Trenchmark Seeks to Improve Accessibility of Business Concepts
Robert Jan Droogleever Fortuyn, owner of the new Netherlands-based company Trenchmark, is hoping to put social media business giant, LinkedIn, to the test as he seeks to tap into a new crowdsourcing experience through multiple business ideas and relationships.
Droogleever Fortuyn started Trenchmark while working at a Dutch crowdsourcing platform called Battle of Concepts. During his three year tenure in which he assisted his clients in crowdsourcing new business concepts, he learned that companies are often driven by successful business ideas and concepts that already exist.
New concepts or ideas rarely take root and are therefore more difficult for people to get behind with financial or other types of support. This, he believes, is due to his philosophy that to be successful in creating mutually beneficial business relationships, it is critical to find people who believe in what you are doing.
While social networks assist business professionals in reaching some of their business goals, the issue, as discovered by Droogleever Fortuyn, is that individuals can only see the information that is shared within their networks. “For example,” he says. “LinkedIn has 100 million members. On LinkedIn, I have six million connections three degrees away. This means I don’t see what 94% of people share on LinkedIn!”.
Trenchmark’s goal is to ask professionals for their favorite business ideas through information sharing, and thus enable individuals to expand and reach outside their networks. The uniqueness lies in that everyone affiliated with Trenchmark can search and analyze the submitted ideas. Business ideas, once presented, are categorized by the professional who posted it, and are linked to the industry and country in which they work.
This enables professionals to rate the most popular ideas based on country and industry, as well as to network with individuals who like ideas similar to their own business strategies.
Joining Trenchmark is free. A business professional interested in market trends, research, and sharing business ideas through this new take on crowdsourcing need only go to their site, log in using their LinkedIn information, and go from there.
It appears that Trenchmark could take LinkedIn to the next level in business networking.
What do you think of Trenchmark’s concept? Let us know in our forums if you plan to sign up and share your business ideas.