The ideaLists founder Adam Glickman

Joining a raft of new creative talent-based online ventures, Tokion magazine founder Adam Glickman has launched The ideaLists, a website that brings together briefs and creative ideas.

Functioning as an open-source creative agency encompassing a broad spectrum of creative disciplines, the site has already garnered proposals from The Guggenheim Museum, Diesel Jeans, Incase and Kanye West's non-profit. Although it bills itself as a matchmaking agency that works on a project by project basis rather than an AOR, Glickman says that the plan is to extend to provide account and production services, where required, in future.

Boards spoke to Glickman about the advantages of an open-source, online model, the volatile issues around intellectural property and whether agencies should be signing up, or worried.

Neat idea. What was the inspiration?

A few years ago I had an idea for an online platform that would help more music videos to get produced. Like a Match.com for bands/labels/managers in need of videos on the one side and potentially interested directors/production companies on the other.

I started thinking about successful web platforms like Match.com and eBay, and how one person's trash can be another person's treasure. What if you were to apply elements of those models - which essentially create value - by simply providing proper matches to marketing and media?

How long has this been in the works?

We started wireframing in late August. A few months later we have a beta launched. Membership is building and transactions are already beginning to take place.

Can you explain the thinking behind the model? Seems a financially nimble proposition to have project-based creatives services in financially quiet times.

Being nimble is a cornerstone of our model. I come from independent publishing, which has a very different approach to ideation. In that space, you first come up with an idea and then go and speak to your advertisers about partnering in order to get it funded and produced. I was very lucky to have progressive, open-minded clients and a lot of great ideas got realized. Ideas that spoke to a specific and direct market in such a way that both client and creative were happy and our needs were being equally met.

Agencies approach ideas from the opposite perspective: a client gives them a budget and a specific problem to solve and until that happens, no work is done... Our hope is to find a sweet spot at the intersection of these two approaches.

How do you vet who's on the site?

Good question: our members must: 1. Work in communications, and 2. Have a professional portfolio that reflects a certain level of quality and experience within their specific field. We want to feel comfortable having them network with members on the site.

People are naturally protective of their ideas. The IP ownership sounds like a thorny issue, can you explain how you navigated that? Ensuring there are safeguards against ideas being stolen, etc.?

We have put precautions in place to protect IP. Should members choose, they can keep certain parts of their idea or brief confidential until a particular user is specifically authorized to view it. There are non-disclosure agreements built into the site that a viewer must sign before being allowed to see the more confidential aspects of an idea. In addition, we require user registration and track individuals using the site. Thus, we maintain a record of who has seen what that could be discoverable in legal proceedings. It is worth mentioning this is more protection than IP currently receives when it comes to discussing across a table in closed meetings.

That said, it should be understood that unrealized ideas are quite hard to legally protect. Therefore, if your idea is so valuable you couldn't bear to see it taken, then you shouldn't post it on The ideaLists.

I'll also add two cents more on the topic since it's the first question creatives tend to ask me about the site: in today's information-driven world, we are all absorbing the same cultural memes. With this in mind, any idea you might have, it's a pretty good bet five other people have a similar one. At that point it becomes all about the one who executes first while the other four say: "Oh I had a similar idea once but..." By posting here, at least you can be first to lay claim to an idea in a controlled, semi-pubic forum.

One more note: should a company want to create their own enclosed idea sharing network rather than share with ours, we are offering white labeling services and already in discussions with a few companies to build ideaLists for them... And in future site updates, we will allow members to create their own groups within the site, only sharing with those invited in.

How many people are currently signed up on the site?

Well, we are being very careful in the beginning to stagger membership to people that meet the criteria mentioned above. It is about quality, not quantity. We currently have about 400 members and I don't foresee us ever having more than several hundred members per profession. As the site grows its quite likely we will break off the more popular categories into their own sites: fashion, music, etc. Concentric circles that overlap where appropriate.

How does the agent bit work? What fee does The ideaLists get for this matchmaking service?

The site operates on a 'freemium' model. If users simply want to post an idea or a brief and see what comes back, that's a free service to our members. But like Match.com, all we can do is provide the match. If the date doesn't go well, please don't blame us.

If members want to take advantage of our agent services (sorting the good ideas from the bad, crafting a handpicked team, ensuring a quality deliverable), then we charge a percentage of the budget for that service. Dependent on how much work is required, that's between 10-20%. We charge less of a percentage for non-profits.