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Boston
09-11-2007, 09:09 PM
Good afternoon everyone!

I read 4HWW a few months back and have been carefully thinking about my Muse. I think I have an interesting idea, but wanted to bounce it off the members here before I pursue anything. I'll outline the idea below, but hope you will all provide solid insights/thoughts (PLEASE do not worry about being too critical! I welcome it).

I graduated from college in '05 and have worked for a premier firm in the investment industry for the past two years. I think I really only have one natural talent: the ability to network with people, build relationships, and contact anyone if I put my mind to it. As a result, I have been able to make some solid contacts with the leaders of top hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, and other investment firms.

My thought is to contact some of these people, and forge relationships with new ones, to interview them on several areas: 1) their careers; 2) what it takes to succeed in the industry; 3) lessons learned from difficult periods in their career and the markets.

The collection of these stories could be compiled into an e-book (and/or audio version) called "Stories from the Trenches" (or something to that effect).

I think this is a promising idea because it is a product that provides information that very few people would otherwise have access to acquiring unless they had these relationshipe. This translates into pricing power. I suppose the target customers would be investment professionals interested in hearing the stories and young professionals looking for career advise from world-class investors.

Would really appreciate your thoughts on the viability of this before I start delving into the real work! Thanks

FrozenCanuck
09-12-2007, 12:42 AM
It sounds like a good idea even if you've only had 2 years experience in the industry. 2 good years of relationship building can be better than 20 lousy years of just "putting up" with it.

You do NOT need to guess if this will sell. You can do PPC testing on it and put up a test website like Tim recommends. Even if your product is an ebook or other download and you can't justify saying you are out of stock, just pretent it is actual physical CDs and then say "out of stock". Why the heck not!

The real answer is a lot better than guessing.

BrettnAustin
09-25-2007, 02:54 AM
It's a good idea man. When I was going to grad school I got a job interviewing CEO's, VPs and the like for an internet research company. Picking their brains for an hour or so and get plenty of free advice pretty easily.

When a lot of research companies came on the sceen in 2001 it was harder but I used the college angel and still got through.

But after digging the ditches as a marketing consultant, I found the pot at the end of the rainbow wasn't as big as promised and that's where I have a problem with your muse.

Sure a lot of kids aspiring to do well in the financial industry will want to read something like this but my opinion is working for someone isn't as rewarding as having your own business. Can you make money from it, yeah. But why not add a chapter to that which details how to get out of the system and start your own business in finance.

I'm sure some of the people who you consider successful will have experience doing just that.

If you want to know some secrets for keeping a high paid CEO on the phone for an hour with absolutely zero compensation, drop me an email.

laniers
09-25-2007, 01:50 PM
The idea sounds good. What I would recommend is to record the interviews, outsource the the transcription and sell them both together. You'll want to emphasize buzz words like insider secrets, financial success, etc. Also don't go cheap on the price. Another option is to release them on a monthly basis and sell subscriptions, can we say passive income? :D