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Open Source Funding, From Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban, occasional loudmouth, frequent blogger and full-time owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, offers a unique opportunity to all those out there with a business idea seeking funding:
"...looking for an idea that hopefully could inspire people to create businesses that could quickly become self funding. Businesses that just needed a jump start to get the ball rolling and create jobs. Im a big believer that entrepreneurs will lead us out of this mess. I just needed a way to help.

"So here it is. Some people will love it, some will hate it. It is what it is.

"You must post your business plan here on my blog where I expect other people can and will comment on it. I also expect that other people will steal the idea and use it elsewhere. That is the idea. Call this an open source funding environment.

"If its a good idea and worth funding, we want it replicated elsewhere. The idea is not just to help you, but to figure out how to help the economy through hard work and ingenuity. If you come up with the idea and get funding, you have a head start. If you execute better than others, you could possibly make money at it. As you will see from the rules below, these are going to be businesses that are mostly driven by sweat equity."
Yes, Cuban wants your business idea. He might even consider funding it. Post it on his web site and see what happens, but be prepared to work harder than you ever thought possible.

Imagine what you could do by applying Cuban's open-source idea to your own organization. Create an innovation challenge and a few rules, post them on your corporate intranet (hmmm...using the intranet for something besides cafeteria menus...what a concept!) and see what happens.

Business development would no longer be the exclusive purview of the executive suite or a few favored physicians. Ideas might be offered far outside the usual "Let's develop cardiology and oncology and another outpatient MRI center..." box. Suddenly you'd have hundreds of people "ideating" instead of a few.

And feedback? Think about it...you'd create an instant referendum on an idea's merits. Now-voiceless people from all corners of your organization could suddenly FIND their voice, offering suggestions, feedback, comments, analysis and support.

And just as Cuban quickly discovered, you'd also give voice to cranks and naysayers, probably a few idiots and certainly those too arrogant to appreciate the democratization of ideas. That's OK too. Open-source means their voices move from "controlling" to just a few among many. They'll finally get drowned out and marginalized - which is, of course, where they belong and the point of open-source.

Here are 999 free-for-the-taking business ideas to jump-start your thinking. (Thanks to Seth Godin for the heads-up.)


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