Hack
Hack: Passion Meets Action and Resources to Create
by Robert Roufail - Founder and CEO at Narconia.com
September 4, 2011 at 3:07pmContribution Summary
Summary
Narconia is an online community that seeks to connect creative individuals with other skilled people and resources. Through us, a creator of a project can reward passionate contributors with shares in their growing project.
We have a vision to foster innovation through democracy by rewarding member collaboration on projects.
In a declaration of independence from outdated management methods, we picked July 4th, 2011 to incorporate.
The old ways of doing business lack the necessary motivators to solve core, abstract issues that have hindered progress of the human race for centuries.
We at Narconia have been pushing relentlessly to develop an open, yet secure, framework which promotes autonomous, purpose-driven work to achieve the symbiotic creation of value from people around the US.
With support from Northeastern University's venture accelerator, NU IDEA, we aim to help people start, work on, and complete projects.
Valuable assets can then be purchased from shareholders in the Narconia™ Marketplace if the shareholders approve by majority.
A few details of our service have been withheld from this hack description for security purposes.
Provisional patent pending.
Problem
4 major issues that plague business agility today
- Creators are often unable to successfully launch projects due to a lack of talent and resources.
- Some of those projects may have contributed outstanding value had they been given the proper growth environment.
- Project decision-making power is typically unbalanced and lacks diversity of opinion from its' very own investors and consumers.
- This leads to missteps in project management that cause the failure of what may have otherwise been a successful project.
- Conventional employment forces influential thinkers to work on projects they may disagree with.
- Data overwhelmingly points to this issue being a key factor in creativity suffocation as well as a lack of self-driven connection with the end result from the projects' key players.
- Companies are being asked to innovate faster than ever in a time when payrolls are becoming harder to support.
- Employment isn't cheap, but the future value of a company is dependant on the people that make it survive. The necessity to layoff employees to pay bills is a problem facing more companies in this age than has been observed in decades. Disruptive technologies are accounting for quicker product/service life-cycles than has ever been seen, and companies are being forced to reduce the number of innovators they need so desperately to adapt.
Solution
- At Narconia, creators can solve the prolem of finding the talent and resources they need to successfully launch their projects by making their wants, needs, and goals easy to search. Passionate proffessionals and investors are rewarded for their contributions to a project with shares in the project or cash from the project reserves. People apply to make their abilities and passions apparent, and contracts are made between shareholder-elected managers and potential contributors based on the expected value added.
- Major project decisions are brought to the shareholders and followers of a project, as opposed to the managers alone. Removing this power from a select few and putting it in the hands of the people that made the project happen, as well as the people that want it completed, allows the project to morph and evolve to the needs of the market with speed and accuracy.
- Self-driven professionals and investors can search for work and devote their time or money to projects they are genuinely interested in. The sense of purpose, autonomy, and mastery associated with this kind of contract work, similar to the Wikipedia model, will catalyze only high quality original work in order to overcome difficult hurdles and achieve unique, notably competitive results.
- Companies will have the opportunity to purchase or license projects with the knowledge that they are paying for a visibly marketable solution and clearly competent, purpose-driven team members. Creators and contributors are compensated for the value they've create as well as the risk they've inherited, while companies have new products/services to help them survive in this increasingly innovation based economy. A more symbiotic relationship than this couldn't likely be exemplified any better.
Practical Impact
At Narconia, we categorize everyone's skills and passions into 3 portals to
help them create value.
Proposal Pool
People propose a project that they think the Narconia community can help to
realize
People will be able to view, like/dislike the proposal, or post comments
depending on the privilege rights set by the creator.
If a post gathers attention from the right people, and is considered legal and
ethical, it can apply to become a Narconia Project.
Creators that manage to convert their post into a project get a non-diluted
ownership of the project and by default a cut of any money it makes!
- People propose a new or struggling project that they think the Narconia community can help to realize
- People will be able to view, like/dislike the proposal, or post comments.
- If a post gathers attention from the right people, and is considered legal and ethical, it can apply to become a Narconia Project.
Work Zone
After a proposal gets approved by Narconia to become a project, people can come here to find work on projects that interest them.
Call to Work (A Project Asks the Community)
Creators or their project managers can create a call to work. This calls for certain skills or talent to solve a problem or push the project forward.
Request for Work (A Professional Asks a Project)
Passionate professionals can request a way for themselves to contribute to a project. Creators or their managers can approve, counter, or decline.
Compensation negotiations can be in project shares per week, cash per hour, a salary, or even on donation terms.
Marketplace
After a proposal gets approved by Narconia to become a project, people can come here to invest in projects that interest them.
Call for Funds (A Project Asks the Community)
Creators or their project managers can create a call for funds. This calls for investment funds needed to solve a problem or push the project forward.
Request to Fund (An Investor Asks a Project)
Passionate investors can request a way for themselves to contribute funds to a project. Creators or their managers can approve, counter, or decline.
These negotiations can only be a trade of cash for shares in a project or simply a donation.
Trade Project Shares (Investor to Investor)
Very much like the stock market, investors can buy and sell shares of a Narconia approved project. This provides the project with a real time market valuation.
Bid on a Project (Investor Asks Project Shareholders)
Investors can place a bid to buy all of a project's shares and/or license any associated assets. Project shareholders vote and decide by majority whether the bid and the terms are acceptable or not.
Based on the terms and shares owned, the contributors are paid and the company decides what to do with the project and the assets it purchased.
