101Startups #4 - MIND SUMO: Solve companies problems and make money with your ideas

I work with startups. My job is to find innovative hidden-gems in the tech industry.
In the upcoming series of 101Startups, I'll give you an overview of the best startups I encounter.
I hope you will discover, and use these new services and innovative products.

If you enjoy this reading and want to see more of these startups in the future, please FOLLOW ME.
(clicking on the picture below will take you to my profile)

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Today's pick is a called MIND SUMO

MIND SUMO is a marketplace that links college students and companies via real-world, skill-based problem-solving competitions. By solving interesting problems you will win cash prizes, and stand out to potential employers to be hired or to get internships. In return, participating companies receive your innovative ideas, and can identify top candidates based on their work samples.

If you have ideas, Mind Sumo looks like a great tool to make money.


HOW DOES IT WORK ?

Companies contact Mind Sumo and propose challenges to be solved. Typically issues that their teams do not have time to deal with because topics are too innovative or not 100% defined in terms of strategic importance.
The company then proposes a prize for the winners of the contest, generally in the $15,000.
Here are some examples of challenges posted by different companies:

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Then, Mind Sumo will publish the challenge and it will be visible to their network of universities.
With roughly 300,000 students in the database, they have a serious pool of open innovation solvers.

Here's a screenshot of a challenge proposed by AIG, an Insurance company:

"Propose a game or technology to make the world a safer place"
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AS you can see, even by reading the details, the topic is pretty broad.

That is the goal: to generate IDEAS

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AIG uses the site and the students' brain power to generate ideas and concepts. Not only they avoid paying a massive price for a consulting or creation agency but they leverage on a huge pool of the country's brightest minds.

It proposes a very powerful ideation process through a crowd-sourcing of ideas. Brilliant.


MY EXPERIENCE:

As cool as it sounds, the platform has one huge drawback: it is limited to students at this stage (During registration, the .edu email is a requirement). There are probably some legal reasons and some desire to limit scam posts by other professionals behind this choice, but according to me, this is an important limitation to the power of generating ideas thus to the ability to solve complex problems.
They propose alternative solutions for companies to have non-students (employees for instance) participating to the challenges, but I did not get much more info at this stage.

If you are familiar with it, your comments are very welcome below. If you are not, and if you are a student, I hope that you will give it a try.
After all, Steemit.com should not be the only place where you can make money using your intelligence. :-)


BOTTOM LINE:

If you are a student, MIND SUMO is a must have in your portfolio. The contept is great and the rewards look like they are important.
It does not seem to be crowded at this stage, so you may have good opportunities ot stand out (the early adopter advantage).
Maybe this next Macbook Pro you are looking at since the begining of the summer can be yours very soon ? Hopefully.

Join Mind Suno HERE and start making cash with your ideas.


@sebastien
I hope that you enjoyed and that you will try this cool app. If you did enjoy the reading, stay tuned to my account for more "101 startups" stories in the future.

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