company will launch and I’ll get a sinking feeling in my stomach. Followed by a feeling of jealousy because I didn’t think of the idea, and then happiness because I’ll get to use their products or services.

WeatherBill is a company like that.

WeatherBill launched last week with a nice little web site and an all star list of financial backers. The site lets people take out insurance on weather events that effect you or your business. So, for example I’m going to take out a policy for my next holiday to San Francisco. If it rains more than 3 of the 7 days I’m away I want to be paid out $200 per day. On WeatherBill this policy will cost me $74.82.

WeatherBill makes sense for any kind of business that is impacted by weather – from a golf course to a farmer to a baseball team. Gamblers will love using it too ;).

A reason to get (a bit) excited about the iPhone

Sure, I tuned into live blogging coverage of MacWorld last week. I didn’t however get that excited about the iPhone. See, in my mind I already have a better MP3 player and a better camera phone (the brilliant Nokia N73) and if I really wanted to watch movies on a device more portable than my 12 inch laptop I’d buy a PSP.

What I do find really cool about the iPhone is the touch screen interface. The idea of pinching a photo to make it smaller feels like something new and something very natural. The guys at 37 signals have picked up on another cool touch screen feature – creating your own shortcuts.

The general idea is that you’ll be able to program certain movements on the screen to do things. For example you could draw an O with your finger to start an IM session with someone. Or an = to call your wife. Pretty cool.

Fashion don’t

A potential fashion don’t for Vice magazine? I spotted him last summer on Queen Street West.

Also – does he look remarkably like the editor-in-chief from the National Post newspaper? Doug, is that you?