Clear Lens Glasses
I was in middle school and desperately wanted specs. Tragically, I had perfect eyesight. I was talking to my mom about how glasses are as much an accessory as an aid. And the idea to make/sell frames with clear lenses was born! But that’s about as far as it went. We had no idea how to prototype or market a product. We didn’t even think of a name for the line. Besides, I was busy trying to survive my pre-teens.
Cause of death: Lack of motivation and know-how.
Ticket resale escrow using blockchain (Transmutrix, Immutavault)
This idea was born out of the myriad patent applications that I was drafting that dealt with blockchain and all of its use cases. After being involved in several sketchy purchases and sales of second-hand show tickets in which authenticity of the tickets was a worry, I saw a potential blockchain application.
A smart contract is generated for the sale of a second-hand ticket. The ticket and crypto is held in an escrow until the authenticity of the ticket is verified. Then the contract is executed (stored on a blockchain).
I found that Ticketmaster had some patents filed on a similar idea. I dropped the idea and picked up some stock.
Cause of death: Pre-dating patents.
ClassCrawl
I loved boutique fitness classes. But I did not love the prices. Even with sparkling facilities, complimentary tea, and bathrooms stocked with hair supplies, it’s hard to justify paying $20-30/class.
So, I searched social media for free trial classes offered by the studios and created calendars listing the classes. I posted the calendars on FB pages (dedicated to specific cities). The pages had a decent following. The plan was to migrate the calendars to a website, expand to other cities, and try to get paid advertising.
The process was incredibly time consuming. Even enlisting the help of an assistant on Fiverr and building a web scraping tool did not lead to an efficient process.
At the end of the day, it wasn’t how I wanted to spend my free time.
Also, I couldn’t help but think that ClassCrawl was confusable with ClassPass and I didn’t want to face a trademark battle right out of the gate.
Cause of death: Inability to automate, scale, monetize.
Gachapon Machines
I still hold hope for this one.
If you’ve been to Tokyo, you’ve probably seen Gachapon (also known as Gashapon) machines. They are coin-operated vending machines that dispense small toys or figurines.
I figured that I can’t be the only adult who faces the temptation to dump my entire paycheck into the machines. And I wondered why they are not more commonplace in the U.S.
I researched purchasing the machines and the toys. The machines were an upfront cost that I could stomach. But I couldn’t find a vendor that sold the toys for a price low enough to turn a profit.
Also, I didn’t have a place to put the machines.
Cause of death: Not profitable and lack of real estate.
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