I love this tale from Aussie blogger Ben Rowe about setting up a new web-based business. He went from conception to execution in 4 hours at the cost of $25 (not including labour – but it was a Friday evening, so probably free).
He taps into several staples of the web 2.0 zeitgeist – Twitter, t-shirts, outsourcing and tailored e-commerce.
His idea? Printing twitter posts onto t-shirts. Or, in fact, coming up with a neat design for the shirts and getting someone else to print on demand if an order comes through.
There doesn’t seem to have been any orders yet, so it remains to be seen whether this is a viable business (although there haven’t been many expenses yet anyway).
Ben has also noted that it turns out he wasn’t first to market. Will first mover advantage squash him?
Or will the market power of the existing on-line t-shirt giant Threadless see them win out with this little diversification/product-line extension?
What can Ben do to achieve a sufficient point of difference in the market?
Tags: Ben Rowe, business strategy, e-commerce, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, outsourcing, startups, Strategic management, strategy, t-shirts, Threadless, tweetmytee, Twitter, Twitter Tees, web 2.0
International BS Blog 
May 26, 2009 at 10:46 pm |
Andre,
Thanks a million for the post – I appreciate it.
To be honest though, I think I’m going to have to put this down to a “Quick to set up, Quick to fail” experience. Threadless have such a loyal following that I can’t possibly compete.
But at least you and I know that I thought of it first 🙂
May 27, 2009 at 12:09 pm |
Yes – Ben you were first. And it’s just a matter of time before your ‘firsts’ turn into wins.
Steve.