Comments on: All You Need is a Great Idea

By: mark

mark — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 13:44:20 +0000

hey paul like what i read .i have a provisonal patent on a product for the home shower that will make life better for all who use it.but dont know where too find a invester .can you help

By: yemi

yemi — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:55:09 +0000

Paul,
I have a great idea for a website. Cant promise it would be the next google, but there is a market for it both in the student sector and in the professional world. I am a financial analyst and i know the need for a website such as this would be desired by lots of people who jobs would depend on it. I have limited progamming knowledge and no experience in starting a web company. How do i go about starting such web site?

By: carruthers

carruthers — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 11:36:27 +0000

I don’t think I fully agree that a great idea is necessary; just a simple one. YouTube is incredibly simple, as is Ebay. It also takes believing that this simple idea is so crazy that it just might work, and making it work.
Failing simplicity, there is plenty of room on the nets for copycats. Take a present idea and make it better.

By: Justin Freeman

Justin Freeman — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 21:10:39 +0000

Sorry I did not provide and email address in the body of my post. Please contact Justin Freeman at deandra.m@juno.com, thank you.

By: Justin Freeman

Justin Freeman — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 21:09:20 +0000

I donâ€™t think that your services will be in line with what I need, but I am hoping that you might be able to provide me with information on where to look to get that information. I have two inventions what my wife, friends, close family and I feel are two very good ideas that I have turned into inventions. I have created a prototype for one of the inventions and created very detailed drawing on how to design and manufacture my other invention as well as a drawing showing the function of this invention. I am looking for help in finding out how I could get someone to look at my inventions (after signing a confidentiality agreement) and with no liability on their part say one way or the other if they felt my two inventions were marketable inventions. Secondly I am searching to find someone that would be willing to invest in either of my inventions to get the ball rolling so to speak. I have a great deal of confidence in my inventions one of which I brought to life 5 years ago and still feel is a good idea.

Thank you for taking the time to read my message and I hope to hear from you soon.

By: Manan

Manan — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 13:11:58 +0000

I have great Idea that going to make major improvement in 21 Century, I would like to get some investor to bye my IDEA that no one has ever thougt of I have Wireless IDEA that is going to make major improvement can you please have someone contact me at my e-mail address mananbtripathi@yahoo.com. I also have some of the things that are going to make major 21 invention ……..

By: Don Wilson

Don Wilson — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 05:38:00 +0000

Just so you guys know, there are developers out there (like myself) willing to provide services in order to get a fair share if an idea comes along. You can hire someone or you can save your money and go into business with a developer if he/she is interested enough in your idea as well.

By: Greg Ashbaugh

Greg Ashbaugh — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:27:27 +0000

You know, I had a great idea once. It was a “Jump to Conclusions” mat. You see, it would be this mat that you would put on the floor… and would have different CONCLUSIONS written on it that you could JUMP TO.

lol… couldn’t resist.

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Thu, 31 May 2007 02:01:22 +0000

Thanks for the comment David!

By: David Beatty

David Beatty — Thu, 31 May 2007 01:53:58 +0000

Paul, with your attitude and forward-thinking, I think you’re sure to be successful and happy no matter what. I’ve been reading your blog for several months now. I’m 2 months shy of my 19th birthday, a university student in Canada, and to me you seem remarkably accomplished already. I’m really interested in the web, applications, etc…but CS isn’t my program so I’m lacking in knowledge to implement my own ideas.

That said, this post has actually made me rethink my education choices somewhat. I’m a long way from making a big dramatic change, but you’ve got my gears turning. Thanks for the intelligent and thought-provoking post, and good luck with your endeavors.

By: Adam Teece

Adam Teece — Wed, 30 May 2007 15:14:18 +0000

Andrew Swihart, my favorite definition of luck is “when opportunity meets preparedness” and opportunity is always there.

By: Micah

Micah — Wed, 30 May 2007 05:23:41 +0000

I have my great idea!

By: Andrew Swihart

Andrew Swihart — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:02:28 +0000

You NEED luck. A good idea is often unnecessary.

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Tue, 29 May 2007 23:15:05 +0000

@Phil Freo – definitely. You, Me, Dimitry, Richard, etc… Super Startup. :-)

By: Phil Freo

Phil Freo — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:27:09 +0000

Paul,
I’m with you completely… I’m one to think that all you need is a “good” idea and to execute it well. While creating the next Google would be amazing of course, there are plenty of smaller opportunities that would certainly be worth pursuing. It’s been a tough thing for me to decide between creating free / ad-supported services or paid services (although a compromise seems to usually win). Also, does one create tools that solve problems or try to create a community which adds all the value to the site? Sometimes I struggle with myself that I can’t come up with some “great” idea, other times I just think I should go out and pursue the ideas that I do have.

