Giving Away Business Ideas

[jdoc]

It's been a long time since I've been on these boards - don't know if I still qualify as a 'young' entrepreneur or not but wanted to get the community's thoughts on a subject.

How many of you find yourself coming up with lots of business ideas that you know you'll never get around to capitalizing on (e.g. you're already too busy, not that interested in the market, not enough expertise, etc.)? Would you ever consider giving away these business ideas?

I am thinking about putting together a site that will allow entrepreneurs with excess ideas to share them with others who may be looking for their next opportunity. The people doing the sharing would get exposure for their current venture(s), plus the benefit of paying it forward, or possibly finding someone who can help you actually bring your idea to fruition.

So, would you be willing to let others in on your ideas that you doubt you'll ever capitalize on?

[akula]

errr.. yea talking shop, chatting about possible business opportunities is what entrepreneurs do by definition..no one likes founders that dont share ideas. nothing to chat about with people like that.
in terms of the website, don't bother..no one cares
the most committed effort to this kind of crowdsourcing was Cambrian House, Home of Crowdsourcing
..but in the end it's all rubbish..there is no opportunity in these websites where people discuss possible startup projects
these sites fail for a number of reasons..can't be bothered listing them all..
it's to do with a number of factors like quality screens etc..

[KyleXY]

How many of you find yourself coming up with lots of business ideas that you know you'll never get around to capitalizing on (e.g. you're already too busy, not that interested in the market, not enough expertise, etc.)? Would you ever consider giving away these business ideas?

I never let expertise or capital get in the way of running with an idea. If I'm not interested in a market, I would never bother coming up with an idea for it in the first place. Therefore the only thing I can think of is if I'm already involved with doing something and don't have time to execute on another idea. With that, I agree with Akula. I talk about ideas all the time and openly and freely with those around me. However I wouldn't go through the extra effort of trying to post the ideas online. That's just me personally though. If it's something you want to do, maybe you should test it out. That's the best I can offer in terms of advice. I will say in the past I have given ideas away I was too busy to work on myself but again, I wouldn't go out of my way or exert effort to do that.

[Parvaze]

I'm with you guys, I'm constantly thinking through and discussing different ideas but would not take the time and/or effort to go out of my way to post them on a web site somewhere. Even if I were inclined to post them, there would be no incentive to do so as my current business only works with physicians so getting exposure in return for posting wouldn't benefit me in any way unless the site had a significant number of medical doctors.

[JKansas]

I agree with these guys mostly. I like the intelectual side of entrepreneurship. As a thought experiement I run my mouth constantly, more of thinking out loud. I'm usually happy to help when I can if a fellow business owner has a quesiton or thought to develop. It keeps me sharp and I like other people's opinions/criticisms of my ideas.

I think your site already exists HERE. No, that's not a link! People here gain exposure and share ideas. No there isn't a running list of free ideas to take, but there is a lot of info and help that I have seen and that is more of what this type of "community" is about.

[acaps]

It's funny, this topic was the motivation to starting VentureRate. The idea is to give entrepreneurs a place to post and discuss their business ideas and get feedback on them...

[jonn655]

Helping one another not only creates friendship (perhaps that's what is needed these days) but also there could be areas where you can form a mutually beneficial partnership. That's why these discussion forms serve a good purpose.

[akula]

It's funny, this topic was the motivation to starting VentureRate. The idea is to give entrepreneurs a place to post and discuss their business ideas and get feedback on them...

Today | KillerStartups.com has been doing this for a while...they're successful...i don't see why though..

[jonn655]

The site that has been linked in the above post has good information, for entrepreneurs; good to go through it. Thanks.