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I guess the question is how do investors know an idea is "obviously good"? Did anyone/everyone know that the pagerank algorithm was "obviously good" before the

by tyohn 18y ago

I guess the question is how do investors know an idea is "obviously good"? Did anyone/everyone know that the pagerank algorithm was "obviously good" before they tested it? And if it was - did they build it/think of it in one day?

mixmax 18y ago
Exactly my point - nobody buys an idea before it's actually tested and has been found to work. And once you've done that you're not selling an idea. Which is probably why there are no examples of it. To my knowledge at least. Famously Yahoo turned down Larry and Sergey when they approached them with the idea - they didn't want it before it had proved it's worth. In other words: they wouldn't invest in an idea.
- tyohn 18y ago
  I know of an example from the book "How to license your million dollar idea" by Harvey Reese. He thought of an idea, drew it on paper, faxed it to a company and got a deal - all in one day. Although: He did quite a bit of business with the company previous to his fax and he does talk about needing to evaluate the originality and market need of your idea.
  - mixmax 18y ago
    Do you have a source other than himself? His business model is that you can put your idea on his website (for a nominal fee of $175) and he will then try to sell or license it to someone, and you split the proceeds. Obviously it is in his interest to tell you that he has had tremendous success himself. Besides, I think the $175 will make him a good amount of money from naive hopeful inventors.
    - tyohn 18y ago
      Nope, I don't know the guy or the company just the book. He does seem to have a good reputation but like I said I don't know...
  - chaostheory 18y ago
    Reese didn't just sell an idea on its own. He's a master networker (he's always on the phone) and typically he does provisional patents, copyrights, and so on... like mix max says he's "worked in the basement for years": his reputation and relationships took many years to build, and typically he sells legal licensing to use his ideas...; this is beyond "just an idea"

by tyohn 18y ago

mixmax 18y ago

Exactly my point - nobody buys an idea before it's actually tested and has been found to work. And once you've done that you're not selling an idea. Which is probably why there are no examples of it. To my knowledge at least. Famously Yahoo turned down Larry and Sergey when they approached them with the idea - they didn't want it before it had proved it's worth. In other words: they wouldn't invest in an idea.

tyohn 18y ago
I know of an example from the book "How to license your million dollar idea" by Harvey Reese. He thought of an idea, drew it on paper, faxed it to a company and got a deal - all in one day. Although: He did quite a bit of business with the company previous to his fax and he does talk about needing to evaluate the originality and market need of your idea.
- mixmax 18y ago
  Do you have a source other than himself? His business model is that you can put your idea on his website (for a nominal fee of $175) and he will then try to sell or license it to someone, and you split the proceeds. Obviously it is in his interest to tell you that he has had tremendous success himself. Besides, I think the $175 will make him a good amount of money from naive hopeful inventors.
  - tyohn 18y ago
    Nope, I don't know the guy or the company just the book. He does seem to have a good reputation but like I said I don't know...
- chaostheory 18y ago
  Reese didn't just sell an idea on its own. He's a master networker (he's always on the phone) and typically he does provisional patents, copyrights, and so on... like mix max says he's "worked in the basement for years": his reputation and relationships took many years to build, and typically he sells legal licensing to use his ideas...; this is beyond "just an idea"