The Big Problem – what is it and how will you solve it – lessons from the 80s

In the 1980′s,  I was involved in the Venture Capital industry; I actually earned a living for 6 1/2 years when there were no jobs by helping entrepreneurs raise money for start-up projects by way of private placements of common stock in non-public (private) companies.

I cannot imagine a harder thing to do, or a harder way to get paid, but I loved it.  I love working with passionate, creative people!
(More history and credentials here)

The Above video clip is just questions and answers about “Open Source Movies”  and movie-making and collaboration made possible by advances in technology, and it is pretty long, but worth watching.

But ‘back in the day’, I was a member of A. David Silver’s venture capital club in Santa Fe New Mexico: hundreds of us would pay $7.50 each (the price of a nice dinner in those days) to pack into an empty movie  theater, sign into a handwritten ledger, with no name tags at all, and listen to a few entrepreneurs who had spent $100 each for their 5 minutes on stage, where they would talk about their businesses.  All the important financial sources, pension fund managers and venture capitalists in the area an some form outside the area were in the room, anonymous, able to contact the entrepreneurs directly after the meeting.

The electricity in the room was amazing: there were no refreshments, but nobody ever wanted to miss those meetings.

Fast forward to now: there are over 60,000 Meetup.com groups: millions pf people from all over the world getting together for local meetings facilitated by an online community that manages email invitations and RSVP’s based on location and key words preferences of the free users.  There are many thousands of Group leaders, who pay $20 per month to start a group, and that company is extremely profitable with nothing but a website, and they are hiring local people all over the world to build a huge company.

In the Venture Capital industry, we talk about the big “P”, the big problem to solve; because in venture capital the potential return from one good investment must be sufficient to create an ROI for the group in spite of 9 bad ones: the ‘upside potential’  must be sufficient for this formula to work.

To say that I am proud to be involved in Solomon Rothman’s company (my son) Moviepals Entertainment, LLC would be an understatement: the idea of artists owning their work and producing ‘open-source’ films that they own, and get 75% of the revenue from those films, with no middleman, is huge: open-source films is huge, and the problem of so many creative people not having access to the market, and the solution made possible by technology and innovation, and the potential profits from such a venture definitely qualify by our 80′s standards, and we have  raised a modest amount  private capital, and we will raise more.

So here is the point of this article: what is the big ‘P” for you; what is the problem that you can solve with all the changes in technology, culture, and the world in general that are already underway?

If you look like a ‘dear in the headlights right now’, consider how much easier this is that it once was:

• Anyone in the world can get in the game: if you have an internet connection or access to a library, you can start right now
• You can go to http:// ideaplas.org right now (it is the same as Moviepals.org for now while we rebuild the video sharing platform underneath), and start a free group, and start building a team to bring your solution to your “BIG P” to fruition, one step at a time, from scratch, with no money.
• Everything you do there is optimized perfectly and available by key word search on Google and others – ahhh access to the whole world population for free!

For the first time in the history of mankind since Jesus was born, content trumps distribution: it is no longer who you know, or what you have that limits what you can accomplish: the only thing that matters, is your talent, and the value of your contribution, and your hard work.

If that does not inspire you, keep your day job!