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If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?
- gfodor 17y agoUse the 5 dollars to buy a case of Mt. Dew, hop onto eLance or mech turk. edit: Make that Red Bull, time is money.
- timf 17y agoSince it's a video, I will risk ruining the 'surprise' for you since it's hard to scan a video. She says the most successful teams didn't really use the $5 because it was a limitation, they broke out of the standard "framing" of the problem.
- jrp 17y agoSo, the 2 hours is more important than the 5 dollars? I did get caught by the framing, but in retrospect I should have been tipped off by the fact that most wages are > 2.50/hr.
- timf 17y agoYeah the 2 hours plus their "skills and creativity." One of the examples she liked the best was a team that sold their class presentation slot to a company that wanted to pitch to business students.
- Oompa 17y agoNot just the one she liked the best, the one that made the most money. Company paid $650 to give a 3 minute pitch to the students.
- ilamont 17y agoSet the kids out front with as much lemonade and cookies as $5 will buy. Pretty sure they could at least double that $5 in two hours on a warm afternoon with lots of passing traffic.
- amalcon 17y agoIf the question is what I would actually do, I'd probably offer "computer tune-ups" as someone else suggested. That, or set up and secure wifi routers. A lot of people are afraid of wifi routers because they've heard the person next door can get them in trouble; solving this problem is of definite value to them. Once I did this for someone whose house was big and radio-interfering enough to require repeaters; I made $100 in an hour. If the question is what would make the most money, I'd print up a bunch of official-looking flyers and an official-looking record sheet, go to some high-traffic spot, and collect "donations". This is very unethical, but it probably earns money the fastest of anything that can be set up so quickly.
- bhousel 17y agoActually in the video, one of the teams did something similar. They went to a highly trafficked area on campus and offered to test bike tire pressures for free, then fill the tire up for a dollar if necessary. They had a great response from this, but soon learned that they could make even more money by asking for a "donation", instead of a dollar.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoI'd buy balloons and a bag of rice, make five juggling balls and busk. The balls take about 30 minutes to make, I'd get about an hour of busking, so I'd make about $40 as a one off, maybe $100, depending where I am.
- fnid 17y agoWhy would you waste 25% of your time making balls you could buy for $5? Go to a 99 cent store, there are tons of balls in there for under $5.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoWell, since you ask, juggling balls that you can buy for less than $1 are crap. Very, very hard to juggle five with them. Good juggling balls in the UK cost upwards of ukp3 each, so that's about $10 for five, and you can't buy them in your corner store.
- odvious 17y agoGet as far as you can on $5 of gas and drive to friends and family's houses running msconfig and cleaning up crapware to make their computer run faster. Easily $20 - $40 a pop. Protip: reinvest a little profit into more gas, make even more money!
- jodrellblank 17y agoI'd be surprised if you could thoroughly do one in three hours.
- billybob 17y ago#1. Buy a hammer. #2. Threaten people with it. #3. Take their money. #4. Profit! I kid!
- releasedatez 17y agoLove your humor.
- buymorechuck 17y agoMy iPhone app, EasyPlay, a gesture-based iPod controller, is on sale for $0.99. Or, if you like natural language processing, check out iRhyme, my iPhone NLP rhyming dictionary. EasyPlay: http://itunes.com/app/easyplay http://itunes.com/app/easyplay iRhyme: http://itunes.com/app/irhyme http://itunes.com/app/irhyme My main point is that for 5 minutes time spent, a revenue stream is opened up; an efficient conversion of units of work time to revenue potential. (given I've already invested several months in these apps). The only risk was having this entry be downvoted for self-promoting on HN, since the rank is now at -4 points. I'll report how successful this experiment was tomorrow.
- petercooper 17y agoIf you're not thinking of watching the video, think again. Even if you watch just the last two minutes. There's a good twist in the tail in the way the most successful team made the most money :-)
- igorgue 17y agoyes it was awesome!, I bet the students felt used by the winning team :), but in a very good way. It was a great idea.
- mustpax 17y agoThe peculiar thing about these brilliant hacks is that they challenge our assumptions about what's allowed to such an extent that they feel dishonest. That isn't because there is anything amoral about them. Social interactions are a kind of delicate dance, they thrive on a certain basic level of predictability. So people are unnerved when that is taken away from them.
- pbhjpbhj 17y agoIt was a bit dishonest - they sold other peoples time without any guarantee they could deliver it. The students could all have got up and left saying they weren't going to be exploited, or have done a non-violent protest, etc.. Very clever though.
- ggrot 17y agoIn theory, but they could be pretty confident about the risk of this being low since it was only a 3-minute presentation.
