I’m sure the entire HeroX team has had this same thought process. What we’re enabling is pretty straightforward. It’s a proven concept demonstrated by the Longitude Prize (1714), the Orteig Prize (won by Charles Lindbergh in 1927), and more recently, the Ansari XPrize.
Offer up a prize and let the world compete to win it. You only pay when the thing actually exists.
The XPrize was only awarded when an actual spaceship was created with the ability to reach the edge of space.
No spaceship, no prize.
And so, as we attempt to extend this concept into the modern internet age, it seems straightforward on its surface:
- Anyone can create a challenge.
- Anyone can pledge to help fund the prize.
- Anyone can compete to solve the challenge and win the price.
In theory, you should be able to generate an ecosystem, a positive feedback loop that generates challenges, raises funds, and fixes the world’s problems.
And yet, it’s like a Gordian Knot to untangle.
In order to be willing to compete in a challenge, the competitors will need to have confidence that the challenge is winnable – that it’s worth taking on, and that the prize is worth going after.
So, in order to fund the prize, a large group of people will need to be inspired by the promise of the challenge.
And so, everything really rests on the quality of the challenge.
Create an amazing challenge idea, and it’ll spread virally across the internet, gaining momentum and funding. Competitors will show up and compete to win the prize.
If someone does win the prize, well, that makes the world a better place.
A disease gets cured, or carbon dioxide gets sequestered, or data is crunched more efficiently.
And it was only possible because someone figured out a fantastic challenge. In just a few short sentences, they clarified the obstacles and inspired an army to come together and fix a problem.
But knowing which sentences to write, that’s the tough part.
Some day, I hope, we’ll all be able to see the world in challenges, and know exactly how to describe the problem to get people to help solve it.
Until then, I’ll be working away in the corner, trying to untie this Gordian Knot. I’d love to get your help.
