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Steve has ideas… lots of them. Too many, in fact. The worst part is he thinks each idea is a good one. “The one” as he calls them. “The one” that’ll let him retire early & rich. However, his ideas typically are based on the same, underlying concept, which I don’t believe in. Build up lots of members, make the service ad-supported, and sell it to someone who wants the user-base.

First, getting “lots of users” is hard. Think of an auction site, like eBay. What comes first, the buyers, or the sellers? Why would a seller pay to list their items if there’s no buyers looking for them, and why would buyers look at the site, if nobody is selling anything? Steve’s last big venture had the same problem… advertisers & users. Users wouldn’t learn how to use the system if there are no advertisers, and advertisers wouldn’t pay to advertise on the system, if there were no users. It was a flop.

Steve isn’t happy with a hit, or even a homerun. He’s looking for a lead-off grand-slam (hard to do, right?). I keep telling him, “baby steps”, but he never listens.

Until now.

Steve has an idea that can be launched with only 1 user, and he begin earning him revenue right away. Of course, 1 user may only earn him a few bucks per day, but the point is the system does not need 10,000 users to be successful.

When he first pitched the idea to me, it took about 35 minutes and I was very, very confused when he was done. He went back, simplified it, and told me again. This time, it took under 10 minutes, and I saw potential. The other night, he came over, we chatted for a couple hours, and broke the idea down into phases that could be launched over time. Phase 1 is very, very simple but still beneficial to the users, and Steve can make money. Phase 1 can be “sold” to potential users in under 2 minutes. Sign-up is a breeze, and users can start using the system in under 10 minutes, seeing results right away.

Is Phase 1 the whole thing? No. But why build the entire system if users don’t even embrace the Phase 1 elements? It’s still going to take quite a bit to get Phase 1 off the ground, but when he does, I think this project is going to keep him very busy and motivated for some time.

Good job on an idea I support, Steve! First one in 15 years

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 9:22 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.