Wanna Go To Chotchkies, Get Some Coffee?
/ 14.Jan.2008
There's a Web 2.0-related startup out there that has a novel business model: selling things. Note, I said web 2.0-related not web 2.0. I'm talking about Startup Schwag, a company who, if you were so interested, would sell you a $14.95/mo subscription to a service where you will receive t-shirts, stickers, and chotchkies with some Web 2.0 startup's logo on it once a month.
They want about 5 bucks for shipping, too. $20 for a t-shirt has become the norm on the internet, so it's really not my place to bitch. Yeah, I'm sure as hell not going to pay for this overpriced shit, but I salute them for figuring out how to make money off of Web 2.0.
Hey, Isn't That The Girl Who Works Over At Chotchkies?
If you are a startup, you would contact these guys, and they will print t-shirts to your specs if they think the shirt will be a hit. Licensing fees? No, you see, the internet doesn't run on money anymore. It runs on love. Plus, twenty-something startup founders in San Francisco don't know about licensing fees: we're the Napster generation, remember?
It's not like companies are paying graphic designers to make up whole corporate identities; they're making the logo in an afternoon with a pirated copy of Photoshop. Tell me I'm wrong, I dare you.
So what do you get out of letting these guys sell t-shirts with your logo on them? Well, when they print stickers and sell them to subscribers, you will get the extra stickers. Figure if these guys have 400 subscribers, that's $5,980 in revenue per month. Printing a reasonably sized 2-color sticker will run around $100 for 500 stickers. 100 of those stickers go to the startup, and those cost you $20 to make, which is .33% of your revenue. Score.
They Come To Chotchkies For The Atmosphere And The Attitude
Just as hosting conferences is the only way to make money from Facebook applications, this seems to be the only way to make money from web 2.0. As much as I bust balls here, I salute these guys for figuring out how to ride the wave to potential profit with a legitimate business model, all the while taking advantage of startups that don't know any better.
Ten points for Gryffindor.
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