Business of Design: Four Start Ups

This week our Business of Design class has been asked to do a little research about four startups which will be visiting class tomorrow.

In short here is what I've learned about each and some questions which I'd like to have answered during class.

Town Squared: has a great little explanatory claymation on their homepage which went a long way to quickly explain the value they offer.  Is it the Facebook for small business?  I used to be a small business owner and being an untrained business person I had plenty of questions about what I was doing which might have been answered simply by being connected to other small business owners.  I like their idea.  They mention they are a private community and that they vet members...so the natural question is, what do you require of a member to join your community?

Share Some Style: personal style consultancy seems like a very practical thing to offer, especially in a city filled with such young money.  This is particularly interesting to me because I have a friend in Seattle working to launch the very same service.  They way I understand their website is that it serves as outreach alone.  Once I am there I would like to to serve me as more than just a contact point.  I realize in some sense they can't offer all their tips for free though I wonder; have they considered the possibility of including blogging or interactive fashion tutorials?

Skully: heads up display and smart helmut.  As a motorcyclist I would be all over this thing.  My only question is how much is this going to cost me?

Mosey: Yelp / Pinterest / Facebook for places and people? This company is perhaps the most intriguing of the 4, if only because it is the most vague as to what it is.  Though this isn't a great thing, it is allowing me to fill in the gaps with my imagination.  I have this dream that it can map itineraries based on selected points of interest...that it can curate an adventure for me...that it can connect me in a spontaneous feeling way with similar people.  But I don't understand what this company does, so what are you, Mosey?

Looking forward to seeing what answers I get and what start-up energy feels like on stage tomorrow.