Michael Karnjanaprakorn

As Arthur Rock, a venture capitalist associated with companies such as Apple, Intel, and Teledyne, states, “I invest in people, not ideas.  If you can find good people, if they’re wrong about the product, they’ll make a switch, so what good is it to understand the product that they’re talking about in the first place?” And to quote Thomas Edison, “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

So, does the idea really matter?  Are business plans even relevant today?  Are ideas worthless?

Quite simply…  YES.

We believe that investors and companies should invest in talent, and not ideas, especially those ideas laced with greed and profit.  There are companies already out there like Ooga Labs who “gives you the best of a start-up and a venture capital firm. You get the excitement, responsibility and learning of a startup plus the safety of having a portfolio of ventures. In terms of learning, you’ll probably see about eight “company starts” in four years, compared to seeing one at a traditional start-up, or zero if you work for a big company.”  The teams at Ooga Labs are allowed to work on more than one idea at a time.  The idea is NOT the King.

So, imagine a business model where you could incubate talent, and not ideas.  It’s not a new concept.  This essay from 1998 reiterates, “the best venture-capital organizations now incubate people, not ideas.  These people work as venture capitalists until they see an idea they like, and then they go run it with financing from their erstwhile employer.”

And to close, the rules are different today.  It’s no longer enough to be “productive” or “hard-working.”  This article I read about work ethic makes some amazing points.  “When the “information age” started replacing the “industrial age,” hard work seemed more important than ever… Silicon Valley corporate culture, from tiny startups to the massive Googleplex, emphasizes long hours and feverish work.  But since the turn of the new millennium, the nature of work has evolved to the point where hard work is becoming less important to a successful work ethic than another, more useful value: attention.”

The secret to creative entrepreneurship?

Invest in talent and make sure they don’t have ADD.  Yep!