"I have a business idea worth millions! Unfortunately, I can't reveal any details yet." Anyone involved in the startup scene is familiar with conversations like this. This raises the question: What is the true value of good ideas?
Thomas Alva Edison, Alfred Nobel, Arthur Fischer: There are many examples of inventors and geniuses who built industrial empires and achieved prosperity based on their ideas. Google's success is also unimaginable without an invention: the PageRank algorithm.
Disappointed geniuses
However, the focus on the business idea distracts from the core of entrepreneurship: Every company must survive in the market, regardless of how innovative it appears to its founder. The problem for many tinkerers, inventors, and prospective founders: They are too attached to their ideas, have an answer to every concern, and just knowthat the world has been waiting for them. Disappointment sets in when no one wants to invest their money in the revolutionary innovation. So many real and supposed geniuses found no investors, no market, let alone recognition.
Who wants to bet on a business idea?
A good idea can be worth its weight in gold, like a product the world has been waiting for. Looking back, the Fischer plug is one such invention that seems to have worked on the market. had to.
But what is a good idea and what only sounds good in the presentation? Talk is cheap. The trick is to predict what product and service the market will demand. For an idea to actually be worth millions, someone must be willing to invest in it—a bet on future success. However, without a functioning company that already generates revenue from the business idea, there's no evidence that the concept isn't just good on paper.
Practical proof counts
Openly discussing your own idea with others helps to break the tunnel vision and opens up new perspectives. Participation in competitions Founders can obtain expert feedback on their own market opportunities. Early contact with large companies can also pay off: Established players are familiar with market gaps and unsolved problems. In the best case scenario, they can even be acquired as future customers or partners. Ultimately, however, the truth lies in the market. Because money and value are only found there.
The lean startup is the method of choice for reducing uncertainty and proving your concept: Don't hide your idea in a secret chamber; instead, test it on the market. As quickly, cheaply, and under realistic conditions as possible. Whether this translates into a business case remains to be seen. Many successful startups today began with a completely different idea and only arrived at their eventual product and business principle after one or more pivots. Public discussions and tests don't always make it possible to maintain secrecy. However, in cases of doubt, entrepreneurs may simply have to accept the risk of being imitated.
So the message is: Don't get too carried away with your business ideas, forget about strict secrecy, don't be offended if no one wants to invest in your idea, and test as early as possible to see which ideas work and which don't. And even if you're really convinced of your own idea — the sentence „“I have a business idea that’s worth millions!” Unfortunately, no one will believe you until you prove it.
