This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: Off & Away
Quick Pitch: Members bid in auctions on stays in hotel suites for up 99% off retail rates.
Genius Idea: How many five-star hotels have you stayed at? Of those, how many of those stays have been in the resort’s most prestigious suite? And how many of those stays have been for two nights or more? If your answer is greater than zero, then this post isn’t for you, money bags. The rest of us of, though, might want to try our hand at the innovative auction site Off & Away.
Off & Away promises unheard of discounts on luxury suites (up to 99% off retail prices) at top resorts in the U.S. and Mexico. These aren’t the economy rooms you can find on other travel sites. There is one giant catch — one that applies to all auction sites, including eBay, the granddaddy of them all: You must be the highest bidder when the auction ends in order to seal the deal.
Off & Away auctions start off cheap to begin with. Each new bid raises the auction price by $0.10, and each auction runs for a limited period of time. Once the time runs out, the highest bidder wins the auction. The process sounds simple enough, but Off & Away throws a few curve balls into the typical online auction format, making the auction experience a quirky ride that will likely get your blood pumping.
First, you’ll need to buy bids if you want to participate in auctions. Each bid costs $1.00, and you can buy as many or as few as you want. You can then use these bids during actions, but you’ll want to keep in mind that each bid is essentially costing you a buck.
Off & Away gets especially interesting when a hotel deal is just seconds away from going to the highest bidder; this is when the hidden bidders come out to play. Once the auction reaches the final two minutes, each new bid resets the countdown clock to 20 seconds and raises the auction price by $0.10.
Let’s say a resort stay is ready to go to the highest bidder for $49.50 with just seconds left on the clock. A lurking user could pop in with one second remaining, submit a bid, reset the clock to 20 seconds and raise the price to $49.60. Bidding continues until the rest of the bidders give up and allow the auction clock to run down to zero.
To say the formula is a catalyst for frenzied competition between stubborn bidders holding out for the best deal till the very end is a huge understatement. In my own experiences, the bidding competition that happens in the last few seconds can extend an auction for hours — it’s an exciting, adrenaline-enthused experience that often results in disappointment. Most of these hotel deals are so remarkable that your desire to win will outweigh the potential risk of defeat.
The good news is that your used bids don’t completely go to waste. Each used bid can be applied towards $1.10 off another room at the resort in question. You’re obviously not getting the suite experience with these standard room offers, but it’s still a decent consolation prize.
But Can You Really Win?
I’ve tried my hand at a few auctions to no avail. Just the possibility of a win is enticing enough to lure me in and compel me to use my prepaid bids, but I’ve yet to reach the finish line. I’ll keep trying though, and that’s in no small part due to the genius formula cooked up by CEO Doug Aley and team.
Aley assures me that eventually I will win — and that you will too. Earlier today he penned a blog post with tips on how to win. He recommends picking auctions that are less competitive and strategizing ahead of time about how and when to bid. Of course, he also recommends stocking up on bids, but that’s a no-brainer strategy that also works to the startup’s advantage.
Off & Away’s continued success will be dependent on helping more users win. After all, who wants to spend money to buy bids that essentially just go wasted?
Risk Versus Reward for Hotels
The quality of hotel stays offered through Off & Away is impressive to say the least — these hotels are the hotels we only dream about staying at. With the price of sale totally dependent on site users, we questioned Aley about the risk-reward potential for hotels who use the service.
“We have special deals worked out with our hotel partners that ensure that they don’t field any of the risk. Beyond that, our hotel partners and customers know that just because an auction goes for an incredibly inexpensive price doesn’t mean there weren’t a lot of people lurking that were interested in the room. Many times, we have a group of people that are just ’saving their bullets’ for what they think is the end of the auction, only to see their chance to bid slip away,” explains Aley.
Off & Away is a Seattle-based startup that’s raised $1.35 million from Madrona Venture Group and additional private investors. The site’s pedigree includes a staff of travel veterans from Amazon and Orbitz. As the startup evolves, look for it reduce total auction length and introduce better ways for members to apply bids used on lost auctions for better deals.
Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
For more Tech coverage:
Glenn Beck's original "I Have a Scheme" (per "The Daily Show:) idea for his Washington rally that he announced in late 2009 was clearly one that was highly focused on a goal of....making boatloads of money for Glenn Beck. The concept, Beck told a large crowd in the Fox-happy retirement community of The Villages, Fla., was that he would consult a bunch of experts and develop a "100-year plan for America." Then, after luring a huge audience in person and on TV to watch him at the Lincoln Memorial on what he claims he then didn't know was the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, he would roll out new product, a book called "The Plan" that would surely be the Beckian best-seller to end all Beckian best-sellers.
