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The Votes Are In

The four young entrepreneurs you profiled are inspiring ["How to Launch a Cool, Profitable, Kick-Ass Start-Up," July]. I also liked reading what veterans such as Gordon Segal of Crate and Barrel and Paul Orfalea of Kinko's had to say about the entrepreneurs' business models. In the article, you asked which start-up has the most potential. My answer is TechShop. I've been there and can vouch for how fun the place is and how helpful its employees are.

Heather diMarco
Prescott, Arizona

My vote goes to TechShop, with the concern that founder Jim Newton is exposed to a great deal of liability due to the nature of the machinery he is making available. His gym-type membership model is a good idea.

Here are my thoughts about the other start-ups: Gauri Nanda is smart to keep the overhead low but I'm concerned that she is really a product innovator rather than an entrepreneur. Ventana Health is a single-product company that faces a huge uphill battle to build a brand identity and market demand. On the other hand, maybe founder Tim Avila can partner with a health food marketing group and ride the existing market momentum. I shared the same concerns Tim Gill of Quark had about Hayden Hamilton's GreenPrint. It takes too long for consumers to realize savings on the upfront investment, and most folks probably aren't too concerned about wasting a page or so when they print.

William R. Osgood
President
Knowledge Institute
Exeter, New Hampshire

Did Tim Gill even read the description of GreenPrint? The software's buy-me-now quality was savings on ink, not paper. The savings on paper is an added bonus. Plus, today's corporations need products like GreenPrint software. The new generation of employees being hired out of colleges and M.B.A. programs want to know what the company is doing to save the environment. I have been test-driving the software on my personal computer, and I love it.

Andrew Blocksidge
CEO
Inavata
San Diego

Tim Gill of Quark did not give the full consideration to GreenPrint that he should have. He failed to recognize the full scope of social, economic, and environmental factors that will play a role in the adoption of this software.

He also ignored a huge potential market: students. As a university student, I printed more than 5,000 sheets of paper a year from my home computer. I would have bought GreenPrint purely because it is environmentally responsible. Not all students are concerned with the state of our landfills or forests, but it is cool enough to be socially responsible that I think many students will buy in. Most have printers in their dorm rooms, and given the amount of time students spend on the computer, installing a piece of software wouldn't be a matter of concern.

Andrea Kalish
Riverdale, New York

Nanda Home wins my vote. Gauri Nanda's alarm clock is an easy sell to every mother who has a hard time waking up her teenager and every person who fears being late to work. Clocky was a hit because consumers wanted it, not because Wal-Mart and Target wanted it. Gauri needs to keep this in mind when creating the rest of her brand. Those retailers care about cheap prices, not about creating better living. It's more important for me to wake up on time everyday than to save money on my alarm clock.

Matthew Beltrano
Hamilton, Ontario

I love Ventana Health's Zsweet sweetener. It doesn't have a chemical aftertaste. Baking with it is wonderful.

Dina Anderson
Sales associate
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
Murrieta, California

TechShop seems like a good idea. I'm developing a product, and it would be great to have those types of tools at my disposal. TechShop's success will really depend on being in areas populated with innovative people who need equipment.

Rob Ianelli
Fishkill, New York

As an angel investor, I think GreenPrint is by far the most promising venture of the group. Hayden Hamilton has a business model that saves ink costs dramatically and a software platform that is scalable. And I love that he has raised only $200,000 to get it off the ground.

Good luck to all of the entrepreneurs!

Andrew Farquharson
Managing director
InCube Ventures
Menlo Park, California

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