Imagine yourself strolling into a St. George coffee shop. You order and then sit down with your java, a bagel and your laptop to check email, the sports scores or Facebook. It’s in that very moment immediately after you sit down that you realize you have to stand up and go and ask for the password for the shop’s wi-fi system.
It’s in that moment that a University of Utah student had an insight into a new product that would enable businesses to profitize wi-fi and enable customers to avoid the up-down password search. It’s in that moment that a start-up was born.
“I don’t want to get up and have to ask for a password just to check movie times,” one of the start-up’s three owners said. “I just want to click to connect. Done.”
Paired up with two fellow students, he has started up Tive, a wi-fi system that might well give both customers and shop owners what they want. Customers want free wi-fi available as soon as they walk in the door. Shop owners want a way to generate revenue from the wi-fi service they offer.
Enter Tive, which gives customers looking for wi-fi a simple choice: would you like free wi-fi or would you like a $5 discount in exchange for sharing your email address? Or customers can be asked to watch an ad or take a survey before the wi-fi system connects.
According to a news report, shop owners would then make profits on the lists, surveys, ads and so on. Ideally, Tive would spread and help people cut down their data plans (and expenses).
One of the owners of Tive said that the work of starting up a company “doesn’t feel like work. We get to make it the way we want to make it.”
That’s true of the product and the company. When launching a business, you get to choose from among a number of business entities (corporations, limited liability companies, limited partnerships, etc.) and with the help of your business attorney, choose the one that suits your interests best.