A “Mash-Up” as a Business Model

The term “mash-up” is most commonly used in the context of web development. It happens when content from more than one source is used (via an open API) to create a single new service that shows information in a new way. Mapdango, is a good example in which Official National Park Service (NPS) maps are overlaid on Google Maps.

A “mash-up” can also describe a business model that mashes-up digital / web based content or services with the analog world. There are two smart start ups using this approach to meet some very basic needs: food and shelter.

The food example, “Mary’s Secret Ingredients,” started with a simple love for food and cooking by Mary Pisarkiewicz. She is a St. Louis native who was trained at Parsons The New School for Design and has owned a highly successful marketing and design boutique in NYC for many years.

However cooking is her true passion. A couple of years ago, when she wanted to publish a cookbook, publishing experts told her she did not have any credibility in the food / cooking world. She responded by starting: “Love- The Secret Ingredient” blog. Three years later it now has 29K+ followers.  

Her blog features engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship interspersed with proven, scrumptious, healthy recipes. Mary confides the "secret ingredient" for all this wonderful food is love.

Mary's Secret Ingredients Gift Box.

She then developed the idea for creating a sampling / surprise subscription gift box as way to share the special natural ingredients she uses with fellow food lovers – and in the process a mash-up business was born. 

Mary’s Secret Ingredients (MSI) is a limited edition culinary surprise box containing unique gourmet and artisanal ingredients, along with innovative small kitchen products. Every season, a limited number of themed boxes are filled with surprises to inspire cooking, delivered right to the subscriber’s door. 

One of her most popular creations is Bruce Cost Ginger Ale Spice Cake made with Bruce Cost ginger ale – created in Brooklyn,  with real fresh ginger and pure cane sugar, was part of the Summer MSI 2014 gift box.

The blog’s engagement numbers really tell the story in terms of a low “bounce rate,” tens of thousands page views, numerous comments, and social media “likes” on Facebook and loads of Twitter impressions. Some fans have even taken to making original streamed video reviews of her surprise gift boxes.

MSI is being marketed with a “growth hacker” approach that will use creativity, analytical thinking, and social metrics to sell products and gain exposure. The MSI team is in the process of delivering an optimized mix of owned, earned and paid media to build sales volume. 

Mary, who is in the process of seeking an initial round of seed funding for early 2015, envisions a digital marketplace and a mobile app that will connect the recipes to the marketplace, along with streamed web content. She would also like to see a line of MSI cookware and a Mary’s Marketplace (in brick and mortar) akin to famed NYC venues like Chelsea Market or Eataly. 

If Mary’s business acumen is like her cooking skills, she is sure to have a recipe for success. 

The shelter example is NYC-based Zenly, co-founded by Isaac Palka and Omer Palka. Zenly is the first online apartment rental marketplace that lets people browse various Manhattan venues with video tours and rent online without a broker.

Before Zenly, a typical Manhattan apartment hunter poured over Craig’s List then made numerous calls often in search of elusive apartments. The alternative was to run around town with a residential real estate broker. With rental apartment vacancy rates now hovering at near all-time lows, the whole process is considered a real nightmare.

For the first time ever, Zenly’s innovative web-based business allows people to see what apartments actually look like without having to run all over town.

Zenly's online apartment listing: An end-to-end solution.

Zenly offers an end-to-end solution, from viewing properties online to scheduling visits to the apartments without a broker, to an online application process on a secure web-based platform. The business offers to greatly reduce the stress normally involved with the apartment search process, making it more “Zen” as it helps drop illusions and allows things to be seen without distortion.

Zenly also employs a pricing model that makes this business quite attractive to prospective customers. The Zenly “no-broker” model charges a 5% fee only one third of the15% traditional Manhattan broker’s fee. 

Underpinning the Zenly brand is a genuine “trust factor” as their listings come directly from property managers, and then Zenly sends “apartment verifiers” out to every listing to review the listing for accuracy and create video tours. Brokers cannot list on Zenly, and listings are not aggregated from other websites. 

I suspect that Zenly may get a call from Douglas Elliman Realty in NYC early in the new year with a big fat acquisition offer. Elliman will likely make this move to simply shut down Zenly, as a defensive measure to protect their massive broker sales force.