- idm 17y agoThe more I think about the video, the more disappointed I become. You're right: these "genius entrepreneurs" were selling the time of their classmates. The 3-minute slot had no value if their classmates didn't tolerate the fact that their time became a commercial - one which they certainly didn't opt into. On the one hand, it's probably true that the timeslot they sold was the most valuable thing they had, for the purposes of the demonstration - and on that basis, they get a "gold star" for making the identification. On the other hand, their actions were questionable at best, and unethical at worst. Imagine, for example, if professors routinely sold part of their lecture time to any startup that wanted a few interns. It's a strategy that doesn't scale, because it erodes trust and reduces the chances that it will work in the future. Therefore, it's a bad strategy and a bad "moral of the story." Recap: good exercise in identifying valuable things, bad exercise for determining sustainable growth.
- stuartjmoore 17y agoBuy a box of Cokes, sell them individually outside the movie theatre, repeat. Run when the management finds out. I used to do this with Blow-Pops in middle school. You could buy a huge bag for about $1.50, and sell each one for 25¢. Great profit margin.
- fnid 17y agoI did the same with Now and Laters. Buying them in bulk and selling them individually to kids at school.
- BunkerHill 17y agoSame here and one classmate thought I was being crass. Or being a profiteer.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- eru 17y agoTake it as a compliment.
- PostOnce 17y agoI filled one compartment of my backpack with 1-cent bubblegum balls (circa 1997) that I got from a machine at the grocery store. I spent my profits on something retarded like a metal detector a few months later, if I remember correctly.
- mrduncan 17y agoHere is a link to the original Stanford podcast where this video is from: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2219 http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2219 I really recommend the whole series also, they have had some excellent guests. http://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcasts.html http://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcasts.html Edit: Grammar
- marcofloriano 17y agoNice links man, thanks a lot. Got some nice talks from Evan Willians at there. Recommended http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1388 http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1388
- nswanberg 17y agoAgreed. The Jeff Hawkins talks are great.
- pcarmichael 17y agoAgree 100%. It's a great series with many good talks. One of my all-time favorites is from Tom Kelley (IDEO) on being an innovator for life: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2054 http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2054
- edw519 17y agoJust a few options off the top of my head: 1. Email everyone I've done work for in the past 5 years, promising all of my time on Mondays for the next year to the highest bidder by 2:00 p.m. 2. Same as #1, but instead of the highest bid, the first $10,000. 3. Same as #2, but $1,000. I will accept all checks received in the next 2 hours. What they will get: free use of my next web service for life. 4. Tell my employer that unless he cuts me a bonus check for $10,000 in the next 2 hours, I quit. 5. Write a one page book, "How I Lost 50 Pounds in 9 Months." Make as many photocopies as possible. Put on a pair of pants twice my size and sell the one page books for a buck a piece in front of McDonald's or the food court at lunch time. (I weigh 150 pounds.) In all 5 cases, I leverage assets (goodwill & good health) I've already earned in much more than 2 hours. The $5? For the lunch I eat while my "assets" (hopefully) earn.
- jcl 17y agoBut with several of those options, you take on liabilities that may exceed the money you made. By the same logic, you could use your two hours to get a mortgage on your house. (And the last option sounds like fraud.)
- mediaman 17y agoIndeed, accountants looking at this from an accrual perspective would dispute that he made much money at all.
- PostOnce 17y agoYou always see pictures of guy who are obviously tremendously muscular and who have gained 30lbs of fat for the sole purpose of photographing it and losing it again. The diet ad doesn't say, Hey, unless you have 65lbs of muscle under your flab and are able to devote several hours a day to working out, this 4 week plan/pill isn't going to work.
- fnid 17y agoAnd again, none of these can be done in 2 hours or leverage the $5.
- giblets 17y agoTeacher: "And the TEAM that made the absolute most MONEY challenged absolutely every assumption and managed to make $5000 in the two hours." Student: "How?" Teacher: "Prostitution." Student: "Who was in second place?" Teacher: "The team that robbed a convince store."
- jrockway 17y agoA "convince store"? I think I am going to open one of those... then I can just convince someone to give me $10,000 or whatever.
- ankeshk 17y ago1. Trick 1: Forget about the $5. 2. Trick 2: Forget about providing the actual service within those 2 hours. Use the 2 hours just for doing the actual trade. 3. Then sell something before you buy it. If I was given just 2 hours, I would do quick brokerage. Hour 1: Find a group of people who wants to buy laptops* at a decent price. Get their configs down and get a commitment. Hour 2: Find a seller who will give the best price on bulk laptop purchases. *Laptops because I think it has high profit margins. But if finding a group or a business that is willing to buy laptops is hard - I would switch to some easy product - like movie tickets.
