Editing 827: My Business Idea

{{comic
| number    = 827
| date      = November 29, 2010
| title     = My Business Idea
| image     = my_business_idea.png
| titletext = We didn't believe you at first, but we asked like three people who were at that party. They not only corroborated your story, but even said you totally mentioned wanting to start a company someday. Sorry! If this isn't enough money, let us know.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The article doesn't explain the reference to House of Leaves. (the article itself is also pretty small, it should be longer). Do not remove this tag too soon.}}
Many people have shared [[Cueball]]'s experience of seeing someone else make a profit from an idea that they themselves had. This comic plays with the thought of what would happen if {{w|intellectual property}} thinking was taken to an extreme, and if companies or people were keener on "setting things right" than money. 

In reality, having a great idea alone, of course, does not create a profitable business; there must generally be an enormous amount of effort put in to create a business from scratch, popularize it, and keep it standing. Having done none of this, Cueball would probably not deserve close to the "30% cut" he claims even if intellectual property did work the way it is presented here. Multiplying $20,000,000 by 30% gives $6,000,000, which would be a lot of cash for doing nothing but having an idea and telling it to someone.

The delivery address is to an address on 'Ash Tree Lane', referencing the space-warping house on the same street from the mysterious '{{w|House of Leaves}}' book.

The title text is an extension of this story, presumably coming from the company, comedically apologising for not knowing sooner about [[Cueball]]'s idea, and revealing that they corroborated this claim with his friends at a party about this venture, even kindly offering him a larger share of their revenue.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at his desk, pointing at his laptop.]
:Cueball: Dude! I had this idea like five years ago, and some company just got rich doing it! - I want my cut.

:[Cueball starts typing.]
:Person off-screen: That's not how it works.
:Cueball: Sure it is. I'm applying for my share now.
:Person: Wait, what?

:[A browser window with the title 'Department of Ideas'. It has a series of text boxes.]
:Date you had the idea:
::Like five years ago.
:Proof you had it:
::I told my friend Mike - you can ask him! I was all "you know what would make a great business idea?" and he was all...
:Their profit so far:
::$20,000,000
:Share you deserve (be fair!):
::[Drop-down.]
:::25%
:::'''30%'''
:::35%
:Mailing address:
::137 Ash Tree Ln

:[Cueball still at the laptop, above him is a SUBMIT button, and it shows a pointing hand cursor.]
:CLICK

:[Last panel set slightly lower than the rest.]
:[Cueball is in front of an open box full of cash, with cash in his hand. A FedEx delivery guy is on the other side of the box with his PDA and pen.]

==Trivia==
This comic was originally called [[827: Business Idea]], but Randall renamed it on 11:35 AM UTC to resolve a conflict on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com]. The conflict was created when he released the comic [[1721: Business Idea]] around five years after this comic's release because both comics shared the same name and filename. This is the third time Randall has released a comic with a [[:Category:Comics sharing name|name exactly the same]] as a previous comic.

{{comic discussion}}

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