That didn't happen. Weeks later, the king of all right-wing media pulled a complete 180 (hardly the first time). The rally would still be on the same day and the same place, but everything else would be completely different. The event would be completely non-political, not about policy prescriptions but "Restoring Honor," with a goal of raising money not for a Beck book but for a four-star charity called the Special Operations Warrior Fund. And to some extent, that's what unfolded Saturday. Beck used his bully pulpit to urge America to turn inward, toward God as a source of answers, and although most of his aggressive fundraising went toward the massive cost of the National Mall event, Beck claims that SOWF will also reap a large donation.
There is indeed no book called "The Plan" coming out this week.
Nope. Instead, Beck -- basking in the wall-to-wall coverage on national TV and the front pages of America's newspapers -- is using that afterglow to roll out a completely different for-profit venture of Glenn Beck Inc., one that could greatly add to the showman's $32 million windfall that he reaped last year. His plan to stop America from wandering in the darkness apparently involves you visiting his new website aimed at competing with the Daily Beasts and Huffington Posts of the world.
The Beck-favored Mediate website has the scoop tonight:
Beck’s new site is called TheBlaze.com, and will be edited by Scott Baker, formerly of Breitbart TV and host of “The B-Cast”. In an exclusive statement, he tells Mediaite:
The story adds:
People will inevitably make the comparison to Arianna Huffington – whether Beck’s role as figurehead behind the site will make The Blaze into a conservative Huffington Post. “The one thing pretty clear around Mercury [Beck's company] is that Glenn is not short on ideas or hesitant on input,” Baker said. “His input is already evident in how the site looks, and that’s what will continue. It will be a continual flow of tips and suggestions and encouragement.”
The “small scrappy staff” behind The Blaze include Baker as well as Jon Seidl, formerly of the Manhattan Institute and American Spectator, and Meredith Jessup, formerly of Town Hall. Also, Pam Key of Naked Emperor News will contribute as a video editor. Baker moved over to Mercury at the beginning of June and began shaping the site. He will continue hosting “The B-Cast” the daily web show, with Liz Stephans.
According to the article earlier in this year in Forbes, Beck already makes $4 million a year online, mainly through his fairly basic GlennBeck.com website that is heavily advertised by favored businesses like the now-under-investigation gold coin peddler Goldline International and products like "survival seed banks," as well as touting Beck's "Insider Extreme" package that includes the much-ballyhooded Glenn Beck University. Needless to say, the successful launch of The Blaze (which sounds a tad apocalyptic, no?) could push Beck's web income well the hefty profits that he's already making.
Which begs the bottom line: What was "Restoring Honor" really all about? Is the punditocracy trying to hard to read the tea leaves of Beck's "agenda," of why he went with televangelist-style fervor about God and empty tributes to the MLK legacy before an audience that had been instead lured to D.C. from the so-called heartland by its red-meat displeasure with Barack Obama?
You bet they are. At the end of the day, the ultimate goal of "Restoring Honor" -- like just about everything that Beck has done in the last decade, from riding the rubble of 9/11 and the Iraq war buildup to change his persona from "Morning Zoo" guy to patriot to saying outlandish things about FEMA camps or Obama's "deep-seated hatred for white people" in his early attention-seeking months on Fox -- goes back to one thing, always the most important thing in the Beck universe.
Building the Glenn Beck brand.
Yes sir, Saturday was all about restoring honor and restoring God in American life.
But now it's Monday and Glenn Beck has something he wants to sell you.
UPDATE: The site -- which is already live -- is already running ads for Goldline International.
Apple Is Forking The Web » Podcasting <b>News</b>
Audio Podcasting � Corporate Podcasts � Educational Podcasts � How to Podcast � Making Money with Podcasts � Mobile Podcasting � News Podcasts � Podcast Directory Sites � Podcast Distribution � Podcast Hosting � Podcast Quickies ...
BillBoard - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>
The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.
Newsy: The Story Behind its Innovative <b>News</b> App
Today we're starting a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on product innovation on the Web. I'll be interviewing a number of startup founders over the coming weeks, ...
robert shumake
Apple Is Forking The Web » Podcasting <b>News</b>
Audio Podcasting � Corporate Podcasts � Educational Podcasts � How to Podcast � Making Money with Podcasts � Mobile Podcasting � News Podcasts � Podcast Directory Sites � Podcast Distribution � Podcast Hosting � Podcast Quickies ...
BillBoard - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>
The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.
Newsy: The Story Behind its Innovative <b>News</b> App
Today we're starting a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on product innovation on the Web. I'll be interviewing a number of startup founders over the coming weeks, ...
