5 ms·

Idea Market is a crowd-sourced marketplace to take on problems in the world

40 points by cjdulberger 12y ago

cjdulberger 12y ago
Article explaining: http://gigaom.com/2014/09/08/bill-gross-the-guy-who-invented-googles-business-model-tries-again-with-ideamarket/ http://gigaom.com/2014/09/08/bill-gross-the-guy-who-invented...
vjanma 12y ago
Hello, co-founder of IdeaMarket here. Would love to hear HN's feedback and ways to improve. Also can answer any questions.
- tomp 12y ago
 I'm not sure if it's a problem with my browser/connection or a bug on your side, but I cannot create an account (using the sign-up form, not using an external service). After I click "Create Account", it seems that there is an 500 error in the POST request.
 - vjanma 12y ago
 I am not sure it this is related to our account quota issue, which is fixed. Can you try now please?
- 10QR7s041s1Zc 12y ago
 Signup is required to see the various challenges - this sucks. Also, the website appears to require Javascript (so noscript users are forced to whitelist the website). You're far from the only one to have this issue though.
 - vjanma 12y ago
 You don't have to signup to see various challenges. You can scroll down to the bottom of this page: http://ideamarket.com/founders.html http://ideamarket.com/founders.html It does require Javascript though :-|
 - 10QR7s041s1Zc 12y ago
 Correct, my apologies. About the JS stuff: sorry if I sounded bitter - I guess it's perfectly acceptable, business-wise, to not support non-JS users given the fact that they are probably a tiny minority of users. I just wish more people would consider us noscript paranoid users :-) As for the website, it is pretty good - I like the idea of having projects for which the investment is already available. I don't like the name that much though - it suggests that ideas are something that have inherent values and that you can sell. In my mind, ideas have no value whatsoever: when you have an idea, you can bet lots of other people already had it too. Realization is what matters. Finally, on a more personnal note, I dislike the big-ass chair picture on the front page - it seems uncorelated to the platform itself. Then again, that's just me :-)
- caio1982 12y ago
 Please disregard if this is not totally important for a landing page, but I missed very much a "who we are" section. Or anything that's similar to an about page. That may be in the video I guess, but since I can't watch it in the place I'm right now...
- sixQuarks 12y ago
 How does one submit a new idea?
caio1982 12y ago
"503 Over Quota" :-(
- vjanma 12y ago
  Site should be up now. Forgot to enable billing when we switched app engine accounts.
arikrak 12y ago
Site's down now, but the title sounds cool.
- vjanma 12y ago
  We are working on it.
mercnet 12y ago
Clicking http://ideamarket.com/founders.html http://ideamarket.com/founders.html gave me this: Over Quota This application is temporarily over its serving quota. Please try again later.
- vjanma 12y ago
  can you please try again. It should be fixed now.
jyu 12y ago
Make / Cancel reservation buttons for investment don't seem to do anything (Safari 7.0.3).
matthewcanty 12y ago
Can't stop thinking about the unexotic underclass article: http://miter.mit.edu/the-unexotic-underclass/ http://miter.mit.edu/the-unexotic-underclass/ Discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8261098 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8261098
EGreg 12y ago
There are two main ways to fund projects - individual risk and reward (patents) and socializing costs (prizes). There are pros and cons to both, and they both can and should coexist. We need more of the latter, especially for projects that seek to solve negative externalities, like Richard Branson's excellent http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Earth_Challenge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Earth_Challenge I have written articles about the second type of funding, such as this one: http://magarshak.com/blog/?p=93 http://magarshak.com/blog/?p=93
billgross 12y ago
If you have any ideas you would like to submit, we'd love to hear them. But especially if you know any great entrepreneurs, it would be great if you could tell them to look at the challenges at IdeaMarket and see if any meet their passions. Thanks.
grimtrigger 12y ago
This one raises some eyebrows (a marketplace for prayers, where you can pay people to pray for you): http://ideamarket.com/details.html?project_id=6283879140818944 http://ideamarket.com/details.html?project_id=62838791408189...
- billgross 12y ago
  It's a pretty wild idea, and I certainly would have never thought of it, but I have heard that there are some people who really want this!

