October 16, 2005
Online vs. Offline: Part 2 - ODI Implementation
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."
Posted at October 16, 2005 10:26 PM
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Scott,
This is an interesting point. In my mind, the blog can serve two purposes; one private, one public.
The private purpose is just to accelerate brainstorming among a small group of trusted people. That is, by posting on a blog, a small group of us can flesh out ideas without having to coordinate real time schedules. In this sense, there is no reason for the blog to be public. And there is no reason for there to be anyone involved on the blog that one of us doesn't know.
A public purpose of the blog, however, is to perhaps gain some credability as experts in this niche field. That is, if our discussions on ODI, and small experiments, are really insightful, then other people might start tuning in regularly, and we gain some expert captial in the wider community.
I'm no sure a priori the best approach to maximize these two purposes (and the many others I left out from that list). One thought is to prioritze one over the other, and either have the blog be completely public or private (in the former case, only our trusted circle could post entries and be owners or contributors on projects). Another thought would be to have multiple blogs. As you suggest, a public blog to discuss the theory of ODIs, and a private blog for us to brainstorm ideas.
I certainly agree that the blogs can be used to facilitate communication -- just another resource along with face-to-face meetings, phone calls, and e-mails.
Furthermore, I also definitely agree that the blog can be valuable bait for capital and credibility.
My only concerns are that since the ideas we brainstorm on the site are, by design, easy to implement, then there's nothing to stop someone from poaching the blueprints and starting being the first-mover on their own. To remedy this, it seems to me that the only solution is to separate the general ODI discussions from the brainstorming discussions. ODI concepts and successfully implemented ideas can be on a blog viewed by all, where as plans in-the-works can only be commented on and VIEWED by a chosen few.
I agree very much with the logic behind your suggestion. One new thought, however, is that we may neglect one of the two blogs. In particular, the public blog. As it seems that the ideation is the fun part.
I was thinking this afternoon that if we only had a private blog, we could still gain credability. How? By having our ventures succeed. I just finished reading the book "Busting Vegas," about the MIT card counting team that figured out how to boost their advantage from 2% to 50% on the Blackjack tables. For them, the proof was in their results. They made millions.
Perhaps it could be the same for us. People ask how we launched some many successful ODIs, and we reply that we had formed an elite private club, focused on figuring out the formula. At that point, our "expert" status would be a foregone conclusion, and we would have the ability to leverage our knowledge for maximimum worth (articles, books, consulting, etc.)
I'm not in love with this suggestion; just another thought.
Interesting thoughts guys.
The advantage I see to brainstorming ideas online is that the larger amount of diverse people that we can get, the more and higher-quality ideas we can get.
However, I do agree that by making it public, we risk the possibility of ideas being implemented by someone else. With that said, having a private blog for ideation/administration and then a public blog with details on launched projects, dicussions on ODI philosophy, and analysis of projects we find online makes sense to me.
I think we could get the advantage of having a lot of eyes view the ideas by slowly growing the trusted network of participants. So, at first, each idea might only have 5-15 people see it and give feedback. Over time, this could grow to 100.
What do you think?
My thoughts exactly Michael. Let's do it up.
