3.1 Skoolies for the Forgotten

Description: to provide housing for isolated communities, reservations and recently disaster zones like places where a forest fire has decimated the housing stock. Build skoolies that are turn-key liveable, durable and can driven to places that are hard to get to. Also they can be driven to different locations as needed and run off diesel which is the fuel most often used in remote communities, particularly in the north of Canada.

These could be without engines as well, intended to be towed from place to place as needed.

With diesel engine intact, the engine can be used as a generator to provide power to other houses as well. When delivering you could coordinate transfer of people and materials to these isolated places.

Pros: School busses last longer than RVs and are stay in better condition when driven over remote roads than manufactured houses. Climate change will make building lots unlivable quickly, especially in the artic.

Cons: Isolated communities may not have the money to buy a skoolie, as a charity the amount of housing delivered is limited. School busses don’t always have high roofs, require a roof raise to stand up in. Converting a school bus is usually more expensive than building a manufactured home.

3.2 Ice Cubed

Description: Ice cube tray that makes 3's (ice cubed)

Pros funny, cheap, easy R&D

Cons easily could be ripped off by other manufacturers, niche/novelty may have a short time frame

3.3 Is this a knock-off

Description: Used to catch fake merchandise quickly, some code attached to product scanned/id by cell phone. Could be proprietary technology/encryption that is hard to fake. The chip is put into the real product, each one unique and a cell phone can scan this to see if its real.

Or a technology that scans the product to look for discrepancies in material, design, shape etc and can detect fakes.

The cost of detecting fakes and alerting police must be less than the estimated lost revenue from the manufacturer.

Pros Can be used by law enforcement to shut down knock off dealers by scanning the products quickly. Certain types are business are particularly vulnerable to this (fashion) and may pay for this technology long term.

Cons technology may be complex and expensive to develop, it has to be updated as the knock-off manufacturers adapt to the technology and eventually outsmart it.

3.4 Office by day, Hotel by Night

Description: Short term rental your office space. Location of office has to have tourist appeal (downtown in a city, walking distance to a beach). Possibly have workers pack away desks, computers, sensitive paperwork at night. This could also be done by a “changeover crew” much like the cleaners for a short-term rental. There would be a safe for every office, or a safe room that is hidden to night guests for office valuables.

People would rather work in an office in a popular area than not (cool things to do for lunch). Could be a house set-up for this. Multiple offices/office areas and shared kitchens and bathrooms by day. Units by night.

Pros doubling the rental income of existing space, 24 hour use of property

Cons robbery of important office docs, supplies. Would need to pack up before leaving everyday. People having sex/parties in the office and wrecking it. People not leaving on time. Legality/tenancy laws. Office workers who want to work late couldn’t do that anytime they wanted, only certain days or in certain rooms.

3.5 Camp work, floating factory

Description: Business designed for refugees, in refugee camps or recently landed in new country. Design a floating factory that is housed in an ocean going ship producing things that can be sold anywhere (textiles, recycling, food production, etc) and travel to coasts where you pick up workers and ferry them out to the ship. The ship could have living quarters on it or simply ferry people from an existing camp.

Pay the workers a percentage higher rate of pay than local wages. Too large of a wage gap could lead to issues of corruption, theft, non refugees posing as refugees for paid work.

If governments/militia and others get hostile you would move to another coast or country altogether. Could be excellent near refugee camps, give the people opportunity to make money while waiting on a political situation and/or war to change.

Metal sorting recycling could be one way. Load it full of cars, vehicles, scrap metal objects and pay people to separate them into their parts. Rare parts are identified (rare car models) and kept separate.

May need military contractors to defend from infiltration and piracy. Payment has to be secure, linked to international bank or secure local bank.

Could be anchored in international waters (no tax). If its in international waters you may need living quarters on boat, surveillance (to prevent human rights abuses), 4 days on 4 days off kind of thing with a ferry to the coast. 370km to international waters from land.

Pros provides work for those desperate for cash, no taxes if in international waters. Can sail away if area becomes hostile. Can be contracted out by fashion houses as ethical dimension. This gives refugees an option of something to do while they wait. Part or all of the profits could be used to feed the refugees, provide other aid to people in the area.

Cons could be pirated, infiltrated by criminals/terrorists. People could be abused/ taken advantage of. Robbed of their money when leaving the area/ship. Going to and from work. Commuter boats could be attacked.

How bad is the sea at 370km out? Rough sea is a problem, can’t anchor. If you’re in coastal waters taxes are different. Could lead to mass migration for work on ships causing local issues. Has potential for lots of good but also very bad. Helps the poor and desperate, could lead to bad actors doing more crime and regional migration issues.

