Interesting idea. To set prices, etc. there'd have to be "buyers" and "sellers" of some sort, and some way of attracting outside parties (or perhaps other startups) to do the buying and selling even if it's not for real money.
The main thing to keep me from participating would be the distraction factor- rather than going through the unsexy fundamentals (making a good product and keeping it good) I'd be tempted to drive a different set of metrics. $10k is a powerful motivator, but not as powerful as making a living or hitting a grand slam.
The key to making this work is making it require very little additional effort on the startups themselves beyond what they'd ordinarily be doing.
So is this like an intrade for startup success or failure? Kinda like a deadpool?
I'd think there'd be too much potential for gaming such a system if I understand it right. I can bet on who will win an election and that works out because a candidate won't throw the election in order to bet and win on his opponent.
That's not necessarily the case with startup X #119, particularly when I can set up startup X #120 with the same IP and concept and game things again.
Any start up that registers would have a stock price as they progress through creating a working product, adding a feature, filing a patent, publicity etc their stock price would go up or down based on who's trading on it. Only 1 unique stock trader per domain. or a valid telephone number maybe using automated verification. Something that has an external cost to entering but not an outright entry fee(legal reasons). The contests would only run like 3 months similar to Ycombinator.
The main thing to keep me from participating would be the distraction factor- rather than going through the unsexy fundamentals (making a good product and keeping it good) I'd be tempted to drive a different set of metrics. $10k is a powerful motivator, but not as powerful as making a living or hitting a grand slam.
The key to making this work is making it require very little additional effort on the startups themselves beyond what they'd ordinarily be doing.