Got An Idea? Crowdsource It.
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If you’re like me you have more than a lifetime or two’s worth of ideas floating around in your head. A couple month’s ago I was meeting with a couple rich friends and I was very excited to tell them about all the great ideas that I had for businesses.
I was crushed when the response to my statement was a big old yawn rather than excitement and desire to hear all about my ideas.
Putting my bruised ego aside, I asked why they weren’t interested in my “brilliant and bound to be great” ideas.
“We all have more great ideas than we can ever do anything with…ideas are basically worthless.” So what started out as a meeting that I was sure would lead to my immanent wealth turned into heartbreak.
“What would it take for these ideas to become something of value?” I asked.
“Get them to the working prototype stage,” I was told.
Okay…now I know why they didn’t get excited…they didn’t need more work to prove out ideas…which is really what I was hoping they would take on.
Crowdsourced Software
So to make a short story long…it was with great joy that I discovered Cambrian House this week. It is a real Web 2.0 business model. Leverage the efforts of many people to accomplish a more complex and worthwhile task.
Basically it is a site where you submit an idea, site members vote on the idea, if your idea is deemed worthy then site members build it, then they market your idea and everyone shares the profits.
A brilliant concept. I won’t be posting any of the ideas that I think I can bite off on my own, but I have lots of them that I know I’ll never get to, that could still be very profitable if the right people got involved.
Cambrian House is a very cool concept and also a very cool and visually engaging website…check it out and I’ll let you know when I post my first idea. If anyone from here posts an idea, leave a comment, I’d love to check it out and vote on it.
Related: Wired had a pretty good article about the concept and rise of Crowdsourcing in general back in June.
Browse Timeline
Comments ( 3 )
stas bekman added these pithy words on Jul 17 06 at 12:42 pmTake a look at Paul Graham’s Ideas for Startups - a very interesting read.
dt added these pithy words on Jul 18 06 at 1:49 amWow thanks for the great information. I’ve accidently started a business base around this. This article help me structured my business plan a lot better. thanks!
Nathaniel added these pithy words on Jul 30 06 at 3:31 pmThanks for the link. Just submitted my first idea. After submitting it, I realized what a great idea it was, and more importantly how I likely wouldn’t even get the chance to do it for another year or two.