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When Seth Berkowitz was a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, he started baking cookies for friends out of his dorm. Soon, he noticed a trend: students got hungry late at night and there wasn’t any delivery alternative to greasy and heavy food. Berkowitz wondered, “Why not hot cookies and milk – delivered to your door after midnight?”
When inventor Doug Vick got up in the middle of the night and bumped into the bedpost, he wondered, “How many other people do this every night?”
So he invented high-quality double-lined fleece slippers with a weight sensor in the sole, a light sensor on the side, and an LED light in the toe.
In the latest episode of the Why Didn’t I Think of That? ® Podcast, Bob Smith and Greg Anastos sit down with thinkofthat.net blogger Benjamin Christopher and discuss the first of their Axioms For Entrepreneurs, “Re-think Your Industry.”
The Why Guys explore how companies like Netflix, Apple, Xerox, and General Motors were able to look at their industries, and their companies, in a new light.
Richard James was working at a Philadelphia shipyard and was looking for a way to keep nautical instruments stable in rough seas. That’s when a torsion spring fell off the shelf. Richard watched the spring crawl down shelves, stacks of books and tabletops, and land upright on the floor. Suddenly, he had a great idea…
Why do candles all have such “girly smells,” 14-year-old Hart Main asked his younger sister, who was selling the candles for a school fundraiser. Main thought why not have smells that guys would like, like fresh cut grass, bacon, sawdust and leather. So, with a $100 investment, and his heart set on buying a brand new bike, this young man invented a whole new kind of candle: the ManCan.
What they do:
Frozen foods.
Inspiration:
While ice fishing in Labrador, fur trader Clarence Birdseye noticed that fish froze stiff as soon as they were pulled out of the water into the air. Not only that, weeks later, when defrosted and cooked, the fish tasted almost fresh.
About the business:
The Birds Eye company, invented the frozen food business, when Clarence commercializing the process for flash freezing foods – freezing it so rapidly its cellular structure was preserved. The company also pioneered low cost freezers, which it first leased to depression–era grocers.
Here’s an entrepreneur who wouldn’t take no for an answer. It’s the story of Berlin, New York style cheesecake, and a woman who wouldn’t let naysayers sway her confidence.
Join us for the World Premiere of this new 90-second Why Didn’t I Think of That?® feature, Café Barcomi.
It’s no secret that businesses and corporations are always looking forward. The next big product, the next big innovation, the next quarterly report. And yet, many businesses have histories as rich and fascinating as anything you’d find in a history book. Is there any money to be made in preserving your company’s legacy?
Sure, it only takes one company or product to revolutionize an industry, but selling people something they’ve never seen before isn’t easy. The general public tends to shy away from cutting edge technologies and trends, waiting for them to become more commonplace before adapting them. Your job is to change their minds. But how? Luckily, many before us have made bold, world-changing moves that have dramatically shifted the courses of industries, and made the people behind the companies filthy rich. One such example is Apple Computers.
While flavors like vanilla, cookie-dough, and rocky road may never go out of style, there’s no end to the possibilities when it comes to tickling taste buds. But… Riesling Poached Pear? Queen City Cayenne?
Location, location, location! What could be better than a business with the flexibility to always be at “the right place at the right time?”
