Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
Laura Groppe is 35, but she'll freely use the word"terminal" to describe her ever-present teenagementality. So it's pretty lucky for her--and for girlseverywhere--that she's the conceptual force behindentertainment company Girl Games Inc. in Austin, Texas, a workplacewhere blow-up furniture is standard and achieving "absolutechaos" is encouraged.
But this freedom didn't always reign: Before starting GirlGames in 1994, the former film and video producer/director(who's won Academy, MTV and Sundance Film Festival awards) grewweary of Hollywood and of following directions when shecouldn't be boss. You didn't read it here, but she even gotcanned a couple of times.
Seeking a new direction, Groppe returned to her native Texas andbegan researching a business idea that would, as she puts it,"get girls to be more effective in the evolution oftechnology." She knew the dynamics of producing entertainmentbut wasn't proficient in software, so she attended computerconferences to enlighten herself. She also teamed up withHouston's Rice University in a National ScienceFoundation-funded study to research how sixth- to 12th-grade girlsfelt about different computer products.
The interaction worked: After raising $1 million from privateinvestors, Girl Games' first product, a Simon &Schuster-published, interactive CD-ROM diary called Let'sTalk About Me, hit the shelves in 1996.
Successfully infiltrating the once-paltry girls' market,Girl Games now has 13 employees and is developing products andbrands for virtually every medium. This year, look for thecompany's ShredBetty.net Web site (an "edge-driven"sports-lifestyle community for girls) to expand into a Fox SportsTV show and maybe even print. Heading to The Disney Channel thisspring is the pilot for animated series Bernice Takes aVacation. The company is also developing another CD-ROM withgame-maker Activision to follow the success of Teen DigitalDiva, the official Teen Magazine CD-ROM.
Girl Games' sales success is top secret, but one thing we doknow: Groppe has no qualms about going to the office every day. Sheexplains: "Who doesn't want to be able to wake up and say`What I'm doing is going to make a difference in a kid'slife?' "
Weather Or Not
The moral of the following story is: See a potentiallyprosperous technology gathering dust and exploitit . . . but in a good way. That's whatFrederic Fox, 34, did when he bought a business that suppliedadvisory services to large corporations from one Irving Krick in1990.
After renaming the company Strategic Weather Services (SWS)Inc., Fox expanded Krick's core business--patented technologythat forecasts weather 12 months in advance in North America andEurope, and analyzes business techniques to predict a company'ssuccess--to several levels. Today, his 90-employee Wayne,Pennsylvania, firm projects 1999 sales of $13 million from itsthree divisions: one that helps retailers and manufacturers plansales based on long-range weather data; another that helps utilitycompanies plan operations; and the surprisingly popularWeatherPlanner (http://www.weatherplanner.com),launched late last year, which offers consumers long-range weatherforecasting via a Web site.
We say "surprisingly" because even Fox didn't knowif the WeatherPlanner concept, which SWS initially launched withoutan ad campaign, would prosper. He decided to start the businessonly after consulting SWS meteorologists in 1993 to plan hiswedding. "My fiancée gave me the impossible task ofensuring our wedding would be free of rain," says Fox. When itwas, WeatherPlanner hit the drawing board in 1994.
"The feedback's been excellent," Fox says."[Consumers] think it's worth paying [the $14.95 fee].Eighty percent say they'd use the service again, which is verygratifying."
Thanks to such favorable conditions, WeatherPlanner will offerphone service beginning this summer, and Fox is planning a line ofWeatherPlanner products that will integrate the technology intohandheld computers and search engines.
Contact Sources
Girl Games Inc., info@girlgamesinc.com, http://www.girlgames.com
Strategic Weather Services Inc., mail@weatherplanner.com,http://www.weatherplanner.com
