Publicity Person
In a random thought, I think it would be powerful to have a person who is a publicist weigh in on ideas and also write press releases when ideas are launched. Just a thought.
In a random thought, I think it would be powerful to have a person who is a publicist weigh in on ideas and also write press releases when ideas are launched. Just a thought.
If (and this is a big if) we decide to keep this blog private, only allowing people we invite to participate, then we might consider launching a companion wiki. The idea being that as theories get polished and tested, and lessons enumerated from analyzing other ODIs and trying our own, we could start to capture the information in the Wiki. Over time, this Wiki would grow into a rough draft of what could become a compelling book (or eBook). It also ensures that lessons learned one day don't need to be relearned many days later.
Scott Pollack, a very good NYU friend, and also the coiner of the term "One Day Idea" is more interested in the offline aspect to this. That is keeping the idea to a trusted group of friends who meet offline, brainstorm ideas, and then implement the ideas.
Hey, don't get me wrong, I think this blog is a great idea, and can be a valuable resource for budding and experienced entrepreneurs alike. My original thoughts were that a public blog such as this could be used to discuss thoughts on One Day Ideas (ODI) in general, rather than specific opportunites waiting to be implemented. Contrastingly, an "entrepreneur club" formed in the model of an investment club would be a venue for a small group of trusted individuals to carry out whatever ODIs most tickeled their respective fancies.
However, having seen a few day's worth of discussion on this site, it is obvious that there's something here. The DesperateForMoney.com idea is perfectly inline with ODIs that seemed to have taken off over the years. However, my concerns still remain -- as this blog gains popularity, how can the proprietor of an ODI protect it from some untrusting idea-poacher lurking in anonymity? How can we prevent someone from having registering and launching DesperateForMoney.com and BrokeStudent.com while we flesh out the details in the public domain?
Cal, I like your equity sharing plan in the post "Learning from the TBE Example," but how do we assure such a system works? The honor system only works when you know who's in your circle of trust. As they say, "in cyberspace no one cares if you scream."
The message Michael posted from TBE got me thinking. What's the best way to go forward with this concept in terms of ownership issues? That is, we assume many ideas will be bounced around, and that most people will contribute to most ideas, but only a few people will probably really push any one given idea. So how do we balance who gets credit for what without getting greedy, overly subjective, or complicated?
Here is one suggestion--a refinement on Michael's earlier post--that I will throw out for feedback:
Let's make a clean split between inspiration and perspiration. On this (public) blog, we can discuss specific ideas as well as articulate general theories about what makes ideas work. Most of the inspiration work should occur here. Ideas can be repeatedly polished, poked, prodded, and reformed. Not all will survive. But those that do will boast a solid hook, specified site features, and targeted promotional plans.
At this point, those who are interested in taking on the perspiration duties identify themselves as owners. The domain can then be bought, and the detailed work of putting together a site map and tech spec for the web developers can continue among these self-identified owners on a private extranet, on the phone, and in person.
At the same time, discussion can continue in the public blog about promotion. Once the site is launched, it is hoped most everyone from the public blog will aid the promotion by tapping their networks. At this point, the owners identify the non-owners who contributed significantly to both the idea development and promotion. We call this group contributors. The owners will continue to be responsible for all details (and finacial support issues) related to an actual venture once it's up and running.
With all this being said, we can now talk turkey. In terms of revenue splitting, how about something along these lines:
* A set percent of revenues goes to the web developers (up until a certain per-project cap)
* Another percent (10% - 15%) goes to a pool that is split by the contributors.
* The rest is split by the owners.
This general approach recognizes that not everyone can contribute equally to every project. However, it does give incentive to help polish and promote other people's ideas. As these "inspiration" activities are not too taxing, and they can lead to a nice little financial return. Enough, at least, to justify the effort.
Imagine, one day in the near future, this evolving into a powerful community of smart entrepreneurs, where most people had small stakes in many ventures, and large stakes in a few, everyone pushing to help everyone else, everyone making some nice scratch in return.
I sent the web site to a few people without much explanation. It clicked with some people right away, but others didn't really get it. I personally think we should make it less with an academic goal and make it a goal that will draw more people. While I'm extremely interested in the academic component, I don't think that will attract as many people. I propose the following revised description:
A One Day Idea is a low-cost web venture, requiring no more than one day’s worth of effort and less than $100 to launch, that ends up yielding huge rewards in terms of financial gain, publicity, or both. It completely flips the conventional 10% inspiration / 90% perspiration equation. The goal of this online discussion is to create and evolve ideas and ultimately form teams to implement them. We believe the more people that participate in this process, the more effectve and plentiful the ventures will be.