- idm 17y ago... and you've just created an inductive proof for how the US financial system collapsed. Don't get me wrong: I think step 3 has a good chance of working. BUT if you, like your customers, assume that a commitment is equivalent to the actual asset (i.e. the laptop) then you are vulnerable to defaulting on YOUR commitment if and when you cannot deliver the asset. How might that happen? Imagine you commit to purchasing laptops through a broker, exactly like yourself, who has no laptops to sell. This happens all the time (e.g. "just in time" ordering) and it results in delays, angry customers, and in the case of the US financial system, systemic fraud, corruption and failure. Naked short selling is surprisingly similar to your strategy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_short_selling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_short_selling
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- ankeshk 17y agoWhile in theory you are correct, there are a few points to ponder upon: Laptops are not like stocks or other exchange commodities. As in, their prices won't fluctuate like crazy (unless of course you manage to get pre-order commitments to like 10,000 laptops.) At the scale we are talking about, we have a pretty good idea of what price discounts we'll get. And more importantly - who will be able to deliver them well. Its important to keep scale in mind.
- ankeshk 17y agoOr the other thing I would do is - organize an auction. 1. Source products from an auction company on consignment basis. 2. Find an event happening in town and pickyback to it - hold your auction at that event (with permission) or outside but very near the event (with no permission). 3. Auction the stuff. Anything over the reserve price = profit. Anything under the reserve price = sale canceled. Sourcing products within 2 hours from an auction house is hard though - unless you already have a relationship with them before. But given a bit more time - and this is a good idea.
- vlisivka 17y agoFirst team: regular work. Second team: speculation. Third team: ads. Where is direct marketing team? My solutions: Receipt one: * by bunch of cheap sport items; * walk to the park; * lease them; * hire and teach other people to do that instead of you for half of income. (Tested). Receipt two: * by a sport item (e.g. ball); * walk to the street; * encourage people to play a casual game with you, alone, or with other people; * hire and teach other people to do that instead of you for half of income. (Tested).
- FreeRadical 17y agoi doubt anyone will pay you to play a ball game with you just off the street
- vlisivka 17y agoMy trainer use that method for more than 50 years: he started at 18 years in 1958. ;-) Rules are simple: pay $1 and throw ball to basketball basket 6 times. 5-6 hits - $10-$20 worth ball, 4-3 hits - 10c worth prise, 1-2 hits - a sweet. He started with single ball.
- wgj 17y agoHe claims it's tested. Seems improbable though. It would be worth hearing the details.
- vlisivka 17y agoSee 2 year old sample photo here: http://sites.google.com/site/vlisivka/zatoka http://sites.google.com/site/vlisivka/zatoka
- Tichy 17y agoHm, maybe one could lend dogs to people who want to flirt with other people who have dogs. Like suppose you take a stroll in a park and notice a hot specimen of the opposite gender walking their dog. Desperation kicks in, until you notice the helpful dog lender. I would say sports items would be too boring, unless it would be some really hot new item (like those springs you attach to your feet). Plus you would have to worry about insurance - what if someone breaks his leg while playing with your sports item?
- stuartjmoore 17y agoBuy a handful of cheap, blank, brandless t-shirts, write my name all over them in bleach, sell them as designer t-shirts to celebrities.
- 10ren 17y agoI am always surprised by the power of framing. It's like a weak form of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, where language shapes your thinking. nb: it's "always surprising", because that is the nature of framing and then noticing the frame...
- jhrf 17y agoDid anyone else find that women hard to listen to? She had a jarring quality to her presentation. I'm glad I wasn't there for an hour!
- GrandMasterBirt 17y agoTotally worth the time. But its great, instead of thinking of what you can do with what you're given, think of what you can do with what you already have. The funding money and time you have to do anything is only there as a buffer, a push in the right direction if needed, but that money is not there to fund your work, your ideas are.
- quellhorst 17y agoSpoiler: The team that won got Frog Design to pay $650 for the students to give a 3 minute presentation to the class.
- ErrantX 17y agoApparently by ignoring the money and the time limit... Personally I found the latter 2 solutions pretty unimaginative in ignoring the $5. If the exercise is to maximise the $5 (a much harder task it seems) then they seem to have failed.
- joshu 17y agoYou have five dollars, two hours, and a three minute slot with a room filled with Stanford students.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- CamperBob 17y agoAnd my axe!
