Most of us enjoy getting a link to something entertaining once in a while. In the early days of the World Wide Web, we send each other funny pictures via emails – today, we share our favorite videos via Twitter, Facebook and other social media. Most of these are so called “user-generated content” – that is; videos made by you and me for our own amusement and to get some feedback from other people. Many videos are – to put it nicely – mediocre, but the ones that spread and go viral are usually really good. Not because they necessarily feature great talent or professionalism, but simply because they are so damn entertaining.

For some reason – and I am sure people with a bit more insight into the human psyche than me can tell you exactly why – videos where people do something really stupid, disgusting, dangerous or daring are amongst the most popular. But what reward do the people who makes these videos get for their hard work? A lot of views and comments on Youtube? That’s nice, sure, but couldn’t we get something even better if the makers actually earned some money on entertaining the rest of us?

darebusters.com is where this is happening right now. We have created a platform where people who wants to show how truly talented or crazy they are rewarded for their hard work in cash – we call them darebusters. darebusters.com is not the next Youtube or Vimeo – rather, it is intended to be a sprouting community of people with crazy ideas for dares, people willing to sponsor those dares on video and – of course – the darebusters making it all happen.

Here is how it works: A darebuster uploads a teaser video where he explains what kind of dare he has in mind – or a user suggests a dare for somebody else to complete. Either way, the dare now has a certain time period to collect the required amount of money through micropayments from other users who thinks that idea is cool enough to support. When the amount is reached, the darebuster must now complete the dare and the ratings the completion video receives decides how much money the he gets out of it.

The business model for darebusters.com is simple – there is no subscription fee or price tag for watching specific videos. Rather, users are required to sponsor a dare at least every two weeks to continually have access to all completion videos. This way, the users decides which dares are really worth making and a higher quality of entertainment is reached.

I am a founding partner of darebusters.com and I have developed the entire site in Ruby on Rails during the last couple of months (well, except for the fantastic graphical design). We are currently testing the site in a closed beta, but if you signup for a beta invitation or contact me, we will let you in to play around with it: darebusters.com.