Where can one do research for past attempts at a business idea? Like if someone has already tried to start a similar business and failed...
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I know of no where. And for that reason I would like to say: What a great start-up business idea James! I would love to visit the "wikipedia" of failed business and business plans. Academics would mine it and study it. Investors would mine it for under realized opportunities. Business schools would watch the failed companies flash introductory videos like YouTube candy. I know I would. (Not sure I would actually pay for it. . . but I would lend my eyeball for the adverting demographic) |
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Look at the public records of companies that have entered formal insolvency processes. All states will make some information public. Aggregating and mining this might well be a valuable business, as suggested in other answers. |
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You can try to aproach several VC companies and do so-called pre-marketing: tell them currently you are not looking for a fund and tell them in general about your idea. The VCs are cartel, so you will possibly get some valuable information regarding similar initiatives (if any) and also they will be happy to provide you with their feedback. Another thing: if your idea is good such an exposure in early (I assume that you are in pre-seed stage) can be really valuable for you. Good luck! |
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Primarily Google. search what you want the business to do. Also look on Twitter and Facebook since many businesses start there. |
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Search the keywords of what you imagine your future users would search to find your future business.... Seee who you come across and see if they are big, small or dead. |
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You could write a really simple search engine for this. Type in any business idea and click the "Has It Been Tried" button. The answer would always be: Yes. Almost everything has been tried in the past, success is more execution (and at times dumb luck) than idea. My point being that you shouldn't get too hung up on if an idea has been tried or not in the past. It may have been tried, but at the wrong time, or executed poorly. To directly answer your question though, I don't know of any easy place to find this info. I imagine that many failed companies never even generated any referencable records or data to begin with. |
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Maybe try business, trade and professional organizations/associations for the specific industry you are interested in. In the businesses I have been involved with, there were a few companies whose founder had been in the industry for decades and that type of person would be a wealth of information about any company that had been in the sector. |
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