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Finding Profitable Startup Ideas

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Re: Finding Profitable Startup Ideas

#21

Post by niko001 »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #4

Are there research firms that do ground work research, focus groups, talk to people on the street, build real professional networks to extract "problem stories" for ideas, and do competition research to the same level that e.g. short sellers might? Are these just normal market research firms, and are there boutique firms that have low-volume, high value clients?

I run IdeaCheck.io [0] where we try to validate startup ideas by asking the target audience what they think about the idea and whether they'd buy it. I'm not aware of any "full service" market research firms that you can hire without any prior notion of the problem/industry that you'd like to tackle.

[0] https://ideacheck.io

Re: Finding Profitable Startup Ideas

#22

Post by FLUX-YOU »

borplk wrote: post #15
FLUX-YOU wrote: post #4

Are there research firms that do ground work research, focus groups, talk to people on the street, build real professional networks to extract "problem stories" for ideas, and do competition research to the same level that e.g. short sellers might? Are these just normal market research firms, and are there boutique firms that have low-volume, high value clients?

Can anyone give a decent concrete real example of "extracting problem stories"? I see this line of thinking repeated a lot but haven't seen any realistic examples that could lead to a viable small businesses. There are obvious ones that you don't need anyone telling you nowadays. Like "I need a good customer support software.". You don't need someone telling you that to know that you can make customer support softwar…

For me, it's been "file sharing and productivity tools but inter-operate with these other products by exchanging data and also do single sign on for our domain so we don't have to remember another password".

Others have been "we need this particular view of information with sorting/searching/etc, but involves a non-standard, weird API or requires straight SQL. Also add some buttons to send it to another service and automate other actions. Also make a mobile app for it". These basically amount to custom dashboards with specific modules for each service.

For well-known solutions that have some way to let you run arbitrary code to do these extensions, your small business essentially works a consultant firm writing custom code.

All of these boil down to a story of trying to save time/money while avoiding hiring full-time developers, and I've also heard some compliance requirements mainly in conflict-of-interest-disclosure solved by software as well (usually resulting in some document sent up the chain or to the legal dept).

Re: Finding Profitable Startup Ideas

#23

Post by milesvp »

lettergram wrote: post #14
kozikow wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the logic is another way around? Companies that have a clear product-market fit and generate enough revenue to self-fund and don't have competition closely behind their backs have much less reason to raise. Maybe you are mistaking "They were so successful, so they didn't need to raise" with "they didn't raise, so they were successful".

No doubt that may be true, but if a company doesn't have a clear market fit, how will more cash solve that? It just extends the opportunity to find such fit. I don't doubt that investment money thrown at the correct product can spur it along. However, I believe most investors are looking for long shots, or returns better than the stock market. To obtain those type of gains, they will invest in the companies that can…

You may also be missing the fact that VCs need big exits to be successful. It's very possible that the 2 businesses that are successful just didn't have the percieved potential to be unicorns. I keep hearing rumor that the term 'lifestyle business' has started to take on a pajoritive tone in certain circles, and I suspect it has a lot to do with how little interest the owner has is big growth. I personally would probably never try to get VC funding since my goal in business is always to not work, and big growth requires way more effort than it's worth.

Re: Finding Profitable Startup Ideas

#25

Post by slinger »

csallen wrote: post #11
brucephillips wrote: post #3

The author doesn't describe the most reliable indicator of new opportunity, which is economic change. Change can come in the form of shifting demographics, new tech, or new product adoption. These are the events that increase demand or decrease cost for a new product opportunity. They should be where you direct your attention.

This is somewhat covered in the "Industry Growth Rates" section: > At any given time, there are dozens of industries operating within new and underserved markets that are experiencing rapid growth… This almost always represents a possible entrepreneurial opportunity. His strategy might benefit from incorporating some of the things you mentioned — shifting demographics, new tech, etc. Then again, one of the most commo…

> At any given time, there are dozens of industries operating within new and underserved markets that are experiencing rapid growth

IMO finding a market that is rapid growing is the most difficult part. It seems that I can never find a good idea worth pursuing.

Re: Finding Profitable Startup Ideas

#26

Post by bluetwo »

borplk wrote: post #15
FLUX-YOU wrote: post #4

Are there research firms that do ground work research, focus groups, talk to people on the street, build real professional networks to extract "problem stories" for ideas, and do competition research to the same level that e.g. short sellers might? Are these just normal market research firms, and are there boutique firms that have low-volume, high value clients?

Can anyone give a decent concrete real example of "extracting problem stories"? I see this line of thinking repeated a lot but haven't seen any realistic examples that could lead to a viable small businesses. There are obvious ones that you don't need anyone telling you nowadays. Like "I need a good customer support software.". You don't need someone telling you that to know that you can make customer support softwar…

Problems are the opposite side of the coin from benefits.

People often confuse benefits. They think they equate to features.

A benefit is an increase of something good, or a reduction of something bad.

A problem is the existence of not enough good or too much bad.

i.e., if my problem is a damp basement, someone who treats damp basements offers a benefit that gets my attention

Re: Finding Profitable Startup Ideas

#27

Post by enraged_camel »

bronlund wrote: post #12

Finding a good idea is the easy part.

I used to think so as well, but over the years, I've realized that execution is the easy part, at least for me. Finding good ideas, as in ideas that can lead to profitable businesses, is difficult because it requires deep domain expertise.

Re: Finding Profitable Startup Ideas

#28

Post by throwaway0255 »

bronlund wrote: post #12

Finding a good idea is the easy part.

Really? Because I've never been able to think of one.

And every successful company I've seen grew out from an idea the founder had only because they were coincidentally deeply involved in some specific area of some market and something just clicked. It all seems extremely difficult to reproduce.

If it's so easy to come up with good ideas, then why does random happenstance seem to be the most common way founders come up with their initial ideas?

Re: Finding Profitable Startup Ideas

#29

Post by brucephillips »

BatFastard wrote: post #18
brucephillips wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's my own deductive theory. An opportunity is a profitable product, meaning demand is higher than cost. Most opportunities are new opportunities, due to market efficiency. So something must have occurred recently to increase demand or decrease cost.

So are there no new markets? Is everything just a more efficient way of doing things? I would say Microsoft found a new market, so did Facebook and Google. Amazon is efficiency, so is Uber, and Tesla. So there are new markets.

I'm not sure what point of mine you're arguing. I agree that new markets exist.

Re: Finding Profitable Startup Ideas

#30

Post by brucephillips »

NicoJuicy wrote: post #24
brucephillips wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean?

Blue ocean = unicorn business. The billion dollar companies that search funding

Blue ocean does not equal unicorn. That's a mistake the author makes. Blue ocean, by definition, is just an open market. That market can be big or small.
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