Investing in ideas, not just startup companies. | Hacker News Reader

Investing in ideas, not just startup companies.

michaelrihani.com

28 pointsMichaelRihani11 comments

Ideas are cheap. Execution is the hard part.

Startups take devotion; and you don't get devotion with a bunch of random people collaborating on the web. Quirky could create some tiny gadgets that fill tiny needs, but this will never create a disruptive technology.

I understand, and I agree. That's why execution > idea. But that doesn't mean there isn't any good value in ideas. Good, great, and brilliant ideas are definitely worth a lot to great executors.

Great execution definitely requires devotion, execution, along with probably 100+ other traits.

If I'm a fantastic executor in the beverage industry, why am I not being connected to ideas like the Coke flavored ice cubes? That's just one example, but I'm sure there are hundreds of other great beverage industry ideas.

If my business forte is the sports industry, why are we not serving up those brilliant sports guys with awesome ideas?

Think of it like Aardvark meets ideas instead of questions. Think of it like Match.com meets ideas instead of singles.

Both ideas and execution are worthless unless you have a product-market fit.

Good addition. But wouldn't product-market fit be filed under execution? Before fully going forward, it's the executors job to analyze the market and make sure the product fits. If not (or the market changes or shifts), it'd be their job to pivot or tweak their execution plan.

I wanted to emphasized your comment. The ultimate goal of a startup is to create value (and its closest proxy i.e. money). The savvy entrepreneur will design a system in an "ecological " environnement that is part business, social, cultural... His startup is only a tiny part of that dynamical system. And he must take into account a incredible amount of fast moving details and/or have luck. But of all those parts the most important one is the idea. Not because in itself it's a special idea but because, a good idea, is a summary of an incredible amount of experience. To use an analogy, formulae in maths and science are beautiful not just because of their elegance but also because of all the thought process that engendered them and all the implications they have. IMHO an idea is the single most important value proposition of a startup and the part that need the most work.

>Ideas are cheap.

As a reasonably competent programmer with no good ideas for a startup, I look forward to your forthcoming list.

There have been several ideas lists posted on Hacker News already. Here are a few:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tOGIddn3rPdqKbHWsqaW...

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2756270 (post is titled Startup Ideas July 2011)

Thanks for the links Jared!

So what do you guys think? Can there be some kind of “idea bank” that seeds a brilliant idea to talented executors that then take that idea and turn it into a brilliant company?

For now, let’s codename it iCombinator or ideaCombinator.

It's called "knowing interesting people who think about the things they're engaged with but aren't programmers".

I did a little side project to learn programming. http://www.blueskycouncil.com it's more or less what you are talking about. I just never launched it. Feel free to take that over. PM me

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