So I recently read an article on former BuzzFeed Creative Diretor Chris Baker (picture above), and found it both phenomenal and hilarious the way he came up with his “viral ideas”.
The article summarized Baker’s viral ventures, typically the two websites called Unbaby.me and TheWorldsMostExclusiveWebsite. The former helps users remove their Facebook friends’ new-born baby photos (yep..) and the latter only has “exclusive” doors for people to pass through, based on the number of followers on their Twitter account.
Spontaneous as these projects may seem, they actually helped Baker make a substantial living. It makes me think about entrepreneurship in this era. A viral idea does not have to be that giant or outstanding, it just needs to “kill some pains” for customers, or as Baker put it: “if this little stupid thing on the Internet is bothering me, it’s probably bothering 20 million other people.”
I did learn about the “pain-killer” effect as a value proposition in Comm101. Turns out, it is an indispensable, if not sole, factor for a viral idea. With the power of the Internet these days, perhaps all a successful entrepreneur needs to do is surf around, watch trends, notice pains in the neck, create a tool, sit back and count cash..
Nam,
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