YOUR WEEKLY FIX OF ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS We’ve selected 15 new business ideas this week that will provide entrepreneurs with plenty of inspiration. Spotted from countries all around the world, these ideas offer a taste of what’s to come.

2. YOUR WEEKLY FIX OF ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS
13-19 March 2014

3. Top 10 business ideas & opportunities for 2014
We’ve selected 15 new business ideas that will provide
entrepreneurs with plenty of inspiration. Spotted from
countries all around the world, these ideas offer a taste of
what’s to come.
YOUR WEEKLY FIX OF ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS
13-19 March 2014

4. 3D printing has has already set alight a
huge community of entrepreneurs who
have used the technology to create print-
on-demand medical supplies and even
food, and the technology is constantly
improving, whether its the printing process
itself or the material that can be used. A
new kind of elastic filament called Filaflex
is enabling more complex designs such as
the Sneakerbot II 3D-printed shoes.
Read more about Sneakerbot II »
1. Flexible filament makes 3D-printed sneakers a possibility

5. Consumers’ entertainment libraries are no
longer stacks of vinyl, shelves of books or
even collections of DVDs, as more
content becomes streamed through the
web. While we’ve seen creators embrace
digital — British band Metronomy recently
released a single only to fans pointing
their smartphones at the star sign
Aquarius, for example — others still
yearn for the physical aspect of the music,
film and books that define them. Enter
Qleek, a system of crafted wooden blocks
that play digital content when placed onto
a special reader.
Read more about Qleek »
2. Smart wooden blocks add a physical element to digital interactions

6. Even though the lightbulb was invented in
the 19th century, a combination of poverty
and lack of electricity infrastructure means
that two billion people still live in complete
darkness when night falls. Many rely on
non-renewable and dangerous paraffin
fuel to light their communities, which is
why we’ve seen a number of initiatives
that hope to bring sustainable and safer
options to developing nations, even
including lamps powered by gravity. Our
latest spotting is The Lightie, a system
that uses an empty bottle and a solar
filament to provide cheap light in the
places that need it most.
Read more about The Lightie »
3. This Coke bottle lightbulb could help illuminate Africa

7. When it comes to giving money to
members of a city’s homeless community,
many people worry that their change isn’t
going to fund essentials such as food or
shelter. While startups such as TaskTurtle
have already attempted to tackle the
problem by offering sustenance in
exchange for work, San Francisco’s
HandUp is now using business cards to
let citizens donate food credits to people
in need through their mobiles.
Read more about HandUp »
4. ‘Business cards’ for homeless people let anyone donate with
their phone

8. This is part of a series of articles that looks at
entrepreneurs hoping to get their ideas off the
ground through crowdfunding. At the time of writing,
each of these innovations is currently seeking
funding.
Not everyone enjoys having bees in their
back garden, but the insects’ pollination is
vital to the global ecosystem and there
has been a dramatic decrease in their
number past few decades. Companies
such as Bee Landing have in the past
created handcrafted hives to encourage
more homeowners to help the creatures
thrive. Now the Open Source Beehives
project, currently seeking funding on
Indiegogo, has developed a downloadable
and printable beehive that can be
equipped with smart tech to help
crowdsource data about the insects living
inside. Read more about Beehives
»
5. This printable smart hive could save bees from dying out

9. Nowadays, there is a plethora of
information out there to help consumers
make the right choices before buying, but
it’s not always easy for them to access. In
the past, we’ve seen platforms such as
Buycott help users learn which brands
share their values, and now a similar app
called Think Dirty is aiming to show
consumers whether the cosmetic products
they use could be harmful to their health.
Read more about Think Dirty »
6. App lets consumers find out if their cosmetics contain toxic
chemicals

10. Regular readers of Springwise may
remember the BioAid, a system
developed by the UK’s University of Essex
that turns an iPhone into a makeshift
hearing aid. Now Danish tech company
ReSound has launched its ReSound
LiNX, a high-end hearing aid that has
been developed to be 100% compatible
with Apple devices, offering a number of
extra functionalities.
Read more about ReSound LiNX »
7. Made-for-iPhone hearing aid offers smart extras

