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VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

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Re: VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#11

Post by graycat »

smartwater wrote: post #2

Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. Show investors traction, growth, or profit — if you can't reach any of those milestones, rinse and repeat until you do — now you're ready to talk to investors, but wait, now you've reached a point where you don't need investors anymore. I actively avoid entrepreneurs that are looking for an investment as a form of business validation. An entrepreneurs job is…

>Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters.

Bad ideas are a dime a dozen. Ideas that are good and early on have solid evidence that they are good are rare.

Here are some ideas that, just as ideas, should be valuable to VCs:

(1) An algorithm that shows that P = NP and is fast. Why? Because it could commonly save 5-15% of costs in transportation, logistics, Internet backbone design, manufacturing, and allocation of resources more generally.

(2) A computer operating system that is nearly 100% compatible with Windows and can run any software safely, even malware.

(3) An algorithm that can implement the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, that is, factor integers of thousands of digits into a product of prime numbers quickly.

> but wait, now you've reached a point where you don't need investors anymore.

Not exactly true in all cases, but there is a major point here. E.g., recently I added the cost of high quality parts for a server in a mid-tower case -- 8 core processor at 4.0 GHz, 32 GB of ECC main memory, 10+ TB of hard disk -- ~$1500. Can get a wire rack shelf unit from Sam's Club, 18" x 48" x 72", and could put about 12 of those servers on a rack. That's a LOT of computing. If have a Web site that can keep that computing busy and send with the Web pages ads at, net, $2 per 1000 ads sent, can support a family in style:

Suppose can send a Web page for 400,000 bits, have 4 ads per page, half fill upload bandwidth of 15 Mbps 24 x 7, and get paid $2 per 1000 ads displayed. Then get monthly revenue of

2 * 4 * 15 * 106 * 3600 * 24 * 30 / ( 2 * 400,000 * 1000 ) = 388,800

dollars. A year of that and have as cash as much as many series A equity rounds.

Re: VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#13

Post by random_user »

crindy wrote: post #8
random_user wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. And you are right. And if I had done absolutely nothing in my life. If I was a kid either dropping out of school or just out of school your sermon would be well applied. I'm not. After over thirty years of entrepreneurship I tend to use "idea" to really mean "opportunity". Most ideas are utterly worthless. They are great as thinking tools. Never stop genera…

The problem isn't the word "idea". It's the fact that you haven't gotten past the part that's in your head. You can't be sure that an idea is an opportunities until you've put them out there and seen if you can get them any traction.

With respect, I think you are drinking too much of the cool-aid. Yes, in general terms you are right. The difference is that if you have thirty years of entrepreneurship under your belt, having tried, failed and succeeded you should develop a good sense of the good, the bad and the ugly. I am not coming here as an idealist who's never done a thing to proclaim I can save the world.

No. I have logged somewhere in the range of 500 ideas over the last three years. Most are not what I would consider to be opportunities. And that's the way it usually goes. I am fairly certain there are a few that are very interesting and, yes, they are true opportunities waiting for funding and execution. One of them is based on years of using similar services in the context of running my own business and then realizing there's an interesting approach that could do very well. The other, as I said in another comment, is one that's the result of constantly thinking and being involved in one way or another in a couple of market segments and finally having "seen the light" that connects the two worlds. The markets are there for the taking. It's all about funding and execution.

Re: VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#17

Post by [deleted] »

graycat wrote: post #11
smartwater wrote: post #2

Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. Show investors traction, growth, or profit — if you can't reach any of those milestones, rinse and repeat until you do — now you're ready to talk to investors, but wait, now you've reached a point where you don't need investors anymore. I actively avoid entrepreneurs that are looking for an investment as a form of business validation. An entrepreneurs job is…

>Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. Bad ideas are a dime a dozen. Ideas that are good and early on have solid evidence that they are good are rare. Here are some ideas that, just as ideas, should be valuable to VCs: (1) An algorithm that shows that P = NP and is fast. Why? Because it could commonly save 5-15% of costs in transportation, logistics, Internet backbone design, manufacturing, and a…

[deleted]

Re: VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#18

Post by runjake »

smartwater wrote: post #2

Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. Show investors traction, growth, or profit — if you can't reach any of those milestones, rinse and repeat until you do — now you're ready to talk to investors, but wait, now you've reached a point where you don't need investors anymore. I actively avoid entrepreneurs that are looking for an investment as a form of business validation. An entrepreneurs job is…

You probably should've examined the OP's link at the top of his post so you could've avoided posting this embarrassing comment.

He has extensive execution experience and from his comments on HN, it's fairly easy to track down who he is.

Re: VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#19

Post by [deleted] »

random_user wrote: post #10
mcintyre1994 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see why your opportunities are any better than ideas, aren't they just your really good ideas? The opportunity is surely for you to execute it now, because to everyone else it's just a really good idea?

No. An opportunity is an idea connected to a market need. There's more than one way to connect an idea to a market need. One case is where the market already exists either entirely or to some degree and you have a solid idea of how to make it better: iPhone. Another is where you are the target market yourself and know the market very well. You see the need. You see the pain points and you are equipped to address them…

[deleted]

Re: VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#20

Post by Cardeck1 »

graycat wrote: post #11
smartwater wrote: post #2

Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. Show investors traction, growth, or profit — if you can't reach any of those milestones, rinse and repeat until you do — now you're ready to talk to investors, but wait, now you've reached a point where you don't need investors anymore. I actively avoid entrepreneurs that are looking for an investment as a form of business validation. An entrepreneurs job is…

>Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. Bad ideas are a dime a dozen. Ideas that are good and early on have solid evidence that they are good are rare. Here are some ideas that, just as ideas, should be valuable to VCs: (1) An algorithm that shows that P = NP and is fast. Why? Because it could commonly save 5-15% of costs in transportation, logistics, Internet backbone design, manufacturing, and a…

I agree. The reason people think ideas are "a dime a dozen" is because everyone overrates their ideas and you can't really measure the value of an idea unless it's executed. However, I must admit that after years of experience I must say the statement is not really true. 80% of the ideas suck. Plain and simple.

It doesn't matter if you are in the Valley or if you are super smart, some people are not made to create/innovate, only execute based on someone's idea. But those people who are able to create are an exception.

Have you ever met someone without a degree or any experience, looking at your product and telling you 100 ways to improve it?I met a guy/wonderkid or whatever that was able to do just that, and he is working for a hedge fund now as far as I know. It took him 20 min to give us an entire improvement plan on how to increase revenue without any papers or anything prepared.We had even backup plans and future competitor moves. He basically humiliated my A+ employee stars who were struggling for months.I was shocked.

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