3.6 Roast Dem Bugs

Description: Homeless shelter that gets heated up to bed bug roasting temperatures once a day. Homeless can leave their things in the bed, possibly cage under the bed like a hostel.

Pros gives people a better place to stay, reduces bed bug problem in the city/town.

Cons People saying shelters are full of bed bugs can be an excuse instead of a reason. People may trash the place, complain anyway about other things, sleep outside instead.

3.7 Bargain Snowboarding

Description: The world has many mountain ranges with excellent conditions for snowboarding and skiing. The lift pass and accomodation costs of many mountains in western countries make this a richer persons hobby unless they work on the mountain (young people). In mountainous countries with lower costs a ski/snowboard vacation experience be done at lower prices.

The grooming machines and ski lifts are large initial costs. Can these be reduced? Can grooming be avoided in certain areas, can it be done manually or with different equipment? What are cheaper alternatives to ski lifts? Trucks and a road? Longer runs? Flight packages from nations with enough money to afford a ski vacation would be crucial.

Accomodation would have to have cheap options, comparable to what locals live in at those elevations.

Everything would have to be designed to provide a maximum amount of local jobs as opposed to technology.

Pros can capture the cheaper market for snowboarding/skiing by having much lower lift prices, exotic locale/food/drink. Provides jobs to nations and regions that may not many good options.

Cons going cheap could mean disfunction, things not working or being on time. Some price conscious skiiers/snowboarders don’t have money or wont spend it. They live cheaply in functional mountains, may not be interested. Is a ski-hill profitable? They struggle in Canada, how much better can you make the math work in a foreign country? The local population may not buy into this idea and work to undermine it. They may not appreciate the increase in tourism and mixing of cultures.

3.8 Danger Bank

Description: High risk area banking. How do you provide reliable banking in areas that have high crime, uprisings, war, and/or corruption? When countries/regions have upheaval, citizens need to access their money safely or hide it safely. Often in a hurry.

Bank would have a permanent, physical location built strong enough to withstand bullets and gunfire. It would have to have a lockdown mode in case of a siege/robbery. “the bank that never closes” open to help people escape their country with their money if need be. Deposits would be insured and accessible worldwide. The physical money, stored in the vault must have a self-destruct option. If a robbery occurs this money would be incinerated or made useless quickly.

It would use drone deliveries for cash. If you had a large withdrawal you give GPS coordinates and they use drones to fly the money to you. Preferably at night or high altitude. It would market itself as the most secure bank on earth, making heavy use of technology, local intel & needs. In event of war, employees could still work or lockdown mode happens with ATMs only.

Would need a way to convert cash to digital currency/currency in another location quickly, possibly gold? You could put the cash into the ATM, next minute a rocket hits it. In the event cash is destroyed by explosion/self destruct (robbery) you still have funds.

Central office in a country with a very low corruption perception index (Canada, Japan, etc), monitored by camera, construction stage to day-to-day banking. Use military personell to help oversee the construction and initial operation. These people will be in charge of compliance, stopping robbery, destruction. Locals employed on the ground

Would need ATMs in airports across the world or be able to withdrawl anywhere.

Also needs to be able to transfer money internationally cheaper than competitors (or buy one)

The bank would employ local people who can speak English and a local dialect. One of the incentives could be sponsorship to another country after a period of working at the bank.

Pros moves money internationally, employs locals in desperate situations. Could be come the world’s local bank of the poor, capture a niche. provides stable banking to those who need it most in the time they need it most. Helps people escape their countries when needed. Provides jobs to people constructing and working on the project.

Cons high risk of attack, robbery. Host country may not allow this to happen. Translation to many dialects will cost. Will locals trust a foreign based bank. Will an unstable country allow this bank to even start in the country? It may take time to build the trust required to get deposits.

3.9 Scrapyard Recycled Housing

Description: Build housing units out of objects that aren’t of much use in their original form. Examples are sailboats that leak, old fire engines, school busses, ship, submarine, barge, commercial airliner, transit train etc. Anything that is big enough to build a housing unit on but still structurally sound enough to be towed from location to location.

Uses are unique rental units, short term housing (Air BnB, VRBO), temporary housing for workers, shelter for homeless folk. They can also be an alternative for tow behind RVs in some cases.

Use found materials/antiques as much as possible to keep material costs down. Acquiring the object and bulk building materials is where the cost savings will be. Labour and quality essential materials (marine grade wiring for example) will be the cost add-ons. There has to be a $$ per square foot of living space rule for purchasing price of objects.

Pros: you could turn a large profit off these considering the low price of some “useless” objects and the price of tiny homes/modular homes.

Cons: the complexity of these builds could drive the cost up to make this less/not profitable. Estimating the build cost could be difficult. The re-sale market for unique products can be small.