thinkbeta.com

Feel like hell? Problem solved at a cost of $90 – $400

New business OPENING APRIL 14^th in Las Vegas.

Hangover Heaven is a revolutionary new treatment that can cure your hangover in less than 45 minutes. Hangover Heaven involves placing a small IV in your arm to give you the necessary treatment to continue the party or just get back to your normal self.

The founder, Dr. Jason Burke, completed his training in Anesthesiology at Duke University, one of the best medical centers in the world. He has practiced anesthesia for over ten years and is highly regarded by his peers.

Here is his philosophy on Hangovers:

I feel that Hangovers are a major problem in this country. People in the USA are stressed and need a way to reduce their stress and have fun. People come to Las Vegas to blow off some steam, relieve stress, and have a good time. Should we have to lose an entire day of our vacation because the bartender over-served us the night before? I say NO. I have had quite a few bad hangovers in my lifetime and I decided I wasn’t going to take it lying down (with a pounding headache) anymore. With my treatment protocol, I can take you from a semi-conscious, porcelain-hugging, hit-by-a-truck hangover to feeling like you’re ready to take on the world in less than 45 minutes. I think this is a major development in medicine and solves a significant problem for people that like to party and have a good time….especially here in Las Vegas.”

 All our medications and equipment are FDA Approved . All of our supplies are single use and sterile. Patient safety is a primary goal of our business and you will be well taken care of during your time at Hangover Heaven.

Disclaimer:

Drink in moderation. Alcohol overdose can kill you and Hangover Heaven cannot reverse death. Do not drink more than you should because you think Hangover Heaven can bring you back to life. It cannot. Our buses can work magic, but they cannot bring you back from the dead. Beth Carroll

Flurry, funneling, and apps

I have previously blogged about smart phones emerging as the go-to platform. Apps run on this platform. I’ve previously blogged about an app tool named Magmito that enables anyone who can operate Word to construct their own unique apps. All this is well and good, but once “out there,” you need analytics on what and how users are interfacing with your app. Obviously this is extremely important, if you are using pull marketing via your app.

Enter Flurry Analytics. ” Flurry Analytics provides an incredible amount of actionable intelligence into how and where people are using your app. You can quickly identify your most engaged and valuable users by grouping them on key characteristics such as demographics, location, language preference, and usage of select features in your app.” (from previous link).

I suggest your click on the Flurry link and learn more about what they offer. It will be well worth your effort. The video below provides a painless into to Flurry. Hank

Leap pitches at Verge

Watch video below, and check out Verge also. Hank

Have A Happy Friday: Another Example of “What are they selling?”

Kauffman Sketchbook “Take the Leap”

It’s about time! Or, is it shrewd timing?

Facebook is considering a “Hate” button.

Facebook users are generating 2.7 billion Likes and Comments per day. With the Hate button, Facebook expects to at least double that expecting the Hates to easily top the Likes.

When the original Like button was announced, Mark Zuckerberg made a bold prediction there would be over 1 billion Likes across the web in the first 24 hours. Sources at Facebook say Mark is estimating 2 billion Hates on the first day. Facebook studies have shown the sad fact that people hate things on the Internet more than they like things. There’s also an internal debate on whether the new button should be called “Hate” or “Dislike.”

Since the tiny Like button makes up such a huge part of Facebook’s revenue, the introduction of the Hate button could raise Facebook’s valuation further ahead of the IPO.

Other buttons under consideration are the “Meh”, “Love”, “Who Cares”, and “+11″ but there is also a fear this could lead to a button explosion.

Our sources say the Hate button is not a sure thing. It’s being heavily debated inside the social networking company. This new feature would fit with Facebook’s mission to “build tools to help people connect with the people they want and share what they want” whether that’s love or hate.

While the product and sales teams favor the idea, many inside Facebook oppose it. That view is best summed up by Robert Scoble who wrote “I really hope we never see a hate button that gets wide adoption. The world has enough hate as it is.”

Since Facebook is in their quiet period ahead of their IPO, Facebook had no official comment on this report.  Taken in part from TechCrunch article written by Jon Orlin. Beth Carroll

Big Brother Is Watching You

This is a follow-on to yesterday’s blog entry. All over tech boards there is chatter  (WSJ) concerning the iPhone App “Girls Around Me.” Using data from Facebook and Foursquare, the Russian App does (or did) exactly what the name suggests- showed the user girls in the near vicinity. Foursquare pulled access to the App which essentially has made it a moot point.

One of the comments to the WSJ  link above had this to say: If a clever Russian can do it, so can the government (and Google and retailers and spammers and pedophiles and identity thieves and marketing companies and your boss). Indeed, following the “We Are the Network” concept to its logical end, if there is one, suggests the comment is right on. As “we” put more and more information about our lives “out there,” it is a certainty that governments, legitimate marketing and illegitimate sources will mine the data. You can count on it.

