How to Generate Business Ideas
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Transcript of How to Generate Business Ideas
How to Generate Business IdeasMike Fishbein, https://stpcollege.com/
About Me
Founder of Startup CollegeAuthor of Customer Development for EntrepreneursFeatured in Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, and more Previously venture studio and corporate innovation
Job of an Entrepreneur
Serve customers by solving a problem or delivering value
In a free market, entrepreneurs who don’t serve customers fail
To execute, an entrepreneur must identify customer demands and how to meet them
Problems and Inefficient Processes
“The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. It's to look for
problems…” - Paul Graham
How to Identify Demand
1. Scratch Your Own Itch
2. Interview Customers
3. Meet Known Needs
4. Do What’s Working
1. Scratch Your Own Itch
“Why is it so important to work on a problem you have? Among other things, it ensures the problem really exists. It sounds obvious to say you should only work on problems that exist. And yet by far the most common mistake startups make is to
solve problems no one has.” – Paul Graham, Y-Combinator
How to Scratch Your Own Itch
What unmet needs do you have?
What challenges do you face throughout the day?
What product do you wish you had?
Make sure you’re not the only one...
2. Customer Development Interviews
a. Pick a customer segmentBased on your relationships, access, propensity to buy, passion
b. Ask them what their problems are What’s the hardest part of your day?What unmet needs do you have?
3. Meet Known Needs
“Great companies do 1+ of 3 things:Get you laid, get you paid, get you made” -
Dave McClure, 500 Startups
Examples
Paid = Salesforce, banks, AirbnbMade = Twitter, collegeLaid = Cars, Clothes, TinderTransportation = UberSurviving = Food Save Time = BufferEntertainment = Movies
4. Do What’s Working
“At a time when so many internet entrepreneurs are running around Silicon Valley trying to do
something no one else has ever done, [Evan] Williams believes that the real trick is to find
something that's tried and true” - Twitter co-founder via Wired
4 Second Mover Advantages
Validated customer demand
Customer acquisition strategy
Increased awareness
Observe product management and marketing
Examples of Second Movers
Simple
5 Hour Energy
Ecommerce
Social media consultants
How to Test Business Ideas“I have an idea...now what?”
3 Key Questions
Is there demand for this?
Would supplying this lead to $$?
Am I suited to supply this?
Does anyone want this?
Customer development interviews to test hypotheses
Pre-sales to validate demand
Minimum viable product to get fast feedback
How can I make money?
Is this a big enough problem that people will pay you?
Is the market big enough to meet your goals?
How strong is the competition?
Am I qualified?
Do you have a competitive advantage?Do you have the skillsets required? (marketing, sales, management, etc.) Do you have the relationships (customers, partners, etc.)Do you have the capital or access to capital? Are you passionate enough to run this business for years?
Key Takeaways
Solve problems, deliver value
Gain customer insights to identify demands
Practice customer development to minimize the risk of spending a bunch of time and money on something no one wants
To learn more...
https://stpcollege.com/
...check out Startup College