lunes, 28 de abril de 2014

Will a Web-Only Mattress Startup Keep Serta and Sealy Up at Night? (BusinessWeek)


It was a heady morning at Casper headquarters on a trendy cobblestone street in south Manhattan. The startup had just launched its modest assault on the old-fashioned mattress business.
“We’ve got six orders already,” said Luke Sherwin, one of a handful of co-founders.
With the tagline “the mattress reimagined,” Casper is betting that bedding will work in a Web-only, direct-to-consumer business model. It has promised a great mattress and a shopping experience free of slick sales tactics.
Once a Casper mattress is stitched together in Georgia or Pennsylvania, it is vacuum-sealed, crunched into a “W,” and jammed in a box roughly the size of a large mini-fridge. Delivery in the U.S. takes five days or less. When a customer cuts the package open, the mattress expands to full size in 60 seconds.
The product, a 10-inch wedge of foam with nary a spring in it, seems comfy enough, but challenges to the endeavor are abundant. Chief among them, according to Casper’s co-founders, will be persuading customers to buy a mattress without trying it first. Also, the company makes only one product—albeit in six sizes. There’s no extra-firm, super-soft or pillow-top—no version with water or alpaca wool or “KoolGel.”
There’s also the limiting factor that Casper’s ideal customers—those frustrated by the shopping experience of mattress chains—have probably already bought something to sleep on.
Casper’s mattresses  aren’t cheap. The twin, its smallest size, costs $500, while the king goes for $950. “If somebody is going to go to Ikea to look at mattresses, they’re probably not considering this,” said Jeff Chapin, co-founder and product chief.
What the company has going for it is some tech mojo. Its website, for example, is simple and sleek. Its brand is catchy, calculated, and search-engine optimized via a crisp, white blog. And its overhead is low—there are six full-time employees working their way through their savings and a $1.6 million pile of venture capital they collected early this year.
Pick your product, and you can find a similar supply-chain and aesthetic setup: custom shirts, eyeglasses, coffee. The Casper team knows a bit about the mattress business. Chapin used to make products for Sealy (TPX) when he worked at famed industrial design shop Ideo. Chief Executive Officer Philip Krim sold thousands of beds at an online startup hatched in his University of Texas dorm room.
Casper offers a 40-day money-back guarantee to reassure reluctant shoppers, although it admits it won’t be able to collect and resell the products. Ideally, mattresses of disgruntled customers will go to charity, though Casper is still working out details on that. Meanwhile, the company is hoping to strike partnership deals with hotels and Airbnb sites to get some exposure.
As for its one-mattress-fits all approach, Casper said it has split the difference and made a mattress that most customers would prefer—just a tad on the firm side. A layer of Memory foam is topped with a sturdier latex foam that has “an energetic springiness;” according to the Casper crew, that’s great for times when one is lying in bed, listening to Barry White, and … well … doing things other than sleeping.
The company is hoping the limited number of choices will spur buying, a strategy built on research that suggests customers are put off when faced with too many options. Sherwin, the creative director, notes that mattress shoppers who spend a couple of hours flopping around on a bunch of different models are particularly prone to “post-purchase anxiety” over whether they made the right choice.
The “Big 3” of bedding—Serta, Sealy, and Simmons—control roughly half the market, according to Furniture Today. All of them rely heavily on department stores and a handful of regional retailers for distribution, a step in the supply chain that adds an additional layer of cost and confusion.
Not only do retailers mark mattresses up significantly, they also give them different names, so it’s virtually impossible to comparison-shop. Everything is on sale at all times, so pricing is opaque as well. (Here’s the story of record on all this, by Slate’s Seth Stevenson.)
Americans buy 35 million mattresses a year, so Casper doesn’t have to challenge Sealy and Serta to build a cushy business. Warby Parker is a good example. The company appears to be thriving with its relatively affordable line of eyewear. Still,Luxottica Group (LUX:IM), the Italian conglomerate that owns Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters ,and a bevy of other big eyewear brands, has done just fine since Warby got into the game.
Kyle-stock-190
Stock is an associate editor for Businessweek.com. Twitter: @kylestock

jueves, 24 de abril de 2014

...Cómo la Bio-impresión cambia al mundo...-Caso2-


Brain tissues

Scientists in Vienna, Austria printed brain tissues from stem cells. They call them “cerebral organoids." The organoids grew to about four millimeters in size and could survive up to 10 months. Right now, the organoids are limited in their size because they cannot move around nutrients in the circulatory system. The researchers are using the tissue to study microcephaly, a condition where the brain stops growing. As with any other transplant, there is always the risk of rejection by the body with these 3D printed tissues.

