

Selling ideas to a big company - bdfh42
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/selling-ideas-t.html

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swombat
So 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...

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ph0rque
> 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).

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swombat
What, you mean like the internet?

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ph0rque
no, something more like wikipedia + lulu + ?

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petercooper
Was 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).

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pchristensen
He described himself as a mediocre engineer (undergrad degree) in training
whose life was changed when he went to Stanford Business School.

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petercooper
Unlike 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.

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kirubakaran
Why is it an unfortunate reality? I think that is the coolest thing :)

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petercooper
Would you rather buy something that isn't too good but is marketed well? Or
something that's awesome but poorly marketed?

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kirubakaran
IMHO 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.

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petercooper
Oh totally, it's cool for people who are in that camp :) Not sure it's so good
for the _world_ as a whole though. There are plenty of stories of shy,
retiring mathematicians and scientists who have done great work only to be
ignored.

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jcl
Actually, Apple _does_ buy ideas (when it's forced to).

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitouch#Fingerworks>

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rokhayakebe
Every 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.

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ajju
How do you pitch the idea to the company? Do you usually know someone there
beforehand or do you do a "cold call (or email)"?

