MARK CUBAN: Here He Comes To Save the Day (better if you apply tune from Mighty Mouse)

Mark Cuban is taking matters into his own hands – offering his own stimulus package for entrepreneurs. 

Since now that I'm a card-carrying entrepreneur, I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

Here are some excerpts from his blog post, his rules, and some of my favorite comments. 

I briefly add my own thoughts 

at the end. (complete blog here)

EXCERPTS

"My first inclination is always to try to look 'for the next big thing.' " 

"I'm a big believer that entrepreneurs will lead us out of this mess. I just needed a way to help."

"You must post your business plan here on my blog where I expect other people can and will comment on it. I also expect that other people will steal the idea and use it elsewhere. That is the idea. Call this an open source funding environment."

"I will invest money in businesses presented here on this blog. No minimum, no maximum, but a very specific set of rules."

SOME OF THE RULES 

(to see all the rules click here): 

3. It MUST BE CASH FLOW BREAK EVEN within 60 days

4. It must be profitable within 90 days.

5. Funding will be on a monthly basis. If you dont make your numbers, the funding stops

12. In your business plan , make sure to specify how much equity I will receive or how I will get a return on my money.

SOME OF THE COMMENTS

"Concept is great but if I am going to start something with sweat equity and reach profitability within 60 days why do I need outside money? Perhaps I am being selfish…."

________________________________________

"Congratulations: You’ve just created the worst venture capital company in the world.

"The people that invested $500K in our startup and spent 8 years in R&D would quite literally shoot me if I pusued this funding arrangement. Lets see:

1. Give away your idea to the world
2. Sign a crappy disclosure/funding agreement
3. Sign away control"

_________________________________________

"I know that you said that you are “trying not to be a VC”, but frankly these “terms” are worse than any VC terms I’ve ever seen. They are unrealistic when it comes to creating real employment, they are more restrictive than necessary, and they just aren’t going to work.

"In short, I’m a fan of the Open Source model. But I think the way you’ve gone about open sourcing this particular concept is a bit off."

___________________________________________

"I am a 22 year old college student, a HUGE Mavs fan and I live here in Texas. I’m not going to lie, I don’t have a wonderful idea yet to start a company. Of course, other than starting a sports bar/restaurant in town which I think would be very profitable. How about you give this poor college kid, whose in debt, a skinny 6 foot 6 white male a chance to work for you! Literally doing anything, whether it be interning for a genius billionaire like yourself or simply working for the Mavs in Dallas or even the towel boy! Please give me a shot, I always dream of my big break!"

MY THOUGHTS

Mark Cuban is a genius!

He has single-handedly made all of us take a step back and simply think, dream, and take action. By dangling the possibility of money – he lit a fuse that re-ignited an explosion of thoughts and ideas – some that have probably been buried for years and years.

He gave some people the courage to say, "Maybe this is a good idea!"

Others might say, "I'm going to go for it!"

He forced people to pull out their "idea journals" or sketches of their wacky invention and say, "What if?"

Secondly, if a home run idea does happen to fall in his lap, he has laid out a no-lose situation for himself.

Finally, he has masterfully developed a platform to be a complete ass to anyone and everyone who is willing to take it. It must be gratifying as hell to have your "million-dollar idea" already in the bank. I never realized that automatically made you an expert on anything.

Last question: Aren't the Mavericks in the middle of a sub-par basketball season?