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Dear followers!

Our blog has moved. Now You may keep up with us here - http://www.humanipo.com/blog

See You there!

Yours,

The HumanIPO team

Sink or Swim: HumanIPO favourite!

Just as Michelle and Thrond, HumanIPO supports the idea of cutting the red-tape and hence we are glad to announce that Res Judicata was selected as HumanIPO’s favourite from the plans submitted to Sink or Swim Business Plan Contest. Michelle and Thrond Toftely showed how arbitration and dispute resolution mechanisms may be evolving away from traditional land-based governments in the near future.

Res Judicata by Michelle and Thrond Toftely

The cost of justice throughout the world is simply mind-boggling. By itself and as an example, the State of Minnesota (a mid-sized, mid-western state in the United States with a population of 5.2 million1) spends 303 million (USD) annually on court administration. The courts and justice system at-large obviously need to exist in any society based on the rule of law, but at this point, the administration of justice is a venture held exclusively by Government.
The unique nature of an independent seastead provides an opportunity to change the way the world does Justice for the better. What we are proposing is the outsourcing of court administration –from the smallest mediation matters, to the most complicated civil suits and criminal cases.

Res Judicata will change the way people think of justice:

  • By virtualizing court administration, we can significantly reduce the costs of trial in both time involved and actual dollar amounts to each jurisdiction that signs-on for our services.
  • By creating a uniform method of procedure, the courts could increase the level of fairness within their respective systems. Parties to a matter no longer have to “shop for a jurisdiction” to seek out advantages that certain jurisdictions provide due to accidents of legislation and demographics. Fairness is built into the system.
  • By allowing customization of court rules by the involved parties, we can guarantee full satisfaction in the process (if not in outcome).
  • By allowing the parties to choose the best method to proceed, be it mediation, arbitration, judge trial, or jury trial.
  • By allowing the parties choose the arbiter of justice –the parties to any matter can choose their judge.

Objectives

  1. To provide individuals with a quick, easy and inexpensive way to settle disputes.
  2. To provide a quick and inexpensive method for corporations to administer mediation and arbitration of contracts.
  3. To provide virtual court rooms for both small and large jurisdictions.
  4. To provide mechanisms for individuals, corporations and governments to lower administration costs while improving the quality and results.

Read more and share your ideas with Res Judicata team on HumanIPO - http://www.humanipo.com/startup/res-judicata

Sink or Swim: Second Place Winner

As promised before, we will cover all of the winners of Sink or Swim business plan contest and shortly introduce their ideas. The Second Place Winner of $2000 was Boundless Talent Consulting Services with an idea of how foreign workers could accomplish locating in international waters without having to deal with worker visa restrictions. Our congrats to Theresa for the bright solution to a real problem.

Boundless Talent Consulting Services by Theresa Klein

The high tech industry in the US suffers from a shortage of American born engineers and scientists. Unfortunately, demand for technology workers under programs such as the H1-B visa, greatly exceeds numerical limits. In addition, processing times for work visas often extend from several months to years, depending on the type of visa. This difficulty in obtaining visas for workers causes costly delays which seriously impact the bottom line of American technology firms. This enterprise aims to facilitate the resolution of this problem through a unique solution: the hosting of foreign technology workers on offshore platforms near major technology centers.

We will allow companies to contract with us to hire workers as consultants through our company, working on an offshore platform during the time they await an H1-B or other visa. During this period of time, the proximity of the platform to the workplace will facilitate travel and work coordination. Supervisors can commute out to the platform on a regular basis, while the worker occasionally travels in on temporary three-day business visas. This reduces travel expenses for US based firms, facilitates communication and project management, and allows the employee to begin working immediately.

Read more about Boundless Talent Consulting Services business plan on HumanIPO - http://www.humanipo.com/startup/boundless-talent-consulting-services

Winners of Sink or Swim Business Plan Contest!

HumanIPO team wishes to congratulate all Sink or Swim Business Plan Contest winners for coming up with original ideas and for making an effort and submitting their plans.

Sink or Swim business plan contest was about coming up with an idea that could be implemented on a platform 25 miles off the coast of a large first-world city, such as Miami or Shanghai. Furthermore, the entrants had to assume that the legal and regulatory environment abroad a seastead is tailored toward the efficient functioning and operation of their business.

The winners are:
$5000 Grand Prize – Delishus Fishes by Mike Doty and Travis Cannell
$2000 Second Place Winner – Boundless Talent Consulting Services by Theresa Klein
$1500 HumanIPO favourite – Res Judicata by Michelle and Thrond Toftely
$750 Most Creative – Children of the Sea by Arthur B
$750 Best Seasteading PR – Aquaculture Testbed and Investment by Robert Lee and Team  

It was our pleasure to facilitate the competition on HumanIPO platform and we are happy to see that The Seasteading Institute with its floating cities initiative and liberal thinking is gaining more and more support. Needless to say – we are excited to see the first Poseidon Award hopefully given away to the first seastead by 2015.

In our blog, we will be covering all of the winners of the competition starting with Delishus Fishes who won the Grand Prize of $5000. The other will follow, so check back soon.

Read More

  • January 21, 2011, 6:17pm

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Springwise features HumanIPO

If you’re actively involved in the start-up scene, you have probably heard of Springwise newsletters. What they do is scan the most promising business ventures on a global scale and send out weekly newsletters to more than 150,000 entrepreneurial minds. Seems that one Springspotter checked out HumanIPO and understood exactly what the platform is about!

