How do I sell my idea?

Funny thing about companies, they don't want ideas.  

They want Revenue or Eyeballs. 

Put yourself in the mind of a Corporate Cubicle Dweller (CCD).

Ideas have risk. They may work or they may not. The cost to develop each idea is often unknown. And adoption may never be realized. Even good ideas are a gamble.

As a CCD you need to justify, to your Corporate Overlords, "WHY" you took a gamble on each idea. Make one mistake, and you could be packing your desk droppings and just before you are thrown into the street by HR's friendly security team. As a CCD you like your weekly paycheck, so you don't want to gamble with it.

Now think about this, you find a website that is burning through cash. Profit is not even in this companies vocabulary. But they have 2,500,000 unique daily visitors. As a CCD you can show value in those visits. Eyeballs have value. And you can make a case, to your Corporate Overlords, that buying this is good because "eyeballs". Overlords love eyeballs, so this deal could be acquired or funded.

Or what about revenue. Notice I didn't say profit. The company does not need to be profitable. Investors loved Amazon and Uber long before either made a profit. Revenue is tangible. Remember what I said Overlords love? Well, a company with revenue has eyeballs that pay money. This is a Corporate Overlords dream, and it has a chance to be acquired or funded.

How do you sell your idea? While there are many means to money, and without anything about you or your idea, I would start my journey looking to generate Revenue or Grow Eyeballs.

And begin with something cool! If you are going on an entrepreneurial adventure you may as well make it awesome!