will.i.am spilt the beans on an X Factor for Tech idea they apparently dreamt up over dinner in Los Angeles. The Sun reports will.i.am as saying “We’re working on a project called X Factor for Tech — and it’s going to be out of this world.
It sounds like a great idea, find the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, nurture them and launch the next great tech startup right here in Britain. However I don’t quite see Cheryl Cole and Louis Walsh as the biggest tech judges in the world. Nor am I sure how a couple of music moguls are going to portray a coding geek to be captivating Saturday night telly, although to be fair will.i.am is Innovation Director for Intel so should have picked up a bit of tech knowledge as well as being front man for the Black Eyed Peas.
Simon Cowell has run a similar program called American Inventor which ran for two seasons in the US. However this was a concept from Peter Jones of Dragon’s Den fame. It also wasn’t exclusively tech based and so had room for some whacky entries.
If you had an idea for a new business start up, the big question is would you want to enter a TV competition or would you keep your concept under wraps until you were ready to patent it and launch?
