I think we have all seen the likes of ‘the idea guy’, the one with a million great idea and no skill, value or intention to back it up. I like to call ‘the idea guy’ for what he/she truly is: the bullshiter. You see, the idea guy always starts with something like this:
“Hey I got a brilliant idea, let’s make facebook for little people and we’ll be rich! You code and I will get 80% of the share because it’s my idea”
If the guy cannot provide any other value aside from the idea, STAY AWAY AS FAR AS YOU CAN. Idea is cheap, it provides no value without the execution to follow. Of course it is not the case if the person can actually provide you with added value like capital, connections or technical skills. Let’s look at these values in details.
Provide Capital
There’s a lot of people with crazy ideas but no time to actually execute the idea. If the lack of time is compensated with the abundance of money, then they might as well pay someone to do the idea right?
You are not the idea guy if you provide investments.
Connect you with important contacts
Partnering with someone that can connect you with the people you need is important. For example, if you are a fashion startup, it will be to your advantage to partner with a prominent figure in the fashion industry that can (for example) connect you with the organizer of Jakarta Fashion Week, meet you up with other prominent figures in the industry and connect you with (maybe) hundreds of distribution channel.
You are not the idea guy if you can provide prominent connections in the industry.
Provide technical skills
If you have a good idea and technical skills (or a team) to back it up, then you’re good to go.
Nuff Said.
Conclusion
Good partnership provides complementing values to each other. Unless the guy provides significant amount of values as described above, then he is definitely the idea guy. Ideas won’t last forever, the next thing you know ‘the idea guy’ will just linger and do nothing productive while you do all the work. Stay away from ‘the idea guy’, chances are you would be better off running the company yourself.
Aria Rajasa is the CEO of gantibaju.com, a clothing startup not dissimilar to Threadless but with a touch of Indonesia and a very strong design community. His passion in entrepreneurship has gotten him to start a number of companies since leaving university.