I remember the first facebook application I installed. It was the “Where I’ve Been” Application, an application that allows you to mark the countries you’ve either been to, lived in or want to visit. It was a really cool flash application and I remember not really thinking much of this whole facebook applications phenomenon. I liked the “Where I’ve Been” application a lot, but besides that most of the others got my nerves. I would get invited to install tons of applications and it was just getting ridiculous. “Why are you throwing a virtual sheep at me?” I still haven’t accepted or rejected most of them because it would take too long to do so.
When I first heard that TripAdvisor was offering $3 Million for the application, I was in shock. “For a freaking facebook application?!?! Are you kidding me?” To understand my point of view, as I stated in my first blog entry, I seem to have a knack for really cool ideas. When facebook created it’s market place, I had already come up with the concept for an online college market place. I had thought about developing an application for it, but was discouraged to do so by a friend (I know, I know, i didn’t follow my heart and let some guy stop me from pursuing an idea). Instead, I created the application for my senior software project class but never really launched it since I had a hectic summer.
At Startup School (See previous Post), I met the creator of the facebook application, Entourage who had just sold his application for an undisclosed amount to SGN (Social Gaming Network). He and his buddy (who had just sold the nicknames application) were taking a trip to Brazil to celebrate their sale. I mean, I always knew that space was lucrative, but It never really hit me until this past weekend. It’s like the difference between knowing who Michael Jordan is, and then actually playing basketball with Michael Jordan.. very very different.
It’s funny because a few weeks ago, a freshman friend of mine, Perry R and I, were talking about the facebook application world, and being a former facebook employee, Perry knew a lot more about that world than I did. For part of Digitalvaliance’s offering, I was thinking about Digitalvaliance helping people develop their facebook application as part of its offering. Perry offered his advice, but said that instead of helping others create applications, that we should seriously look into creating our own applications, as it was a very lucrative world.
Since then, we have kept tabs on facebook applications in general and have ideas for 3 applications, which will go into development next week. We are not looking for the “next big thing” persay, but we want to have a presence in that space, as we feel as though it is perfect for our mission of “Bold Creativity”
Now I know a lot of you are going to be like “suure you came up with an idea like facebook marketplace” or “knack for really cool ideas eh? well who doesn’t?! “. Those who’ve known me for a long time, will be able to attest to this. However because of my academic endeavors and other engagements, I was never able to make “the leap”. I’ve kinda watched on the sidelines while most of my ideas have been brought to fruition by others. Most of the times, its because I lacked the resources to bring my ideas to life. At other times, it was simply because I had the following mindset: “I am at Stanford to get my degree, and once I’m done, I don’t doubt that I will come up with a really cool idea, like I’ve always been able to do but right now I am developing myself and my brain”.
Most people get mad when an idea they had, gets implemented by someone else and that person becomes successful. I get mad too, but I usually can’t help but smile. It makes me realize that my creative “mojo”, is as strong as ever and that at any given time, one of the 20 ideas I have written on paper could really become huge.
