The latest big idea from Seattle tech entrepreneur Eric Anderson is … Idea.com. He has raised $500,000 to support the idea, according to a regulatory filing today, but he’s not yet ready to reveal what it is.
Anderson told GeekWire he has several business ideas in mind for Idea.com. “It’s a very powerful brand, and it’s worthy of a great idea and a great company,” he said.
He has already delivered enough big ideas to fill a think tank. As co-founder and chairman of Space Adventures, he helped send millionaires and billionaires on trips to the International Space Station. As co-founder and co-chairman of Redmond-based Planetary Resources, Anderson is setting the stage for what could be a multitrillion-dollar asteroid mining industry. He plays executive roles for Bellevue-based Planetary Power, Personal.com and Seattle-based Booster Fuels, and is involved in a host of high-tech philanthropic efforts.
That’s all in addition to his day job as CEO of Intentional Software, the idea-sharing platform backed by software billionaire (and two-time spaceflier) Charles Simonyi.
Years ago, Idea.com was used by Idea Integration Corp., which was acquired by The Gores Group in 2012. The domain name eventually went on the secondary market. Anderson said he purchased the Idea.com name a couple of months ago and persuaded associates to invest in the future venture, whatever it turns out to be.
The $500,000 investment offering was described today in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing says six investors participated in the offering, but Anderson declined to provide further details.
He said Idea.com could draw upon anything in his wide spectrum of interests, which range from space exploration and exploitation to big data to human longevity. It could also serve as a forum for turning big ideas into realities.
“The world’s in need of a lot of big ideas right now, and the money to back them, and the people to execute them,” Anderson told GeekWire. “When the time is right, this would be a good place to bring those three things together.”
The clearinghouse concept sounds a bit like HeroX. That’s one of the many ventures co-founded by Peter Diamandis, the other co-chairman of Planetary Resources and executive chairman of XPRIZE. How will Idea.com mesh with everything else that Anderson, Diamandis and the tech world’s other big thinkers have up their sleeves? Stay tuned: Anderson expects to have more to tell within a year or so.
