Kevin asked me: “Do ‘great ideas’ possess universally some sort of Wow Factor?”
The problems with this question: What does ‘great’ mean? And who decides what ‘wow’ is?
The challenge is this: lots of people think they know what both words mean in their area of endeavor, and many of them are wrong.
Consider the case of web 2.0 companies. People like Brad Feld and Fred Wilson are brilliant at understanding what wow means from the point of view of an investor. They have great taste about what’s going to pay off. They have a sense for which teams and which ideas will actually turn into great businesses.