40 points by cjdulberger 12y ago

Article explaining: http://gigaom.com/2014/09/08/bill-gross-the-guy-who-invented-googles-business-model-tries-again-with-ideamarket/ http://gigaom.com/2014/09/08/bill-gross-the-guy-who-invented...

vjanma 12y ago

Hello, co-founder of IdeaMarket here. Would love to hear HN's feedback and ways to improve. Also can answer any questions.

tomp 12y ago
I'm not sure if it's a problem with my browser/connection or a bug on your side, but I cannot create an account (using the sign-up form, not using an external service). After I click "Create Account", it seems that there is an 500 error in the POST request.
- vjanma 12y ago
  I am not sure it this is related to our account quota issue, which is fixed. Can you try now please?
10QR7s041s1Zc 12y ago
Signup is required to see the various challenges - this sucks. Also, the website appears to require Javascript (so noscript users are forced to whitelist the website). You're far from the only one to have this issue though.
- vjanma 12y ago
 You don't have to signup to see various challenges. You can scroll down to the bottom of this page: http://ideamarket.com/founders.html http://ideamarket.com/founders.html It does require Javascript though :-|
 - 10QR7s041s1Zc 12y ago
 Correct, my apologies. About the JS stuff: sorry if I sounded bitter - I guess it's perfectly acceptable, business-wise, to not support non-JS users given the fact that they are probably a tiny minority of users. I just wish more people would consider us noscript paranoid users :-) As for the website, it is pretty good - I like the idea of having projects for which the investment is already available. I don't like the name that much though - it suggests that ideas are something that have inherent values and that you can sell. In my mind, ideas have no value whatsoever: when you have an idea, you can bet lots of other people already had it too. Realization is what matters. Finally, on a more personnal note, I dislike the big-ass chair picture on the front page - it seems uncorelated to the platform itself. Then again, that's just me :-)
caio1982 12y ago
Please disregard if this is not totally important for a landing page, but I missed very much a "who we are" section. Or anything that's similar to an about page. That may be in the video I guess, but since I can't watch it in the place I'm right now...
sixQuarks 12y ago
How does one submit a new idea?

caio1982 12y ago

"503 Over Quota" :-(

vjanma 12y ago
Site should be up now. Forgot to enable billing when we switched app engine accounts.

arikrak 12y ago

Site's down now, but the title sounds cool.

vjanma 12y ago
We are working on it.

mercnet 12y ago

Clicking http://ideamarket.com/founders.html http://ideamarket.com/founders.html gave me this: Over Quota This application is temporarily over its serving quota. Please try again later.

vjanma 12y ago
can you please try again. It should be fixed now.

jyu 12y ago

Make / Cancel reservation buttons for investment don't seem to do anything (Safari 7.0.3).

matthewcanty 12y ago

Can't stop thinking about the unexotic underclass article: http://miter.mit.edu/the-unexotic-underclass/ http://miter.mit.edu/the-unexotic-underclass/ Discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8261098 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8261098

EGreg 12y ago

There are two main ways to fund projects - individual risk and reward (patents) and socializing costs (prizes). There are pros and cons to both, and they both can and should coexist. We need more of the latter, especially for projects that seek to solve negative externalities, like Richard Branson's excellent http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Earth_Challenge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Earth_Challenge I have written articles about the second type of funding, such as this one: http://magarshak.com/blog/?p=93 http://magarshak.com/blog/?p=93

billgross 12y ago

If you have any ideas you would like to submit, we'd love to hear them. But especially if you know any great entrepreneurs, it would be great if you could tell them to look at the challenges at IdeaMarket and see if any meet their passions. Thanks.

grimtrigger 12y ago

This one raises some eyebrows (a marketplace for prayers, where you can pay people to pray for you): http://ideamarket.com/details.html?project_id=6283879140818944 http://ideamarket.com/details.html?project_id=62838791408189...

billgross 12y ago
It's a pretty wild idea, and I certainly would have never thought of it, but I have heard that there are some people who really want this!