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The GodFodder
 
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 1/28/2008 9:24:38 PM
Posts: 119, Visits: 275 |
| | Entrepreneurs with crazy ideas. We've all seen them. Heck, maybe some of us are guilty of hoisting a nutso idea on the world. Over the years, I've had the pleasure/pain of reviewing thousands of business plans, requests for capital, and executive summaries. The vast majority were unworkable, not necessarily bad ideas, just unrealistic. But there is a special place in my hear for the truly bizarre, the truly weird, the truly nutso business idea. I love a good crazy story. So what are the craziest ideas you've seen?
Cheers! Bill
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"It doesn't take talent to write, it just takes pen and paper...or a computer." |
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The GodFodder
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 1/28/2008 9:24:38 PM
Posts: 119, Visits: 275 |
| | Since I started this thread, I'll start off. The Clear Plastic Talking Jesus Doll Some young sad sack of a wannabe entrepreneur had the idea that world was in dire need of a talking Jesus doll. The user would pull a string and Jesus would say all kinds of wonderful things. As I think about it, I don't know if the location of Jesus' string was determined. To allay the fears of politically correct types who are unsure if Jesus was white or Mediterranean or black or arab or American Indian or Japanese, Jesus' race was to be "undetermined." To accomplish this, the doll was going to be made of clear plastic. I guess "See-Thru Jesus" would not have been an appropriate name for the doll. Now, perhaps there is a market for this kind of product. But our entrepreneur wanted money ($100 mm, I think), to noodle around with a prototype (not yet built), then build a brand new state of the art production facility, and then hire a few hundred people, and then (finally) begin production of the doll. Not only was this idea bad, the execution of his plan was so over the top, that I'll never forget it. First off, the entrepreneur set me an email with about 10 or 12 attachments. For those who are unsure, this is bad form! One of the attachments regaled the reader with the historic bio of the entrepreneur. I use "historic" for a reason: the bio was little more than self aggrandizing hyperbolic word droppings. And worse, the entrepreneur referred to himself in the third person. The bio went something like this: "On the 4th day of April, 1975, a momentous event occurred that was destined to completely change the history of mankind: Alfred Xavier Petersworth Dilwhip Llewellen IV, was born in a small town outside of Erie Pennsylvania. The nurses and all his gathered family took one look at this child and knew he was going to change the world." And this flowery, self congratulatory prose continued for 8 or 10 pages. Ugh!
Cheers! Bill
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"It doesn't take talent to write, it just takes pen and paper...or a computer." |
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SophomoreFodder
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 7/14/2008 11:28:31 PM
Posts: 150, Visits: 461 |
| | Lets see. I could get a prototype together for @$10K (doubt it would take that, I'm thinking using great modlers and moldmakers.) Packaging and marketing design, I'll put that at anouther $10K. Outsourcing (I know evil word) to China, I figure I could get 300K units, including packaging, for Less then $500K. So lets see, I doubt that you would need more than $750K to get this up and running. Estimate that revinue would be about $1MM. Not venture worthy, but not a bad line of buisiness.
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The GodFodder
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 1/28/2008 9:24:38 PM
Posts: 119, Visits: 275 |
| I think there *could* be a market for such a product (although the clear plastic was a bit creepy IMO). It was the over-the-top flowery prose that really cracked me up.
Cheers!Bill
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"It doesn't take talent to write, it just takes pen and paper...or a computer." |
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Fodder Chief
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 3/4/2008 5:30:47 PM
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The GodFodder
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 1/28/2008 9:24:38 PM
Posts: 119, Visits: 275 |
| Ben Rowland (2/19/2006)
I think this one looks interesting: http://android-universe.com/ The amazing part is that is has a $150MM pre-revenue valuation. All I can think is: One of these days I'm going to have a party and introduce your website to the paragraph.
Cheers! Bill
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"It doesn't take talent to write, it just takes pen and paper...or a computer." |
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