Challenges
Intellectual Property (IP) Infringement or Theft
Members that post proposals before seeking legal protection or properly searching prior art may be in danger of idea theft or litigation respectively.
Mitigations
- Narconia highly suggests proper security to all of it's users by acquiring a patent and using care to only divulge detailed information when absolutely necessary.
- Narconia's terms and conditions of use provides zero tolerance for malicious IP activity resulting in account termination of offenders and possible permanent banning.
- We allow only one account per person and we plan to incorporate user statistics in a similar way to Amazon and Ebays' user ratings. This will help people make better decisions about who to involve in their projects.
Labor and Equity Laws
We have yet to establish how our system will reside within these existing frameworks but we're working diligently to research limitations and work within them in an ethical and legal manner.
Member Contract Disputes
We've created a position from the very beginning to establish a system that is beneficial to both the company and the community members for solving and preventing disputes within Narconia. The Conflict Resolution Director has been hard at work identifying possible issues and providing ways to keep creation and trust to a maximum.
First Steps
If an organization wanted to test our hack, it would behoove them to follow and support Narconia.
For Contribution Inquiries
Contact me at Robby@Narconia.com
Or Call: (508)572-1280
Credits
The Narconia Team:
Robert Roufail (Robby R)
-Founder and CEO
Jeanine Mendez
-Chief Strategy Officer
Timothy Rossini
-VP Marketing
Zak Eckel
-Conflict Resolution Director
Brian Channon, CPA
-Chief Financial Officer
Tags
Innovate, Create, Open Innovation, Free Thought, Community Creating, Social Production, Project Creation, Project Sharing, Proposals, Ideas, Inventing, Management, Contributing
Helpful Materials
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Comments
Robert Roufail
November 21, 2011 at 7:36amThank you kindly VC Arun. Please, don't hesitate to contact me directly for any reason.
Robby@Narconia.com
(888)705-8830
Robby R
Ellen Weber
September 4, 2011 at 8:53amThanks Robert for putting Narconia on the stage in such a delightful way - so we can see its innovative practices for finding talent and resources by making it easy to search.
No question Robert – I agree that we need more people to apply passions that add value. I saw with interest how passions divide into 3 portals, but I’d like to see a bit more detail to help me conceptualize passion as you use it here.
Your core definition of a passionate worker that adds value is…? Do they come to the operation as passionate – or does the workplace cultivate that passion?
Interesting project creation here, and I enjoyed reading! Ellen
Robert Roufail
September 4, 2011 at 3:06pmThanks Ellen,
I appreciate the question. I'm sure this will alleviate some questions others may have as well. Ironically, the comment you've posted is a perfect example of passion and possible value added. For future reference, when I mention "contributors", we're making a reference to anyone that has contributed time or resources of any kind.
We define passion as the instinct to dedicate time or resources to a cause without being asked or forced to do so.
A feature that we plan to incorporate in Narconia is the ability to have followers and contributors vote on the usefuleness of a contribution. We're still developing the technology, but when a proposal is approved as a project, we plan to weigh user feedback on contributions via a number of internal metrics.
How do we determine the value added to a project by a contributor?
We Look At:
1.) The contract agreed upon between the elected project managers and the interested contributors.
These terms are negotiated until the project managers and contributors are both satisfied with the compensation.
These are subject to change on the fly pending approval from both parties based on the evolving needs of the project.
For Example,
Project Honeycomb
Contributor Agreement with Jon Doe.
The project shareholders agree that compensation will be delivered to Jon Doe as follows:
- Accepting Call To Work#1234 "Creating a Rough Business Plan" - 20 shares, $0
- Completing Milestone 1
- Submitted: 20 shares, $0
- "Good" rating: +80 shares, $0
- "Excellent" rating: +200 shares, $100
2.) The rating of a contributor's work
Since anyone can rate work, we use the following metrics to weigh the ratings for relevancy:
- How much the rater has historically contributed to the Narconia community.
- How much of the project the rater owns.
- The acting position of the rater within the project.
3.) The contributors' Narconia history
Negative user ratings and comments may flag a user for a rating review of their work by Narconia. We're working hard to build trust and alleviate miscommunication to allow for a safe creation environment for all of our members. Our dispute handling department was formed since inception for this very purpose.
So, going back to the example of your comment above adding value. Basically, if this were a project, and the shareholders and followers decided to upvote your comment with the intent to solicit a change in the project, you'd automatically be compensated based on the popularity of your comment with respect to others in the project.
I hope that answers your question. Feel free to let me know if I've strayed off topic at all or if you have any other solid questions =D.
Thanks Again!
-Robby R
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VC Arun
November 17, 2011 at 11:12amRobert,
Narconia sounds like a very interesting proposition for entrepreneurs like myself. I have personally gone through some of the same problems you have described in this piece; the one about difficulty of finding proper talent hits close to home for me. I have had to outsource major components of development, with the constant worry that intellectual property theft, inefficiency, and general apathy towards the project(s), could derail the entire venture. Through many bumpy rides, I learned that having the necessary talent on board, especially for software development, is imperative to launching a successful venture.
Considering incubators like Y-Combinator etc. seem like a good choice for those who already have a set team in place. However, they seem to really ignore those who are looking to find a co-founder and/or talent who can come on board to become part of the core team. This is where Narconia can shine; providing innovators the necessary talent AND resources in order take their concept(s) and make them into full-fledged products/services.
I will make sure to spread the word about Narconia in my network.
VC Arun