Many of my recent business ideas operate from a certain premise, which is:
Information needs more curators.
Information is both abundant and, on balance, high quality.
However, if your goal is to get information to solve a particular problem, a number of issues present themselves:
- Is the information you're receiving relevant in your specific case? Is it too general?
- Is the information you're receiving biased in some way?
- Is the information you're receiving up to date?
- Is the information you're receiving actually 'good' or 'true'?
In the context of knowledge things more generally (not just to solve problems), a few more issues are also present:
- How do you find the best content for a given topic? How do you make sure it 'sticks'?
- How do people learn new skills if the world changes but most education stops at ~20-25?
- How do companies make sure the latest information is in the hands of their employees?
- How do we find and engage the best teachers of a given topic?
- How do we find pockets of true insight and push knowledge forward?
For me, answers to the questions above lead to a series of business ideas:
- "Research as a service" (pay a company to do research on their behalf)
- A teaching marketplace between consultants and companies
- Information assistant monthly subscription service
- Link club - book clubs for internet content
- Curated public sentiment data for investors
- Reverse search for learning (post what you want to learn)
- Certification business for new skills