Startup Ideas: Is There Value In Ranking Creators?

I work on fresh and new startup ideas every single day. Yet, this is the first time that I am writing about the venture. Why did I not write about my ideas in the past? Well, every entrepreneur can relate to what I am about to say.

If you are a budding entrepreneur, your latest startup idea is your golden goose; your secret map to a treasure chest; your guiding light to enlightenment. All right, I’ll stop with that; but you get the idea. Your startup idea is very dear and valuable to you.

So, it is natural for any idea person to horde their idea and do everything they can to protect it, for others might STEAL it! It’s like the kid who stashes her candy from her siblings but on another level. I have no shame in admitting that I am pretty much the same.

However, as the days go by, and as my list of startup ideas mount, the number of ideas that I have actually tried or acted upon is becoming a tiny proportion of the total count. So, I thought I’d start writing a series on the interesting startup ideas that I came/come up with.

I’ll tell you more about my motivation for this series towards the end of this essay. For now, let us get straight to the idea that I have to present in this entry.

This essay is supported by Generatebg

The Creator Economy and Creator Visibility

In our present internet-driven world, whether it be entertainment or education, we have creators offering value-adding content on various platforms like Youtube, Reddit, etc. Each of these platforms has a recommendation algorithm that offers customised recommendations for each profile based on preferences and consumption history (I’m dumbing it down, but bear with me).

What this means is that given any niche (such as music, self-improvement), etc., any individual consumer gets exposed to (probably)a single digit percentage of creators that are offering content in that particular niche. This inevitably leads to a situation where some creators are over-valued and some are under-valued.

There is also this lingering feeling that the algorithm behaves like a black box (which in truth, it is, for the consumer). I often find myself complaining that I don’t like the algorithm’s recommendation and looking for more freedom of choice.

That’s where the service that I have envisioned comes in. It solves these problems by offering two solutions:

1. A list of ALL creators (per niche) that offer content on any given platform.

2. A ranking of said ALL creators (per niche) — I am (conveniently) working on a ranking algorithm based on creator stats and platform stats.

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Startup Ideas Often Go for Glory but Not for Practicality

The solution that I just described is the end goal. It is good to have a vision in mind. However, when starting work on startup ideas, one has to be humble about it (from my experience). So, let’s tone it down from the list of ‘ALL creators per niche’ to ‘the list of the top 50 creators for the top 5 niches’.

All of a sudden, I have transformed an impossible sounding task into a more scalable task for myself. What’s more: I can now get it out in the hands of users/consumers who can judge its value. The first question that I am trying to answer is:

“Does my startup idea actually solve problems or am I solving imaginary problems in my head?”

This phase is what we call in the biz as the pilot phase. Let’s say that this idea has legs and people are interested. Then, I start looking for answers to a second question:

“How do I monetise this solution?”

Surely, you did not expect me to be charitable, did you? This is business we are talking about here. Of course, the idea is not necessarily to charge people for using such a service (which IS a possibility). But it is my responsibility to find some way to make money out of it.

I have to make a living as well, you know. But then, let’s say that I have found a way to make a living out of it. At this point, I would like to introduce you to the roadmap for the project.

The Startup Roadmap

Well, that escalated quickly. But stay with me. If we are going to envision something, we might as well go into more details. Assuming that the pilot is a success, following which I have made a standard version of the product that in turn makes some money, I have now the possibility to add more value.

At this stage, I already have a ranked list of creators on one side and consumers benefiting from the information that the service offers on the other side. People are able to check out top creators in their favourite space that their platforms have never showed them (that’s a win, by the way).

However, my ranking algorithm is still, well, “mine”. We run into the same ‘black box problem’ from before. The consumer likely feels left out. How shall we solve it? Well, here is a possibility: Why don’t we offer an alternative ranking system that is powered by user ratings.

But then again, why stop there? I can do even better! What if we create a fantasy football version of creator ranking lists? Slowly, but surely, the product is likely to become a powerful crowd-sourced and transparent recommendation engine that is centred around creators and not content.

All this is nice and interesting. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let us come back to reality and ask question number zero first!

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Is there Value in Ranking Creators?

My task is to find out the answer to this question (preferably quantitatively) whilst spending the least amount of resources. That brings me to one of my motivations for this essay and this series. But before we go there, I have a little background story to tell you.

Yesterday, I met up with a couple of my friends to discuss new startup ideas that I had envisioned. There was resonance for a couple of ideas, but there was particularly significant resistance towards one particular idea: the idea that I have presented in this essay.

Whenever I see resistance (especially the emotional type) towards a business idea, it fascinates me. I get this tingling sensation that there is something here. But for all we know, that feeling might be misleading, and I could be wrong. Who knows, right?

All I know for now is that based on my (initial research), there is no existing service out there that does this yet. So, there is either tremendous value in this or absolutely no value in this (a middle point is unlikely).

The Motivation: Why Share Startup Ideas?

One of my main motivations to share my startup ideas is to see what resonates with people and what does not. If you see value in solving this problem, let me know. If you think this is a waste of time, let me know.

If you are a problem solver yourself who is turned on by this challenge and would like to partner with me, reach out to me and we can discuss further possibilities.

In sharing my startup ideas, I am sharing my problem solving approaches and thinking style with you. In return, I am looking for feedback and inspiration. It’s ‘give and take’. In my opinion, that’s where healthy business begins!

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Further reading that might interest you:

• I accidentally almost started a business. Here is what happened.
• Polls Mislead Most Of The Time. Here’s Why.
• How Easy Is It Really To Predict The Future?

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