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Bryan Silverman was awarded Entrepreneur Magazines’ College Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2012 for coming up with the genius idea of selling ad-space to a market that would literally wipe their ass with it and then go about their day. Even if this was a remotely logical strategy who would want to be the unlucky establishment to accept these coupons that had, until now, been hanging in some restroom. Likely a public, high traffic one, to reach a larger market.

Let’s also consider the user end of this product, or rather the users end. How durable must paper be to accept type and still be able to function as its primary use, and how comfortable will people be using this? At the very least, avid coupon collectors will always have a spare roll in their wallet or purse.

Ideas like this are something that seem like an opportunity at the time, and maybe it was for a short period, but there is no longer a site for his product “Star Toilet Paper” so it must not be a viable idea. There is no real value to this for either end of the product. The companies buying ad space would willingly be equating themselves and their products to the rest of the crap on the paper. Those using the paper would have to endure substandard wiping material, and for what-more commercials! Another large issue with this concept is that people look at their phones in the bathroom, not paper media, so this is one concept that can be flushed and if you still have a stack of magazines on a shelf in your bathroom for guests –you have my permission to throw them out, no one’s reading them.

A concept that is a truly great idea is making an often difficult experience easier like AutoRef attempted to do. Medema and Craig Younkins developed one of many in a growing trend to soften the buying experience of major life items, specifically an automobile in this case.

One of the things people depend on the most and likely know the least about is their vehicle, so buying one can be intimidating and embarrassing. Coming up with a product for people to accomplish a major task with less time invested and stress accrued is the golden area for an idea to be valuable to enough people to grow and sustain itself. AutoRef, shows that even if the concept is out there, new coding and marketing can make that concept into your own. Unfortunately AutoRef was unable to make it work, but the concept is solid and Carmax agrees.

Some ideas can have a great sound to them, but are poorly executed. Planana is an example of a concept that lacked intuitive follow through. Fei Xiao and Anna Sergeeva originally developed a program called Flake Proof that was supposed to use an algorithm to build a database that will allow you to know the frequency that people actually attend the events they RSVP to. As someone who has done a couple events and talked with many working in public relations and other coordinators with  years of experience, this is a nice idea but one that seems sort of idealistic. Most people in general do not attend a lot of things that they RSVP to and for many reasons.

Being able to track this metric is something that would be of great benefit if it worked but it is difficult to imagine this being very effective outside of a small demographic of people within the same field who attend many of the same events with regularity. Anything outside of this demographic would make it difficult and potentially timely to be able to build a competent assumption about a person’s “flakiness”.

Many “no shows” are the result of other issues beyond they themselves being a flake, which is a negative term to label people within a business network, sort of a passive aggressive swing at those who have failed to attend the events of the creators after having placed an RSVP. Some may be bad at managing time, and the lack of continued communication or any reminders about the event after initial contact, for instance. Maybe instead of talking about an issue, an opportunity to be about an issue came up, thereby trumping the previous event. Does that make a person a flake?

The whole idea of this company seems to be founded on idealism and passive aggressiveness. Building a business on name calling seems like a bad start to a concept that never seemed to fully come to light. The current site for Planana is a glorified blog site with no direction. There are articles that seem to be geared toward fashion and other random minutia to simply fill the void where real informative content should be. This may to be something valuable to poor performing, fashion forward, coordinators looking for a reason outside of themselves as to why they are not filling the seats. This borders on creepy in that it attempts to put a face and name to those potentially non-existent reasons with the intent to ostracize them or reduce their value as a person based on the judgment of this program behind the sites.

The final startup is one that I personally loved to learn about because it isn’t based on some vein concept of making easy lives easier, or how to best waste your time, it solved a real world issue using science and old fashioned inventiveness.

CentriCycle, founded by Carolyn Yarina, is a company focused on medical equipment for areas of extreme poverty, isolation, or any other circumstance in which expensive, energy demanding equipment is not an option. Many medical diagnoses are reached through the testing of blood and other bodily fluids which must first be prepared using specialized equipment such as CentriCycle’s flagship product, a manual powered centrifuge. Yarina and CentriCycle continue to research and develop products that are of great need and value to those in areas where other options are not possible.

So, is there a secret sauce involved in these startups that can guarantee success, or a particular in-house sauce that any of these have that made their ideas more appetizing to the world?

Yes, it’s filling a particular hunger that is out there, and understanding who and how many you look to reach. You could have a really gourmet idea that pleases the pallet of a connoisseur, but you must consider that most of the world is driving Big Macs and Whoppers into their face. Understanding who your market is, what they want, and if your product does that will help determine if you are working toward the outcome you want, financially, socially, or something that benefits humanity –whatever it is, you must tweak your recipe to fit the particular meal your making. So make sure to keep your tongue on the pulse of society…or your finger if it seems more socially acceptable. Bottom line is, not all good ideas make good business, research your meal before you cook or you’ll be wiping your mouth with Star Paper.