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> it's certainly possible to have an idea they didn't have No, it's not. It's possible to have an idea they didn't have, but not a good one. It's incredibly a
by smt88 6y ago
> it's certainly possible to have an idea they didn't have
No, it's not.
It's possible to have an idea they didn't have, but not a good one. It's incredibly arrogant to think you, a random person who doesn't work for a company, has a good and novel idea that their 100,000 employees didn't think of.
And what is the value of an idea with no understanding of their internal operations anyway?
> that's a pretty pessimistic take
OP is asking how to accomplish something that is so uncommon, I have never heard of it in 20 years in the software industry. Never. It doesn't even make logical sense for the company in question.
It's not pessimistic to tell them it isn't going to happen. It's just basic reality. Reality is deflating sometimes -- sorry.
> It's even more possible that they quickly entertained the idea but never pursued it, for a myriad of reasons.
Yes, this is absolutely possible. If it's a good idea, it's actually likely.
And that means it's even less likely that OP is going to be the magical key that opens the lock.
No FAA(M)G-size company has ever said, "Well, this is a great idea, but we just don't have the one person we need to pursue it!" They have the people, and if it were a good idea, they'd pursue it.
- Leherenn 6y agoAnd yet on the front page we have an article about how tech got so big through acquisitions. It seems likely that among the hundreds of companies that were acquired, there were at least some that had novel ideas those thousands of people didn't think of or didn't execute, and that's why they bought them. It can't be just to remove competitors or acquire talents. I would argue something like Instagram fits the bill. Now again, I'm not saying the idea of just going to a FAANG and saying "I've got a good idea, hire me and give me resources" is going to work. I agree with you on this, the chance here is 0. I'm just saying that it might be arrogant, it's likely the OP doesn't have such a brilliant idea, but history shows it is possible to have a good novel idea that matters to those companies.
- smt88 6y agoAn acquisition proves only that the acquirer needed to hire people, needed customers/users, wanted to kill a competitor, or didn't want to execute a business model. It doesn't say anything about whether, during the hundreds of millions of person-hours of work that they buy every year, those companies failed to come up with an idea. The startup world is mostly a oroving grouns for execution, not ideas. Successful companies are almost never novel. There is usually an earlier competitor that failed.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]