FCC to propose new net neutrality rules...(ZDNet)

Summary: The FCC's next attempt at rules to regulate Internet service providers in their relations with content providers and consumers includes major concessions to the ISPs.

Reports from Reuters and the Wall Street Journal say that the FCC will make another attempt at rules for net neutrality, with a vote at the FCC's May 15 meeting.
The Journal says that the new rules would include major concessions to ISPs and other bandwidth providers, explicitly allowing them grant higher network priority to content providers who pay for it, as long as such access is available on "commercially reasonable" terms to all interested content providers. The FCC would decide what is reasonable on a case-by-case basis.
Since the FCC's loss in Federal Appeals Court in January over their last net neutrality rule proposals, much has happened: Netflix, has started to reach interconnection agreements with ISPs, starting with ComcastTime Warner Cable agreed to be bought by Comcast, a deal which has been opposed by many including Netflix; and the FCC made more spectrum available for high-speed Wi-Fi. All of these affect the environment for which the rules are aimed.
The proposed FCC rules would not allow ISPs to block or otherwise discriminate against specific Internet sites. The new rules would also increase disclosure requirements for ISPs of their network management practices.
The significant changes in the rule, generally towards the interests of ISPs, may be an attempt to soften ISP opposition. By the same token, the changes may not satisfy vocal net neutrality proponents

miércoles, 23 de abril de 2014

Cómo la Bio-imprenta en 3D está transformando al mundo -Caso UNO-(TechRepublic)


Human face
A man from Wales in the United Kingdom was in a motorcycle accident in 2012 and he has now received 3D printed implants on his face that successfully fixed injuries he sustained. The man broke his cheekbones, jaw, nose, and skull. CT scans were used to 3D print a symmetrical model of his skull, and then a printed titanium implant held the bones in place. The project was done by the Centre for Applied Reconstructive Technologies in Surgery.

martes, 22 de abril de 2014

The creation and evolution of a startup business plan (TechRepublic)

By  April 21, 2014, 5:29 AM PST //  connerforrest
Some startup founders regard now business plans as superfluous, but they remain a valuable tool. Here's how to turn your business idea into a roadmap for the future. 
bizplanshero.jpg

Entrepreneurs tend to follow the "don't think, just do" model of starting a business. This gumption can serve founders well in the early days, but it often causes them to overlook some of the essential aspects of building a business.
Writing business plan is a valuable experience for any company founder, but many founders view it as a useless exercise. Much of this has to do with the parameters by which a business plan is defined. In simple terms a business plan should be a document that forces you to look at where your business is now and where you want it to go, and make decisions relative to that trajectory.
"The reason you need a map, the reason you need to have any sort of plan is because, if you don't know where you're trying to go, you don't if you're any closer to it," said Andreas Stavropoulos, managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
Your business plans will exist in different forms for each stage your company is in and it will prompt new actions for each set of goals you set out to achieve. Founders usually begin to think about their business plan when they are first seeking funding, but according to startup lawyer Peyton Worley of Cooley LLP, raising your first round might not require a full-on plan.
"A traditional business plan may or may not be appropriate. But, something that is concise, portable, that easily shows what you're doing, as well as the quick core story of your product or technology, that you should definitely have," Worley said.
That "quick core story" will become the foundation for your pitch.

Crafting the pitch

The pitch is an essential building block for the business plan of your startup. The pitch pushes founders to evaluate how they define their business and, the majority of the time, it is what potential investors are looking for.
"What matters is the entrepreneur's ability to communicate the unique insight and inspiration of their idea along with it's scale (why it's a really big market opportunity) and it's defensibility (why they have an unfair advantage based on unique intellectual property, technology, data, network effects, or something that makes it hard for others to imitate). These concepts are best communicated via the passion of the entrepreneur," said Bain Capital Ventures' Scott Friend.
When you're first launching a startup, a traditional; business plan might not be wholly necessary. A business plan might help to show that you have preempted some of the questions that investors might ask, but it's not something that VCs will want to sift through. Most VCs consider the founder, or team, more important than the business; and a quick pitch conveys more of the entrepreneur, and his or her vision, to the VCs. So, keep the business plan short and focused on the pitch when you're first launching.
When composing your pitch, keep it short and use lots of pictures. Investors are busy, and you need to be able to quickly explain why you make a good steward of their resources. On the most basic level, your pitch should include these three things:
  1. Who you are
  2. What problem you are solving
  3. What you need
There aren't many founders who can walk into a pitch meeting with a reputation that precedes them, so you should include a slide with your team members and individual pedigrees. Explain the pain point you are addressing and the total addressable market. Also, don't be afraid to ask for what you need. Clearly explain what kind of capital and support you are looking for and how you are planning to use it. Ultimately, show the investors that your business is a good investment.
"Something that gives you the idea that if they're putting dollars into your business that it has the chance to grow and evolve into a meaningful business," Worley said.
Once you have secured funding and your company is moving toward becoming a "meaningful business," it is time to develop a traditional business plan.

