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As an ideas man I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen an innovative business spring up only to think, “That was my idea! I told Elliot about that last month! If only I had the resources to actually do it!�
It’s a completely unfair sentiment, because not only is “having a business idea� just about the most nebulous and un-patentable concept of all time, but whoever built a successful business around it probably had the idea months before I did. In fact I should probably consider it a compliment to my idea that it apparently worked.
But occasionally I’ll read about an entrepreneur who’s done something really incredibly, and all I can think is “Damn, that’s a good idea.�
When I was reading Tom Evslin’s article on the death of vertical integration at his blog Fractals of Change, I spotted one. It’s from back in the day of early ISP development: UUnet. Until the other day I didn’t even know this company (or the service they provided) even existed.
In my mind, however, UUnet is a perfect example of how a service should be successfully created. It’s a company that is essentially invisible to the average consumer, but the company was created to fill a more or less guaranteed demand. If you’re interested, I’d recommend reading Tom’s article.
