Product transparency was a popular theme in the twelfth and last session of TechCrunch50, Research and Recommendations, with two companies in particular helping consumers make better purchasing decisions. The first, GoodGuide, was met with unanimous acclaim from the expert panel for its efforts to inform consumers of the social, environmental and health “goodness” of personal care products and the companies that produce them.
The GoodGuide founders claim that 60 million Americans wish they had more information available to them about the products they buy. So they put together a team of scientists and technologists, and compiled product information from hundreds of sources, that could be used to shed light on the lesser known aspects of products and how they’re made.
To find more information about a product, all you have to do is enter its name into a search box and click on its result. The product profile page delivers three scores, each on a 1-10 scale, that cover the topics Health, Environment, and Social Performance. Each of these scores breaks down into topics such as Cancer Effects, Toxic/Hazard, Climate Change, Philanthropy, and Employment Standards. And overall, they are combined into a total score that conveys responsibility of the product as a whole.
Much of the information incorporated by GoodGuide would get overlooked if it were used only to generate the scores. So the profiles also display news items about recalls and other scandals related to the products. They also suggest lists of top products that would serve well as replacements because of their higher scores in the three main areas. If the product has been banned elsewhere in the world, such as in Europe, that will show up as well.
GoodGuide has collected information about 60,000 personal care products. The company plans to include not only more products but different types as well. In three weeks, it will release an iPhone application that can be used to retrieve information while on the go. You can also text message the UPC of a product to GoodGuide and it will text you information about it back.
While the expert panelists lavished GoodGuide with praise, they did also ask about the quality of the site’s information, especially in light of the attempts corporations might make to skew the data in their favor. The founders responded by insisting that science and factual reports will trump any user contributions and feedback about the products.
Sean Parker and Don Dodge also inquired about what should happen if GoodGuide inaccurately published negative information about companies, or when it published information about a responsible company that had made an honest mistake. The founders seemed receptive to the idea of informing companies gently about their environmental, health and social issues before making a big deal out of them on the site.
When asked why this hadn’t been done before, the founders insisted that perhaps they were the only ones crazy enough to do it. And everyone in the room was glad that they were, since this is a site that everyone seemed to agree should just exist.
This is one of the sites that I actually find useful. Nicely done!
A great idea, but they’ll need to be careful if they want to become credible. There’s a fine line between real danger and FUD. I worry that they will label things as “carcinogens” or “toxic” when they appear in concentrations that would have no effect.
Just incredible. This company should win the Best in Show. Are they funded?
unless what you have is proprietary you will be competing with a hundred copy cats. you do have an edge on Yelp. worst startup name on the planet. I love your common sense direct navigation domain name. Truly the best domain name of the show.
Best of Skill my Friends.
PERFECT for me!
I have been looking for a site like this for ages. Glad it’s finally here. Don’t know why you were beat by a business model that is only an incremental improvement over an existing business.
This was THE MOST well spoken, confident and eloquent speaker of TC50. He has a well thought out product that clearly fills a void that can help everyone!
I predict that large companies (ie Johnson and Johnson) with deep pockets may label their research as libel and cripple them with lawsuits over lost profits due to the bad publicity generated. They need to raise enough backing to protect against this and I have no doubt that they will.
This company should have won TC50 hands down! Congrats and good luck!
In my course in entrepreneurship at the university (which started just a couple of weeks ago) I (me?) and two others are working on an idea almost exactly like this! Except that we are mainly focused on environmental information (but with health info as a part of it too) and the mobile experience to make it as easy as possible to check out the products while you’re in the store. Also we want to gather info about all the most common products you’ll find in any grocery store, not just personal care products.
It is very cool to see that others have the same idea, and that it’s actually launching as a functional service soon! The very best of luck to GoodGuide!
Really you guys find this useful? You are going to only buy “good” products? When I buy something like that its usually very impulsive and I just go with the generic brand or whatever is the most bang for the buck. I’m like “O I forgot to get some cleaner”, I don’t shop around for that stuff. Guess its just me though. But I do hope they do well.
A particular problem with these sorts of information sites is that at best they can only provide generalised information.
For many products the supply chains behind them evolve as prices and availability of constituent components/ingredients change, thus from batch to batch and lot to lot the environmental and social footprint of a product could be radically different…
I do love to see the rise of things like this, and hope that is another step towards a better informed consumer.
great idea. expert recommendations with environmental, health and social aspects. I definitely can use some help in, lets say, choosing the right (safe and eco friendly) sun-screen for my son.
anyone know their revenue model? Sounds like an expensive endeavor when they start talking about RFID integration.
This site is a joke. Dive deeper and check out products you know are hazardous to our health and you’ll be surprised the products get a “GOOD” rating???!!!
The site is a great idea but lacks true health concerns for consumers. Do you research, there are others offering better info to keep us healthy.