4 ms·
Selling ideas to a big company
- swombat 18y agoSo what other industries do you know of that buy ideas? I can't think of any other than the book industry (and perhaps other art-focused fields), really...
- tyohn 18y agoToy and game makers.
- ram1024 18y agovery few buy ideas anymore, they prefer to have the people create a company proving that the idea is viable/valuable then they buy it out
- ph0rque 18y ago> So what other industries do you know of that buy ideas? I can't think of any other than the book industry... It seems that the time is ripe for a digital, networked app equivalent to be replacing books as a medium for ideas... something like Amazon's kindle library, but more revolutionary (as opposed to evolutionary).
- icey 18y agoLots of industries buy ideas... They just prefer to do it in the "protected" form of purchasing / licensing patents.
- Alex3917 18y ago"So what other industries do you know of that buy ideas?" It depends on how you define an idea.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- petercooper 18y agoWas I the only one to be surprised at Godin's tech prowess? He "invented the first fax board for the Mac", as well as a wireless music player. I've seen a lot of whining around here about Godin for his occasionally airy ideas and the popularity of his blog, but it seems he has some engineering blood in his past (his Wikipedia entry doesn't hint at this).
- pchristensen 18y agoHe described himself as a mediocre engineer (undergrad degree) in training whose life was changed when he went to Stanford Business School.
- petercooper 18y agoUnlike many good engineers, however, it appeared he had the cojones and confidence to push his ideas. It's an unfortunate reality that confidence and ambition can trump raw talent almost any day of the week.
- kirubakaran 18y agoWhy is it an unfortunate reality? I think that is the coolest thing :)
- petercooper 18y agoWould you rather buy something that isn't too good but is marketed well? Or something that's awesome but poorly marketed?
- kirubakaran 18y agoIMHO this is a false dichotomy. Anyway, I understood your original point to be "Fortune favors the brave" and I replied that this is cool because I can compete with my big brass balls ;-) I don't necessarily have to be as smart as my competitors.
- rokhayakebe 18y agoEvery industry buys ideas. It is just a matter of selling it properly. One proven selling technique is to find companies that are lacking in some space and share with them a full blown idea on how a piece of software (or your idea) could fix that problem. I got a few contracts this way in the past. The response rate is much higher than applying for contracts through Craigslist or Odesk.
- ajju 18y agoHow do you pitch the idea to the company? Do you usually know someone there beforehand or do you do a "cold call (or email)"?
- jcl 18y agoActually, Apple does buy ideas (when it's forced to). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitouch#Fingerworks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitouch#Fingerworks