11. Anyone who’s ever ordered clothes online
knows that getting an item that fits is by all
means hit and miss. Brands such as
Stantt and Threadmason have in recent
times introduced up to 50 different size
options to cater for the varying shapes of
the human body, and now Fitbay is an
online fashion discovery service that
promises to only show users items that fit
their body.
Read more about Fitbay »
8. Personalized fashion store hides clothes that won’t fit

12. Searching for a holiday can often involve
endless checking of multiple websites to
find the best deals, as well as a mass of
research to discover the best places to
go. Even then it’s not guaranteed that
travelers will end up catching the lowest
prices or picking a location that truly
matches their interests. Aiming to make
holiday booking a less painful experience,
Hitlist is a social app that offers up
destination ideas based on users’
interests, as well the optimal time to go
according to flight fares.
Read more about Hitlist »
9. This app will decide where users go on holiday

13. Baby monitors have been around in some
form or other since the early 20th century,
and are now becoming smarter than ever
thanks to new tech — take the Owlet,
which monitors the baby’s breathing and
heart rate, for example. However, for
those who can’t afford the latest devices,
Dormi is an Android app that enables
anyone to turn an old smartphone into
baby monitor, delivering notifications
straight to parents’ working mobiles.
Read more about Dormi »
10. Platform turns an old Android device into a baby monitor

14. The offline world is gradually becoming
connected with the web, and we’ve
already seen apps such as Grafetee let
users ‘bookmark’ physical locations.
Created by Flickr co-founder Caterina
Fake, Findery now helps to link stories
with real-world locations through
geotagged ‘notes’ that can be left for
online explorers to discover.
Read more about Findery »
11. App tags physical places with personal stories

15. Consumers’ exercise regimes have been
forever changed by fitness trackers such
as Fitbit and Nike+ products, but these
small devices don’t tell the whole story of
what’s going on in different parts of the
body during a workout. Now available for
pre-order, Athos is a workout kit with
embedded sensors that offer detailed and
precise data about muscle growth and
technique.
Read more about Athos »
12. These water bottles can be mailed to a recycling plant for free

16. We don’t typically think of concrete slabs
as anything but dumb pieces of rock, but
in the past we’ve seen innovators
integrate technology into sidewalks to help
them offer up energy and even wifi to
pedestrians. Now Germany’s Future-
Shape has developed SensFloor, a
textile for use indoors that senses the
activity that’s happening on top of it.
Read more about Epic! »
13. Sensor-equipped flooring can tell if someone’s fallen

17. The creativity of businesses using vending
machines to sell their products seems to
know no bounds, and in the past we’ve
seen even prescription drugs delivered
through InstyMeds‘ 24/7 hospital kiosks.
Going somewhat further, a nonprofit has
now installed crack pipe vending
machines in Vancouver, in order to curb
the spread of HIV and AIDS among the
city’s addicts.
Read more about the crack pipe
vending machines »
14. 25¢ crack pipe vending machines aim to lower HIV rates in
Canada

18. Public transport journeys can be a pain for
customers when they forget to bring a
book or some music to pass the time.
We’ve already seen Spain’s National
Reading Plan enable train users to get
the first chapter of books on their
smartphones through QR code posters,
and now First Aberdeen in Scotland is
getting passengers to scan the backs of
its seats to receive information and
entertainment on their mobile devices.
Read more about First Aberdeen »
15. Bus company brings seats to life with AR

19. What is Springwise?
Springwise scans the globe for the most promising, unique and innovative business
ventures, ideas and concepts that are ready for regional or international adaptation,
expansion, partnering, investments or cooperation.
Springwise headquarters is in close contact with more than 17,000 Springspotters in over
150 countries worldwide, who provide us with details of the latest innovations in their
countries. These are compiled and assessed by our editorial team, and the best examples
are published to provide entrepreneurial inspiration to our readers around the world!
Springwise publishes a Daily and a Weekly newsletter, to which you can subscribe
for free, they are sent to more than 170,000 people.
Established in 2002, Springwise is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.
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