Half-baked

Dave McClure was kind enough to share “Half-baked” with us at Citizen Summit. This was one of the most fun exercises I’ve done in a long time.

The rules are as follows:

• Introductions
• Group chooses 50 words that are written on a whiteboard
• Everyone counts off in 5’s and then groups up
• Groups get together and pick 2 of the words from the 50. First to pick is last to pitch. The words become the name of the company so word1word2.com is the website.
• Now, the teams have 5 minutes to do the following:
  1. Name
  2. Product/concept
  3. Revenue model
  4. Marketing plan
  5. Logo
  6. Tagline
• Present in 5 minute pitches on what you came up with.

Now this is pretty hard. Not impossible mind you but pretty hard. The key is to just go. Go. Talk it out. Be crazy. Just run with it. This is supposed to be fun people … :-)

Just a few of the words that we came up with: rumsfeld, fee, bacon, donuts, fish, citizen, terrorist, bingo, socket, toast, purple, grass, canadian, fuck, sex, suck, thong, vaporize, glue, drunk, pulley, emo, papa smurf, platypus, canter, vegan, create, borscht, snort, tara hunt.

What did this motley crue (yes, as in Tommy Lee) come up with those words? Check it out:

• SexBingo: You guessed it, SexBingo in such a way that helps Michael Arrington get laid. The more he gets laid, the more posts on TechCrunch you get, the more visitors you get, profit. Easy enough.
• PovertyMachine: This was actually a good one. Tools for people to be able to manage their non-profits. Hmmmm … seems like somebody always does one of these … :-)
• MidgetWidget: I know what you’re thinking; another widget play. But you’re wrong sucker! Its widgets for use in the real world! That’s right, little toys that kids can use and engage with just like widgets on your computer! Its pure (evil) genius!
• VaporizeGrass: This was what I conned my team into choosing and to their credit, they actually put a pretty good idea together. Flash mobs that bid on the ability to get paid for “mowing” your lawn. The difference is that the people that show up pick just one blade of grass each. Voila. Vaporized. How do we market? Plain and simple; spam baby.
• DonutDivorce: Why should getting divorced take longer than it takes to eat a donut? It shouldn’t. A Web 2.0 play, Donut Divorce is all about bringing together your social network to help you battle your estranged spouse on-line. That’s right, duke it out on-line pitting your social networks against that of your soon to be divorced spouse. How do they make money? Easy; they get 10% of the settlement. And, part of that settlement goes to the people that participate in the social discussion about the divorce. Now that’s gold!!

So a totally fun exercise and something that would be a great “ice breaker” for a conference to get folks thinking and blood pumping. Totally fun. Thanks Dave.