Ask HN: Rate my idea - The Venture Matrix | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Rate my idea - The Venture Matrix

14 pointsjv222227 comments

Hi all.

I would be really keen to get as many people's input as possible on my idea described here:

http://justinvincent.com/page/100/how-to-trump-microsoft-google-twitter-facebook

To sum up... the post describes the Venture Matrix (working title). A new type of company incubator that itself is a new type of company that anyone can join... company 2.0 if you will. It’s a cross between the Borg, peer-to-peer networking, MMORPG, socialism and capitalism in their purest forms. The main principle behind the idea is to use proven software patterns to manage and delegate work required to create a new efficiency in the market of starting companies. An efficiency that has hither too been impossible.

The more people's feedback the better!

View on HN

You might be describing the next GitHub, but I think that arbitrary team-size and role limits probably make your concept less likely to produce something amazing than what's already there (does the 'pod' working on an API to connect Project X with Project Y really need a designers and marketers?)

P2P achieves the very simple task of reassembling a file: it works because the blueprint exists and the peers are just mindless drones. The wider OSS ecosystem works because people build what interests them and don't worry unduly about their efforts being uncompensated or the emergence of forks. Using the same principles to organise people to build something undefined, very big and purely profit driven sounds like a nightmare. And unfortunately you're also bound by rules set in place to regulate the status quo: when it comes to assigning equity based on levels of contribution that constantly in flux it's going to be a legal minefield

Anyway, if your idea ever kicks off you'll find me working on the pod that looks after the revenue collection... :)

At some point along the way, I’m not sure exactly what made me think of it, I had the revelation that the very creation of businesses is a centralized necessity… and, just like anything else it can be improved, refined and perfected.

Congratulations. You've just explained the vision behind http://fairsoftware.net

You skip over some issues with the implementation:

- anyone can join: in our experience, founders are quite paranoid with their ideas, so they'd definitely not let everyone have access

- how to determine who owns what: that's a major problem and I don't understand how you plan to address that. The way we solved it is to copy the way normal startups operate. The initial founders decide on a split, and then keep deciding on more stock issuance as time passes. Call it the manual method. What else do you have in mind?

"...a new type of company that anyone can join."

Letting anyone join is the first thing I'd reconsider. I applaud that you're thinking all-inclusive, but most entrepreneurs wouldn't want just anyone joining. They want skilled professionals who are easy to get along with --- people who are more signal than noise.

So the idea is basically to open-source a startup? Too many cooks in the kitchen comes to mind.

However, if you say, I own the idea, it's "X" and I need the following expertise: 2 developers, 1 designer, 1 marketing, then maybe you're onto something.

Freelancers that are looking to start a biz can look at all the available ideas and "bid" for the ones they want to work on. Sort of solves the mgmt issue problem we all face as the best ideas should bubble to the top and be competitive.

However, then you're back into siloed operations on a company-by-company basis. The devil is always in the details and unless you're involved in the day-to-day, I have a feeling you're going to miss out on a lot of the details...

Won't work. Real life collaboration is hard enough.

Having said that, here are a few ways you can mitigate the problem:

a) require vesting. If a person does less than, say, 3 equivalent months of full time work in 2 years, they have no claim.

b) automatic time bomb. If no work gets done on it over 12 months continuous, the project files become open source.

c) automatic nagging.

d) Make sure there's room for advisers, who get compensated with stocks. These people may bring contacts.

Roles doesn't help in a start up. Read Steve Blank.

Clickable: http://justinvincent.com/page/100/how-to-trump-microsoft-goo...

Take a look at http://zemerge.com/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com