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!YOUR WEEKLY FIX OF ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS ! !!

!06-­‐12  March  2014    

Top 10 business ideas & opportunities for 2014!!!

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We’ve selected 15 new business ideas that will provide entrepreneurs with plenty of inspiration. Spotted from

countries all around the world, these ideas offer a taste of what’s to come.!

!YOUR WEEKLY FIX OF ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS ! !!

!06-­‐12  March  2014    

This is part of a series of articles that looks at entrepreneurs hoping to get their ideas off the ground through crowdfunding. At the time of writing, each of these innovations is currently seeking funding.!!Many people think that games are a waste of time, especially for kids, but they can offer learning opportunities when they’re designed in the right way. We’ve already seen Primo teach coding to preschoolers, and now Koe is a JRPG that requires players to learn different kanji symbols in order to progress through the game.!

Read more about Koe »!  

1.  Indie RPG teaches players Japanese!

Weird Of The Week: This is part of a series of articles that looks at some of the most bizarre and niche business ideas we see here at Springwise.!!How much use is a city-load of urine? Quite a lot, it turns out. So much so that the Netherlands’ Waternet uti l i t ies company has placed some pee-collecting urinals in Amsterdam, with the hope of turning it into fertilizer for the city’s urban roof gardens.!

Read more about Waternet »!  

2.  Public urinals harness pee to grow food!

For those who have partied too hard in Las Vegas, there is a bus called Hangover Heaven that tours the strip and offers hangover remedies. But what if there’s absolutely no way of even moving from that bed? The IV Doctor is a service launched in New York that actually offers a home visit to give revelers the treatment they need to feel fresh.!

Read more about The IV Doctor »!  

3.  The IV Doctor will visit your home and cure a hangover!

In the UK there are 85,000 prisoners, but only 10,000 of them are doing valuable work with their time. In order to change t h i s , G a o l h o u s e D e n i m i s n o w collaborating with a number of British inmates, giving them meaningful, paid work while also creating premium jeans for consumers.!

Read more about Gaolhouse Denim »!  

4.  Jeans are made by prison inmates!

Back in 2012, we wrote about Italian sports apparel brand D-Air Street, a motorcycle jacket that contains a hidden airbag that inflates upon collision. Now the company is back with the D-Air Ski, which features a protective airbag that inflates only upon the event of a serious fall.!

Read more about the D-Air Ski »!  

5.  Airbag-equipped ski suit could save broken bones!

Rooftop gardens are not only a solution to enabling space-scarce cities to create produce locally, but — when combined with specific venues — can be especially convenient, such as Dakboerin‘s farms a top res tau ran t k i t chens i n t he Netherlands. Now Japan’s Soradofarm scheme is placing allotments on top of train stations, to allow commuters to more seamlessly fi t growing thei r own vegetables into their busy lifestyles.!

Read more about Soradofarm »!  

6.  In Japan, train station allotments let commuters garden on the move!

In the recent past, we’ve seen Soldsie leverage social conversations as a payment platform — enabling users to buy fashion products by simply leaving a comment on the relevant Facebook photos. While a flight is typically a much larger purchase, KLM Royal Dutch Air l ines is also now enabl ing i ts customers to confirm and pay for a seat on one of their flights through social media platforms.!

Read more about KLM Royal Dutch Airlines»!  

7.  KLM passengers can now buy a flight through Facebook and! Twitter!

As with almost all previously offline products, bikes and their accessories are now getting smart. We’ve already written about Helios handlebars, which feature exercise tracking and GPS location services. Now the MindRider helmet is using EEG technology to enable cyclists to see how their thought patterns change over the course of their journey.!

Read more about the MindRider »!  

8.  Bike helmet reads cyclists’ minds, tracks their stress levels on the road!

Dining is more than just a treat for the tastebuds and takes in a whole range of sensory thrills, which explains the popularity of themed film events such as Toronto’s Mise — which matches its menu with on-screen dishes. Now the Netherlands is serving up The Bookish Banquet, a culinary event for bookworms that takes inspiration from popular fiction.!

Read more about The Bookish Banquet »!  

9.  Book-themed food event matches meals with fiction!

Hunger is a real problem, not only in the poorest parts of the world but even in major US cities. In fact, 50 million Americans are meal insecure and one in five kids in the US faces hunger, according to Jon Carder — co-founder and CEO of Mogl, a startup that hopes to do more to stop people going without food. Its new app now enables diners in San Diego to enjoy a ten percent discount on their meal at participating restaurants, which they can either keep or donate to food banks and hunger charities.!

Read more about Mogl »!  

10.  App lets diners keep a 10% bill discount, or give it to food banks!

For those pitting themselves against the elements, practical clothing isn’t just useful, it can be lifesaving. While it may not be able to stop gunfire, like Garrison Bespoke’s Bulletproof Suit, the Life Tech jacket from Seymourpowell is designed to double as an extreme survival kit that uses smart tech to help wearers in a variety of dangerous situations.!

Read more about the Life Tech »!  

11.  This jacket could save your life!

This is part of a series of articles that looks at entrepreneurs hoping to get their ideas off the ground through crowdfunding. At the time of writing, each of these innovations is currently seeking funding.!!B o t t l e s w a t e r h a s b e c o m e a n environmental concern over the past couple of decades, even leading to organizations such as Ban The Bottle. While an outright ban is unlikely to materialize any time soon, a new startup called Treeson Spring Water is aiming to make its bottles as eco as possible, including a free mail-back system to ensure they get recycled.!

Read more about Treeson »!!

12.  These water bottles can be mailed to a recycling plant for free!

Getting kids to read can sometimes be a difficult task if they don’t have a lot of options to choose from or — what’s more likely — they’d rather play on their phone or tablet. While ideas such as the scannable Smart PJ’s have embraced new technologies to make picking a new story at bedtime more engaging, a new service for kids called Epic! offers a large digital library of children’s titles, complete with rewards for finishing chapters and embarking on reading marathons.!

Read more about Epic! »!  

13.  Netflix for kids’ books makes reading fun with unlockable ! achievements!

Vehicles are usually designed to serve a part icular purpose, with dif ferent functions calling for completely new designs. While in the past we’ve seen the hybrid Sealander caravan work on both land and water, the Ethos E30 modular boat can be reconfigured for different purposes, from tour boat, to fishing trawler, to family cruiser.!

Read more about the Ethos E30 »!  

14.  Modular boat is for both work and pleasure!

The rise of white collar industry in developed countries means that the majority of workers spend most of their days sitting down, often with bad posture. As a result, we’ve seen a few innovations attempt to bring micro-exercise into the office environment, such as the Stir Kinetic Desk, which occasionally rises to encourage users to regularly get up from their chair. Now Tao WellShell is a smart device that enables anyone to carry out resistance exercise from their seat, while also tracking their progress.!

Read more about the Tao Wellshell »!  

15.  Handheld device enables workers to sculpt their guns at the office!

What is Springwise?!

!Springwise scans the globe for the most promising, unique and innovative business ventures, ideas and concepts that are ready for regional or international adaptation, expansion, partnering, investments or cooperation.!!Springwise headquarters is in close contact with more than 17,000 Springspotters in over 150 countries worldwide, who provide us with details of the latest innovations in their countries. These are compiled and assessed by our editorial team, and the best examples are published to provide entrepreneurial inspiration to our readers around the world!!!Springwise publishes a Daily and a Weekly newsletter, to which you can subscribe for free, they are sent to more than 170,000 people.!!Established in 2002, Springwise is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.!

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