Innovation Zen

Business Week released a list of the “Best Young Entrepreneurs” in America, and there are some interesting innovations there. As we move forward I think that more and more people will exchange the realms of the corporation for smaller, more flexible entrepreneurial projects.

The improvements on information and communication technologies enable people to literally reach the whole world in a matter of seconds. Today a single person in Bangladesh can develop a new product, outsource manufacturing, market and distribute it all without leaving his room. An internet connection is the only requirement.

Anyway, below you will find some of the business ideas that are on the list:

MetroHorse: the site helps people to find business and personal services like plumbers or taxi. Service providers can post their profile while users can give feedback about them.

PrepMe: an online SAT preparation course. The program uses artificial intelligence to customize the lesson plan, it also adapts automatically to each user’s strengths and weaknesses.

ShopWiki: the site is based on a virtual spider designed to crawl the entire Web seeking out the best price on a product. Unlike traditional search engines and comparison shopping sites, companies can not pay to place higher in the search.

Fitfuel: the company places vending machines packed with a selection of nutrition bars and energy drinks instead of soda and junk food. It was founded in 2002 and now FitFuel is about to launch its own brand of health food targeted at athletes.

You can visit the full list here.