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I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

grahamwahlberg.com

21–30 of 147 posts

Re: I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

#21
Love it. Two years ago I did this, and wrote a little something about it when I started:

"Why my code and ideas are public"

https://sivers.org/ws

I blogged about it to call attention to it for one main reason:

I wanted to see if anyone would "steal" the ideas.

Because it seems to be many (MANY) people's biggest worry about sharing any ideas: that someone will steal them. See the comments in https://sivers.org/how2hire for example. Also this from Jason Fried of Basecamp: https://twitter.com/jasonfried/status/683809719782215680

Anyway - it's been two years now, and nobody has stolen any of the ideas. It could just be that my ideas suck, but I suspect that the worry of people stealing ideas is nothing to worry about for any of us.

Re: I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

#24
post #21

Love it. Two years ago I did this, and wrote a little something about it when I started: "Why my code and ideas are public" https://sivers.org/ws I blogged about it to call attention to it for one main reason: I wanted to see if anyone would "steal" the ideas. Because it seems to be many (MANY) people's biggest worry about sharing any ideas: that someone will steal them. See the comments in https://sivers.org/how2hir…

People always say that it's about the 'execution' and not the 'idea', but it's still not a good idea to share your good ideas until you are sure you either will not use it or have already gone past the initial execution stage.

Why? There might be a person that has way more resources than you do (or is just better at executing) and will beat you to the market.

Re: I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

#25
I liked the hacker news for moms.

I throw in hacker news for Horologists. (I'm working on this now.)

Hacker news for collector car enthusiasts.

Hacker news for Jewelers.

When I was younger, I wanted to make/sell a chewing gum that that had an alkaline natural substance in it; something that would neutralize the acids in you mouth. Something you could use after eating lunch, or something sweet?

I imagine just chewing any type of gum would stimulate salivary glands, and subsequently reduce acids? I noticed a European country came out with a gum that claimed to netralize oral acids, but I lost track of it.

In high school, I hooked up a old military flight suit to my motorcycles alternator. It kinda kept me warm, but I didn't know enough about electronics at the time to make it really work. Later I wanted to better the idea, and sell the suits. Never did anything. I now see many different electric jackets/suits for motorcyclists. (I was so sick one year in high school. I remember showing up for class freezing, and wet, but I loved that old Honda.)

I kinda passed up a chance to get in on that plastic tooth pick/dental pick business. It wasen't my idea, but I worked for the inventor. I think if I treated him better, he would have brought me in. He handed over everything to his son, and financed everything. I really took off. At the time, I though he was just spoiling his kid, but he knew it was a great idea. He was an older Dentist who decided to market these dental tools to the public, and the plastic dental pick was genius, but horrid to our current enviorment. They are the pull tabs of my generation.

Re: I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

#26
post #21

Love it. Two years ago I did this, and wrote a little something about it when I started: "Why my code and ideas are public" https://sivers.org/ws I blogged about it to call attention to it for one main reason: I wanted to see if anyone would "steal" the ideas. Because it seems to be many (MANY) people's biggest worry about sharing any ideas: that someone will steal them. See the comments in https://sivers.org/how2hir…

People always say that it's about the 'execution' and not the 'idea', but it's still not a good idea to share your good ideas until you are sure you either will not use it or have already gone past the initial execution stage. Why? There might be a person that has way more resources than you do (or is just better at executing) and will beat you to the market.

That doesn't bother me with most of my ideas. Reason being, I have the idea because I want something that someone else doesn't provide, and I wish they would. I personally don't want to run a business. I'd rather someone who does take my idea, build the thing so that I get to use it.

I've jokingly said to my wife that I need to email some of these ideas to apple and google, because they have the capability to build them and then I'd get to have one.

Re: I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

#27
post #21

Love it. Two years ago I did this, and wrote a little something about it when I started: "Why my code and ideas are public" https://sivers.org/ws I blogged about it to call attention to it for one main reason: I wanted to see if anyone would "steal" the ideas. Because it seems to be many (MANY) people's biggest worry about sharing any ideas: that someone will steal them. See the comments in https://sivers.org/how2hir…

People always say that it's about the 'execution' and not the 'idea', but it's still not a good idea to share your good ideas until you are sure you either will not use it or have already gone past the initial execution stage. Why? There might be a person that has way more resources than you do (or is just better at executing) and will beat you to the market.

It's pretty unlikely that such a productive person or company would not have their own ideas on which they are already working. The only people who are interested in stealing ideas are people who don't know anything about building things. Lacking that constructive knowledge means they lack the basic foundation on which to riff ideas.

Re: I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

#28

I liked the hacker news for moms. I throw in hacker news for Horologists. (I'm working on this now.) Hacker news for collector car enthusiasts. Hacker news for Jewelers. When I was younger, I wanted to make/sell a chewing gum that that had an alkaline natural substance in it; something that would neutralize the acids in you mouth. Something you could use after eating lunch, or something sweet? I imagine just chewing…

I've been trying to research something similar to your alkaline natural substance recently. Did you ever come up with a good substance? One of the only things I can find with minimal side-effects is baking soda.

Re: I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

#30
post #29
post #20

I did something similar. I packaged up business ideas I wasn't executing, along with a domain name, logo and mini-business plan. I call them "StartJumpers": http://startjumper.com

This is clever. I'm curious if you've sold any?

Thanks tapp. A few inquiries, but no sales yet.
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