DODOcase Wins Shopify Challenge
This one goes out to the entrepreneurs on the site. Some of you may remember an entrepreneurship challenge I highlighted on the site back in December. The Shopify Challenge was the brainchild of 4-Hour Work Week guru Tim Ferriss and store-building website Shopify. A company had to be started from scratch and revenues were measured over a six-month period from January through June. The grand prize went to the company with the two highest months of revenue.
The winner is a San Francisco-based start-up that succeeded by providing a decidedly low-tech accessory to a high-tech item. DODOcase founders Patrick Buckley and Craig Dalton had the idea to create custom cases for the Amazon Kindle, but never took the plunge. When Apple announced the introduction of the iPad, the two entrepreneurs were determined not to let the opportunity pass a second time. They created the DODOcase, a bamboo book cover and stand for the iPad that sells for $60 a pop. Over the course of the six-month challenge, they sold more than 10,000 of them. They expect to do $3 million in revenue for their first full year in business.
suit' [neoprene] carrying cases at around $40," Mr. Buckley said, "we see a $680 million market for iPad cases alone. This is a huge opportunity, and we're the quality brand in this segment of the carrying case market.""With some 17 million iPad sales projected for year one, and Apple pricing their own 'diver
Their marketing consisted of hiring people on Craigslist to sell the idea direct to the early adopters waiting in line at Apple stores for the iPad to drop. Positive word of mouth and mentions from a few powerful sneezers was all it took to make them the dominant player in their space.
Other prize winners of the Shopify challenge included Nashville Flood Tees, a company founded to raise money for flood relief in Nashville; Buy Mafia, a company catering to the inane Mafia Wars masses; Grove, a company selling bamboo iPhone cases (are you spotting a trend here?); and Vaporizers.com, a company selling...well...21st-Century bongs, for lack of a better term.
My hat's off to all the winners, and especially to any WSO monkeys who took my advice and threw their hat into the ring. If you did, I'd love to hear about it. Aside from the prizes and the accolades, I think one of the coolest aspects of this contest is the fact that, in the middle of the worst recession of our lifetimes, over 1,400 new businesses were started with 500 of them currently generating revenue for the long haul.
That's pretty impressive.
happen to know if they plan on repeating this contest?
You'll be pleased to learn there's another contest going on right now. Entries are accepted any time, the contest runs 24/7/365 and the grand prize is Outrageous Fortune. Most of us refer to the contest as Life.
C'mon, B. Do you really need a contest to motivate you to get rich??? lol
Touche' Uncle Eddie, touche'.
"Their marketing consisted of hiring people on Craigslist to sell the idea direct to the early adopters waiting in line at Apple stores for the iPad to drop"
Good ol' Craigslist, is there anything thou can not do?
Literally the best case I've ever used. I had the Kindle and the case sucked - just got the IPad and the Bamboo Case. Excellent concept.
They actually have shops in China (and maybe even the US) where people play Warcraft 24*7 collecting items, which they then sell online. There's an entire virtual economy catering to this, and it's supposed to be crazy lucrative. Consider this for example.
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the thing with something like cases is that it is totally hit or miss. Maybe it's just the way that my brain is wired but every idea I've had is more b2b oriented.
i just designed this bumper sticker that i'm dying to start selling. weird thing to be doing, i know, but just think how much money those "coexist" people pulled off their bumper sticker. gotta be a few mill. i have no idea how to sell something like that though... it's a shame
You know, I had an idea like that once, a long time ago...
i'm telling you the sticker kills the pet rock idea. how do i embed an image in here?
How involved is Blizzard with Jagex which owns Runescape? My brother told me that Blizzard is involved with Jagex (are they the parent company?) They could make a regulated account-trading exchange. They charge a commission and players buy and sell accounts. Then the smart finance types can control the market.
LOL. I'm sure it does, Smykowski...
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I did you one better.... check it out - //www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/trading-vs-i-banking
I'm testing this out...
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