I see a common implementation process emerging:
Entrepreneurs are famed for having a million ideas, but being not as strong in or passionate about implementation. Imagine if people could work on what they're most passionate about and strong at. On the other hand, entrepreneurs would have to make a big shift in mentality. They would have to:
It seems like a lot of the ideas we've proposed so far will require the most time during the web development and programming stages. I like Cal's idea of doing a revenue split with our connections abroad.
Another aspect that will take time is the creation of specications and demo-site that we to send to the web developers. Even a simple site would probably take one day to develop. I think we can definitely use an open-source approach on this. The specs can be created as a blog entry that is continually edited. Also, since most of us have HTML knowledge, we can build a simple demo site together.
I think it makes sense to seperate DesperateForMoney.com and BrokeStudent.com into two seperate ideas. They are different enough that I think each has more to gain by being discussed alone. Accordingly, I have created a new subcategory for the student-centric idea.
What do you think about the following plan:
For the next week we can post heavily about both--filling in the details, refining the features, and articulating the hook that would make it catch on. After about a week we can then decide whether either, both, or none are worth pursuing to the implementation phase. This phase would involve in-person discussions, and the construction of a solid action plan. In general, this style of approach might work best for getting the maximum out of this blog. It allows us to harness the web to streamline the "inspiration" step, but doesn't do away with the in-person discussions and deadlines necessary to succeed through the "perspiration" step once an idea graduates to that level.
Scott Pollack, a very good NYU friend, and also the coiner of the term "One Day Idea" is more interested in the offline aspect to this. That is keeping the idea to a trusted group of friends who meet offline, brainstorm ideas, and then implement the ideas.
Hey, don't get me wrong, I think this blog is a great idea, and can be a valuable resource for budding and experienced entrepreneurs alike. My original thoughts were that a public blog such as this could be used to discuss thoughts on One Day Ideas in general, rather than specific opportunites waiting to be implemented. Contrastingly, an "entrepreneur club" formed in the model of an investment club would be a venue for a small group of trusted individuals to carry out whatever ODIs most tickeled their respective fancies.
However, having seen a few day's worth of discussion on this site, it is obvious that there's something here. The DesperateForMoney.com idea is perfectly inline with ODIs that seemed to have taken off over the years. However, my concerns still remain -- as this blog gains popularity, how can the proprietor of an ODI protect it from some untrusting idea-poacher lurking in anonymity? How can we prevent someone from having registering and launching DesperateForMoney.com and BrokeStudent.com while we flesh out the details in the public domain?
Cal, I like your equity sharing plan in the post "Learning from the TBE Example," but how do we assure such a system works? The honor system only works when you know who's in your circle of trust. As they say, "in cyberspace no one cares if you scream."
FYI: I am posting this email to check our thinking and so that our "one day ideas" don't become too complex.
From my email to Mike:
Thoughts on Overall concept:
I'm a bit concerned that we are trivializing ideas by calling them "one day ideas". I would highly doubt that any of the ideas we discuss, were executed in one single day. For example, savetoby.com probably got put together in a day... but the concept and business was woven over many months OR perhaps even years. There is a tendency to call things "one day ideas" because most of them depend on the web, and websites are simple to build.
Mike, you hit on the core of this thing when he was talking about inspiration versus perspiration. Perspiration is associated with money, time, and hard work. Inspiration is association with revelation, instant gratification, and no investment. This "onedayidea" concept stems from the fact that the internet enables inspiration; a single viral idea or story can generate physical and emotional capital, mobilize people, and instantaneously become the center of a national debate.
I don't mind calling it "onedayideas.com" , but perhaps we can keep ourselves productive by checking ideas against broad metrics like:
1) inspiration-ability of the concept:
2) controversy-driven; it's buzzworthiness
3) the sheer lack of effort and investment it takes to implement and manage after implementation
4) authenticity of story: sincerity and honesty seem to drive the successful ideas
5) measurable results (ie money, press/publicity, clicks, qualitative reponses)
This also raises the question: Should we consider onedayideas that are heavily, financially backed.