Benson leaves Robot Co-op to focus efforts on Enjoymentland

Robot Co-op co-founder Buster Benson has left  the Seattle Internet startup after five years to start a new company by the name of Enjoymentland. The 32-year-old former Amazon.com developer described the company -- which will develop iPhone and Web apps  -- as an "experiment in ultra-minimalist tech-startupery."

"Creating a minimalist startup seems to be appropriate right now, for obvious reasons," said Benson, who is in the process of changing his name from Buster McLeod. "However, being frugal can be a huge advantage.  It can also be enjoyable in the sense that it gives you a greater appreciation for the things that you really need, and helps you focus on the right things to make something successful."

There's been a lot of discussion on TechFlash in recent days about the merits of bootstrapping a business, and Benson's new offering certainly plays into that trend.  

Benson has already been toying around with iPhone apps, recently releasing a $2.99 app called Locavore that allows users to find food that's in season, search nearby farmers' markets and access a geographic directory of where fruits and vegetables are grown.

"I think iPhone apps are perfectly suited for a 1-person company right now," he said  "They're best when at their simplest, and I don't have to worry about hosting costs, bandwidth costs, distribution, or credit card processing."

Benson also plans to create applications for Google Android and other mobile platforms, saying that he thinks those areas could see tremendous growth in the coming years. 

He sees a lot of ways to expand the Locavore concept by adding more foods and countries as well as adding a feature for people to share foods that they growth their neighbors. He's also kicking around the possibility of turning Locavore into a game where people are encouraged to eat locally produced foods.

And he has another idea for an application called Meritocracy, which makes "healthy, sustainable living into a real-world game." Benson said he's targeting applications that have "multiple-use potential" where users gain more value over time. And he's almost entirely focused on those applications that attempt to help people a healthier and more sustainable life. 

Of course, getting any of these applications to critical mass is a challenge.  But even though some 40,000 applications reside in Apple's app store, he still thinks there's room to succeed.

"... I remember 10 years ago when people were saying that there were over a billion websites and that it would become increasingly difficult to be noticed.  Even though (Robot Co-op's) 43things.com is not in the top 2,000 websites, it still has been successful, become profitable, and has a great community and usefulness."

I also asked Benson how Enjoymentland will be different from Robot Co-op. Here's what he said:

"I actually don't want to do much that is substantially different from the Robot Co-op other than to do it on a smaller scale (1-2 people instead of 6-7) and to try to reach sustainability more quickly, allowing me to take as little investment as possible," he said. "I think the experiment of the Robot Co-op proved itself to be a valid strategy, and not much needs to change."

More on Enjoymentland, bootstrapping and startups in this blog post that Benson wrote last week.

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