Question from an online forum, answered by Mohan K, Editor @ MyDigitalStartup.net
Is it a good idea to start an idea factory using brilliant engineers?
Let us assume you have the funding ($$$s) and resources required to hire “brilliant engineers.”
You say “The idea is to let everyone work on whatever he wants and try to sell their ideas/theories/prototypes to a company that could really monetize it.”
It is unclear if you are looking at a google like model – Google engineers insist 20% time is not dead—it’s just turned into 120% time Taking a page out of google’s playbook, even the most brilliant engineers would need a catalyst – an idea or problem to solve – and not just ideate in a vacuum.
Ideation that happens during the course of such activity may eventually lead to monitization. However, the engineers will also have to be motivated to contribute towards direct revenue generation.
Botomline: to succeed, you need a mix of focused revenue-generation idea along with “ideation” time.