I think it's a great idea in concept as well but it seems likely based on the way it's described that Jason's project will move forward (because he's the CEO) and then the rest of the folks will have to battle it out to get their project funded ongoing.

In addition to allowing people to go off and do their own thing there also needs to be some sort of evaluation criteria set up or else you're going to have a bunch of annoyed people at the end of the process who worked hard then found out they didn't have a realistic chance to get funded.