In the same vein, more and more companies are demanding access to Facebook accounts either in their pre-employment screening, or after the fact. For instance, a teacher’s aide in Michigan was fired last year for refusing to provide her FB password to supervisors. So not only are We Becoming the Network, Big Brother is starting to tap into and attempt to control us from within.  Watch the American Express video below for more insights on how companies are attempting to cash in on the We Network. Hank

We Are The Network

The World Bank estimates we are approaching 7 billion souls on planet earth. Furthermore, there are on the order of 6 billion cell phones scattered across many regions, with a subset of 2 billion smart phones and 2 billion internet connections. As many pundits have remarked, we are a wired planet where connectedness is increasing at an exponential rate daily. Indeed, the disturbances from a butterfly’s wings in Burma is virtually, at the speed of heat,  transmitted around the world.

All major news organizations rely on Twitter feeds to provide them a heads-up on breaking news. In the same vein, the major networks stream video captured on cell phones by citizens on the scene of breaking newsworthy events, such as floods, wars, and natural catastrophes. We have bots crawling around our networks organizing, slotting, and making searchable (color it Google) all “stuff” that’s has been, is, and will become available therein. We have the dawn of “Big Data.” and are struggling with how to handle exabytes and zettabytes let alone the more mundane gigabyte processors even our smartphones house. Increasingly, recognizing opportunity, hackers are intruding upon staid financial transactions (think credit cards) on a daily basis. Governments servers are prime game, as are DOD’s most secure sites.

For the next couple of blogs, I will be delving into my take on how “We Are Becoming The Network” is and will impact society and the very foundations of how business and interpersonal relationships will succeed or flounder. Garfield’s Sunday comic goes a long way toward this end (from here) and is embedded below. Hank

Have A Happy Friday: It’s wet t-shirt time

Startup Texas-Style

On Tuesday evenings from 4-6 PM a group of six of us with military backgrounds meet to have a few libations and discuss world events. Four are pilots, one a lawyer who has practiced before the US Supreme Court, and yours truly. All are deep-water sailboat enthusiasts and have literally sailed around the world.

One of the pilots with four other guys is in the process of starting a business. The five guys involved in the new business meet on Sunday afternoons to sip a few and also discuss world events. They also come from diverse backgrounds, have day jobs, and in general their children are grown. Their talk turned to what’s going on in the Eagle Ford oil field, just up the road from Corpus Christi.

Currently there are on the order of 1,300 active rigs drilling for oil in the Eagle Ford area, with a total of  3,000 expected in the near term. Rigs are set up, drilling is accomplished, and whether oil is struck or not, the rigs are then moved to a new site to start the cycle over. These rigs are huge and have to be lifted down by huge cranes and moved by special flatbed trucks. There are not nearly enough of these special “moving vans” to meet the need of the developing oil field, and therein lies the opportunity: a 24/7 oil rig moving company with great service etc.

After kicking the idea around, a lawyer friend incorporated the five, and then they sought assistance from the local economic development office who helped then develop a business plan. With plan in hand, they then visited two local banks who consistently conduct business in the oil exploration industry and know what’s going on there. Loans were subsequently made, one for the equipment, and one an operating loan. The special flatbed with five axles and twenty tires to hall the derrick, and two other flatbeds to haul ancillary equipment are on order, along with a 100 ton mobile crane. Orders are in hand, and the new company expects to cover payroll in their first month of operation.

Lessons learned:

1. They hit a local market that is experiencing “pain” of a very large magnitude. When rigs are being moved, oil exploration stops.
2. One of the five is intimately familiar with the industry and knew who the “go to” people are for rigs, sales, and money.
3. Local banks are in tune to the oil industry and “know” that moving rigs are in short supply and in high demand thus supporting such a business.
4. The three drivers hired to drive the rigs have, in addition to CDL(A) licenses, backgrounds in rigging, mechanics, and oil exploration.
5. As incentives to maintain a safe (this industry has very high Workman’s Comp costs) workplace, hourly workers will share in a pool of funds which should result in bonuses of $2-5K/month, in addition to their regular pay, which is nothing to sneeze at. BTW, all hourly workers (except one) took a pay cut to be part of the new company.
6. To avoid large companies which often have a cadre of highly paid MBAs to drag out paying accounts receivable, they are targeting independents with a proven record of paying their bills within the normal 30-day billing cycle.
7. Among the five of them, they had the financial resources to give birth to the new company.

There’s lot to be learned from this startup. They are using proven technology, in an industry that has been around (in Texas at least) forever, to launch their startup. One of the group commented that unlike previous startups he has been involved in (as an investor), he sleeps like a baby every night. Best of luck to them!  For more about Eagle Ford and oil in Texas, review the video below. Hank