Cogmap: The Idea
Let me talk a minute about how I came up with the idea for people that are interested in that sort of thing. Everyone loves the idea of user-generated content because it creates value without a lot of overhead. I will write a lot more about that later. I think of myself as a B2B guy, not a consumer guy, so I was trying to think about that specific area. Being kind of a sales guy, I started looking at challenges that sales people face and voila: the idea for CogMap sprang into my head!
Key influences:
- Evan Lock - A sales guy at IBM that had to keep org charts of his accounts. Hearing his tales of org chart maintenance made me think: “There has to be a better way!”
- The list market - The bane of my existence. High prices for bad data. Only the big companies get access. What do the entrepreneurs do?
- Josh Kopelman’s post on reshaping markets: A thoughtful post and a good idea!