Chowhound.com was purchased for $10 million

The owner Jim Leff struggled for years making no money . He almost abandoned the site at one point but he kept it .  He got bought out by CNET .

Chowhound founder Jim Leff has said the community grew way beyond his expectations — in 2005 it had 15 million hits a month and 800,000 unique viewers — but the site had been operating in the red for years.

See http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2006/09/11/story6.html

Medspa Biz Opportunity – JUST SAY NO

Apparently according to the article below from the wall street journal , owning a medical spa is not all its cracked up to be . I have alway been wary of high overhead and labor intensive businesses .

Jeff Nebot thought he had struck gold. Two years after opening a laser hair-removal franchise in St. Louis, annual revenue hit $3 million. And over time, the lavish salon added other cosmetic services as Mr. Nebot joined the rush of entrepreneurs into the emerging business of medical spas.

Medspas (also called medispas) offer such medical treatments as Botox injections and laser hair removal in a luxurious environment rather than a doctor’s office. The field has been rapidly expanding in recent years as entrepreneurs and doctors alike have sought to profit from the dual quests of many affluent consumers: prettification and pampering. For an increasing number of those who entered the business, the boom is proving a bust.

In Mr. Nebot’s case, what initially was viewed as a golden opportunity began to lose its glitter when he realized that the cash coming in lagged behind the cash going out for marketing, staff and franchise fees. The gold was gone altogether last April, when he sold the shop’s assets for $2.

See Full Article  http://www.startupjournal.com/ideas/services/20061122-rundle.html

Affiliate Rap Song

I dont know what to say about this . Just listen to the song

http://www.eurekadiary.com/?p=15

Online Drug Dealer Indicted and Sentenced

 Christopher Smith’s neighbors didn’t know exactly what he did for a living. But they knew well that he liked to collect expensive cars and set off fireworks at all hours.

At an age when most of his peers could barely afford a new car, Smith was amassing a collection that would include BMWs, Hummers, a Ferrari, a Jaguar and a Lamborghini. And when other 20-somethings were trying to save for down payments on modest starter homes, Smith paid $1.1 million for a house in a more affluent suburb.

A federal judge shut down Xpress Pharmacy Direct in May and appointed a receiver to take control of the business’ assets. Federal authorities seized $1.8 million in luxury cars, two homes and $1.3 million in cash held by Smith and associates.

http://wcco.com/crime/local_story_236164104.html

http://wcco.com/local/local_story_232134036.html

PARENTREPRENEURS – Some Profiles

 Brenda Dronkers took her 4-year-old son to a church festival with dozens of games and contests, but he kept returning over and over to the big inflatable slide and bounce house. That same week, her 11-year-old daughter came home from another fair, talking nonstop about jousting and sumo wrestling games that had involved inflatable structures.

Dronkers had an idea: Why not start a business providing children’s parties in a big, safe, clean warehouse filled with inflatable play equipment?

Seven years later, the Pleasanton mother is president of a $53 million company called Pump It Up — a franchise operation with 150 party centers in 41 states and an additional 75 centers getting ready to open.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/26/PARENTS.TMP

Wayn.com Makes $750,000 A Month

After a slow start in 2002, WAYN took off after a relaunch in March last year. Pete Ward, 28, one of three friends who founded the firm, said the number of users had since grown from fewer than 50,000 to 7m, with 650,000 more registering last month.

Unlike MySpace, WAYN has been able to convert about 100,000 users into subscribers paying up to £7.50 a month — ensuring that it does not need to rely on advertising.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-2471788,00.html

Woman quit job to start Auto Consignment

She found a problem and made a million dollar business out of it Leslie Vander Baan turned selling her 1997 Jeep Cherokee into a million dollar business and she isn’t even 30 yet.

Four years ago, Vander Baan, who’d been around cars her entire life, found selling her vehicle a headache. She had to find time to meet with potential buyers after working long days at an auto auction. She had to sneak related phone calls during busy work hours. But she did all that because she knew she’d get more in a private sale than a dealer trade-in.

“It took several weeks. I remember the agony of my time … sitting on a curb while (the would-be buyer) drove it to a mechanic and they worried about my title and I worried about how they were going to pay me,” said Vander Baan, 28.

There must be a better way to sell a used car, she thought.

Maybe a consignment shop. She pictured a car lot where sellers could drop off their wheels and pay her to find a buyer.

