Bill Gross launched Idealab.ai on Oct. 19, 2026, pitching AI as a way to scale his practice of finding problems that could become companies. The site lists 1,208,576 business ideas as free, and Gross said the ideas have no paywall. Gross founded the Idealab tech incubator in 1996, Fortune’s Diane Brady reports.
According to Brady, the idea-generation system analyzed more than 17 million sources and applied Gross’s 31 methods for spotting opportunities, including unmet needs, new technologies and market shifts.
How the site proposes to find a fit
Idealab.ai says it uses a person’s skills, interests, capital and preferred location to suggest ideas. It describes each idea as coming with evidence and a suggestion for what to build first. The homepage shows filters for industry, startup capital and time to market, along with an advanced-search link labeled beta. Its preview idea briefs include estimated startup capital and time to market; the site notes that financial estimates are drawn from sources.
Gross said users can enter their skills, passions or a LinkedIn profile in advanced search to see 100 matching ideas, then filter by size, location and category. That is his description of the tool, not a measure of how well its matches work.
What comes later
Gross’s goal is to help create a million businesses and 100 million jobs, Brady reports. She also writes that he is developing a periodic table of business functions and plans for later versions to connect users with potential funders and partners. A table display already appears on Idealab.ai, but its introduction marks the fuller offering as “Coming soon in 2027.”
