We started something along these lines at thesources.co. It’s more along the educational lines, but focuses on real startups sharing their lessons learned so others don’t have to learn the hard way.
As a different project, more mass media I’ve been talking to a Kenyan celebrity about hosting a reality show for humanitech startups targeting slum areas. The idea is that a Kibera entrepreneur learns from startup founders, deploying say, water filtration. Each show features a different technology and the trials and tribulations of making money with it.
Since it seems a lot of Africans look to “those sharp Kenyans” as technology leaders, the goal is to use Kibera as a demonstration to get these types of technologies deployed at a Pan-African scale more quickly. The tech businesses will be copyable at a local level, so distribution of the TV show leads to local entreprenurs bringing useful technology to their communities, while making money. We (Source Institute) will develop supporting educational material for those who actually want to run those businesses locally.
I just want to see these things happen, so happy to loop you into the conversation if it sounds aligned to you.
I only said that in response to the “don’t steal my idea” request, not in response to the idea itself. It’s not like reality tv, even for startups, is Jason’s original IP.
I like the idea. But let’s make it even more interesting. Crowd source key decisions. Everything from product features to hiring to marketing and sales approach etc.
Find a way to charge people a nominal fee to vote, and reward the group with the highest votes per decision with a t-shirt or some nominal gift.
Lol, a crowdsourced startup. This might be the actual original idea here. I cringe to even imagine how wrong things can go when you let the crowd make decisions. Let’s not even go into the quality of the decisions. Startups are supposed to be fast, crowds are by definition not, no matter how swift the voting process is. The fact that there is one in the first place is enough to “detract from the creative process”, IMO.
I had actually written somewhere in this discussion about having an online community to discuss strategies and perform analysis. …so your statement above is perfectly in sync with what I am thinking.
I believe the trick is not to throw every decision at the masses. Its more like having a strategy team to prepare and shortlist various options, then let the community decide which way to go. For example, having two product positioning options for the product, with each one having serious merits.
Again, some decisions would be clear cut, and wouldn’t need the community’s input.
@easibor My thoughts exactly. Multiple choice options for certain decisions. At the end of every episode have 2 to 4 key questions that need answers.
One could control by leveraging an external
Vetted voting committee (radar members in good standing for example), and go even further to filter the voting committee based on some quality metrics (education, business experience etc)
The key question that has to be answered first is: Is this a show that creates and runs a startup or a Startup profiled on a show?
I think it should be a show the former. Could be an awesome way to share some of the realities of running a startup in Nigeria.
