Good morning to all new and old readers! Here is your Wednesday edition of Capital Ideas, exploring four startup ideas and five success stories from the last week to help you find your next business or investment.

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Today’s edition:

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Alex

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Ideas

1: “Dumb” Appliances

Our appliances are getting smarter. As new technology is added to every major appliance—from cars to refrigerators—complexity is added too. Sure, some of it is convenient. How we used to walk over to light switches to turn them on/off rather than telling Alexa to do it is beyond me.

But the added sensors, thousands of possible functions, and complex instructions have frustrated the general population. Common frustrations include:

• Smart Appliances disconnecting from WiFi frequently

• Not knowing how to get to certain functions of an appliance

• Questions of why appliances have a higher price tag for no apparent reason other than “added tech”

Perhaps it’s time to make appliances dumb again.

The idea here is simple: Find the best design for an appliance, take all of the technology out of it, and price it cheaper than the incumbent products. The key here is to make the appliances look sleek and modern, not like they’re relics from a bygone era (though vintage styles could be a product line as well).

Major appliances this could apply to:

• Washing Machines

• Refrigerators

• Dishwashers

• Cars

Marketing the appliances would be similar to Timex’s friendly jab at the Apple Watch:

Use the nostalgia factor of “the good ol’ days” and make appliances dumb again.

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