Hot Markets

Creativity, ingenuity and invention come from every discipline.

We've had winners and finalists from EVERY CORNER of the campus:

The experiences you've had in solving problems, providing services or creating solutions is your UNIQUE domain knowledge. It is the very source from which any entrepreneur, inventor or innovator has drawn from.

Why not? Why not...YOU!

Products in the following areas are hot, especially if they can be used to begin a whole product line and establish a company:

Software products

  • iPhone applications
  • PC plug-ins
  • Internet applications
  • mobile social networking applications
  • mobile applications: games, utilities, health, efficiency, etc.

Web-based services

  • Personal services
  • Professional or business-to-business services
  • Web 2.0 Applications
  • Social Networking Applications

Energy efficiency products

  • Battery technologies
  • Green packaging

Any Unique Product Idea

  • SanTasti - a palette cleansing beverage - is a new company!
  • iFixIT - web fixes for your Apple products - is a new company!
  • FlipBrake - Anti-Flip brake for bicycles - is a new company!
  • Grinds - Go anywhere coffee in a pouch - is a new company!

Best Advice: Take a quick click through of all the previous iQ awards granted and see the successful winning ideas that come out from the quiet hidden corners of the campus. A ‘true’ testament that any idea is relevant and can succeed if it solves a burning need or problem. And, it comes from your own personal experiences and domain knowledge. You are never too young and never too old. Just build a prototype and see for yourself. We are always humbled by the creative prototyped solutions innovators create to problems they solve with ingenuity.

While IQ has identified these areas as hot markets, the products must be innovative and you should be able to establish a significant barrier to entry as a protection from copy-cat competition.

It is especially important in these hot areas to not only rely on the new idea as being unique and possibly patentable. To ultimately become a viable commercial product, it is very important to build other significant barriers to potential competition, like creating an innovative business model, establishing key corporate alliances, and by rapidly reaching the market and growing quickly.