cross pond high tech

At this initial stage, IdeaMarket will award 5 percent equity in the nascent venture to the idea originator and 5 percent to members of the crowd who meaningfully improved the idea during the comment period. Initial investors, which may include IdeaMarket and/or IdeaLab, will get as much as 20 percent depending on the amount they invest and IdeaMarket will get “a small piece,” in Gross’ words, that will vary from deal to deal in return for facilitating this matchmaking process. Founding teams will therefore be left 60 to 70 percent of these companies, a fairly standard figure for accelerator-stage companies with some early angel investment.

It’s not unheard of for investors to publish problems or ideas that they’d like to back. Y Combinator’s Paul Graham famously published seven such “frighteningly ambitious startup ideas” in 2012, a list that includes the next great search engine and a replacement for traditional universities. Just last week, prolific angel investor Jason Calacanis wrote his tens of thousands of email subscribers to suggest a “Lord of the Flies, Battle Royale gauntlet” over fixing the market for residential real estate reviews. In perhaps the most spectacular example, last summer, Elon Musk published his initial designs for the Hyperloop, a ultra-high speed modern transportation system, and invited anyone with the ability and the inclination to take a crack at making it a reality.