Entrepreneur billionaire Mark Cuban posted an interesting challenge on his blog. He’s started a contests of sorts… post a business plan in the comments on his blog and if he likes it, he’ll fund it. There are a couple catches, like the business has to be cash-flow positive in 60 days, and profitable in 90 days.
Cuban’s stance is that getting innovative ideas out there, for anyone to try (the business plans are all visible to anyone looking at his blog) will help spark more startup businesses and in turn the economy.
I have to say – I completely agree with him. Throwing money at big banks and the failing auto industry only helps a very small segment of the economy (and they’re obviously not using the money wisely by what I’ve seen so far). I’d much rather see the government do something like Cuban – fund small businesses.
Small businesses are the largest employer in the Unites States. Reducing small business taxes for new startups, for instance, could spark some innovation. Chances are that a lot of the businesses would be started by people who were recently unemployed, and they would create jobs.
While I think it’s far-fetched to think the government will try to help small businesses (it seems only multi-billion dollar corporations are worthy), I think Mark Cuban is on to something. Just spreading some ideas and seeding a few small startups could start something, spark some growth.
I can’t believe there are almost 2,000 comments on Mark’s blog already for the contest. A lot of the commenters seem to be nervous about posting a business plan in a comment form but some commenters really are thinking about their pitch and I think it’s such a creative, fun idea to get your point across and possibly go somewhere with the idea.