On Twitter this morning, a note by Barry Moltz caught my eye.

@barrymoltz:  Perfect movie for entrepreneurs and car people- “The Entrepreneur” about Macolm Bricklin  http://bit.ly/9THrC

The good news is that Barry is pointing to a very good 1 hour and 30 minute documentary about Malcolm Bricklin.

In 1967 Malcolm Bricklin started Subaru of America. This established him as a maverick entrepreneur and a man ahead of his time. Now, 40 years later he’s back and ready to do it all over again. But this time it’s China and the stakes are higher than ever. The film is shot by Malcom’s son, Jonathan. It’s a no holds barred accounting of Malcom’s latest attempt to put the auto industry on it’s ear.

The bad news, is that the film is only available on the website for free until tomorrow.

If you have the time to spare, I really urge you to watch this fascinating, inside look into Mr. Bricklin’s attempt to put together the deal of his life.

Watch The Entrepreneur – Through 7/30 only

‘Chelle Parmele

I watch a television show called Flipping Out on BravoTV. Have you seen this?

It stars Jeff Lewis, a successful flipper down in southern California. (def: A Flipper is someone who buys a house, makes improvements and resells it for a profit)

Silly me, I thought that flipping was basically contained to the real estate world, so imagine my surprise when I ran across this article on the NYTimes.com website about people purchasing under-achieving websites, fixing them up and then reselling them for a profit, just like a house!

Dave Hermansen did not own a bird or a cage when he bought bird-cage.com, an online store, for $1,800 three years ago. He simply saw a Web site that was “very, very poorly done,” and begged the owners to sell it to him. He then redesigned the site, added advertising and drove up traffic. Last December, he sold it for $173,000.

Mr. Hermansen, 30, is among the latest wave of entrepreneurs who, like the day traders and real estate investors before them, are looking to make a lot of money without much effort.

This trend falls into the “totally new to me” catagory. It will definately be one I’ll do some research on.

‘Chelle Parmele
Palo Alto Software