This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: Off & Away
Quick Pitch: Members bid in auctions on stays in hotel suites for up 99% off retail rates.
Genius Idea: How many five-star hotels have you stayed at? Of those, how many of those stays have been in the resort’s most prestigious suite? And how many of those stays have been for two nights or more? If your answer is greater than zero, then this post isn’t for you, money bags. The rest of us of, though, might want to try our hand at the innovative auction site Off & Away.
Off & Away promises unheard of discounts on luxury suites (up to 99% off retail prices) at top resorts in the U.S. and Mexico. These aren’t the economy rooms you can find on other travel sites. There is one giant catch — one that applies to all auction sites, including eBay, the granddaddy of them all: You must be the highest bidder when the auction ends in order to seal the deal.
Off & Away auctions start off cheap to begin with. Each new bid raises the auction price by $0.10, and each auction runs for a limited period of time. Once the time runs out, the highest bidder wins the auction. The process sounds simple enough, but Off & Away throws a few curve balls into the typical online auction format, making the auction experience a quirky ride that will likely get your blood pumping.
First, you’ll need to buy bids if you want to participate in auctions. Each bid costs $1.00, and you can buy as many or as few as you want. You can then use these bids during actions, but you’ll want to keep in mind that each bid is essentially costing you a buck.
Off & Away gets especially interesting when a hotel deal is just seconds away from going to the highest bidder; this is when the hidden bidders come out to play. Once the auction reaches the final two minutes, each new bid resets the countdown clock to 20 seconds and raises the auction price by $0.10.
Let’s say a resort stay is ready to go to the highest bidder for $49.50 with just seconds left on the clock. A lurking user could pop in with one second remaining, submit a bid, reset the clock to 20 seconds and raise the price to $49.60. Bidding continues until the rest of the bidders give up and allow the auction clock to run down to zero.
To say the formula is a catalyst for frenzied competition between stubborn bidders holding out for the best deal till the very end is a huge understatement. In my own experiences, the bidding competition that happens in the last few seconds can extend an auction for hours — it’s an exciting, adrenaline-enthused experience that often results in disappointment. Most of these hotel deals are so remarkable that your desire to win will outweigh the potential risk of defeat.
The good news is that your used bids don’t completely go to waste. Each used bid can be applied towards $1.10 off another room at the resort in question. You’re obviously not getting the suite experience with these standard room offers, but it’s still a decent consolation prize.
But Can You Really Win?
I’ve tried my hand at a few auctions to no avail. Just the possibility of a win is enticing enough to lure me in and compel me to use my prepaid bids, but I’ve yet to reach the finish line. I’ll keep trying though, and that’s in no small part due to the genius formula cooked up by CEO Doug Aley and team.
Aley assures me that eventually I will win — and that you will too. Earlier today he penned a blog post with tips on how to win. He recommends picking auctions that are less competitive and strategizing ahead of time about how and when to bid. Of course, he also recommends stocking up on bids, but that’s a no-brainer strategy that also works to the startup’s advantage.
Off & Away’s continued success will be dependent on helping more users win. After all, who wants to spend money to buy bids that essentially just go wasted?
Risk Versus Reward for Hotels
The quality of hotel stays offered through Off & Away is impressive to say the least — these hotels are the hotels we only dream about staying at. With the price of sale totally dependent on site users, we questioned Aley about the risk-reward potential for hotels who use the service.
“We have special deals worked out with our hotel partners that ensure that they don’t field any of the risk. Beyond that, our hotel partners and customers know that just because an auction goes for an incredibly inexpensive price doesn’t mean there weren’t a lot of people lurking that were interested in the room. Many times, we have a group of people that are just ’saving their bullets’ for what they think is the end of the auction, only to see their chance to bid slip away,” explains Aley.
Off & Away is a Seattle-based startup that’s raised $1.35 million from Madrona Venture Group and additional private investors. The site’s pedigree includes a staff of travel veterans from Amazon and Orbitz. As the startup evolves, look for it reduce total auction length and introduce better ways for members to apply bids used on lost auctions for better deals.
Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
For more Tech coverage:
Glenn Beck's original "I Have a Scheme" (per "The Daily Show:) idea for his Washington rally that he announced in late 2009 was clearly one that was highly focused on a goal of....making boatloads of money for Glenn Beck. The concept, Beck told a large crowd in the Fox-happy retirement community of The Villages, Fla., was that he would consult a bunch of experts and develop a "100-year plan for America." Then, after luring a huge audience in person and on TV to watch him at the Lincoln Memorial on what he claims he then didn't know was the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, he would roll out new product, a book called "The Plan" that would surely be the Beckian best-seller to end all Beckian best-sellers.
