Finding articles on successful small business startups

Small Business

Mr. A. Peterson

From: R. Tyler

Starting a Small Business

Mr. Peterson,

My friends and I have considered several small business ideas and did some research to help us make a decision. Ultimately, there have been two articles that caught our attention. The first of these is the article "This App Developer Turned A Ford Van Into A Fantastic Mobile Office Space" by Tweedie (2014). The second is "This Tiny Tech Startup Has Figured Out How To Turn Twitter's Trove of Free Data Into a Goldmine" by Edwards (2015).

Description

The article by Tweedie concerns entrepreneur David McKinney, who transformed a van into an office for his app development business. The one by Edwards focuses on a startup company known as Twizoo that uses information from Twitter help users find the best restaurants, night clubs, etc. In their vicinity. I am most interested in the latter business idea.

Discussion

The reason why Twizoo sparks greater interest in me is the fact that it makes use of data from Twitter. Twitter has skyrocketed over the course of its existence, with millions of users all over the world. Using it as the basis of a business model appears to be a wise course of action in the long-term.

The company started in February 2014, with the app launched in July 2014. It works by tapping into the Twitter's API and sifting through the data coming in from the 281 million active users on a monthly basis. It analyzes positive and negative tweets, along with the geography of the venues involved. When the app is opened, it offers information about the location of the venues of interest, along with whether reviews about them were mostly positive or negative.

Outcomes