See Article http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/15569425.htm

Zafu.com – Buy the perfect Jeans

Since Zafu.com made its debut in August, Mr. Holloway said, the site’s traffic has grown rapidly, to more than 100,000 visitors this month, with virtually no marketing. The company makes money by earning a commission of 5 percent to 15 percent on every pair of jeans sold on the hundreds of retail sites with which it has agreements.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/technology/20ecom.html?ref=technology

In the web world rich people now envy richer people

But when greater fortunes are made — as happened recently to three former PayPal colleagues when YouTube was sold to Google for $1.65 billion — Mr. Hoffman said he could not avoid a twinge of envy.

“It’s kind of embarrassing,” said Mr. Hoffman, 39, whose start-up, a business-oriented social-networking site called LinkedIn, is almost four years old. “You started a year or two earlier, and they start after you and then this thing zips right past you and gets the golden results.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/technology/21envy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

HOTorNOT.com $5million a Year -> Case Study

When HOTorNOT first swept onto the scene a few years ago, not many people thought it would amount to anything more than a short-term fad. Even today, not many people recognize that HOTorNOT has a very profitable casual dating service consisting of 500,000 – 600,000 active users. HOTorNOT is making somewhere between $5M – $10M per year in revenue with very little cost since they don’t spend any money on marketing.

One month after James and Jim launched HOTorNOT they had an acquisition offer to be bought for $3-5M. Not a bad result for a couple months of work. However, they rejected the offer for several reasons. For one, they thought they could launch the premium dating service and make more money that way. Since the dating service had yet to be launched, this was a big gamble. Luckily, it paid off and Jim and James have been paid the $5M several times over. They were also fearful that the acquirer would not run the service the way they intended – as a community.

Read Full Article http://www.startup-review.com/blog/hotornotcom-case-study-mixing-free-and-premium-services.php

If at first you don’t succeed – Try, then try Again !!!

Every month, drawn by search-engine advertisements, millions of consumers touch down on one of dozens of so-called “reward” Web sites with names such as “OnlineRewardCenter.com” or “ExclusiveGiftCards.com.” Those two sites, and 50 to 75 others at any given time, share a corporate parent — World Avenue USA — founded by an ambitious 26-year-old Boca Raton, Fla., entrepreneur, Niuniu Ji.

Niuniu  Ji’s World Avenue has grown to 230 employees. He won’t disclose the company’s revenue but says it has been profitable since its founding and has grown solely off profits. It pays Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) 10 cents to $1 per click for advertising and generates 3 million to 5 million customer leads a month for its 100 advertisers. Like Google, Ji’s company sets rates by auction, getting paid as little as a nickel per lead in some product categories and as much as $50 to $75 for a mortgage refinance lead.

Read this story its interesting http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/6pP6ZpYl8cGJEy/Online-Surveys-You-Get-What-You-Pay-For.xhtml

Extreme Savers or Magicians ? You Decide ..

 Extreme Savers or Misers Magicians

Ok .. I am not hating but this is incredible . This guy makes $48,000 a year and his wife does not work , that means they are both leaving off the $48k  but the interesting point is that they have over $200 000 in savings and they dont own a home so this is not money from home equity . They save 60% of the $48,000 – I want to know where they learnt to perfom such magic . 60% of $48,000 is $29,000   so they are living off $19,000 before taxes .

My mortgage is over $30k a year and daycare is about $9,000 (for 1 child) a year, so  you see they are performing magic . I did not even add insurance , gas , cable ,cell phones , electricity etc etc etc

See the story here http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/16/pf/saver_black/index.htm?postversion=2006111616

Onsitehaircuts.com ! Nice Mobile Haircutting Concept

Nice Concept especially since there is nor rent to pay and the barber can be in many liocations at the same time .

Read Story http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2006/11/01/8391409/index.htm?postversion=2006111507

$1 Million Selling Butterflies

Jose Muñiz’s career began when a friend bet him $100 that he could not sell butterflies for a living. Now, seven years later, the former business consultant and his wife, Karen, own Amazing Butterflies (amazingbutterflies.com), a live-butterfly distributor with offices in Tamarac, Fla., and San Jose, and a projected $1 million in revenues in 2006.The dramatic effect created by the release of scores of butterflies has made the business popular among wedding, funeral and charity event planners.

Read More  – http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2006/11/01/8391411/index.htm

PropertyRoom.com Sells $10 Million of stolen goods

PropertyRoom.com sells lost, stolen or forfeited goods from police departments.

 Last year PropertyRoom.com, an auction Web site that sells lost, stolen or forfeited goods from police departments, opened its doors to third-party vendors.

Revenues jumped 33 percent, to $8 million, and are projected to hit $10 million to $12 million in 2006.

