After attempting to distribute a startup idea in my previous post, it occurred to me that although there’s plentiful supply and demand for such ideas, there’s no good marketplace (well, perhaps there is and I just don’t know about it) — that is, other than posting on one’s blog (a highly inefficient distribution mechanism for such things, even if one is one of the few with a particularly popular blog), there’s no good forum to simply give away ideas, even though there are increasingly many people who’d love to hear them.
You often hear that the core idea on which a startup is based really has very little inherent value. This is true as far as it goes; ultimately the things that have value include (among other things) intellectual property, a client base, and branding — and these, in turn, are based on a team and that team’s passion. But an idea is a necessary catalyst for both of these. The core of a talented, dedicated team can generally only coalesce and succeed based around a reasonably decent idea. Building such a team, from finding a cofounder to finding the next half-dozen passionate individuals — is one of the hardest yet possibly the single most important pieces of the startup puzzle. If an idea marketplace based on giving away ideas could help facilitate this process — even if it could bring two or three like-minded potential cofounders together — then it would be of immense value.
So I’d propose a site to provide such a marketplace. Have a good idea that you’re not currently executing on (or would like to be but are having trouble assembling that core team)? Post it on the site. Interested in participating in a startup? Browse through the ideas and mark the ones you like — or simply pick one and start executing. Interested in investing? Mark (privately) the ideas which interest you and, if they become the basis for a startup, you’ll be put in contact with the team. When an idea has a critical mass of prospective team members — taking into account roles, commitment levels, geography, etc — then cordon it off and let the individuals who marked it as interesting decide if some subset of them want to work together on executing it. If so, they can form a company and the system will notify potential investors (or not — that part isn’t entirely necessary). From there the site’s work is done, and it’s up to the newly-formed team to run with the idea.
Sounds like a startup idea in itself, eh? If only I had somewhere to post it…