Platform helps jump-start new companies

It’s no secret that successful businesses are built on more than just a good idea. Much the way Bethnal Green Ventures aims to help incubate socially focused business concepts, so Estonian HumanIPO seeks to help gather momentum for startups of any kind. Entrepreneurs can use HumanIPO to build a business by sharing their ideas in order to find partners, mentors, consultants, foreign sales agents and investors. Toward that end, leaders of startups can upload their business ideas in “stealth mode” on HumanIPO, including just basic details such as a startup teaser, pitch and attachments to explain the idea further. From there, they can invite feedback on their idea from contacts on LinkedIn and elsewhere. As on Facebook, visitors can post comments and suggestions on the startup idea’s “wall”; they can also follow the concepts they like. Eventually, when the startup is ready for further visibility, the entrepreneurs involved can publish the teaser on the HumanIPO directory, opening it up to new potential partners and funding opportunities. In fact, HumanIPO can even help obtain funding from a number of different investors by setting up a separate investment company that will become a shareholder in the enterprise. Investors get charged a 5 percent commission on the invested amount, while entrepreneurs get charged EUR 1,000 per year for administration of the investment company and annual reports and for handling dividends. Rome wasn’t built in a day, as they say — and you can bet it was a collaborative effort. One to put to work for *your* next big thing…? (Related: Swedish entrepreneurs get access to untapped patents — ‘Open-mic nights’ for business ideas.) Spotted by: John Greene