📖 Road Trip Optimizer (Idea Feature #13)

🧠 Top of Mind Technology

• Tony Stark esque holograms may still be years away, but some of the new holographic technology being developed is incredible. Check out this next-gen hologram machine in a box from a company called Holoconnects, along with a demo of the box in action here.  

• Computer chips are generally made out of silicon, due to the material’s semiconductor properties which allow it to be altered to serve as either a conductor or insulator of electricity. As we design more powerful technologies, there will be a greater need to make chips smaller to give us more power per cubed inch. Pushing towards this, scientists at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab are working towards developing chips that are only a few atoms thick.

• The worldwide buzz of AI continues, and one of the leaders in the industry, OpenAI, made another announcement last week, revealing a new fiver-tiered system that ranks the development progress as we approach artificial general intelligence (AGI), which essentially is the ultimate level of AI where the AI system can, “perform novel tasks like a human without specialized training.”

🍪 Business Bites

• ChatGPT is coming for Google, but the company is making a conceited effort to diversify away from search. In an effort that doubles as a value add to cloud computing platform, the company is looking to acquire Cybersecurity startup Wiz for a reported $23 billion.

• Congrats to the Spanish national soccer team for their 2024 Euro cup win over England (It’s never coming home). One of the stars of the Spanish national team, the now 17-year-old Lamine Yamal, became the youngest goal scorer in Euro tournament history. The FC Barcelona star also has the most expensive release clause in history, which is set at north of $1 billion.

• The competition for trying to get an intern and/or job in the finance industry is insane, which is leading some undergraduate students to take drastic measures to boost their resume by sitting for at least one of the three CFA exams to obtain one of the industry’s toughest certifications.  

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Idea Journal Feature: A Road Trip Optimizer

⚾The Elevator Pitch

A traveler-oriented road trip optimizing app that helps road trippers hit all the stops they want to see as efficiently as possible.

 💡The Idea

Route optimization isn’t anything new, just ask the next delivery driver you see. Software options are abundant in the commercial market, as shipping companies such as UPS and FedEx provide their drivers with the best tools to complete deliveries in the shortest time possible.

But commercial drivers are not the only people that could use a route optimizer. Road tripping has exploded in popularity since the pandemic, and peaked when it became the most popular form of summer travel in 2022. For some, a road trip means just getting from point A to point B in the shortest amount of time possible. Google Maps, Waze, and Apple Maps can all help you do that. But what about for the road trippers who want to get from point A to point B, but also want to make 30 stops along the way?

We believe there is an opportunity to leverage existing technology in the delivery industry to optimize routes for road trippers to hit all the spots they want to see in the most efficient manner.

The idea could best be served in the form of an application. Other potential features include:

• Recommendations for other sights to see along your optimized route.

• Recommended restaurants and places to stay along the route.

• With the explosion of EVs – maybe a feature that helps road trippers plan out their EV travel (i.e. where to charge).

• Partner with influencers to create routes and allow others to copy them.

A few other things. First, this isn’t some novel technology with the potential for IP protection, which is why we are featuring it. We also think this idea brings up an important topic: some business ideas that serve the commercial world could work great as consumer products, and vice versa. We believe this is an under-utilized business strategy. Lastly, there are existing road tripping support apps out there already such as Roadtrippers, but the route optimization is not a key component of their technology.

👷The Work

The largest lift here will be building the technology. This is an app that would most likely involve a substantial investment. It would also be key to have details on key sights and landmarks to help inform potential road trippers about what they will be stopping for, so they can determine whether or not it would be worth it.

Once the app has been built, testing it with travel influencers and various types of road trippers (i.e couples, families, college kids) could prove beneficial to finding that initial target audience.

💸Revenue

The best comparison for revenue would probably be an app like Waze. Potential revenue streams are noted below:

• Selling data – The app would have to use user location data, and that data could be sold to advertisers. Selling data is a practice frowned upon by many, though, so you would need to be careful.

• Ads – Discrete ads on the website are a revenue stream for many apps .

• Premium Service – Perhaps beyond a certain number of stops on a road trip, you charge a flat fee to use the optimizer, or you charge a fee to users who want additional details/recommendations for certain locations and sights.  

• Affiliate Marketing/Sponsored Locations – Hotels, Restaurants, and even specific sights under the control of a business could be willing to pay money to have their location shown at the top of the recommendation list (this could also be problematic – you would no longer be unbiased).

🔻Expenses

• Technology – You’ll need location data and information for the entire USA, and the number of back end calls for a navigation app are likely substantial.

• Marketing – Can you make people use your app over something like Roadtrippers or just Apple Maps/Waze?

👍The Good Stuff

• Solid Niche – As we explained before, road trips are only becoming more popular, as is the travel influencer market, causing people to want to travel around the country.

• Organization – Even if the app isn’t used for navigation, it can at least help users better understand if all of the stops on their trip are worth making, or where they should stay/eat based on the most optimized route.

👎The Risks

• Competition – This feels like a feature that could be added to existing navigation apps.

• Initial Investment/Work – This also feels like an idea that will require a large team/investment to get off the ground.

🤔 Musing of the Week

Is a penny saved the same as a penny earned?

To us, most of the business content on the internet and social media seems to be directed at solving one issue: How can I or my business make more money?

The abundance of content comes from the fact that there are, in fact, thousands of ways to make more money. But for some reason, we always think about trying to make, for instance, an extra $100/week, but never about saving $100/week, though we’ve all heard the old adeage, “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

A quick Google Trends comparison shows the interest in making money is almost 10x the interest in saving money.

But why is that? For starters, the upside on one is limited, while the other is infinite. You can only save as much money as you make, but you can always make more money. Additionally, lifestyle creep is a real thing. Saving money requires taking something away that you usually enjoy, while making more money affords you the opportunity to enjoy even more.

Yet for the average American, we would propose an initial shift in thought when trying to make that extra buck. If your additional income goal is small, say less than $1000 a month, try to save that much per month at first before looking to additional income opportunities.

Ok that is all great, but we still haven’t answered the question: Is a penny saved the same as a penny earned? To us, the answer is yes, but only to a certain extent. You can only save up to the amount that stills allow you to meet your basic needs with 0 discretionary spending. Saving beyond that would be potentially very harmful, and even before that point, 0 discretionary spending would probably not lend to the most comfortable or enjoyable lifestyle.

📚For the Road

• A Dollar Saved isn’t the Same as a Dollar Earned — and a Dollar Saved and Invested is Worth Substantially More

• Best Money Saving Apps Of July 2024 – Forbes Advisor