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I’ve often written about one of my ideas called Spoil My Spouse. Well, I’ve since decided to re-brand the idea to encompass a larger group of people that are interested in spoiling each other. I think we’ll still have plenty of focus on couples and lovers, but many of the things could very well apply to all sorts of people interested in spoiling someone special.

The new name is SpoilOn. We haven’t produced much content yet, because I’m waiting for the facebook application to be completed first. I want to make sure that we have at least a mild user base before we roll it out.

I think you’ll really enjoy some of the things we have available. So, let the spoiling begin.

I suggested in my previous post that I am going to have to make a decision on which project I should work on. I currently have two ideas that are in the market test stage at Cambrian House. Jumble Lunch is pretty much guaranteed a $10,000 investment since it won the second Cambrian House Idea Warz. I hope that Spoil My Spouse will be treated the same way, but I’m still waiting to hear from Cambrian House about that.

Regardless, I think they are both great ideas that could be very successful. However, I don’t personally know which idea I should work on. Here’s a few of my personal thoughts on the subject.

Spoil My Spouse

I think this ideas has a great potential and I think that it fits the Cambrian House crowdsourcing model perfectly. In fact, to make Spoil My Spouse successful, I think there absolutely has to be a crowd sourced component to create and rank a list of very unique ideas. I also love Spoil My Spouse because it’s a website that I would love to have. It matches my interests and skills quite well. If I had to, I could code the entire website myself. I would need some help from a graphic designer, but the website is absolutely within my limited coding skill set. Marketing spoil my spouse is something I would personally find quite interesting. I wish that Cambrian House would start setting up my marketing mob idea. That would be a great asset to Spoil My Spouse. Spoil My Spouse has garnered quite an interest in the Cambrian House forums. I think it’s a simple idea that people can understand and use.

Jumble Lunch

Jumble Lunch is an idea that is absolutely needed and has a great corporate application. Something that scares me about working on Jumble Lunch is that it absolutely requires a base of professionals for the website to work. Building this type of database isn’t part of my skill set. Unless Jumble Lunch hits a critical mass of professionals, it is doomed for failure. I think this is a pretty major barrier to entry that will have to be overcome. I don’t think I’m the person that has the skills to bridge the divide. The good part is that Cambrian House already is a crowd of business professionals that could immediately populate the database. If this population can be leveraged to add themselves and their own network of business contact, then Jumble Lunch could be well on its way to being a complementary product to LinkedIn.

Of course, you all know that I’m a little ADHD when it comes to cambrian house. I’m currently fairly involved in the wish granting website, Robin Hood Fund. I also have a sincere interest in helping make Prezzle - Send Online Gifts into what it should have become. I could possibly work some on Prezzle and Spoil My Spouse. They could really complement each other. However, if I decide to be the project manager of Spoil My Spouse or Jumble Lunch, then I would have to have almost tunnel vision on those projects. It would only be fair to the other people working on those projects.

I don’t have to make that decision now, but I thought I’d throw my ideas out there. It also helps me to put a few of my thoughts on paper. What would you do if you were in my position?

I’m not going to go in depth on this subject right now, but I’ve been thinking a lot about how important it is for a project that is being crowd sourced to have an incredible project manager. The better the project manager, the more successful the idea will be.

If you hearken to any venture capitalist or angel investor I’m sure that they would tell you that the management team associated with a business is more valuable then the actual idea. If an investor believes in the management team and specifically the leader of that team, then investors will start opening up their wallets.

Crowdsourcing is no different. In fact, it might even be more important. Managing a crowdsourced project is about motivating people who are either interested in working for free or some future hope of wealth. This is definitely simplifying the situation, but the point is that a project manager of a crowd sourced project has a variety of ways to build a business. The methods they choose to employ could alienate the entire community if they aren’t careful.

I’ll address more on this subject later, but I think it will be absolutely critical for Cambrian House to determine how they are going to handle the various project managers in their new crowdsourcing model. There are a ton of questions to be answered. For example…

Who will be the project manager of an idea?
How much influence will the idea submitter get in determining a project manager?
Can a person working a full time job be a project manager in their “free time?”
What share of the project does the project manager receive in the idea?
What’s the process for replacing a defunct project manager?
What share of the idea will a project manager keep if they no longer have time to work on the project? (severance package?)
Will Cambrian House be able to get enough project managers involved in the community?

My own personal questions involve my two ideas: Jumble Lunch and Spoil My Spouse. I can’t be the “leader” of both projects. Which one should I do and which one should I give to someone else? Is there someone else interested in working on these projects? I currently am leaning towards working on Spoil My Spouse since it matches my skills and interests more than Jumble Lunch. However, there is tremendous momentum behind Jumble Lunch. Decisions Decisions!!

Anticipation is building as we get closer to November 8th when Cambrian House will announce the winner of the first Idea Warz. I must admit that the wait has absolutely sucked. I don’t even want to go to the Cambrian House website because it makes me wonder what’s going to happen.

Well, I’ve been watching the domain for Spoil My Spouse and it is now pointing at the main Cambrian House website. That’s a good thing since that means that they could easily change the web server configuration and then the site can be up like that. I hope that means they are preparing to let all of us Spoil Our Wife or Spoil Our Husband. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to make it until Thursday. One good thing is that I may have found a partner for my fantasy sports fundraising idea called FantasyHigh.net.

I think it’s really promising that Cambrian House has pointed Spoil My Spouse to the CH website when Film Funder isn’t pointing to anything yet. It’s just the parked page for now. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but I think it’s definitely a good sign for me that the DNS for Spoil My Spouse is pointing at a server that could hold the future of this great idea.

Yep, you heard it here. Actually I’ve known since last night about 9 pm or so when they changed the website for Idea Warz. Spoil My Spouse is now matched up with the powerful Kids Chat Watchdog.

Should be an interesting battle of ideas. The third round of Idea Warz ends October 24th. That means you only have 5 days to get out there and vote to Spoil Your Spouse. Husbands, you know that you’d love to be spoiled by your wife. Wives, you know you’d love to be spoiled by your husband. Husbands, you better want to make your wife happy. Wives, you know you want to make your husband happy. It’s about husband and wife all spoiling each other. One big love pit of spoiling. Nice!!

In the other third round idea warz matchup we have the 2 titans Our Virtual Business Units vs. Film Funder. I’m torn on these 2. Any thoughts on why I should vote either way?

In a moment of sweet transparency, I’m going to post the email that I got from JR(did you know his real name is Jonathan Rasmusson?) today talking about the Final Four of Idea Warz. Of course my favorite part of the article is when JR says that they are already doing Market Test research on the final four ideas. I’d be happy to hear any feedback on how to make Spoil My Spouse take off.

Hiya techguy,

Can you believe we are already down to the final four?

Spoil My Spouse has made the quarter finals!

That’s right you’re in RD3 of the Golden Hammer Tournament – well done mate.

Don’t think this next round is going to be easy through. You are up against a real titan : Kids Chat Watchdog.

So get a good nights sleep, eat your Wheaties, and practice those positive affirmations:

“Your good enough, your smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like your idea.”

RND3 voting ends October 24th midnight so make sure you get the word out.

Oh ya one more thing, we are already doing Market Test research on the final four ideas.

So don’t be surprised if someone from Cambrian House contacts you to discuss your idea further.

Cheers – JR