What a smart idea! poolbroker is instigating consumer pools for various “mass” products. poolbroker opens a new pool (e.g. electricity pool). People/consumers are signing up and as soon as the pool is reaching a critical mass poolbroker will negotiate with the suppliers (e.g. electricity suppliers) about the best prices.

How did they get the idea. Funny enough – in Switzerland it is usual that neighbors are pooling their heating oil demand in order to get better discounts. Herbert Frey, the founder of poolbroker moved from Switzerland to Germany and asked his neighbors in Munich about the common heating oil orders for the next winter. Nobody understood what he was talking about. That was the reason to set-up and organize consumer pools in Germany.

The results are thousands of pool members and a couple of very interesting pools:

• heating oil pool
• electricity pool
• car insurance pool

and more to come…

I really like the idea because it works and the consumers have an immediate benefit (price as well as handling).

Do you still remember the year 2000? Young founders (often from BCG or McKinsey) presented their ideas about ecommerce websites on a one-pager and asked for funding? As a matter of fact – some investors gave them money. Why? Because everybody else invested in an ecommerce website. It was not a question about market size, technology, customer needs or the skill sets nor the experience of the team. It was about hope and hype.

Today I am looking around, trying not to think that another .com bubble is coming.

Business Angles and VCs burned a lot of money in 1999 and 2000. Some of them did not learn a thing- or they have already forgotten the pain.

Fast forward to 2007

Young founders are asking again for funding with ridiculous valuations based on one-pagers. But today, the founders are even younger, they directly come from univerities and business schools. btw: I am 7 years older compared to the year 2000.