Developing the plan

Planning is only ever helpful if it drives you to action. This is why you, as a founder, should spearhead the process. As someone who has the ability to allocate resources, you need to understand how you, and your team, see the growth of your company.
According to Josh Green, Chairman of NVCA and a general partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, "The exercise of writing the business plan is more important than the product."
When you set out to create your business plan, keep these three things in mind:
  1. Approach it as a living document
  2. Set actionable steps toward your next milestone
  3. Don't think too far ahead
"I think the value in that business plan document, and in keeping it alive, is that it periodically forces some of the tougher strategic questions for a business," Stavropoulos said.
Think about the goals and assumptions you made at the onset of your journey as an entrepreneur with this specific company. Maybe some of the assumptions you made earlier were correct or incorrect and, knowing what you know now, you might want to change course or adapt.
"There's still no substitute for that thoroughness and discipline in thinking on the what-ifs and all the details," Green said. "Because, you unearth both due diligence issues and risks associated with the business, but also other opportunities to see if, in fact, you're in sync with the management team about the thesis for the investment itself."
Just as a pitch will be helpful when you are seeking your initial round of funding, your evolved business plan can help you in future fundraising rounds. Entrepreneurs can raise too much capital, but setting milestones can help you avoid that pitfall. Setting milestones, and agreeing on the actions to reach those milestones, will help you set expectations and raise the proper amount of capital.
"If you don't even have the agreement on those discrete milestones, and you're just betting algebra on some spreadsheet, then who cares? You're not necessarily doing anything different than what you were doing before," Stavropoulos said.
The mark of a good business plan is one that encourages action, but is also one that is flexible enough to facilitate changes in direction if they are needed. A big part of maintaining this flexibility is not thinking too far ahead. Too many founders see the massive financial opportunity that an IPO or acquisition may bring, and they build their business toward that payday. Avoid early exit talks and, instead, focus on building a great business and getting to that next milestone.
"The reality is if you are building a great company, you are going to have great options," Stavropoulos said.
At some point, an IPO might be a milestone for your company, but it should not be one of the initial goals you set because it might muddy your ability to make decisions that are best for the business or the customers.
"The surest way not to make money is to seek it," Green said.
The time at which you should begin turning your pitch into a true business plan will be different for each company, but certain companies should consider writing their business plan early. Businesses that exist in a market where there is a lot of competition need a business plan to help differentiate their offering. Businesses in an area with many external dependencies, or one that is dependant on the market, needs to establish their contingency plan for changes in those external factors. Lastly, businesses that operate with a low-margin need a business plan to understand how quickly they can scale their business.
Conner Forrest is a Staff Writer for TechRepublic. He covers Google and startups and is passionate about the convergence of technology and culture.

lunes, 21 de abril de 2014

A Stronger Economy Means Fewer People Start Businesses (BusinessWeek)

Here’s a counterintuitive finding: As the economy improves, fewer people are starting businesses.
One might think that a healthier economy might draw more people to strike out on their own, but the reality of entrepreneurship is grimmer. People start businesses, it seems, when they can’t get jobs. As the job market improves, the rate at which Americans launch new companies declines. That’s the broad finding of the Kauffman Foundation’s index of entrepreneurial activity, published today, which tracks the percentage of the adult population that start businesses each month.
That trend has been in evidence for years. You can really see it in the construction industry, where swings in new homebuilding appears to have turned construction workers into small business owners and back into employees again.
Kauffman highlighted the shift in motivations for new entrepreneurs in this year’s report. The percentage of startups launched by people coming directly out of unemployment has decreased since the recession.
As entrepreneurs are driven more and more by opportunity, as opposed to necessity, policymakers should shift their focus on easing barriers to growth, says Dane Stangler, a vice president for research at Kauffman. That could include shifting tax policy to lower the costs of adding new employees.
Clark is a reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek covering small business and entrepreneurship.

jueves, 17 de abril de 2014

Small Business Loans...(BusinessWeek)

