Copy a startup that got acquired last year.
Try using https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/
Or searching HN.
Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?
11–20 of 60 posts
Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?
#12Speaking as an anthropologist: go into the field. I bet very few great ideas came from behind a desk. Ask people with jobs you don’t know much about simple questions that are not directly aimed at finding out what you can sell them. Be genuinely interested in their day. “What do you do first when you get to work?”, “Do you dress a certain way?”, “Do you eat with co-workers or alone?”, “Do you like to go outside durin…
Also you could go into the field at different levels, right? Level 1: by canvassing random businesses asking about problems. Level 2: by attending conferences where business owners are open to discovering new solutions. Level 3: by crawling business forums where owners discuss specific problems they have. Level 4: by crawling reviews for solutions where business owners complain about specific problems they have with existing solutions.
Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
I did. I emailed a bunch of different smaller companies in different sectors/industries. Explained to them that I build software to help small companies and am interested in knowing if they either have been looking for a product that doesn’t exist or are unhappy with a current product. Got some friendly responses but most said things are working well.
You asked the wrong question. You should only ask how do they work, and think yourself about the solution. They are business, not software developers.
Respectfully, I hear this advice for sales all the time, and it sounds silly unless you've already built a relationship. If someone cold-calls me and starts asking open-ended questions, they're wasting my time.
Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?
#14Don't come up with ideas. Finds problems.
https://medium.com/black-n-white/the-problem-with-problems-4...
Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?
#15Is there any industry or history where you can draw from personal experience?
What inefficiencies have you noticed?
What problems have you noticed from the consumer end of your relationships with businesses?
Could you make something obsolete with automation, or make something else more efficient and profitable?
You don't need to be the first one to come up with an idea for a startup. Most startups fail, even if they came up with a very new and unique idea.
You just need to be the one who does executes it better.
For people starting out, I would suggest looking at "inevitable" trends. Things that seem like they will certainly be popular or prevalent in 2 to 5 years.
Examples:
- Cannabis legalization: It's virtually inevitable that cannabis will be legal in all 50 states, there's lots of room for ancillary businesses.
- Crypto currency: This is becoming more and more mainstream. If you can come up with some way for the average person to benefit from and want to use crypto, there's great opportunity available for you.
- VR: The tech for vr is improving every year, and mainstream adoption is increasing. There's still no "killer app" for VR (a "killer app" is software that convinces people to want to buy the hardware en masse).
- IoT: Adoption is increasing for smart lights and other devices, but they're still a luxury for most people. Can you come up with some connected everyday device that people can't live without?
Look at what's working well in similar industries that could work well in emerging industries.
One of the first "successes" I had was to create very simple apps for Android in 2008/2009 which simply showed quotes from popular celebrities. The technology was not impressive at all, but it was obvious to me that many people would get smartphones in the next few years. I learned that you could take something people love in one medium, and reproduce it for a new and emerging medium to gain "free" marketing as the medium grows.
Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?
#16[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?
#17Why limit to small business? Talk (not email) to a company with a lot of money and figure out their biggest pain point. That is how I would do it now if I had to start over
Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?
#18Do you have friends working in different fields ? Spend more time understanding their day to day job. IT people lives aren’t a good starting point to come up with new business ideas. Use other people’s lives instead.
Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?
#19Come up with a way to support creators by buying individual articles, videos, podcasts, etc. Ads aren't gonna work for much longer, Patreon type solutions don't seem sustainable for everyone and people won't be putting down money on dozens of subscriptions anytime soon either. There needs to be a way to pay for content like a physical product.
First person or organisation to fix this problem will rake in the cash.
Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?
#20Did you mail businesses out of the blue? What did you write to them?
I did. I emailed a bunch of different smaller companies in different sectors/industries. Explained to them that I build software to help small companies and am interested in knowing if they either have been looking for a product that doesn’t exist or are unhappy with a current product. Got some friendly responses but most said things are working well.
That's basically a sales email where not only do you ask the potential customer if they would buy but also to tell you what they would buy. I would advise against that.
Instead I would suggest:
1) introduce your self and inform them you are interested in their area of business.
2) ask if they'd have the time to chat to you about it on a call or perhaps over a coffee.
3) book the meetings (some will say no, that's fine).
4) at the meeting ask them about their business. Be genuinely interested. Don't sell them anything. These aren't sales calls or meetings. Listen to what they say. Ask how they do those things. What's the best part about they way they do it, what's the worst, what tools and processes do they use and where did they hear about them from.
5) write it all down and after 3-7 meetings looks for patterns that indicate problems or processes that you could solve.
6) given those problems return to your new friends and ask them what the world would look like for them if those problems you identified were solved (no pitching solutions). How much better off (if at all) would they be. How much more time could they save, how much more product could they sell, how many bew customers could they find or old customers could they keep.
7) record everything and look for patterns again.
8) come up with some ideas to solve the more valuable problems. Use the Mum Test technique (don't reveal your ego) to identify if they would pay for your solution (ask for money on the spot, you've enough report now to push the boat out a little).
9) once enough people bite, have a crack at it!