8.1 Discount Cook Off

Description: see what you can cook with a limited amount of cash. Judged based on servings made, taste, variety, calories your own weight. Would be an online channel and/or TV show. Get contestants from poor areas and offer them good cash prizes and pay them for the work they missed.

Could be location based, go to poor areas and have locals compete against each other. They can get food from whatever store is in the area, need receipts. Can use any processed food they want, hunted meat (if they paid for it).

The chef judges are not allowed to see ingredients or how it was cooked. Reaction of judges when they find out what was in it could be great.

Have a local explain the issues faced in their community and how that affects nutrition and food, what they would need to solve issues. Explain what the causes are and how some people are trying to fix them. Show will donate money to those working to fix the areas.

The key roles should not be highly paid (CEO ect) to show that you are actually giving money back to their community instead of using colourful poor folk to make money.

Pros poor people with unique accents and sayings make for great TV. Cooking without the “prestige” may feel like anyone can be on this show.

Cons poor people may feel shamed by being on this show and just go on for the money, would you be taking advantage of them? Some people would feel you were. Could get some dangerous characters fighting on the show, peacekeeping could be an issue.

8.2 Race-car marketing

Description: Have a business using vehicles that are covered in ads (for pay) and brand yourselves like sponsored race cars. Has this been tried before?

App based sign up? Or website and print shop model, you show up and we say how much you make off each type of ad, each size etc.

Some people with unique cars and/or jobs would be matched with certain brands. Someone who drives a lot of highway miles to work on the same highway for the foreseeable future could get local businesses located on that route advertising on them. A realtor selling only high-end houses may be connected with luxury brands.

Pros extra revenue for a car owner, advertisers have more locations to put ads.

Cons This business can easily copied by others, system would have to somehow be hard to match. People don’t want cars covered in ads unless it pays well, would the margins be worth it?

8.3 mountain freight

Description: Mountainous nations are often economically poor due to the challenges of bringing goods and people cheaply from place to place or to a port. This would need a monorail/rollercoaster/train that can handle tight turns, steep ascents, and a heavy payload.

It would have to be cheaper to build than a road, possibly carry its own material as track is built. The cars would have to be shorter than a traditional freight train to be able to operate in more direct routes without as many grade issues.

Bolivia, Nepal could use this, how does Switzerland, France, Germany do this in their mountain ranges. Do those countries bother or keep commerce and business in lower altitude areas?

This could be marketed to mining companies, other resource extraction industries.

Pros there is a need for economic development, trade for mountainous nations. The contracts for this would be government, large pools of money and not many (or no) direct competitors.

Cons there are already methods used, roads could be cheaper, sometimes trains and donkeys etc. the money making potential of the area determines the method paid for already. This would require a new tech that would be expensive to develop, take years. To serve a market that may never have much economic value.

8.4 stacked greenhouses/mini farms

Description: Miniature modular stackable greenhouses that are meant to be plugged in to water and power and remotely monitored by a central location. Various uses/pricing models

1. We rent their space/electricity and water, grow and harvest with our own workers

2. Sell unit directly to consumer, they use a

3. Sell unit directly to consumer, we monitor growing remotely for a fee

This would work best in the city, sell direct to restaurants and/or consumers. Can you undercut the large scale farmers on price by: Less labour, Less delivery cost, fuel

Can you use weird spaces in cities to grow small crops? Roofs, balconies, abandoned lots. Managed remotely by a central person by camera and measuring devices. A “farmer” comes out when needed for weeding, picking etc. You could rent out your space, and the company takes the produce. Or have the company grow you crops and you get to pick them, they tell you when and how. Have the water connected to their own water source, electronically water the plants.

What type of growing is most compact? Aeroponic, hydroponic, soil?

We analyse what can grow where, develop a plan for the space requested

build a vertical farm on the outside of industrial buildings that give off heat as part of their operations. The heat is used to help grow aeroponic/hydroponic plants. The building would be encased by plants, they would serve as an insulation layer for the building.

you have fruit trees, we harvest them for you and monitor when they’re ready to be picked. You are compensated with: The fruit, Share of profits, Share of profits of a finished good (jams, cider), Set price per lb of fruit collected

rent the roof on top of restaurants and keep pigs or other appropriate animals up there. Feed them food waste from the restaurant. You need a caretaker to monitor the pigs using cameras and visit as necessary.

