Here is their website.
http://virtualstartupco.blogspot.com/
Here are the basics about the company. You can provide comments on each of these areas on the appropriate tabs listed above.
Elevator Pitch
Many people want to start their own business but either (a) never do because they don't have a good idea or (b) start and fail because they don't have experience thinking through key business decisions. Virtual Start Up Co addresses this...risk free! What is Virtual Start Up Co? Once a week we select one start up business to highlight on our site. All of our community members review the company, business model, and market and provide thoughts and analysis. Analysis is rated allowing community members to identify top commentary. At the end of the week, the founders of the company will respond to some of the top comments from the community (whether positive or negative).
How does this help? First, for the person that can't come up with an idea, the combination of being exposed to new business ideas and thinking through the business models of new businesses each week will force their mind to start thinking more entrepreneurial--and will allow them to recognize opportunities they are suited for that they would not have identified before. And, second, the process of thinking through a business, seeing comments from the community, and then hearing from founders after investing time to consider their business will lead to perspective and insight that will help anyone who is starting or will be starting a new business.
Learn how to think and be a great entrepreneur at Virtual Start Up Co before the financial and time commitment of a real Start Up Co!
Vision For the Company (How Did The Idea Come About?)
I had been wanting to start a business for a long time, but never had an idea. I started listening to entrepreneurial podcasts and watching entrepreneurial shows and I found that focusing on entrepreneurial areas led me to be more sensitive to potential new opportunities that I could create. I wanted to create a venue to facilitate the creativity mindset in others to allow them to start the process to work toward achieving their entrepreneurial desires.
Need That Is Being Addressed
Virtual Start Up Co will provide benefit to both the community members on the site and the start up companies that are highlighted.
#1--Allowing someone outside the entrepreneurial scene to come more "inside" that scene by forcing them to, first, think about the business opportunities of a business and then hear perspective from others and the founders themselves.
#2--For the companies which will be highlighted, it is an opportunity for the entrepreneurs to get visibility for their company to a large audience (all of our community members), get immediate ideas/feedback from a thoughtful audience, and share their ideas and vision for the company with the community.
Target Market
The target market is primarily individuals who are entrepreneurial minded and want to be exposed to thoughts and perspective of others. Entrepreneurial minded individuals are both individuals who are starting or want to start their own business as well as individuals who do not plan to start their own company, but want to use learnings/perspective from the entrepreneurial mindset within their responsibilities at a larger company.
Top Competitors
I'm not aware of anyone attempting to do exactly what is outlined here.
There are a number of media outlets which interview entrepreneurs/give thoughts on entrepreneurial topics. However, these do not require an initial investment of time/analysis by individuals and it is less interactive for the community members than Virtual Start Up Co.
Business Model (How Will You Make Money)
I plan to make money in two ways. First, when the community gets large enough then I will get advertisers who are targeting an audience of entrepreneurial-minded individuals.
In addition, eventually we will require a fee from companies that we highlight due to the amount of traffic and exposure they will receive from being highlighted on Virtual Start Up Co.
Additional Information
One concern is how do you incent people to comment. The way we will do that is that if you have not commented on a company, you will not be able to see other's comments for 1 month. After 1 month you will have visibility to the comments (allowing new community members to see the benefit of the comments and motivate them to comment on the current highlighted company). Everyone will be able to see the overview of the current highlighted company--the comments will be the only section removed.
So what prevents someone from stealing my great business idea after they have seen it posted here?
ReplyDeleteI'm with Becky. For example, what if I wanted to put Liminal Games up here? People wouldn't be able to give honest feed back if I don't tell them everything about the game. But if I do, what is stopping some big time game developer from taking my idea? And would you be comfortable posting about Born to Be at this point?
ReplyDeleteI think it is a good idea in theory, but that problem needs to be addressed
Guys--you are supposed to go to each tab to talk about specific points of the business. There is an elevator pitch section for overall business points (where these comments would both fit well in). A section for the business model, target market, etc. You have concerns with the target market it sounds like--highlight that and give a recommendation to improve it.
DeleteBut, to answer your points, I think a lot of the businesses would actually be businesses that already started. So, maybe after Liminal Games launched you could be highlighted and help to further hone your business idea (while exposing your game to the hoards of people who are on this site). I think that partly addresses your concern.
And, second, I actually think many times people are to concerned with others stealing their business idea. Most people will think your idea is stupid, and even if they don't, they aren't going to have the same passion around it to try to will it into existence as you. I would actually love to put Born to Be on something like this. I've gotten good feedback from all of you on it--just think if there was a whole community out there that could provide their perspective and feedback.
Virtual Start Up Co is actually much earlier than I'd envision any company being on here--but this gives us an opportunity to crowd source a business!
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