Selling ideas – the future of jobs

• Author: Sandeep Chatterjee
• Position: Founder & CEO, EVx

In line with this trend, the true value of a product or service is becoming more about its underlying idea and less about its implementation. In this context, larger companies typically have the operational and marketing capabilities to translate ideas into commercial products and to bring them to market quickly and cost-effectively. What these companies may lack, however, is a steady flow of good ideas to generate value in a sustainable way. Many individuals, on the other hand, including college students, professors and professionals, have great ideas but lack the means or know-how to commercialize them. How can these often brilliant ideas be harnessed? What needs to be done to connect these ingenious and creative individuals with the companies that have the interest and the means to bring their ideas to market?

That is where I believe the Emerging Ventures Exchange platform (EVx) and its global ideas network have a role to play.

The beginnings of the EVx ideas network

Since the early 2000s, I have been running an intellectual property (IP) and commercial litigation company in the United States, and have been working with the largest companies and law firms in the world on IP valuation, commercialization and litigation issues. Also in the early 2000s another of my companies was involved in a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) project to build one of the first secure e-banking platforms for the millions of people around the world who do not have access to banking services. The project was successfully piloted in Uganda, and subsequently rolled out in other countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. I soon realized, however, that the people we were serving – in semi-urban, rural and remote communities – had little or no money to transact with the bank. What they really needed was a reasonable source of income!

The EVx platform gives people the chance to earn money from their ideas without bearing the risks associated with starting a company.

Time and again when travelling in emerging market countries, I encountered college students, academics, professionals and others with great ideas for new products and services or ways of improving existing ones. Unfortunately, many of those ideas simply fell by the wayside because the people who hatched them lacked the resources and the relevant connections to commercialize them. Even if they did connect with investors or companies, they found it difficult to communicate and...