6 Businesses That Need to Be Launched Right Now We asked entrepreneurs the one idea they wish someone would create to help their company.
This story appears in the March 2018 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
Entrepreneurs always need more -- more help, more time, more insight. So we asked: What's the one product you wish someone would create to help your business? Now maybe someone (you?) will make it.
1. Email 911
"Spending too much time on your email is toxic, but we all do it. The joke is that "achieved inbox zero' could be carved on someone's tombstone, and it hits a little close to home. Rather than trying to banish email, though, or hoping to replace it with some other tool, I wish someone would simply build a smarter inbox -- one that ingests emails and the important stuff in them, organizes conversations and marries them to projects, chats, files, to-dos and events in an intelligent way."
-- Greg Cohn, co-founder and CEO, Burner
Related: 12 Founders Reveal Their Favorite Tool to Keep Them Organized
2. Do-good database
"I would love to see someone create a thorough database and rating system for social-good products. Ideally, this would be searchable through the scanning of bar codes on products. Many have attempted versions of this but have fallen short of market adoption. This would help those brands in the social-good space gain more visibility."
-- Kohl Crecelius, co-founder and CEO, Known Supply
3. Assistant upgrade
"I'm going to call it "Siri for business.' Imagine if there were an app that would let you ask for business advice 24 hours a day, for free. We have access to countless resources but constantly have to navigate several outlets of information. Having a digital mentor at your fingertips to evaluate multiple situations and consolidate everything into one perfect answer would be a dream. You could ask anything, from scaling advice to HR recommendations and beyond. This could definitely alleviate some sleepless nights."
-- Lana Hansen, COO, Ban.do
Related: 4 Secrets to a Successful Product Launch
4. Product predictor
"I'd pay handsomely for a product marketing TARDIS: a time machine that would allow us to zip forward in time to see if a newly conceived product will be successful or a flop, and the lessons learned in getting there. Then we could streamline our go-to-market strategies. But then again, the trials and tribulations of product development are part of the fun and challenge, right?"
-- Suzanne Miglucci, CEO and president, Charles & Colvard
5. Happiness tracker
"Are people happy? Satisfied with their work? Overwhelmed? Stressed? As leaders, we "manage by walking around,' launch surveys, and look to our HR team for some measure of employee morale, but I wish we had a better sense of spirits in real time. The Smart Empathy App, as I'd call it, would give an instant read on how people are feeling. The ultimate goal would be for us to make quicker, smarter, more empathetic decisions that considered employee happiness as a real business metric. If we detected a problem, we would be able to respond more quickly."
-- Harry West, CEO, Frog
Related: 25 Habits of Successful and Extremely Happy People
6. Social groups
"As an online furniture brand, we need to reach potential clients in a targeted way. Facebook and Instagram are so large now, the social media message-delivery system is inundated with content. I want to inspire people visually, in an industry-focused way. On Instagram, you can follow a hashtag like #interiordesign, but people can post anything whether it's related or not. We need a new social platform with image recognition technology to group content in a meaningful way."
-- Christiane Lemieux, founder and CEO, The Inside