- fnid 17y agoThe real lesson here is: Break the rules. The rules were, 2 hours and $5. No one spent only two hours and only $5. The first suggestion from the class was a $50 house party. Tire pumps cost more than $5. The restaurant reservation scheme occurred the next weekend. The last, most creative team was perhaps the only one that actually followed the rules, assuming they sold the class time in those two hours.
- icey 17y agoI'm amazed by the number of people in this thread who have gotten the challenge wrong. They didn't only have 2 hours to conceive and execute their idea, nor did they have to limit themselves to the $5.00. They were given an envelope that contained an unknown amount of seed money, and then they had 4 or 5 days to decide how to make money with it. They would only have 2 hours once they opened the envelope to make as much money as possible. The challenge wasn't what people could make with $5.00, it's how the teams dealt with a set of unknowns in order to make money. (Edit: Someone disagrees with me, but I'm not sure why. If you watch the video, it's quite clear that this is the case. I'm not just stating an opinion here.)
- nkurz 17y agoI haven't voted you either way, but from the video it's still not clear to me whether the $5 was a known or unknown amount. I agree that the exercise makes more sense if it's unknown, but I don't think it was ever clearly stated.
- chrischen 17y agoIn the real world you probably wouldn't have constraints unless you were working for someone.
- ednapiranha 17y agoI'll tell you any easy way. It's less than $5. Get a hot girl, a free blog account, a PayPal account and take tasteful pics of her - ask for donations to get access to more pics of her.
- bonsaitree 17y agoThis is merely an academic "bounding/framing" exercise in every sense of the word. Pure entertainment. A better measure of business creativity would be to allocate the same fixed budgets of labor and materials to all teams and record revenue, profits, and judge the sustainability of the solution at the end of a more reasonable operational timeframe--say 1 week. The "winning" teams operated under entirely different working budgets for materials and labor during their prep time and 2 hour window. It's made even worse as the professor immediately demerits the 'party' example due to the costs of the party supplies and setup. Apparently, Stanford student time & attention is "free" for one team, but worth $650 for the other.
- araneae 17y agoProstitution.
- tybris 17y agoThat's really worth watching.
- zandorg 17y agoPut it on red on a roulette wheel! Then you have 1 hour 59 to regret the 1 minute when you lost the $5.
- aplusbi 17y agoSell frozen orange juice futures.
- jasonlbaptiste 17y agoActually oranges and extremely cold winters heavily impact businesses. Jamba juice 2 years ago stopped carrying fresh squeezed OJ and smoothies with orange juice in them were 25 cents more.
- lazyant 17y agoBefore watching the clip or reading the comments: I'd use the $5 to have coffee in some posh hotel or something and try and network.
- WinBerry 17y agoShe published a book called "what I wish I knew when I was 20". If you like the story, you'd probably enjoy the book as well (the $5 funding story is in there). It's a good motivation recharger for those entrepreneurs in the thick of it - get's you pumped up to innovate. Also, might make you want to go to the d-school at Standford because a number of stories are based on her class there. http://tinyurl.com/yzj5hlj http://tinyurl.com/yzj5hlj *that's my shameless amazon referral link to the book (muahahah!)
- bhousel 17y agoThank you for the suggestion and mini-review, added it to my wish list.
- anonjon 17y agoEh, these all seem to violate the rules. They have time to make money from 2 hours after they open the envelope. If you make your money outside of that time, how is it supposed to count towards the money that you made for the project? Why couldn't they just never open the envelope and work 9-5 jobs for a couple weeks? Then say 'HAH! see! we made 2,000 bucks each!'
- eru 17y agoYes, but you have to present next week.
- CamperBob 17y agoEasy... I'd buy a Sharpie, a piece of cardboard, and some ragged clothes at Goodwill, and stand out on a street corner. It's not uncommon for bums to make upwards of $200/day around here.
- ujjwalg 17y agoIn short: Entrepreneurs should "think outside the box". Don't be scared of competition/constraints.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- rhr 17y agoJust an idea, sell lottery ticket, 50 cents per ticket and winner gets $5. Need to make some assumptions and do some calculations to figure out the optimal way to price the ticket. Also, we can ask people to buy ticket in advance, then use that money as new prize and lottery that again. Sounds like ponzi, but in fact more like the fractional reserve system our banks use ... not sure whether this will really work, just an idea ...
- dpcan 17y agoI am now thinking about every "problem" in my life, its borders, and whether those borders mean ANYTHING. Is everything this artificial?
- nazgulnarsil 17y agoif we're going for outside the box thinking I would buy a homeless person a meal and claim the satisfaction was priceless. since priceless > $650 I win.