A friend of mine called me last night somewhat out of the blue (we don't call often; mainly text) and was all excited to tell me about a business idea he had. It was clearly something he was passionate about and he was hoping I'd be excited about the concept as well. I wasn't.
In his defense, I sent him an email a week before with a great idea that I had in order to get him intrigued and engaged and he had exactly the same reaction about my idea. Ho hum.
Now that's not to say our ideas aren't good ideas -- they just may be ideas that are better targeted elsewhere. What I am finding lately is you think of an idea and many times you'll find it's already been done. Maybe not exactly the way you'd envisioned or it's not executed as well as (or it's executed better than) you'd expect.
In mulling all this over, I was thinking 'gee, wouldn't it be great if...' there was a site that helped like minded and like interested individuals find each other to actually work together. So, I could answer a few survey questions that helped me specify what type of business I'm thinking of in order to find other people who have a similar idea. That way, someone like me who has the ideas (good, bad or indifferent) but may not have the detailed business plan writing experience could find others with a similar business interest in order to consider developing the project together.
The biggest obstacle is related to IP - whose idea is it, etc. So, the means for the matches to take place would clearly require some fairly robust legalese but this solution could also help with another issue -- the fact that everyone is coming up with ideas that have slight variances. Not all these ideas will move on to great things; in the true spirit of crowdsourcing, it's better to build an extensive network who collaborates.
I've searched for this solution, and I've seen some that come close AngelSoft for startups, VC's, and angel investors; YouNoodle - technology & tools for the startup world.
I still find the current technological environment coupled with society's readiness for change is a fantastic state and time to be developing groundbreaking ideas that in the past may have been overlooked as too 'out there'. No matter what your idea is, give it some time and attention to see if it gels in your mind. If you can't shake the idea, go for it!
out my previous post for means to build out a virtual business.
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