A Senator Sees 'Moral Hazard' in SBA Loan Program

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) talks to a member of the press on Jan. 6 in Washington
Photograph by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) talks to a member of the press on Jan. 6 in Washington
A Republican senator is questioning whether the Small Business Administration’s flagship loan program puts taxpayer money at risk without enough oversight.
Earlier this month, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama wrote to new SBA chief Maria Contreras-Sweet, to raise concerns that the agency “has not met the high standards required in providing loan guarantees.” Specifically, the lawmaker says that the agency’s 7(a) program, which backstops private lenders by guaranteeing up to 85 percent of the value of small business loans they make, allows banks to lend with little regard to whether the borrower will be able to pay.
Sessions aimed his epistolary assault at the SBA’s 7(a) loan program, which backed $17.9 billion in general purpose loans in the 12 months ended September 2013. To make his point, Sessions points to reports from the press and the SBA Inspector General that show high default rates on 7(a) loans made to operators of certain franchises, including Quiznos, Cold Stone Creamery, and Huntington Learning Center. Because the government guarantees a big chunk of those loans, “the lender still makes a profit while taxpayers shoulder the cost of the default,” wrote Sessions. “This is what economists call moral hazard.”
In an e-mail, an SBA spokeswoman wrote, “we believe our 7(a) program is strong and these criticisms are unfounded,” pointing out that the program didn’t need subsidies to cover losses.
Sessions’s letter asks Contreras-Sweet to respond to 17 points, with a particularly pointed query aimed at franchise loans: “Please explain whether or not the SBA has excluded certain franchises because of high default rates, and provide the percentage of defaults necessary to exclude a franchise. If the SBA does not exclude franchises based on default rate or otherwise, please state whether the SBA believes it has the authority to do so.”
The queries also suggest that the SBA should shift more risk to banks, and ask the agency to furnish data on banks that have been excluded from SBA programs for making a lot of bad loans. Sessions also targets banks’ practice of selling portions of 7(a) loans to outside investors: “Does the SBA believe that lenders would take more care in issuing loans if guaranteed loans were not transferable?”
Those requests come after Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.) introduced a bill in December that proposed eliminating the SBA as a stand-alone agency. The plan gotattention at the time, partly because it resembled an earlier proposal floated by President Obama, and partly because the White House had allowed the SBA to languish without a permanent leader.
Sessions sits as ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, which helps determine funding for SBA loan programs. His call for a more transparent accounting of SBA lending echoes concerns raised by the agency’s inspector general and by the U.S. Government Accountability Office about oversight at the agency.
The GAO found last September that the SBA has a pattern of starting new programs without gathering “information needed to assess their performance,” auditors wrote. The watchdog was writing specifically about pilot programs. Sessions argues that larger, established programs also merit a closer look.
Clark is a reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek covering small business and entrepreneurship.

jueves, 10 de abril de 2014

The missing link in 3D printing: User-friendly software (TechRepublic)

By                           April 9, 2014,
One of the biggest obstacles for 3D printing is its unintuitive CAD software. To gain mass appeal, the process has to become more user-friendly with simpler tools. 
3d-adobe.jpg
Adobe Photoshop has a new feature so users can create 3D designs.