That didn't happen. Weeks later, the king of all right-wing media pulled a complete 180 (hardly the first time). The rally would still be on the same day and the same place, but everything else would be completely different. The event would be completely non-political, not about policy prescriptions but "Restoring Honor," with a goal of raising money not for a Beck book but for a four-star charity called the Special Operations Warrior Fund. And to some extent, that's what unfolded Saturday. Beck used his bully pulpit to urge America to turn inward, toward God as a source of answers, and although most of his aggressive fundraising went toward the massive cost of the National Mall event, Beck claims that SOWF will also reap a large donation.
There is indeed no book called "The Plan" coming out this week.
Nope. Instead, Beck -- basking in the wall-to-wall coverage on national TV and the front pages of America's newspapers -- is using that afterglow to roll out a completely different for-profit venture of Glenn Beck Inc., one that could greatly add to the showman's $32 million windfall that he reaped last year. His plan to stop America from wandering in the darkness apparently involves you visiting his new website aimed at competing with the Daily Beasts and Huffington Posts of the world.
The Beck-favored Mediate website has the scoop tonight:
Beck’s new site is called TheBlaze.com, and will be edited by Scott Baker, formerly of Breitbart TV and host of “The B-Cast”. In an exclusive statement, he tells Mediaite:
The story adds:
People will inevitably make the comparison to Arianna Huffington – whether Beck’s role as figurehead behind the site will make The Blaze into a conservative Huffington Post. “The one thing pretty clear around Mercury [Beck's company] is that Glenn is not short on ideas or hesitant on input,” Baker said. “His input is already evident in how the site looks, and that’s what will continue. It will be a continual flow of tips and suggestions and encouragement.”
The “small scrappy staff” behind The Blaze include Baker as well as Jon Seidl, formerly of the Manhattan Institute and American Spectator, and Meredith Jessup, formerly of Town Hall. Also, Pam Key of Naked Emperor News will contribute as a video editor. Baker moved over to Mercury at the beginning of June and began shaping the site. He will continue hosting “The B-Cast” the daily web show, with Liz Stephans.
According to the article earlier in this year in Forbes, Beck already makes $4 million a year online, mainly through his fairly basic GlennBeck.com website that is heavily advertised by favored businesses like the now-under-investigation gold coin peddler Goldline International and products like "survival seed banks," as well as touting Beck's "Insider Extreme" package that includes the much-ballyhooded Glenn Beck University. Needless to say, the successful launch of The Blaze (which sounds a tad apocalyptic, no?) could push Beck's web income well the hefty profits that he's already making.
Which begs the bottom line: What was "Restoring Honor" really all about? Is the punditocracy trying to hard to read the tea leaves of Beck's "agenda," of why he went with televangelist-style fervor about God and empty tributes to the MLK legacy before an audience that had been instead lured to D.C. from the so-called heartland by its red-meat displeasure with Barack Obama?
You bet they are. At the end of the day, the ultimate goal of "Restoring Honor" -- like just about everything that Beck has done in the last decade, from riding the rubble of 9/11 and the Iraq war buildup to change his persona from "Morning Zoo" guy to patriot to saying outlandish things about FEMA camps or Obama's "deep-seated hatred for white people" in his early attention-seeking months on Fox -- goes back to one thing, always the most important thing in the Beck universe.
Building the Glenn Beck brand.
Yes sir, Saturday was all about restoring honor and restoring God in American life.
But now it's Monday and Glenn Beck has something he wants to sell you.
UPDATE: The site -- which is already live -- is already running ads for Goldline International.
robert shumake
Apple Is Forking The Web » Podcasting <b>News</b>
Audio Podcasting � Corporate Podcasts � Educational Podcasts � How to Podcast � Making Money with Podcasts � Mobile Podcasting � News Podcasts � Podcast Directory Sites � Podcast Distribution � Podcast Hosting � Podcast Quickies ...
BillBoard - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>
The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.
Newsy: The Story Behind its Innovative <b>News</b> App
Today we're starting a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on product innovation on the Web. I'll be interviewing a number of startup founders over the coming weeks, ...
robert shumake
Apple Is Forking The Web » Podcasting <b>News</b>
Audio Podcasting � Corporate Podcasts � Educational Podcasts � How to Podcast � Making Money with Podcasts � Mobile Podcasting � News Podcasts � Podcast Directory Sites � Podcast Distribution � Podcast Hosting � Podcast Quickies ...
BillBoard - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>
The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.
Newsy: The Story Behind its Innovative <b>News</b> App
Today we're starting a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on product innovation on the Web. I'll be interviewing a number of startup founders over the coming weeks, ...
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