So what other industries do you know of that buy ideas?

I can't think of any other than the book industry (and perhaps other art-focused fields), really...

> So what other industries do you know of that buy ideas? I can't think of any other than the book industry...

It seems that the time is ripe for a digital, networked app equivalent to be replacing books as a medium for ideas... something like Amazon's kindle library, but more revolutionary (as opposed to evolutionary).

What, you mean like the internet?

no, something more like wikipedia + lulu + ?

Lots of industries buy ideas... They just prefer to do it in the "protected" form of purchasing / licensing patents.

"So what other industries do you know of that buy ideas?"

It depends on how you define an idea.

Toy and game makers.

very few buy ideas anymore, they prefer to have the people create a company proving that the idea is viable/valuable then they buy it out

Was I the only one to be surprised at Godin's tech prowess? He "invented the first fax board for the Mac", as well as a wireless music player.

I've seen a lot of whining around here about Godin for his occasionally airy ideas and the popularity of his blog, but it seems he has some engineering blood in his past (his Wikipedia entry doesn't hint at this).

He described himself as a mediocre engineer (undergrad degree) in training whose life was changed when he went to Stanford Business School.

Unlike many good engineers, however, it appeared he had the cojones and confidence to push his ideas. It's an unfortunate reality that confidence and ambition can trump raw talent almost any day of the week.

Why is it an unfortunate reality? I think that is the coolest thing :)

Would you rather buy something that isn't too good but is marketed well? Or something that's awesome but poorly marketed?

IMHO this is a false dichotomy.

Anyway, I understood your original point to be "Fortune favors the brave" and I replied that this is cool because I can compete with my big brass balls ;-) I don't necessarily have to be as smart as my competitors.

Oh totally, it's cool for people who are in that camp :) Not sure it's so good for the world as a whole though. There are plenty of stories of shy, retiring mathematicians and scientists who have done great work only to be ignored.

Actually, Apple does buy ideas (when it's forced to).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitouch#Fingerworks

Every industry buys ideas. It is just a matter of selling it properly. One proven selling technique is to find companies that are lacking in some space and share with them a full blown idea on how a piece of software (or your idea) could fix that problem. I got a few contracts this way in the past. The response rate is much higher than applying for contracts through Craigslist or Odesk.

How do you pitch the idea to the company? Do you usually know someone there beforehand or do you do a "cold call (or email)"?