★ Sourcing business ideas from real-world communities
Our friend and associate, Bryan Boyer, has written about opportunities he sees in Helsinki every day: empty storefronts. Specifically, Bryan would like to be able to publicly request that a cafe opens up in an empty commercial space in his neighborhood:
On the ground floor of my apartment building is a small shop that just went out of business. It used to sell snowboard clothes but during two years of residence I never spotted a single customer inside. Lacking a great cafe in my neighborhood, I would love the next person thinking about hanging their shingle to have a way to get an idea of what the market might be interested in.
A fantastic idea. Most entrepreneurs keep their eyes open for opportunities in the market, but it's always a significant gamble. With a public forum listing the market's wishes and needs, the degree of risk is slightly less. Kickstarter, the creative micro-financing site, played the muse of Bryan's theory:
What would the Kickstarter of real estate look like and how might a similar demand-aggregator offer a productive counterpart to the dreaded “not in my back yard” syndrome? Is there a “please in my backyard” platform that could act as a spatial happiness engine, better empowering individuals to inflect their own corner of the city to meet their personal desires?
Do go and read his whole post, which includes pictures of the unused storefronts in Helsinki. In addition to a canny eye for design, he is a very talented writer: Please in My Backyard. One day, we'd love to help Bryan make this idea a reality.
- Katie Spence, Apr 1, 2011