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  Geebo 9:01 am on May 21, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: apps ( 15 ), homeless ( 5 ), Samaritan, Seattle ( 8 ), startup   

  Startup app hopes to better connect homeless to the public 

  

  Most startup apps hope to accomplish one of two things. The first is to try to innovate some new social trend that existing social platforms haven’t thought of yet. In the crowded social space, those innovative ideas are few and far between. The other things most startup apps try to do to is to be bought out by a larger company like Facebook, Google, or Twitter in hopes of making a quick fortune. Rarely do we hear about a startup app that’s trying to help those less fortunate in society, but now a startup app out of Seattle is trying to help one of society’s most marginalized people.

  The way the Samaritan app works is that someone who is homeless can get a Bluetooth beacon from any one of Samaritan’s outreach partners. This beacon allows its holder to share their story through their app so they’re not just a faceless person holding a cardboard sign. Many of us have reasons why we don’t give money to homeless people. Some of us don’t carry cash while others have social anxieties that prevent them from talking to people they don’t know, and of course, there are some of us that don’t believe some of those needing help are truly homeless. The Samaritan app helps with a lot of those problems as money can be donated directly to a homeless person in your area who the app notifies you about. Once you receive a notification on the app, you can donate money to that person directly electronically. Users of the beacon can then use the money to get foods and services at many partnered locations, however, alcohol cannot be bought using the Samaritan service.

  So far, the app is available for both iOS and Android devices, but currently, the program is only running in Seattle. They hope to expand into 100 cities within the year. So far, the results in Seattle have been nothing short of amazing, helping people not only to get money to find food but others have been able to find housing and employment through the program. Startup culture and angel investors need to start cultivating more apps like Samaritan and fewer apps that are highlighted by some form of Kardashian.

   

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  Geebo 10:01 am on December 29, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: LetGo ( 10 ), merger, OfferUp ( 23 ), startup   

  What the Letgo/OfferUp merger story could really mean 

  

  The online classifieds industry has been abuzz lately with the story of a potential merger between classifieds apps LetGo and OfferUp as reported by Recode. While the talks never went past the approaching stage, Recode seems to think that a merger of the two or an acquisition of OfferUp by LetGo could be inevitable. However, if a merger were to take place, would the emerging business be a successful one?

  According to Recode, the financial situations of either company doesn’t appear to be too rosy. OfferUp has had trouble raising a new round of Funding while LetGo is still focused on building a userbase. If both companies were to merge at present, it seems like it would not benefit either company, leaving the merged company with razor-thin profit shares if any.

  The problem with companies like this are the same ones that many tech start-ups have. Instead of trying to succeed with their own vision, many tech start-ups are simply looking to be bought out by a much larger and successful brand. Since LetGo and OfferUp have had no offers by their bigger competitors they may be looking to consolidate in order to simply keep their heads above water.

   
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  Geebo 8:57 am on September 14, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Bodega, retail ( 49 ), startup   

  Why ‘Bodega’ won’t work 

  

  Yesterday, a new retail start-up made its splash onto the internet and you could say that it wasn’t the most auspicious of debuts. In a nutshell, the start-up called Bodega wants to put unmanned pantry boxes into places like apartment lobbies, gyms, student housing, offices, etc., so people won’t have to travel so far to get necessity items. Basically, the pantry boxes are just smart boxes that unlock with a phone app then charge your account for whatever you take. It’s like the unmanned stores Amazon are experimenting with except much smaller.

  The internet in general was not happy with Bodega’s debut after an article from Fast Company said that Bodega’s founders wanted to make mom and pop corner stores, the actual bodegas, obsolete. The complaints online ranged from accusations of cultural appropriation for using the word Bodega in their name to the claims that the Bodega boxes are nothing more than glorified vending machines.

  However, I think Bodega’s main drawback is that it’s largely ignoring a customer base from the bodegas they’re trying to replace. While their boxes may work in a perfect world imagined in Silicon Valley, in the real world a lot of people still use cash as their primary means of purchase, not everyone trusts or wants to use a smart phone app with their money. That’s not even taking into consideration that the boxes are not refrigerated, meaning as long as they don’t have milk and eggs people are still going to need their corner stores.

   
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  Geebo 9:02 am on April 20, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Juicero, juicing, startup, tech bubble   

  Does the Juicero show that we’re headed for another tech bubble burst? 

  

  Juicing is one of those types of diets that’s practiced by celebrities, high-profile businessmen, and various other trend setters. While its health benefits can be debated, as opposed to eating fruits and vegetables, one can’t deny its popularity. Leave it to Silicon Valley to come up with a gadget marketed directly to juicing fans. Enter the Juicero which is a machine that’s designed to press proprietary bags of fruit and vegetables into juice. It presses the bag with the force of four tons and will run you around $400.

  This is actually not a bad idea as it’s been called the Keurig of the juicer set. The man who founded Juicero even went as far as to refer to himself as the Steve Jobs of juicing. That comparison is in fact correct, that is if you’re comparing yourself to the Steve Jobs who released the Apple Lisa. It turns out that for the $400 price tag the Juicero can’t compete with another device that can squeeze the bags of juice just as well and doesn’t cost as much. As a matter of fact they don’t cost anything. The Juicero bags can be squeezed just as well by using your own two hands.

  Between this debacle and other newsworthy startups that have failed to meet expectations one can’t help but be reminded of the dotcom bubble bursting in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Do these failures indicate the beginning of the end for startup culture? Will we soon be talking about the startup bubble bursting? If current trends are any indicator, we just might be.