Big Cash For Big Information
Ever since the first gumshoe paid his favorite informant
$20 for the name of the doll that shot Mr. Big three times
in the head with his own .45, money has been the motivator
for getting the right information from those who have it.
Leap forward a few decades and the biggest payday was
recently made by Burt Rutan and Paul Allen who were paid
$10,000,000 bucks by the X Prize Foundation when their
private rocket made it into space. Sure the foundation also
got an event out of the money in the form of a space
flight, but make no bones about it, what they were really
paying for was the information about how to get a man into
space twice, with private money.
Such is the development of a growing trend to tap into
minds of geeks and creative entrepreneurs everywhere to
solve the riddles of today faster than normal progress
might allow, by offering an ever-increasing flow of large
amounts of money. In fact, the current X Prize Foundation
contest dangles another $10,000,000 for the winner of a
race between clean production-ready cars that exceed 100
MPG. The deadline is 2009 and 2010 and already there are 45
groups approved to at least qualify for the prize.
There are more:
$10,000,000 offered by Google and The X Prize Foundation
for a private mission to the moon, travel 500 meters, and
send data back to Earth.
$25,000,000 offered by Richard Branson to create a
commercially feasible way to remove greenhouse gasses from
Earth's atmosphere.
$10,000,000 offered by the X Prize Foundation to an
enterprise that can sequence 100 human genomes in 10 days
at a cost of $10,000 per Genome.
$1,000,000 offered by Netflix to improve automated movie
recommendations.
$1,000,000 offered by the Department of Defense to create a
lightweight garment that provides 20 watts of electric
juice for 96 hours.
$1,000,000 offered by the Clay Mathematics Institute to
solve seven unsolved math problems.
$500,000 offered by NASA to build a machine that
autonomously excavates simulated lunar rock during a timed
event.
$300,000 offered by CAFÉ Foundation, NASA to build a small
aircraft that is easy to operate as an automobile and has
an 800 mile range.
$400,000 offered by NASA to build a glove that makes it
easier for astronauts to manipulate objects.
These are just the start of the big money that will follow.
Yet, think about it. What does Sir Richard risk with
$25,000,000 if someone can give him a commercially feasible
way to eliminate greenhouse gases from earth. How many
hundreds of millions of dollars could he ultimately make
from that prize?
How to apply the big Idea.
Our goal in these pages is not to just present Big Ideas
but to present practical applications for our clients. Ask
yourself what mystery exists in your industry? How can you
use this concept of Cash for Information on a smaller scale
in your own Backyard?
Could a doctor offer a $50,000 prize for a commercially
feasible supplement to help his patients?
Could a pest control company offer a $25,000 prize for a
new non-toxic way to eliminate pests?
Could a local hospital offer a $1,000,000 prize for a cure
for Breast Cancer?
Could a Bank offer a $100,000 prize to solve a local public
service problem?
The answers are yes and the other ideas are endless.
Creating a prize particularly one with a noble cause to
help others would create great buzz for the company. Not
only would there be news articles on announcement of the
concept, but updates on the progress as well as news
coverage again at the end of the contest…particularly if
there was a winner. If the Prize was also designed around a
commercial application there would be ongoing press as well
as real profits form producing the products generated from
the discovery.
There are many real applications to this idea which you
could use on a small or large scale. You can do good, make
money, and get great PR. Not a bad triple punch.
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