Pros these technologies like exist already (solar powered cameras, mini greenhouses, watering systems) it would be just combing them into a business model. Cheaper, local produce is in demand in dense urban areas. The hands-off option would be key for urban people who don’t have the free time to grow food.

Cons margins may be low util it scales up due to popularity (could happen). Emissions/waste from a city could harm the quality of the plants. Could be used to grow weed by unregistered growers (fake sign up information). The research involved may be costly up front. Not being able to sell the produce when harvested means lost profits and waste.

8.5 recycled hi-vis

Description: A company that buys up/takes donated t-shirts and sews hi-vis logos on them. Sell them for less than the Home Depot hi vis vests. Possible customization for a higher price. Sell them at jobsites, ads in porto-johns on site. Could also re-sell safety gear on site, bring your own shirts, stitch while you wait.

Would need to visit jobsites on a schedule, do a weekly route. This could be coupled with a thrift store, you upcycle their non selling shirts into hi visibility vests.

Pros construction workers are losing/wrecking/ripping and staining hi vis vests , they don’t want to pay much for them. They also own lots of work shirts for working on their own projects at home that could be converted into hi-vis.

Cons margins would be small, will jobsites and/or the city allow you to work at a jobsite? To make money? Or would they charge you a license? Hi-vis vests are made very cheap, can you undercut big box stores?

8.6 I want This from home

Description: recently migrated people put requests for goods they miss from their country (food, alcohol) and people coming from their country see this and fill the order charging less than what it costs in the country the expat now lives in.

You would need an app and/or website to facitate this, language translators. App could facilitate transfer of pay to avoid robbery.

Could turn into a bricks and mortar store with drop-off/pick up service. These currently exist in the form of convenience stores that sell imported food from the owner’s country of origin.

Pros people miss goods from home, don’t always have friends going back and forth. Will pay more for the right goods. The nostalgia/rarity factor can make the margins worth it.

Cons migrants don’t always have much money or aren’t willing to spend extra for something they bought for much less when at home, This could be illegal import selling in some cases, require import licensing? How do you police illegal product transfer? Customers may use scam credit cards to do this. What if they buy the wrong thing? Who mediates that?

8.7 Wingin’ it Construction

Description: TV show where you contestants build a house using no plans (or Internet) and materials & tools of their choice. House has specs like "2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, ect". Contestants would be: a carpenter, a bricklayer, engineer, handyman, plumber.

Could also be a random assortment of materials and tools in a trailer. Would need a poured concrete pad minimum (or not, get creative). Building inspector, engineer inspect and judge the house. Could do air tests, ect

Could couple with habitat for humanity, give the houses away after a team modifies them up to code if possible.

Could start as a social media channel first, then pitch to TV or a streaming service. Construction tools and material firms may want to advertise in this space.

Pros If you select colourful entertaining construction characters, people would watch this. The creativity may be interesting for people who watch renovation shows.

Cons may take time to earn back the prize money in viewership.

8.8 Check my Politician

Description: Website with a chart showing the most recent positions on policy (abortion, carbon taxes, crime, housing) for each politician backed up by quote, reference. Make no opinions ourselves simply report what was said and give data showing the resulting actions.

The website would have to include past positions on the same topics, past voting record and if the politician is willing, an explanation of why they changed their opinion.

This would have to start in one riding and grow across a province or state.

Advertising revenue wouldn’t likely work as business would try to influence content. Possibly a low dollar amount subscription to access content and fund the site.

Pros market for this, especially near an election. It allows voters to interpret politician’s words for themselves. An well formatted way to find out what your local politician said and did on an issue the voter is particularly interested in.

Cons politicians/parties would want to influence this and try to using advertisers. Could become partisan by the people working there. The news and journalists already do this just not in a database format. Huge potential to being hacked and updated with false information or fooled by deep fakes. The firm could take statements out of context, misrepresent without intending to. Without trust of accurate information, people won’t buy into this idea.

8.9 Retractable cord outlets

Description: Retractable cord for laptops or an outlet that has a retractable cord in it. Couple this with it being able to eject when fully charged. External mechanism for different popular chargers, sell to tech companies, libraries, coffee shops, office spaces, airports, hotels, new construction, renovations, etc.

Viral social media clips showing the need for this would be effective advertising.

Pros There is a demand for this. Saves battery life by ejecting at 100% and cords being tripped on and tangled. Not everyone has or wants a wireless charger. People don’t want to have to take a charger cable with them everywhere.

Cons would this be difficult to patent?