General

• Who is this for?

If you are a student or an aspiring entrepreneur looking for interesting problems to solve. There are also a lot of talented folks - be it developers or designers, or those who are thinking about starting up (and have the domain expertise) for whom Ideaspace would be helpful. Think of Ideaspace as an community where you can think through your venture out loud and get constructive feedback and Get Started!

• Am I a Quirk, Talent or Designer?

If you are a person who looks at things around you and always seems to have an idea of how something could be different, then you can proudly identify yourself as a Quirk. Quirks, make the world better - or envision it a better alternative.
If you are a developer or likes to build things, identify yourself as Talent.
If you are a designer - and this applies for anything where an experience is shaped; so it can be an architect, a UI/UX designer to someone who is a behavioral science individual. If you like shaping experiences, you can identify yourself as a designer.

• I’ve signed up what do I do now?

During the Beta stage, we are reviewing each of the registrations one by one and approving them. You’ll get an email to authenticate your email address, once you do - just give us 4-6 hours to approve your login in the back-end. Once that is done you should get another email notifying you.

• How much does it cost to be part of this platform?

Hold your breathe! Nothing. The Platform is free to be part of.

• How do you plan to make money with this?

We don’t. We’ve been organizing In50hrs for close to four years now and one of the things we realize is how unprepared a lot of ideas are. We are hoping with Ideaspace, that will improve.

• What are these points that I see, that I have? What can I do with them?

Those are engagement points. You need them to vote up a problem statement (if you think its bang on) or vote down (if you think its really not a real problem). You can also use the points to post your own problem statements - observations or insights you have about a pain point someone is facing.

• Can I get funded via this platform?

Nope. This is not a funding platform.

• Can we meet in person to talk about our problem statement?

No. Feel free to take a leap and post it here - it is always better to ask a community than one individual for his/her opinion.

• Will you sign an NDA? How do I know you won’t steal my idea?

We don’t sign NDAs at this stage. Almost no one would.

Stage #1: Problem Statements

• How do I get more points?

Good question! The platform works like a community. So we have two kinds of points. We have points - that are granted to you each week. And there are karma points that you accumulate with meaningful engagement. You get 3 points the first week on the platform - so that you get to experience the platform and get a sense of how things work. You’ll get 5 points the second week onwards so that you can post your own problem statements, if you have one.

• I strongly feel a problem or have observed a problem. What should I do next?

Quick check: See if you have five points left on your account. If not, don’t worry. You get five points in your account each week. Once you do, you can click the post problem statement button and go through the wizard to submit the details.

• I like someone’s problem statement. What should I do?

You can vote up. All problem statements need to reach 20 points before they open up for ideating solutions. So if you think a problem is real, vote up!

• Wait! What do you mean Problem? I have an Idea!

We have a fundamental disagreement here. We believe solving a problem, with an idea is a better approach to building products or startups. Identifying the problem comes first. We define an Idea as an elegant solution to a valid problem.

• Can I upvote my own problem statement?

Nope.

• I am working on a product that solves a problem you’ve stated. Can I talk about it?

Yes You can. If you can mention a disclaimer that its your product, its better. You can leave a comment on the problem thread.

• What happens to the problem statement after I post it?

The first step is to get problems validated - to see if enough folks think that its really a problem. Once a problem statement reaches 20 points (upvotes), we will open it up for folks to ideate solutions keeping the feedback and observations of the community on the problem thread in mind.

• What if I don’t get enough upvotes for the problem statement I’ve posted?

You’d have to assume that it is not a problem a lot of folks are kicked about solving or can relate to. Maybe it needs a bit more digging and research?

• I signed up. How do I keep myself updated with new problem statements that get posted?

Click on the follow button. The system will email you everytime there is a new problem statement.

• I posted a problem statement. What happened to it?

All problem statements are curated. Most times, its just a little bit of help we provide the position the problem statement better. If it is really one of those problem statements which don’t make sense, we would moderate it - but we will definitely drop you a note about it so that you are aware as to what happened to it.

• I am interested in following a problem statement. What do I do?

The vote works exactly likes a “follow” button. So if you’d like to follow a thread of conversation about a problem statement that is posted, you can vote up (or vote down) and you will be notified whenever there is a new comment that is posted on the thread via digest emails.

• Is there a way to bookmark problem statements?

Each problem statement has its own unique url, so you can use the bookmark feature in the browser.