This is Where Good Startup Ideas Come From

Going the entrepreneurial route and launching your own startup is exciting–and undoubtedly risky. Even for traditional ventures such as franchises and family businesses, the failure rate within the first few years is 85%. The odds get even higher when you move into the disruptive world of startups, clocking in at around 90% or more.

It’s a long journey from concocting an idea with your friends to having a successful, independent business with thousands of customers. So many things could go wrong: a fallout with your co-founder, weak marketing, a product that isn’t delivered quickly enough, lack of funding.

But the most frustrating, arguably, would be having an ineffective idea in the first place–and only realizing that once you’ve invested so much into it already.

The key to finding a good startup idea

What makes for a good startup idea, then? Ironically, you don’t get to it by grabbing a notebook and getting as creative as possible, thinking of all the cool products that you can come up with.

With this approach, you’ll almost always end up with tons of interesting ideas such as an app that recommends gifts or a bot that can compose music. It’s great to pursue these as passion projects that might eventually morph into something more, but they aren’t necessarily convertible into business prospects.

Counterintuitive as it is, the way to brainstorm is backwards. A startup idea, really, is a solution–and solutions are reactions to problems.

Name any high-value startup, and you’ll find that it addresses a problem. Spotify solves the problem of music piracy and finding songs in the first place; Github solves the problem of putting together code from different developers. Both have become almost indispensable, with billions of people relying on them–take them down, and there will be protests.  

So you’re better off hunting for a problem to solve, then letting your idea germinate around that.

The problem should be a major pain point not just for yourself, but also for other people. This guarantees that when you do put your product or service out there, people will care, because it can potentially make their lives better.

How to look for problems

For the beginning stage of your startup, then, you need especially good observation skills. Keep a record of problems you experience throughout the day, but also notice whenever people complain. Checking on pain points as experienced by others is very important.

Make sure to listen carefully, and don’t assume. For example, people might be complaining about long commutes, but instead of shortening their commute, a better approach could be improving the commuting experience itself.

Going beyond words, try to observe their behavior, too. By noticing that kids grip their toothbrush differently, IDEO thought of adding squishy handles–an innovation then that has held until now.

Another way of sniffing out a problem is focusing on existing solutions–and fixing their flaws, as Daniel Kempe points out. You won’t get a shortage here because there are millions of products out there.

Polaroid cameras still have fans today, thanks to its old-world charm and the convenience of having a photo printed right away. A downside, though, is that you only have a single physical copy of the photo–what if you could have it saved digitally in a memory card too?

Make sure you care, too

By focusing on a problem rather than an idea, there’s more room for your startup to pivot. Given that you can only know if your idea works once you test it out there, you have to be open to tweaking it and maybe even revamping it to another solution altogether.

Finally, caring about the problem is a must. If you’ll be going through sleepless nights, sacrificing your social life, and giving it your all no matter what obstacles crop up, then it might as well be something that you’re passionate about solving.

You can’t beat the odds without grit–and that grit comes from the strong conviction that what your startup has to offer can make an impact and transform people’s lives.   

 

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