Since we’re talking about testing ideas, creating options and models for economic organization and venture development, food for thought…

Kevin Allison in The Financial Times, Founders take aim at a bigger target:

… some entrepreneurs factor the unexpected into their business models, eschewing business plans that rely on a single big idea. Instead, they set up companies in which small teams of engineers work on several ideas simultaneously. The hope is that one or two will take off – a “shotgun” rather than a “sniper” strategy.

How does it work? Consider James Currier and Ooga Labs:

… Mr Currier says that, unlike earlier business “incubators” such as Idealab, which rose to prominence during the dotcom boom by spinning off companies such as eToys.com and CitySearch, all of Ooga’s ideas are home-grown and not reliant on venture funding.

“All of the ideas are ours,” he says. “We come up with them ourselves.”

By contrast, he says, Idea-lab was founder-driven. “They’d have people come up and pitch them. A lot of the companies weren’t synergistic.”

To encourage the teams to work together, Mr Currier has developed an unusual “cross-equity” ownership arrangement. “We have five different companies at Ooga Labs and everyone owns equity in each of the projects regardless of which one they’re focused on.”

Is this a socialist model of venture development?

The real question:

It is too early to tell whether the ideas being pursued by entrepreneurs taking the shotgun approach will lead to free-standing companies capable of standing the test of time – as opposed to, say, quirky products designed to be acquired by an existing social network or website.

Does the “shotgun” approach to testing ideas lead to products or businesses?