Category: Ideas

Everyone is always looking for a place to eat. Well what if you started a business that catered to this need without the catering?

This idea would work really well in small cities like Austin or Portland but it could work in NYC or LA too. Really it could work worldwide.
Create a space that looks like a cooler version of a cafeteria with spaces off to the sides where small groups can gather. Places for single folks too.

This is a space where you go to get away from work for a while if you are someone who prefers to make your own food but don’t want to eat at your desk. Or maybe you work at home and just want a change of scenery.

Food Trucks would line up around the block of a place like this.

As work gets more mobile a space like this would serve many different kinds of people. You could still have charging stations for all of your screens but I don’t think of this as a common workspace or a coffeeshop without coffee. It is a place to congregate. A place to eat.

Maybe there would be a nap/hammock room where you could take a quick nap and recharge before heading back out into the world.

I think you could sell memberships like a gym. A monthly access fee would cover the cost of upkeep and pay for a few people to keep the place clean but it should feel like a community. People will want to take care of the space.

Maybe just call it: A Place To Eat.

apteat.com is available if you want to get this thing started.

What comes next? Doughnuts. When I was in high school in Virginia we would sell Krispy Kreme doughnuts as a fundraiser for the band and we had a great time doing it. So I was thinking about this and my ten year old son who always wants a way to earn extra money and The Doughnut Wagon was born. I told my wife about it and let it go and then I saw this the other day.

As much as this ad would like you to believe that Special K would win out. I doubt it. We all know there are better things for us than doughnuts, but they are a treat on a Saturday morning. Well what if there was a website that connected local doughnut shops with their customers. A small city could be sectioned off in the same way paper routes used to be. Each neighborhood would have a child who went door to door and told everyone about the service and they could collect and create an email list that would be contacted each week say on Thursday to see if they want fresh hot doughnuts that week. They could go to the site and place and pay for their order and then a driver would pick up the goodies and meetup with each child with a wagon at a certain time and they would deliver the doughnuts door to door.

The perks for the children are eating the leftovers now and then and a small base salary plus tips. And of course some fresh air and the joy of getting to know their neighborhood. The business gets customers who would otherwise choose to stay in bed and have cereal rather than come to them and everyone wins.

I know if I could go on a website right now and place an order for a quick and fun breakfast as a treat for my family on Saturday morning I would be a weekly customer.

doughnutwagon.com is available as of now. Put me down for a dozen.