Algorithms are trivial to come up with and nearly impossible to make money from.<p>Look at all the CS papers with algorithm upon algorithm. Arxiv has about 7 new submissions per day under "Data structures and Algorithms", <a href="https://arxiv.org/list/cs.DS/recent" rel="nofollow">https://arxiv.org/list/cs.DS/recent</a> , and that's only a small part of the published literature.<p>You need an algorithm which can solve a problem people have, and which is worth money to them to solve, and you have to convince them that what you have is worthwhile.<p>For example, I sell a product which mixes some existing algorithms with some of my own improvements. People don't buy it for the algorithm. They buy it because it is very fast at what it does, and people are willing to pay for the performance. It's also a very widely used concept in my field, which means I don't have to convince them to use some alternative approach, which would need its own set of justifications.