Read the full article HERE

Support the IPO48 hackers in Nairobi

HumanIPO launched its first 48 hour bootcamp in Nairobi, Kenya this Friday. 18 ideas were selected on the opening night to be developed into working products by Sunday evening. The best team will win 10’000 EUR in investment.

Follow and help the teams during the weekend and if the teams get enough support, you will be able to invest in them after the event.

The ideas are as follows:

M-Farm - Marketplace for Farmers
My $hillings - Deal of the Day concept
Pamoja Shops - Marketplace for Handicraft Products
Sakanya - Service for finding lost ID documents
iSafari - Travel Search and Booking Engine for Kenya
Safari Tales - Tourism Information and Search Portal
Stoundi - Just Ask search for Kenya
Goodtaxi - Virtual Taxi Ordering Service
Pata-Cab - Find a closest Cab (GPS based)
HizoNotes Mobile - Mobile access for Ni
SportRoar - Twitter for Sports Events MapMa3 - Maping Matatu Routes
Xeptus - Virtual market place with integrated business intelligence
Jumla - platform for people to find premier African content
Developing Africa - HumanIPO for NGOs
Xtreem Ad - Self-generated Classifieds for Individuals
Tube Website Creator - Enabling premium content providers charge for their content
Clinical Data Management - Medical Journal Software for Hospitals
MapMa3 - Maping Matatu Routes

Danish Minister for Development Cooperation mentors IPO48 entrepreneurs.

As a warm-up to IPO48 bootcamp weekend that kicks off this Friday, eight Kenyan entrepreneurs got an opportunity to pitch their startup ideas to Danish minister for Development Cooperation, Søren Pind, who himself owns a web developing company. After the event, Søren Pind gave a short interview to local radio 1 FM, pressing the Kenyan entrepreneurs to use all of the opportunities local mobile and web payment options provide.


So far over 35 ideas have been posted to HumanIPO, and these ideas will be competing on Friday evening to attract the 100 developers and business people attending IPO48. The most popular 15-17 ideas will be developed into working products within just 48 hours. During the IPO48 weekend you can log in to HumanIPO and engage the teams as they compete for getting the 10’000 EUR investment from HumanIPO.

From a Garage48 project to a real company?

Garage48 is for many mostly about teamwork, networking and releasing the first version of your product very quickly. But what about the business side? What is your business model? How will you make money? What is your marketing strategy? How do you reach critical mass? Which partnerships can you form? These are some of the most important issues when turning your Garage48 project into a real business.

Turning projects into real businesses is what HumanIPO is all about. Successfully overcoming the hurdle of financing is often not that easy and it should come as no surprise that in 2010, 96% of venture capital money in the U.S. went to people above the age of 26 (67% above 34) - Investors simply want to invest in teams with previous experience i.e. with people they believe can do business.

This is where HumanIPO comes in. We provide you with a place to prove how good you really are at arguing and convincing future investors, customers and staff of the brilliance of your idea, the great business potential that comes with it and last but not least your capability to execute it. On HumanIPO people won’t like your company because it has a cool product; they will like it if they believe it can make money no matter your age or previous experience. As a side effect you promote your capability as a strategist, marketer, project manager, programmer and show how good you are at networking.

To assist you during this Garage48 event, HumanIPO has assembled an international group of advisers with a variety of backgrounds, including successful exits. You and your team will get the chance to demonstrate to them and the crowd on HumanIPO that your business is worth investing in. We are sure that you will learn something during the process.

Based on the business accomplishments on HumanIPO during the weekend, the advisory group will pick out the 3 top teams and write about their achievements in the Delfi business section.

Ultimately it will be your ability to think, develop, make decisions and then execute those decisions as a business-minded person, that will decide if you have what the investors are looking for. You can show them that with full transparency on HumanIPO.

The HumanIPO Team

New version of HumanIPO released!

We have now released a new version of HumanIPO. Beside major design changes we are introducing the following key features:

Business plan wall

All conversations, posting of information, links, files etc, are now done on the business plan wall.

Groups

If you don’t feel like sharing sensitive information with all of your business plan followers, you can now create different groups under participants and post information to the wall, targeting only that specific group.

Partner Page

If you are looking to promote a product to entrepreneurs or professionals on HumanIPO, you can get a partner page.

Further more, partner page also has the functionality which allows you to create investment or angel groups and collaborate with group members.

For more information on sponsorships contact: sponsorship@humanipo.com

Read more about what HumanIPO can do for you as an entrepreneur from our Entrepreneur’s Guide.

The HumanIPO team

Win up to $2500 with a crazy business idea!

We invite entrepreneurs who can think outside the box to explore the business options seasteading can offer. For the purposes of this contest, entrants will assume that their business will exist on a platform 25 miles off the coast of a large first-world city, such as Miami or Shanghai. Furthermore, assume the legal and regulatory environment is exactly what is necessary for you to do business as efficiently as possible.

You can submit your draft until Oct 8th, 2010 by creating an account on HumanIPO platform. Make sure to choose “Seasteading” as industry type when creating your plan. The first place winner will be awarded $2,500, and further $2,500 will be awarded among winners in the other prize categories. For additional information check here.

Good luck!

“What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve”
~Napoleon Hill