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Fluid Innovation, Inc.

Product Name

Virtual Ventures

Market Segment

Consumer Software and Services

Funding

Privately funded from two angel rounds totaling $900,000 in debt and equity. Currently raising next round of funding.

Competitors

No direct competitors. Secondary competitors include intellectual property brokers, such as Ocean Tomo.

Product Description

Virtual Ventures is a prediction-market community that enables Fortune 500 companies to determine the commercial viability of their non-core inventions that may have value if brought to market by a third-party. Participants at VirtualVentures.com play the role of venture capitalists. They evaluate real technologies from companies and “invest” virtual money in the ideas they think can go to market. Participants track the technologies as they move through the real-life commercialization process.

Market Opportunity

Companies spend a large part of their budgets solving business problems with information technology and R&D. According to Forrester and the U.S. government, companies spend $75 billion annually developing software to solve their own internal problems. Many of these solutions have commercial value to other companies.

Demo Says

How much is an idea worth? What about an entire community of ideas? In an age when ideas are once again coming fast and furious, these are intriguing questions. Beyond the land of self-funded start-ups lies an entirely different community of ideas existing within the walls of innovative enterprises. The big guys tend to first tackle their software needs internally and many times, the solutions they devise are ripe for use outside company walls. Fluid Innovation’s Virtual Ventures aims to serve as facilitator between the enterprise solution looking for an implementer and organizations looking for viable commercial opportunities. We’re most intrigued, though, by what Virtual Ventures may turn into. By utilizing the community as facilitator, the product may ultimately change the investing landscape as we know it. This is definitely one to keep a close eye on in the coming months and years.