Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

SUN Community...

Do any of you think it could be possible for us as a community to identify a business idea; find people within the community interested in developing and executing on the business idea; create a business plan together; and launch and run the business? If it`s possible, those that participate could be the owners of the company. It`s a wild thought, but how cool would it be to use the power of our community to go beyond just sharing ideas and expertise. We could actually put our collective capabilities to work, build businesses together, create success together, and share the rewards together...

What do you think????

 

Jeff

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Jeff Sloan Co-founder, StartupNation!

I think it`s a great idea (and not just because I`ve been thinking the same thing for a while).

Jeff, we don`t hear from you often, but when we do it`s worth the wait.


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Steve - Kirk Foods, LLC home of the Gluten Free Cookie Factory - To reach any significant goal, you must leave your comfort zone. - Hyrum W. Smith, Founder, Franklin Quest

I actually thought about creating a business around this very idea a few months ago.

I can be the software engineer/architect!

I think that it is a great idea. With the amount of people we have here and the ones that are joining there is a wealth of infomation. I know I would like to help.
  Kathy


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..Navy Signal Flag Gifts....
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Visit IB Designs Blog....

Ditto, think it is an excellent idea and very doable.

Maybe a start would be `Marketplace` for this type of things. I`ve already bookmarked the sites of two SuN members, I`m certain to be using their services in time. I`m convinced that if I do business with somebody I met on SuN I’m more likely to be satisfied, as any feedback I give here about that experience is likely to bring more business for them. The same sort of process would work in what you are proposing.


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Cleanliness the Mark of Elegance                       www.DelColl.com

Jeff -

I love it - please consider me very on board!  They say there are those who can run, those who can pass, and those who can strike -- but it takes a combination of talents to make a winning team!  Now, who`s got the game ball?? 

Linda

P.S.  I think I twisted my ankle on that bad soccer analogy. . .

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How old would you be if you didn`t know how old you were?

~ Satchel Paige ~

It`s ambitious and I love it!  Very out of the box! 

With an honest effort by all the talent of the SuN community  - It`s destined for greatness! 

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Kara

Jeff,

It is a doable idea - IMHO. Just look at what was done on your brother`s thread about blue jeans (maybe this is where this new idea came from???) - collaborative marketing campaign development.

I compare it to shareware development. It doesn`t matter if someone is in India or Indiana, anyone can contribute. Have you read Thomas Friedman`s The World is Flat? Some excellent examples on real cases of solving problems virtually (be warned, it`s bigger than War & Peace). What you are suggesting is virtual business development. It is worth at least one stab at it  Go for it!

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Richard Arnold · Key Concept Writers · Business Communication: The "Key" To Success· Law of Attraction Blog · Life Ain`t Brain Surgery Blog

Count me in..Sounds like a wonderful idea
Cheers

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Sarah Founder www.sarahsperfectgift.com Gift giving made easy

Why stop at only creating a single company? Why not form something out of the massive brain trust being organized spontaneously here?

I think a number of people have been seeing that SuN offers a fantastic resource center, and have wondered how to make it into something of a business. Back a ways there was a thread by PeerSight about this value, and I was thinking outloud about how it would work. It seems to me there would be certain basic things to consider:

1. SuN forums are fun! That`s the main thing. Nobody "has to" consult, critique a site, offer advice, be serious, or anything else. It`s a place to relax, hang out with enthusiastic, creative folks, all of a like mind. It`s a place to offer help, ponder new ways of seeing things, get inspired, and to look at what other inventive people are coming up with.

This sense of fun would have to stay, for sure. It`d be just another job otherwise, if the emphasis were on paying services. People with great ideas would likely get nervous if they didn`t consider themselves "experts." And yet, many brilliant thoughts come from people who are just starting to think of creating a business, or following a lifelong idea. Over and over again, people tentatively post something with the worry that they`re not a "professional," yet their posting is terrific!

2. There are models for this sort of thing. Consider Google Answers. In something like this, though, it wouldn`t work to have a bid for results. Secondly, because most of the folks involved here ARE doing it for fun, the prospective clients would have to understand this is more like a peer review than formal consulting business. Yes, it could go that way, but I think it would lose the unique flavor of Startup Nation. Most importantly, it would lose the wonderful synthesis of ideas coming from everyone who doesn`t feel pressured to sound professional.

The key problems would be to name the product; define the client; and to figure out both how to value the product and how to get paid. SuN reminds me very much of the open-ended growth capability of the original AOL. It has a structure, but offers many ways to expand without getting "stuffy" like other sites and boards. In fact, one of the most similar places (in my opinion) that I`ve seen is the Windows Annoyances site.

Perhaps this could be a two-tiered process. It would initially be a searchable forum, perhaps with a much more sophisticated search capability. Then, after gaining credibility, offer both a "free" and a "paid" way to get advice? The crossover would be easier to manage that way, following the shareware model.

One of the more fascinating aspects of this, from a philosophic perspective, is the application of consensus. When the members of a group have no commonality, the consensus almost always descends into mediocrity. But if the members of the group have a particular standard, such as being business and practical minded, that consensus can prevent errors and enhance quality.

Think of the original intent of the US Constitution, where voters had to also be landowners. The vote results were a consensus, but because everyone voting had a personal interest in the physical country, each voter had a stake in developing an informed opinion. Remove the personal stake and the vote results become simply mediocre.

Because of the way SuN was originally designed, I think management of a (somehow) commercial venture could be accomplished. After all, every member of SuN has a UserID, and that would allow for tracking in terms of whatever would be the product.

Maybe in the Phase I pilot, the "money" being generated through the idea would be more like local tokens that might be spent in ways other than actual currency. SuN might partner with various other sites, where whatever profits someone earned could be spent on those sites as a more sophisticated version of Startup Bucks.

I`ve never seen a site with this much talent---a brain trust, so to speak. But again, such places DO exist, being usually called some sort of R&D company, like the Heritage Foundation, or other brain trusts. In the past, political cronies would leave their Washington life for a salaried position in a place like this. Even so, these places do produce valuable work.

The other problem would be governance. As I see it, in my short experience with SuN, there isn`t any actual "entity." It`s an always changing, virtual mind, with people entering and leaving on their own schedule, in their own sense of personal interest.

Michael Crighton discusses this type of neural net in his novel, "Prey" (about artificial life). This new product would also be something like a "content distribution network," where the problem would be payment for value.


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Craig Landes
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Defining the undefinable. "There are 10 kinds of people in the world---those who understand binary numbers and those who don`t." - Unknown

International Society of Curmudgeons