The truth of the matter is, 3D printing is cumbersome. It's difficult, annoying, and unrealistic for non-engineers. The hummingMakerBots spitting out mini Yoda heads and brightly coloredCube printers making textured maps at the Inside 3D Printing Conference in New York City last week made it look simple, but that's because engineers and experienced employees were manning them.
If we step back from the bubble of hype surrounding 3D printing, it's obvious there is a gaping hole in this technology: software. What if 3D printing an object was as easy as clicking a dropdown menu, downloading or creating a design, customizing it, and sending it directly to a printer? That's the dream, of course. In its current state, the industry isn't there yet.
In her keynote address at the conference, Christine Furstoss, global technology director for GE, discussed this missing link as the industry's biggest obstacle, but also its biggest opportunity.
"It truly is a time for hardware meets software, a time to embrace and bring forward a whole new class of innovators," Furstoss said.
If the gap between hardware and software is big enough to hold back the manufacturing industry, it will surely keep entrepreneurs and small businesses (as well as consumers) from being able to use 3D printing in innovative ways.
Computer-aided design (CAD) software was made for engineers. It allows them to create 2D and 3D representations of objects and is often used for special effects, animation, and graphic design in many industries. The major problem with CAD is that to make working parts, the user must know mechanical engineering. It's not hard to learn the design tool, but if they don't know the correct proportions, ratios, and purpose of that piece and the ones it works with, the resulting object won't turn out very well. What's more is that the software doesn't always translate to desktop 3D printers, especially the affordable, lower-quality ones. This can result in misshapen products.
The industry needs user-friendly software. Now that 3D printing is here to stay, companies are attempting to make desktop 3D printers as simple and compatible as anyone's home inkjet printer.
"The problem with desktop [printers] are the prices and the fact they are not user friendly," said Gary Shu, senior manager of market development for XYZ Printing."There are lots of hiccups and barriers that you have to overcome. The least we can do for now is make them more user friendly, easier, and bring them down to consumer-level pricing."
For similar reasons, Autodesk CEO Carl Bass doesn't believe home 3D printing will catch on anytime soon. Autodesk makesAutoCAD, the most popular 3D printing software.
In his keynote at the conference, Bass said the software trend is moving towards accessibility, but not ownership, just like every other industry. Think Netflix, Zipcar, and Techshop, he said. People are gravitating more toward using services and less toward owning the technologies to run them.
"It just strikes me as odd to say the thing that's going to go the other direction is consumer 3D printing," Bass said. "What are you going to 3D print? [Designs are] all over the internet, there are models everywhere you can download."
This "maker community" that is emerging quickly and strongly is democratizing software with platforms like Thingiverse andShapeways, which offer free, open source, downloadable designs. With the rapid evolution of design software, non-technical 3D enthusiasts can download a design straight from the web or from the cloud using some personal 3D printers.
Yoda
MakerBot showed off 3D Yoda statues at the conference.
Users can tweak Thingiverse designs with a MakerBot application, though the process is difficult if the user doesn't understand or own design software. What's posted on the website is all that most people have to work with, and since anyone can upload, the designs aren't always reliable.
Enter Adobe, who is trying to solve this problem with the recent addition of 3D printing functionality to Photoshop. The feature is available with Photoshop version 14.1, a free update for Adobe Creative Cloud members. In a press conference in January, product manager Andy Lauta said he expects the tool to be used for finishing, decreasing the number of applications needed to get a 3D model designed and printed.
Users can create a 3D design using Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, using layers to add color, texture, or words as they would in the original version. From a menu, users can choose their material, color, and price range. Once the design is finalized, they can export it as a file or print directly to a printer at home. Direct printing is currently compatible with MakerBot and 3D Systems Cube desktop printers. The designs can also be sent to Shapeways for printing.
"It is a finishing tool, but also a starting tool for people that want to get into 3D printing," said Paul Trani, a senior cloud evangelist for Adobe at the Inside 3D printing conference last week. "What we are missing is the content. The content is going to drive the technology."
However, Adobe's new 3D printing tool is targeted to fine artists, graphic designers, and developers who use Adobe Creative Cloud. Trani said he envisions small businesses using the tool to create signs, swag, and other products eventually, but the tool isn't meant for the general public for whom Photoshop is too expensive or unintuitive to use.

This is a small step in the right direction, but the gap is still apparent.

miércoles, 9 de abril de 2014

Font War: Inside the Design World's $20 Million Divorce (BusinessWeeK)


Typeface designers Hoefler (left) and Frere-Jones in their type foundry offices in 2007

Typeface designers Hoefler (left) and Frere-Jones in their type foundry offices in 2007

Gotham is one hell of a typeface. Its Os are round, its capital letters sturdy and square, and it has the simplicity of a geometric sans without feeling clinical. The inspiration for Gotham is the lettering on signs at the Port Authority, manly works using “the type of letter that an engineer would make,” according to Tobias Frere-Jones, who is widely credited with designing the font for GQ magazine in 2000. Critics have praised Gotham as blue collar, nostalgic yet “exquisitely contemporary,” and “simply self evident.”

It’s also ubiquitous. Gotham has appeared on Netflix (NFLX)envelopes, Coca-Cola (KO) cans, and in the Saturday Night Live logo. It was on display at the Museum of Modern Art from 2011 to 2012 and continues to be part of the museum’s permanent collection. It also helped elect a president: In 2008, Barack Obama’s team chose Gotham as the official typeface of the campaign and used it to spell out the word HOPE on its iconic posters.
Among those who draw letters for a living, Gotham is most notable for being the crowning achievement of two of the leaders of their tribe, Frere-Jones and Jonathan Hoefler. The two men seemed to be on parallel paths since the summer of 1970, when they were both born in New York. Hoefler and Frere-Jones were already prominent designers when they began operating as Hoefler&Frere-Jones in 1999, having decided to join forces instead of continuing their race to be type design’s top boy wonder. Each would serve as an editor for the other, and they would combine their efforts to promote the work they did together.
Colleagues still struggle to explain what a big deal this was at the time. Debbie Millman, president emeritus of AIGA, the major trade organization for graphic designers, begins by comparing them to John Lennon and Paul McCartney, then stops. “They were famous before they got together, so that’s how they’re not like the Beatles. It’s more like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young,” she says, before pausing again. “You know what—I’ll tell you what they were like. They were like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.”