ZipCar Systems to Open Your Home

Need

Ok, if you have not seen my previous post, please check it out before reading this one because this idea is just a "sub-idea" to my previous post: http://www.marceloburbano.com/2013/08/zipcar-system-for-individuals.html

The need is similar to my previous post. I am tired of looking for my keys to open my home. Can we put the opening system in my wallet or anything that I am wearing (e.g. my watch)? Given that I only really know about the ZipCar system to open car doors I am going to follow my instinct that the first global/massive way to open home doors would look like a cardkey.

Description

Bla, bla, bla... you know how it is going to look like if you read my previous post. The only piece that is different is the third party installer. In this case I am thinking of two types: the security companies that install the alarms in every developing country (and some developed countries now that inequality is rising) or the companies that offer security doors (those doors that are not your regular "Joe Door" but made of steal and very very difficult to open if you do not have the key).

Potential

Again... bla, bla, bla... if this worked for cars... hmm let me think, is there more homes that cars?... yeap! ok so you see my point on "potential".

ZipCar System for Individuals

Need

Why do we keep using keys to enter cars? Isn´t there a better way? Wait! How long have ZipCar existed? Why haven´t we adopted ZipCar way of opening cars? Imagine having 2,3,4 cards to open the same car. In a family of 3+ this is a constant battle. In countries that have a lot of traffic and laws to limit the cars on the road (e.g. Mexico, Colombia, Chile, etc.), people have the additional problem that need to switch cars every other day, this is a very tedious task when you only have one key for each car.

Description

Get the ZipCar system of opening car doors. Create an "Initiating Kit" that local repair/garage shop can install pretty easily with some instructions. Probably consider signing up some local repair/garage shop at the beginning to guarantee the quality of the installation. 

Potential

Charge for the "Initiating Kit", for extra cards and configuration. I am thinking we can probably charge US$20 per "Initiating Kit" without the installation and US$5 per new keycard. Only in Bogota, Colombia, we have a million cars on the road. Assuming you can expand to 100 cities like Bogota in the world this is a US$2.5B market. At some point, we can make this system pretty competitive and good so we can sell it to car manufacturers directly.

An Armored Car for Developing Countries

Need:

Recently I have been thinking that the solution that we have arrived in cities like Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Bogota, etc., of transforming a normal car into an armored car is suboptimal. First, I am not talking about the armored trucks banks use to move money, nor the hummer-like cars used by the military. I am talking about your usual car used by diplomats around the world.

The need is simple, people with security concerns (e.g. the wealthy or the political class) need an armored car in these type of cities in developing countries. The current supply of armored cars is basic: Take a normal car and put on armor of different caliber.

Description:

Instead of transforming a normal car into an armored car why not design an armored car from scratch? I am sure you can design a better armored car if you start without any restriction and knowing exactly what are the essentials. There are some features of a normal car that are not aligned with the functionality of an armor car (e.g. windows that do not go down). Why be bound by this misalignment? Why not design and create the perfect armor car with the style of a BMW, optimizing for performance and weight.

The same way Miguel Caballero developed bullet proof fashion and created an entire company around high quality/top design bulletproof clothes, there is an opportunity to design and manufacture new armored cars. If this ever happens I think it will come from a country like Mexico, Brazil or Colombia. Or maybe Miguel Caballero reads this post and starts a new line of "products".

Potential:

I am thinking there is two ways of measuring the potential of this market. Lets assume that 0.1% of the population in countries like Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have an armored car. That means around of the 350M people living on those 3 countries you may have 350K people or maybe 100K households. At a price point of US$100K per car the market for armored cars in those 3 countries is US$10B. Assuming a purchasing cycle of 5 years, the market is US$2B a year. 

Another way of thinking about this is that Miguel Caballero can have around US$10M in revenue per year in bulletproof clothes. Lets assume for simplicity that each item has an average price of US$1K that means he is selling 10K items per year. Lets assume that each person buying at his store purchases 2 items. That means he has 5K customers that could purchase an armored car. Again, at US$100K per car that means US$500M a year. 

So my market size is around US$500-$2B a year. Pretty good.

Flash Sales Meet Door-To-Door SalesForce

Need:

In Latin America is very common for someone to travel to the US buy clothes and then sell them back to their friends in their home country. Clothes in the US are cheaper than in Latin America (in general). Sadly if you want to import a bunch of clothes to a Latin American country is not THAT easy. In certain cases there are tariffs but in most cases you find wholesalers that own the right to sell that brand in the country. Because most of this wholesalers sell their brands indirectly to small retailers the markups end up being outrageous compare to the price in the US. Even if the wholesalers have their own retail, those location cost a fortunes to maintain and again the markups needed to make some margin have to be outrageous.

In Latin America, women want to buy clothes that are less expensive from a source that they can trust. That is why they purchase clothes and accessories from their friends that travel to the US and bring stuff back to sell.

Description:

Initially we thought we can just bring a ideeli.com, gilt.com or a ruelala.com to Latin America and that would be enough. Sadly we saw that there were already several players trying to do exactly that in the largest Latin American markets (i.e. Mexico, Brazil and Argentina). Those players (Privalia, BrandsClub, Geelbe) where already fighting for the excess inventory of all the top brands in those countries. As the Groupon-like in this region, they were fighting to death. In this competitive market you want to be different.

Looking at what works in Latin America you cannot avoid looking at the cosmetic industry that has perfected Direct Selling. The Avon, Belcorp, Oriflame, Natura of this world have leveraged our personalities needs and drive to sell their products.

Combining Flash Sale with Direct Selling seems to be a perfect combination for women all over Latin America. Flash Sale provides discounts on top brands and Direct Selling provides trust in the transaction (something that lacks online transaction in Latin America). The idea is simple. Create a platform like ideeli, gilt and ruelala that can be downloaded to a tablet (i.e. offline capabilities). Provide an inexpensive tablet to your direct salesforce. Create a cost structure similar to avon, belcopr, oriflame and natura alikes. Build your company.

Potential:

Difficult to quantify but you can probably make more than Privalia today (EUR$168M).