A week or so ago, @_LR and I had the opportunity to lead a Lunch and Learn at Engauge about the latest TechCrunch Disrupt competition. Most of you have heard about Disrupt (it's actually older news at this point) but if you haven't you can read more about it here. It seems like that most of the tech world is a little start-up happy. Every time I open up a news blog in that interest group, I'm hearing about a new app or some new small company that is getting another round of funding. Some may get tired or wonder if a there's value in all these startups.

In all reality, there isn't value in all the start-ups...monetarily anyway. Some startups probably won't make a lot of money, if any (though I'm always cheering for the underdog). What is valuable are the ideas that they bring to the table. Most start-ups are out to solve some sort of problem or make our lives easier. The new ways of thinking that a lot of startups bring to the table.

One thing we did while reviewing the TechCrunch Disrupt finalists, we thought about how some of those products could be used for client work. Not necessarily partnerships with the products or companies themselves but the concepts they brought to the table. Startups are good at that. Many of them make us think, "you know, I hadn't thought of that."

That thinking shouldn't stay confined to the tech startup world. How could we bring that mentality into whatever else we're working on, no matter what field we're currently in?

How do you learn from the startup community?