What are some billion dollar startup ideas?
An online payment system in countries were there are none.Now i know what your thinking, online payment system? Ehhm have you never heard of Paypal …Well Paypal is next to being terribly run not available in for example Nigeria.Now you might be thinking, Nigeria? The weird country in Africa?Yes well apart from the weird.Nigeria ranks 7th in the worlds biggest countries by population.And Paypal isn’t fully available in Pakistan either so these are 2 giant markets open for you to disrupt.All you gotta do is build it and get it to those countries, there you go a BILLION DOLLAR IDEA.Now here is some advice if you are actually gonna pursue on this idea.Build a monopolyI am a big fan of Peter Thiel and his monopoly theory.In his book Zero to One he describes the importance of building a monopoly and avoiding competition.If you wanna learn more about it check this video Lecture 5 - Competition is for Losers (Peter Thiel)For those who don’t know a monopoly is a sector or industry which is dominated by one major player.Some examples of monopolies:Google which owns close to 90% of the search engine market.Microsoft which owns more than 90% of the operating system market.And Intel which owns more than 80% of the CPU market.Now Peter Thiel’s theory goes as follows.In order to build a monopoly you have to pick a small market, dominate it and scale.So you could either get businesses of Pakistan and Nigeria to use and ‘’promote’’ your product or you could simply copy Paypal and cooperate with companies such as Ebay so that they can set your payment method as default for those countries allowing you to gain users, market share and revenue.Hope this helps and that you will start this new billion dollar startup.
Where can I take my "million dollar idea" to make it reality?
Everybody has a million dollar idea and just wants someone else to do all the work, and then give them the money. That's not how it is done in the real world.You need to do the work, invest the money in creating your prototype, get any copyrights or patents that may be required, and then bring your prototype to investors to pitch your idea until one of them is willing to back you.It's very hard work, and usually requires substantial investment to be ready to pitch to investors.
Who can help me to contact investors and share my ideas with? I think I have a billion-dollar idea and no money to start it.
I am in the same situation as you. I had an idea of what kind of business I want to start but no connections or knowledge of how to start.Few months back a very good friend of mine and I started talking about it. He's currently working on a couple of amazing projects and he has the knowledge. We met for coffee and he explained how to start.Start with a business plan. You can't go anywhere without it. Is the idea good? Does it appeal to VC's and investors? Is it feasilble? Can the investor get his money back and earn more?Start by going to business incubators and find investors in your place of residence (shouldn't be hard to find). Not every idea turns into a company, yet alone a successful one. Make sure the investor sees value.“Whatever you're doing, you're creating value for someone else”.Feedback from the investors will guide you to the right direction. Listen what they have to say and prepare before going to the meetings with them. If the investor asks you a question you don't have answer to simply say that's why you're there.Good luck.
I have a billion dollar business idea. I guess that we have roughly 3-6 months before someone else stumbles upon this idea or comes at it from another angle. What investors should I speak with? Who should I avoid?
Find a champion! Find one credible industry player to buy in. The claim you make is 100x more compelling coming from the mouth of this respected person than you. Most Investors have heard a variation of this story before and their first instinct is not only to laugh at an NDA but to tear apart your plan - if they ever see it.But if Mark Zuckerberg - or Fred Wilson, Guy Kawasaki or even I, mentioned you in passing......If you have the right experience, a champion will find you. If not, you challenge is to develop that credibility by doing....building the product/site any way you can until the right people "get it." If you're lucky, the right people will be millions of customers rather than a few investors. You'll make a to more money that way![You should also read my book "Are You Fundable?" - section 1 now available: areyoufundable.com.]
I have a couple of epic billion dollar inventions, how do I find the right investor or person to run with it?
Choose one of the two. A couple of epic inventions is worth infinitely less than one.Stop calling it a billion-dollar invention. Don’t use that phrase again ever, or until it generates an actual billion dollars (whichever comes first).Patent it. Expect to do some hard work trying to do it yourself, or shell out some serious money for legal work.If and only if you have a good patent, that offers real commercial protection (not all patents do), partner up with somebody with related knowledge and experience.At this point, more than a year from now, you may be ready to start looking for investors. Listen to that partner you found and follow the next steps.If that doesn’t work, go back to step 1 above with the other invention.
How do I make $1 million dollars in 30 days?
As you've probably heard, it takes money to make money. So to make $1 million in 30 days would require either a large risk or a large amount of starting capital. It's easy to make $1 million dollars if you already have $100 million dollars to invest. It's a little harder if you only have $100. But let's break the seemingly impossible number of $1 million into realistic chunks. $1 million is just 10 $100k chunks, 100 $10,000 chunks, 1000 $1000 chunks or 100,000 $10 chunks. In other words if you can sell a product or service that nets you $1000, you only need to reproduce that thing 1000 times and you've made your $1 million. Which to do in 30 days would require you to sell your product or service approximately 33 times every day for 30 days, difficult, but not impossible. Again, these numbers scale up and scale down based on the value of what you produce and or your ability to market it. And ironically while it may be relatively easy to sell a $10 product, it may prove to be a challenge to produce and distribute it 100,000 times. And vice versa, finding 10 people willing to spend $100,000 might create it's own challenges. Either way it's far from impossible with the right creativity, focus and commitment. Most people have a million dollar idea sitting right under their noses, but only a select few have the courage and vision to follow through on them.