Ask HN: Is this a scalable idea?

I'm just trying to continue a conversation I had with a colleague..

Imagine putting together a team of designers and developers, engineers and an overall team of technical gurus. This team is pretty much capable of building anything in a decent amount of time. (for conversation sake, only web/mobile apps)

Now imagine this team puts up a website asking the people of the world to submit ideas, or things they want built. A Request for Product, if we have to give it a name.

For example; I'm frustrated with all the accounting software thats available to me. I want simple and easy way of tracking expenses.. and I want my app to process my taxes on a day-by-day basis. I don't want to build it. I don't care for that. I just have a need for such an app as a user.

I would goto this site and say this is my frustration and put the idea up for vote. If it hits a certain threshold in votes and interests, the team (company) takes over and dedicates labour and money to build the product.

When the product is built A) it can be open-sourced and released for anyone to use

B) spin into a company of its own with for-profit focus

All the while you are achieving market fit through the feedback, free marketing, and a high-conversion on everything you build. Only the most popular ideas get built minimizing the failure rate.

Does this seam feasible? Is it a small business or can it scale? Ideas to make this better?

I'm not taking ownership of anything discussed here, so you're welcome to chime in freely and put it to good use.

Cheers