Ideas For Your Next Tech Startup

prostoalex writes "Business 2.0 magazine enumerates tech ideas that venture capitalists are currently interested in, listing the amounts they have ready to invest." From the article:"A column that appeared on Business2.com the next day described the company Armstrong envisioned and his wish list of criteria. Those who thought they had the right stuff could send Armstrong a business plan. A few weeks later, Armstrong had a new gripe: He'd received more than 20 solid plans and couldn't decide which of three finalists he wanted to fund -- not just for $1 million, but for as much as $5 million. He has since winnowed the list down to two. That got us thinking. Why not ask dozens of VCs a tantalizing (but often unasked) question: What types of ideas would you fund tomorrow if the right pitch landed on your doorstep? After a few weeks of trolling Sand Hill Road and beyond, we got 11 leading venture firms to spill their most promising business ideas -- and to pony up $50 million in funding to the entrepreneurs who can pull them off. "

Comments

In Soviet Russia...

[ktakki]

...Sand Hill Road trolls you!

Seriously, though...

This isn't a new idea. Twenty years ago, I was trying to raise funds to build a recording studio. A friend of mine, studying for his MBA at Harvard brought me a spiral-bound book that listed VC firms categorized by the fields that they were interested in (e.g., biotech, software, hardware, defense, etc.). All of them were way out of my league, but it made for interesting reading, in a "follow the money" sense.

Ten years after that, when I was involved in a dot.com startup, we ended up pitching to some of the VC firms listed in that spiral-bound book (on Wall Street, not Sand Hill Road).

From what I've gathered from the experiences of friends involved with vulture captial funding, it's a last resort, the only option if angel funding, friends and family, and lines of credit don't pan out.

k.

75% Of these ideas are patented

[kromozone]

I have personally overseen the patenting of at least 75% of these ideas. Considering that's just within my own firm, and without a reviews of the prior art, any firms attempting to implement these concepts will probably be faced with serious legal obstacles.

Artificial Intelligence Needs Venture Funding

[Mentifex]

Er, could anybuddy spare a few coins for Open Source Artificial Intelligence?

You don't even need to fund an unknown AI startup. Just hire some hotshot programmers and Steal.This.Idea!

It's all described in the scientific literature of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
Be the first on your block to launch the Hard Takeoff of a Technological Singularity.

Re:Artificial Intelligence Needs Venture Funding

[Elektroschock]

Good idea, but what business can be build up with projects like opencyc?

http://opehncyc.sf.net/

Who needs AI? Why do AI solutions not scale? Whenever AI people sell "usable stuff" it is exaggerated. Whenever AI people provide nice stuff you do not know what to do with it.

where is the japanese 5th generation computer gone?

Who uses AI expert systems?

Why isn't there prolog installed on my machine?

Where are the neuronal network processor chips?

Why do search engines need no AI semantic net or AI language analysis.

why is there no fulltext translation tool?

Why are AI problems usually solved by non-AI methods?

Cell Phone Auth

[ki85squared]

$5M Mobile ID for Credit Card Purchases
WHAT HE WANTS: Fraudproof credit card authorization via cell phones and PDAs.

Google could make a cool five million from this since they already use similar technology now when signing up for a Gmail account. (more info on their account creation page)

Re:Think about it

[rossifer]

Do you really think these guys would give their really choice ideas for free?

Yes. Everyone has a few great ideas floating around, but very few have what it takes to convert a good idea into a viable enterprise. Being able to lead people, make a plan, ignore the plan, and ultimately being willing to do what it takes to make a success of a good idea are a vanishingly rare set of skills.

The ideas themselves are a dime a dozen.

Regards,
Ross

Re:Starting a Company

[Jeff Molby]

I think his point was along the lines of "there are very few startups that should have 34 employees before they're pulling in any revenue."

A hardware startup may justify that kind of upfront effort, but I would think most software startups can get a couple versions of their product out in the field before needing to grow to 30+ employees.

Ideas don't count for very much

[Error27]

Lots of people have ideas. Imagine you're a VC and someone proposes an idea and you think it's pretty good. Obviously the first thing you are going to do is see who else is doing similar stuff to gauge the competition.

If it really is a good idea then there are always going to be a couple other startups doing exactly the same thing. So now the question is should you fund the first guy or not. Or maybe you should fund the competition?

What really counts is the team. Do they have what it takes to make the idea into a product and beat the competition? A great team can take any idea and adapt it into a profitable company.

Critique

[pfafrich]

Oh dear, oh dear, if this is the best VC's can come up with, I pitty America. Most of these ideas will fail for the simple reason that they can't start small and build from there.

• Mobile ID for Credit Card Purchases. Only workable if it can gain sizable market share, if it gains 5% share its useless. Not suitable for a startup could work for the big players with the resources and contacts to make a global standard.
• Back Office Bank Syndicate. So your really expecting all the banks to throw away all their code. Persuade banks to turn over their proprietary code to a team of software buffs who will repackage and debug the apps and then sell them as a subscription service to participating members. Is this guy serious?
• The Ultimate Online Upsell. $5 Million for Software to handle user recomendations to basically do what Amazon does with market cap of $x billion! I guess some companies would by this, but only if it fits with the existing software they have got. I suspect this stuff is already in the included in most packages in the field. Patents anyone?
• Subscription PC's for Seniors. Could work I know my Mum would just want a PC which works and does the basic stuff. Does not need VC funding as your local PC shop could offer such a service.
• AN EVEN SMARTER SMARTPHONE. a software platform for cell phones that allows consumers to make purchases or open doors by waving their phones in front of tiny infrared or RFID readers. Security nightmare, steal the phone make the purchace. Breaks fundamental properties of security. Another idea which only works with golbal standards.
• OPEN-SOURCE IT CENTER. A startup that can create a suite of open-source applications for maintenance and upkeep of a company's IT backbone. It would give away the programs to corporate clients but charge for service and upkeep at a substantial discount off current rates. Redhat? I can see a market for this sort of thing.
• SOCIAL NETWORKS MEET THE TOWN CRIER. There are a thousand and one site already doing this.
• CUSTOMER SERVICE OVER IP. Security, basically sending your personel details.
• Board Now

The Open Source IT centre did seem useful