February 12, 2005
A search engine for money
I attended a presentation last Friday at the Rochester Professional Consultants Network regarding sources of funding for training. It suggested a new idea that I'd like to explore.
Innovations Rochester has identified connecting new business owners with sources of money as a significant barrier to creating small businesses in the Rochester area. We are looking at the possibility of directly providing funding (through micro-loans modeled after the Grameen Bank ideas), but could also provide valuable assistance by simply helping entrepreneurs find people willing to fund their ideas.
It occurred to me that this is very similar to what a job bank does. Replace Job Seekers with Entrepreneurs, and Employers with Money Providers, and you'll start to see this picture:
- Money Providers list the funds (Jobs) they have available and the criteria for receiving those funds.
- Entrepreneurs enter the characteristics of the money they are seeking (like how much, how it will be used, etc.), and the search engine returns a list of available funds that most closely match those criteria.
- The Entrepreneur contacts the Money Provider to apply for the funds, etc.
It's basically a search engine for money. I'd appreciate any comments you might have about this idea, especially if you'd be willing to help out - either by helping write the software, or by identifying local funding sources and their criteria.
Your thoughts?
Kurt
Posted by Kurt at February 12, 2005 08:39 PM
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