I am working on some BT sensor-like hardware with applications tied to a smartphone.
One thing about Bluetooth is that to get useful data sent back and forth you have to be paired and connected with the device.
Essentially this means if you are talking to a bunch of different devices around a mall, all of the devices and also the mobile phone are going to have to be in constant Discovery mode to find/pair/connect with the new devices as you walk around.
This is a more significant battery drain than just the 20/40mA of a regular connection for the devices and constant discovery on the phone is definitely super battery intensive.
There may be ways around this, though, if you know the MAC address and/or are already paired with all of the devices you are attempting to connect to.
Pricing of just the BT modules themselves (CSR, etc.) is currently somewhere in the $7-10 range in quantity (10k), and that doesn't include the battery (Li ~ $3), and other PCB expenses.
Bluetooth Low Energy with auto-pairing, however, is going to make this process alot easier and cheaper, but we're probably 2+ years before its integrated into most smartphones.
Selling to restaurants themselves is going to be your biggest hurdle.
I have a friend that has been doing a startup very similar to #1 (with a nice online menu, as well, though not quite #2).
The biggest hurdle seems to be the sales process to get in to each and every restaurant. Many restaurants owners already do advertising/gift certificates in all the standard magazines, Entertainment Book, etc.
Over time, he has accumulated a great list of restaurants in his hometown, but it has taken a great deal of time (i.e. multiple years) and pounding the pavement to get to that point.
And after all of the sales process, I'm not sure about his take, but how many gift certificates does a specific restaurant have to sell to make the sales process profitable? I don't think you get quite the mass numbers of something like Groupon.
On the positive side, he has eaten very well over the past few years !
Having a PM who is just a PM may not be very valuable with two or three guys, but a technical guy not focused on pure coding can be definitely helpful once you get bigger than that.
Once the company has a bit of traction, especially, there is a need for someone to take on alot of the technical "buffer" roles. Things such as customer support, documentation, budgeting/scheduling, vendor relationships, and other tech-related tasks that the bus dev guys can't really do well.
These are all things that your coders could deal with, sure, but eliminating the distractions can definitely make your team more efficient.
I would be stoked to attend this event, but I think that Startup Weekend may be scheduling an event in Vancouver at Bootup Labs that same weekend. http://vancouver.startupweekend.org
(It doesn't seem like they are marketing it very well, though. I only noticed because I had attended a Startup Weekend elsewhere, and have been following to see when it was coming to Vancouver)
Definitely keen on this type of event, and happy that the price is lower for this Hackathon than for the startupweekend.org event, but I've been waiting all summer for this type of event to come to Vancouver. And now we have two of them overlapping on the same weekend?
Left school with about 20K in loans.
Paid them all off in 4 years or so - working as an Engineer in SoCal.
First priority was the 8% loans (about 12K). Paid them in about 3 years.
Had some lower interest 5% loans from the school which I paid off more slowly.
Had a 0% ($1000) loan from the school's emergency loan fund (can't pay rent emerg fund the school had, etc.). I thought of holding off on those, but in the end just paid them off in full when the other stuff was paid off, too.
The government frowns on it (ala big Microsoft lawsuit a few years ago) but it is still very common.
I've worked for alot of companies that have been able to quickly and easily ramp up a big project by bringing in
contractors and treating them similar to employees. 9 to 5-ish type hours, though with much more flexibility
to set schedules, work at home, take random days off, etc. But in a way its a win-win, because the freelance
contractor gets 40-60+ hours of work at a 2x+ hourly rate, and the company can let them go when the project ultimately
is finished or gets cancelled.
If the cash keeps flowing, these captive contractors often stay around for multiple projects, so the company doesn't
even lose the IP.
One thing about Bluetooth is that to get useful data sent back and forth you have to be paired and connected with the device. Essentially this means if you are talking to a bunch of different devices around a mall, all of the devices and also the mobile phone are going to have to be in constant Discovery mode to find/pair/connect with the new devices as you walk around. This is a more significant battery drain than just the 20/40mA of a regular connection for the devices and constant discovery on the phone is definitely super battery intensive. There may be ways around this, though, if you know the MAC address and/or are already paired with all of the devices you are attempting to connect to.
Pricing of just the BT modules themselves (CSR, etc.) is currently somewhere in the $7-10 range in quantity (10k), and that doesn't include the battery (Li ~ $3), and other PCB expenses.
Bluetooth Low Energy with auto-pairing, however, is going to make this process alot easier and cheaper, but we're probably 2+ years before its integrated into most smartphones.