Does Anyone Out There Brainstorm About Creating The Next Big Thing?

Here’s a question, how many of you sit around and brainstorm new company ideas at the beach while drinking “lemonade” with your friends?  Okay, the beach and lemonade are my own additions.  Feel free to hypothesize wherever you want.

But back to the company ideas…

Is this something you find intriguing?  Trying to figure out the next big thing?

I like to create new company ideas.  I use a lot of them in my novels.  Even use Fiverr to create logos!  (Look out for Unlikely Venture giveaways in the not-so-dstant future…you may see some t-shirts sporting logos such as LazerShark and Blue Coat Capital…).

While I think my fictitious companies are super-fun and worthy of millions of dollars in seed money, the reality is that they aren’t moving the world forward.  I like to write about them and they serve to entertain, however, they aren’t game-changers.

But Silicon Valley might still fund them today even though they don’t transform lives.

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article that begs the question…is Silicon Valley funding the wrong types of innovation?  Has Silicon Valley “jumped the shark?”  Do we really need another social network variant?  Or should we focus our resources on businesses that have the potential to positively impact the livelihood of people?

What kinds of ideas should venture capital firms throw their seemingly endless piles of cash at?  I know if I was a VC, I’d like to know that there is a sustainable market for my investment.  Not sure I’d want to rely solely on projected advertising revenue to recoup my funds.  Nothing against Facebook… =)