Minimum Viable - Oct. 6, 2025

🔎 📸 Image Recognition for Company Logos and Marketing Campaigns

IDEA: QR Codes were just the first step in bringing the physical and digital worlds together. Companies of all sizes use QR codes every day for flyers, special offerings, and even menus. Here’s the problem: companies don’t use QR codes for branding. A fast food joint or hotel can’t put a QR code on a highway exit sign. Those digital squares do not convey their brand. Their logo, however, does. What if there was a way to combine the QR code’s features with a company’s logo and link to their latest marketing campaign or landing page? Apple’s new Visual Look Up Feature may have just paved the way for that.

PRODUCT: Using image recognition software, create a mobile app that utilizes the phone’s camera and identifies company logos. Add a marketing campaign CRM platform for partner companies to upload different variations of their logo and campaign links. When a user points the camera at a logo, the company’s website will pop up just like it does with a QR code.

MVP: iPhone app with image recognition software and basic marketing CRM.

REVENUE MODEL: Freemium, upgraded plans for additional marketing or campaign features.

EXIT STRATEGY: Sell to a major advertiser or app developer for 4x revenue.

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Publication: NPR

Link: Startup founder convicted of defrauding JPMorgan Chase of $175M by faking firm's success

Summary: On March 28, 2025, a federal jury in Manhattan convicted Charlie Javice on four counts — bank fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy — for defrauding JPMorgan Chase in its 2021 acquisition of her fintech startup Frank. Javice had claimed Frank had over 4 million users to justify a $175 million purchase, but prosecutors proved the real number was closer to 300,000. Evidence presented included fabricated customer lists and attempts to direct employees to generate synthetic data. Her defense argued JPMorgan was aware of the risks and that the allegations reflected “buyer’s remorse,” but the jury rejected that. Javice remains free on bail pending sentencing and has signaled plans to appeal.

Spin: The Forbes 30 under 30 to prison pipeline remains STRONG.

Chase saw Javice’s company, Frank, as a great acquisition target because it catered to college students who would inevitably need bank accounts in the near future. Seeing the opportunity to cash out, Javice lied about her user count and directed data scientists to create millions of fake email addresses to back up her claims. The problem came when Chase tried to email the user list and the overwhelming majority of emails went undelivered. Here is a YouTube Video explaining the full story.

Today’s Motivation is the movie The Social Network. The movie covers the founding of Facebook and the rise of Mark Zuckerberg. From creating a hot-or-not website in his dorm to pulling a fast one on the Winklevoss twins, this dramatization gives the whole back story with a darker twist. Love or hate Facebook, this movie will have you believing that you can start the next company worth over a trillion dollars.

Buy or rent to watch on Amazon Prime.

IDEA: There have been too many nights to count where I have woken up freezing cold and uncovered while my wife is sound asleep, warm, and bundled up in enough blankets to cover a California King. What if there was a way for your partner to cuddle with as much comforter as possible, but you still stay covered? Introducing plastic wrap technology for blankets. Place a container of blankets next to the bed and simply pull them over the inhabitants so the offender can take as much as they want and the usual victim can stay warm too.

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