How do I know I have a good business idea?

Top Questions from Startup Entrepreneurs on PitchCrunch

Q. How do I know I have a good business idea?

A. If your business idea (product or service) can solve a problem and make   consumer easy, it is probably a good idea. However, you need to be completely objective and honest to yourself in making this judgement.

Talk and listen to potential customers. Remember, most successful businesses are built on customer feeback. The best example of this strategy is Amazon - And here is part of Amazon’s offical vision statement

“Our vision is to be Earth’s most customer centric company…” Amazon.com

What do you think?

iPhone5 on it’s way. Confimed.

No more waiting. Apple to announce iPhone5 launch date soon.

The iPhone 5 is coming. This is no rumor, no guesswork, no fuzzy photo taken by someone allegedly holding an iPhone 5 prototype. Apple has set the date and the place for a real product launch, according to Mashable.

More from Mashable at http://tinyurl.com/6y4cafn

Back on a Buying Spree Again, Google Acquires SageTV

Source: Andrew Couts, Digital Trends

The latest deal in Google’s buying spree of technology companies — SageTV

In 2010 alone, Google acquired nearly twenty plus different companies.

Read more:  http://tinyurl.com/3sgjq9p

Fight over iPhone4 at Apple store phone launch in Beijing

Back in 2007, when Apple debuted its much coveted iPhone, consumer frenzy was high but nobody could have predicted then that it will continue into 2011.

According to reports, a fight broke out between an employee and a customer at an Apple store in China’s capital amid a frenzy to buy the newly launched white iPhone 4, a witness said.

Thirty-year-old Wang Ming said Saturday’s scuffle at the Apple store in Beijing’s Sanlitun district was between a “foreign” Apple staffer and a Chinese customer.

An Apple spokeswoman in China, Carolyn Wu, said the store “was closed for several hours on Saturday after a group outside the store became unruly.”

“The store team acted to protect themselves and our customers by closing the doors and preventing the group from entering,” Wu told The Associated Press on Monday. “The safety of our customers and employees is our top priority.” She would not provide more details.

Reports on some Chinese news websites said three or four customers were injured. Wang said he had walked out of the store and was passing by the scuffle when a bottle hit his head, causing a gash.

Demand for the iPhone and iPad in China has been high. There have been problems in the past of scalpers buying up iPhones to resell at higher prices.

In January, Apple reported holiday-quarter results showing that of Apple’s 321 stores worldwide, on average those in China clocked the highest traffic and revenue per store. Most of the revenue came from iPhone and iPad sales.

The Cupertino, California-based company said then that the quarterly revenue from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan totaled $2.6 billion, about 10 percent of its total revenue and four times the year-earlier figure.

(Source: ap.org)

Must read article for startup entrepreneurs & VC’s

I just got done reading this very good (insightful) article about German starups by Martin Weigert, a must read artilce for EU (specially German) startup entrepreneurs and VC’s.

http://tinyurl.com/433qk2w

The artilce was published a while back but I somehow missed it. Those of you thinking about globalization (connecting with customers faster and in their own language) and tapping into the US consumer base will find this article truly useful.

Internet Boom 2.0 Is Back, Again!

Largest rush of venture capital into Internet start-ups since dot-com bubble

The fastest growing boom in venture capital investment offers some promising opportunities for Internet startups and investors alike…

Data from Thomson Reuters Deals Intelligence points to more than $5 billion of venture capital investment pumped into early-stage web companies worldwide in the first four months of the year…

Though small compared with the boom years, the sum puts 2011 on track to be the busiest in dollar terms since 2000, when more than $55 billion was deployed to back nascent technology firms.

The latest frenzy bears some of the hallmarks of the previous web investment craze — exuberance over “concept” start-ups that have not launched their sites and intense competition among potential backers to place bets in presumptive hot spots, such as the social media space now defined by the likes of Facebook and LinkedIn.

Read More