Take a look at this compelling list of entrepreneurs assembled by InsideCRM that have made their fortunes without MBA credentials.

Sometimes the energy that consumes a startup can be contagious. Often, friends or acquaintances band together with unique talents and a great idea. They spend late nights together developing the concepts and engineering the finest details with youthful exuberance and team unity - all using their individual strenghts with the common goal of developing the next big startup. 

Enter the old cliche “All is fair in love, war and business“…

Whether due to naivety, lack of business experience or unyielding trust for their business partners; some entrepeneurs find their business concepts and plans highjacked - sometimes when its too late. As noted in this New York Times article, this situation recently evolved into litigation involving the Internet powerhouse Facebook.com and the founders of the related social networking site ConnectU.

As the story goes, Mark Zuckerberg was brought into a concept developed by ConnectU founders, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Zuckerberg’s role was to develop what was originally a Harvard University social network and be compensated based on the success of the site. Zuckerberg later dropped out of the project after registering the domain TheFacebook.com which later became Facebook.com. Facebook has since went on to achieve monumental sucess while ConnectU has had limited results from their endeavor.

This particular lawsuit brings to light the criticality of protecting one’s Intellectual Property throughout the startup process. Business plans and concepts are to be protected like sacred scrolls. Where applicable these ideas should be protected via trademarks and copyrights. When sharing information with potential partners and investors, non-compete and non-disclosure agreements need to be formalized among parties. Without such legal formalities in place, an entrepeneur leaves him/herself vulnerable to concept highjacking.

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 For Sellers, it is currently free to add a site with a basic listing. Featured listings, bolding and other options can be purchased at very modest prices. Investors are free to register, peruse, contact and perform any other site functions. There are no commissions on sales or other transactions through the site.

What I like the most about this site is the ability to drill down to a given category and then sort your search list by key factors such as Asking Price, Traffic and Income. As we know, there are other competitors in these area, but most of the competition features a “forum” format that make it difficult to search and filter potential winners. Additionally, the site features an ever-expanding Resource area that has some valuable nuggets of information for both Sellers and Investors.

 Overall the site is a good resource due to the fact one can research or perform transactions free of cost. Currently listings are a bit sparse as the site is brand new. I expect this to change as the word gets out and traffic increases.

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