Tom Lane: Co-founder and CEO, Propertyroom.com

NO DOT-CONS: PropertyRoom.com has signed up more than 750 departments since it was launched in 1999, and its 70 employees ensure each product’s authenticity and condition.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2006/11/01/8391413/index.htm?postversion=2006111409

$5 Million Selling Mis_Matched Socks

The founders of LittleMissMatched don’t know what happens to perfectly good socks that disappear in the wash. But the mystery of the missing socks led them into a business venture that started small and is growing fast.

Arielle Eckstut, Jason Dorf and Jonah Staw started selling packs of three or seven mismatched socks in 2003 after Eckstut and Staw came up with the idea as a solution to lost socks. Each sock is different, although the colors or patterns may coordinate.

The three thirtysomethings are unlikely partners. Eckstut is an artsy West Coast literary agent. Staw is an intense branding and marketing guy. Dorf is a slightly conservative New York garment-industry veteran.

But they clicked because their expertise complements each others’ so well and because as fast as they can come up with ideas, Staw sets a strategy and timetable to turn them into reality.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2006-11-12-entrepreneur-usat_x.htm?tab1=t3

Doormanonline.com – Hmm ! Nice Idea

This guy found a problem with deliveries and he created a solution . Proof that their are so many niches it is unbelievable .

When Alper Ekmekci lived in Hoboken, he would often come home from work to find a notice of a package on his front door, but the post office or UPS center would be closed for the evening.After having missed many packages, Ekmekci decided to have them delivered to his office in Manhattan, but that didn’t work out much better. Once he had his computer delivered there but it was lost within the company’s in-house mailing system.After days of searching, Ekmekci recovered the package but had to spend $50 on a taxi to transport himself and three large boxes back to Hoboken, where he carried them up three flights of stairs.

That adventure led the 29-year-old financial analyst for JP Morgan Chase to leave his job and create his own company, Doorman Online LLC, which hand-delivers packages when working folks are actually home.

http://www.hudsonreporter.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1291&dept_id=523585&newsid=17388408&PAG=461&rfi=9

Ebaumsworld.com = $10 Million a Year

See  http://www.ebaumsworld.com/wired-page1.html

The website has a lot of junk videos that are funny and sometimes disturbing .

Techcrunch brings in 120k a month

Mr. Arrington is a “very ambitious guy,” says Keith Teare, the former CEO of RealNames, who notes that Mr. Arrington hasn’t stayed at any job for longer than 18 months over the past 10 years. Mr. Teare adds that Mr. Arrington is “extremely focused on money. He wants to be rich.”

Mr. Arrington doesn’t dispute that. He says he has “never made any real money,” even after selling an online-payments company he founded called Achex Inc. to First Data Corp. in 2001. He declines to divulge his net worth but says TechCrunch brings in about $120,000 in revenue a month, mostly from ads, sponsorships, an online job-posting service and the parties it holds.   See WSJ article http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116244521605611149-xEEW_Dh1mMLLs0dtYRdw492SQYE_20061109.html?mod=blogs

 

25 Entrepreneurs Under 25

Businessweek has profiled these young entrepreneurs . If there is anything one can lear from these young risk takers , It is that its never too early to start a business . Facebook.com’s 21 year old ceo turned down a $750 Million buyout offer from Yahoo earlier this year . This is crazy considering the fact the the company is only 2 years old , but his still young .. maybe he will get $2 billion before he is 25 years old                        SEE FULL ARTICLE  25 Entrepreneurs Under 25

Jared Isaacman                                                                                           www.unitedbankcard.com
Hampton, N.J.
Age: 23

Jared Isaacman put together the plan for United Bank Card, a nationwide transaction processing company, alone in his parents’ basement. The idea, he says, was not really unique. He simply noticed—he was working in IT for a credit-card company at the time—that the big financial institutions ignored the processing end of the credit-card business and focused more on issuing the cards to consumers. The industry was using outdated hardware, and transaction processing and setup times for new business customers were slow. Once he realized he was onto something big, Isaacman recruited close friends and family, who worked 100-hour weeks to build the framework for the company. Instead of thinking about locating venture capital, Isaacman says he took the $10,000 in stocks his grandfather had given as far as he possibly could.

That was in 1999. In 2005, the company did $56 million in business and Isaacman says he expects 2006 to be similar. This year, United Bank Card processed more than $5.5 billion in credit-card volume for over 60,000 unique businesses across the country. The company enables a variety of businesses, from restaurants to multilocation retailers, to accept credit-card and other noncash-based payments from their customers. Isaacman says that most people don’t realize that it’s not the banks that do the heavy lifting in the credit-card industry, it’s the processing companies like United Bank Card that kick into gear when a card is swiped at a business. Isaacman’s plans for the future include “selective acquisitions” with the goal of further increasing the company’s market share.