Formula to calculate the value of a startup idea

In which I present a simple formula to calculate how much an idea is worth.

How much is an idea worth? Most importantly, how much is your startup idea worth? Let us think about the subject using one iconic inventor: Thomas Edison.

Edison is known to be the inventor (among a ton of other stuff) of the electric lamp in 1879. Considering the amount of electric lamps that have been sold since then, imagine you could travel back in time to 1800 and invent the electric lamp. How much would your electric lamp idea be worth?

Thousands? Millions? Billions? Trillions? All the money in the world?

Now it is a good time to introduce the startup idea worth formula:

Idea = zero

“Zero? That’s not possible”, you say. And I retort, “Your idea is 100% worthless. Absolutely nothing, zero, nada, zip.”

Here is why:

Do you know the name Humphry Davy? I did not think so. Mr. Davy was the actual inventor of the electric light, in 1809, 70 years before Edison. And he was not alone, after Humphry Davy, 21 other people “invented” the electric lamp before Thomas Edison.

What the hell?

The difference between those 22 inventors and Edison is that the latter had business acumen and invented the first commercially viable and practical electric light bulb.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Implementation is the only thing that matters.

We do not need to go back in time, modern examples are abundant: Google was not the first search engine, it was just the best in doing that. Microsoft didn’t invent the graphical OS (and there are lots of arguments that it was not the best graphical OS available either). Apple didn’t invent the mobile phone. China didn’t invent manufacturing. Etc.

Conclusion: lose the NDAs and secrecy, your idea is worthless without proper execution.

“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
– Thomas Alva Edison