We should definitely work together on something in the future though.

By: Kelsey Ruger

Kelsey Ruger — Tue, 29 May 2007 19:39:46 +0000

Great post Paul. Funny thing about me and my need to fill up time with innovative and interesting things to do….When I read Tim’s book it probably didn’t have the effect that Tim wanted. It’s helping free up time so that I can do more stuff (with the idea of doing stuff later).

By: Adam Teece

Adam Teece — Tue, 29 May 2007 10:48:11 +0000

Hey Paul,
I really liked this post. I’m on deployment and just got the 4-Hour Work Week and I am rather excited to try to implement some of the ideas. I’m currently reading the Principles of Beautiful Web Design and CSS: The Missing Manual as well. I also jot down every little idea I have in a little notebook, because who knows when I might feel squirrelly enough to take one and turn it into a business somehow.

By: Chris Marshall

Chris Marshall — Tue, 29 May 2007 08:47:51 +0000

@Paul – you know I knew that, just didn’t register for some reason!!! Anyway is that twitter ticker a self code job or a plugin? I used to have a twitter plugin but it sort of took up too much space :-(

By: In pursuit of big ideas at charisma:18

In pursuit of big ideas at charisma:18 — Tue, 29 May 2007 07:57:00 +0000

[...] Stamatiou just posted on a similar topic as well. And seeing that he has 33 replies, I’m going to assume it’s an interesting [...]

By: Joey Primiani

Joey Primiani — Tue, 29 May 2007 05:19:27 +0000

Great article Paul! There is not a day that goes by for me either where I am not building a web service or thinking of a new one. Fortunately, I promised myself that this summer time off to use the opportunity to settle down on one project and focus on it. Keep up the great work Paul!

By: Andrew Swihart

Andrew Swihart — Tue, 29 May 2007 04:24:09 +0000

I thought I would add, I didn’t get much from your article. I have read articles like it in the past, that filled me with a sense of wonderment and adventure. Then I realized, that’s all these kind of articles do.

You get a very small amount of really LUCKY people who make it big, and they talk forever about how easy it was, and how sorry they feel for people who don’t have any self motivation to succeed financially. It’s just an empty psychological build-up to nothing for most people.

But hey, how could so many people be wrong? After all, becoming filthy rich and having the time of your life doing it is pretty damn enticing. It sells almost as well or better than sex. Next time throw a pic of a hot chick in the article, that will really keep us salivating.

By: Andrew Swihart

Andrew Swihart — Tue, 29 May 2007 04:17:45 +0000

Paul, are you gonna go the way of the entrepreneur who teaches people how to become entrepreneurs? That’s a pretty played out field, but there seems to be no end to the amount of money to be made from it, selling books especially. That’s when the cash really starts to flow. Good luck!

By: Brian Aldrich

Brian Aldrich — Tue, 29 May 2007 03:45:54 +0000

Long time reader, thanks for this post. Very uplifting!

By: Ash Haque

Ash Haque — Tue, 29 May 2007 02:35:36 +0000

Damn it, I followed your links to DTD and I just played that for the last 20 mins =\

By: J. Bryan Scott

J. Bryan Scott — Mon, 28 May 2007 23:27:13 +0000

On the subject of the ‘unconference’ – a few of the startups here at UF and Inflexion Capital got together at the end of the semester and had something like this.

Have you heard of Open Coffee Club movement (good description by RWW here: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_open_coffee_club_movement.php) ?

I think they are trying to encapsulate something like this, but the focus seems to be more on forging VC-entrepreneur relationships.

The problem inherent with a meeting like Andre describes is intellectual property disputes. I’d be fine with it on a peripheral level, but we’d need some pretty creative and broadly written NDAs / NCAs.

One trait I have found ubiquitous among entrepreneurs – even college-aged kids who simple ‘dabble’ – is the reluctance of talking about a new idea with others for fear that they will steal it. In my experience, even ideas that seem utterly stupid to me after their disclosure are nonetheless closely guarded by their keepers.

If participants in an ‘unconference’ wrote up their ideas (to define a clear scope to each idea) and signed disclosure & competition agreements with each other prior to disclosure, I think it would be problem-free and overall an awesome experience.